Haunted Isles -in the company of Grace Clairmont

  Hello I'm Grace Clairmont, as a result of my post about a haunted doll (here) I was given the opportunity to visit the home of a collector named Vanessa, I've written about this here: Interview with a Haunted Doll Collector Part 1 and here: Interview with a Haunted Doll Collector Part 2 Questions and Answers. This is Part 3 which has morphed from an interview with a collector to an interview with a haunted doll seller as it turns out that Vanessa sells some conduit vessels, the ones that don't fit in well with her "haunted family" and home life. So here we go:  Part 3 of an Interview with a Haunted Doll Collector and Seller of Haunted Dolls   Question 1:  When did you first decide to sell a doll from your collection and why? Answer:  I'd bought a doll from a seller on Etsy, her personality description had made her sound like a good fit with my other spirit vessels. Unfortunately we just didn't hit it off, I don't think we liked each other, it was li...

  Hello I'm Grace Clairmont and this is the Part 2 of my interview with haunted doll collector Vanessa, if you haven't read the introductory part 1 it can be found by clicking on the link below: Interview with a Haunted Doll Collector Part 1   I, Grace Clairmont, asked Vanessa the haunted doll collector the following questions: Question 1: How did you get into collecting haunted dolls Vanessa? Answer: Through a friend, I was a member of a paranormal group, going on ghosts hunts, that sort of thing. One particular member always brought along a doll to the vigils, I assumed it was for use as a triiger object, but it was more than that. The doll's owner told me that it was a conduit vessel for a talented medium. It wasn't her only doll, she was a spirit keeper and had a small collection of other haunted dolls. I was invited to see them and as they say after that the rest is history. Question 2: How long have you been collecting haunted dolls? Answer: About 10 years. My fi...

  As a result of my Haunted EBay Doll post here  , I was invited into the home of Vanessa, a haunted doll collector. I felt slightly unnerved sitting in Vanessa's living room surrounded by porcelain dolls whilst she made us a pot of tea. There seemed to be a hundred eyes watching me, glass eyes, the room was filled with Vanessa's collection of porcelain dolls. I could hear Vanessa in the kitchen, she was talking to the resident kitchen cat, it wasn't a live cat. It was a spirit cat whose conduit vessel, a large china cat figurine, sat on the work surface. Casting my eyes around the living room I noted several cat ornaments amongst the dolls. Were they ornaments or were they also conduit vessels? And what about the soft toy cat draped across the back of an armchair?   When Vanessa returned to the living room I asked her if her cat collection were also conduit vessels,  "Oh yes," she replied, "I love cats, I'd be a mad cat lady if I wasn't allergic to t...

  Public Domain image: Engraving as published by Cowie and Strange, 1828 The ghost of Anne Boleyn is said to haunt Durham House Street once the site of the London residence of the Durham House stood between the Thames river and the Strand and was frequently used as accommodation Bishop of Durham, Durham House. ion for the Royals, foreign guests and courtiers. Catherine of Aragon lived there in 1502 after the death of Prince Arthur. Wolsey resided at Durham House whilst the building works on York Place were being completed. Thomas Cranmer worked on Henry and Catherine of Aragon's divorce papers there. In later years Durham House was to be home to Prince Edward, Princess Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh. Lady Jane Grey and Lord Guildford Dudley were married at Durham House in 1553. In 1529 Anne's father, Sir Thomas Boleyn was residing at Durham House and Henry VIII seems to have been a frequent visitor with visits having been recorded during June when he stopped off on his way t...

 Image: Jacobus Houbraken via Wiki Commons  After a long labour that started on the 9th October Jane Seymour gave birth to Henry's longed for son at Hampton Court Palace on Friday 12th Oct 1537. Three days later, wrapped in furs for warmth, she made her last public appearance at the reception for Prince Edward's christening. Jane quickly sickened after her son's christening and by 17th October she was receiving last rites, she died in the early hours of 24th October 1537 probably from some form of child bed fever.  Her embalmed body remained at Hampton Court until November 12th when it was removed for burial in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. There's a legend that Jane's heart was buried, by order of Henry VIII,  under the stone altar in the Hampton Court Chapel Royal where her body lay in state. Jane Seymour's ghost has been seen on both the Silver Stick Staircase where she carries a lighted taper and in Clock Court. Visitor information:  Clock Court i...

  Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of  King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, originally came to England in 1501 as the bride to the 15 year old heir to the Tudor throne, Prince Arthur, Prince of Wales who died shortly after their marriage. Catherine always denied that their marriage was consummated. During her brief marriage to Arthur she resided in a property close to Ludlow Castle where the Elizabethan mansion Castle Lodge now stands. The Lodge is said to be haunted by a teenage girl believed by some to be the ghost of Catherine of Aragon. I've written about that previously: https://hauntedisles.blogspot.com/2015/01/catherine-of-aragons-ghost-castle-lodge.html Catherine eventually married Henry VIII a few weeks after his accession to the throne, they were crowned together in 1509. After 23 years of marriage Henry separated from Catherine in 1531 in order to marry Anne Boleyn. It took another 2 years for Henry to get the marriage annulled, something that...

Lady Jane Grey 12th February - Lady Jane Grey The tragic Nine Day Queen, Lady Jane Grey, was executed on the 12th February 1554 at the The Tower of London. Her ghost is said to haunt the vicinity of The Tower's Bloody Tower on this day, it appears as a white shape. 13th February - Lady Luvibond The Lady Luvibond ran aground on the Goodwin Sands on 13th February 1748 resulting in the loss of all hands. The ghost ship Lady Luvibond is said to re-enact the tragedy every 50 years. On one occasion, 1848, long-shoremen actually saw the ship run aground and attempted a rescue, but there was no ship there! 15th February - The Drummer Boy of Hickling Broad, Norfolk The Drummer Boy of Hickling Broad is said to appear skating across the Broad on the 15th of February. It was in February 1815 that the drummer boy lost his life skating across the frozen Broad to meet with the village girl he'd fallen in love with. Ghostly drumming sounds have also been reported. 25th February - Sir Christoph...

  This is Emily a porcelain doll belonging to a 50 something witch we'll call Angela (name change for the sake of anonymity).  Angela purchased Emily from Ebay as a "little sisiter" to a haunted doll already in her possesion. She says that she had never thought about collecting haunted dolls until one day she noticed a doll for sale in a new age type shop she had visited to buy some coloured spells candles. The doll that caught her attention was said to be haunted by the spirit of a 7 year old girl named Louise and for some reason unknown to herself Angela was very drawn to her. At first she ignored this feeling, bought the spell candles and left the shop, but, she couldn't get Louise out of her mind so returned next day and bought her. Nothing much happened with Louise, or so Angela thought, though she did find herself putting children's TV programs on for the doll to watch. Also she began to feel that Louise was lonely and needed a companion, a sister. This led ...

  The 18th century folksong "A Spanish Lady's Love to an English Sailor" is reputed to tell the story of Sir John Bolle and Donna Leonora Oviedo. There are serval versions of the story, one states that Donna Leonora fell in love with Sir John Bolle ( 1560 -1606) when he was in charge of keeping her in custody at the time of the Siege of Cadiz. The other version has Sir John Bolle as the prisoner and Donna Leonora arranging his escape. Both versions agree that Donna Leonora loved Sir John Bolle very much, and that he returned to his wife Elizabeth. Upon parting Donna Leonora gave Sir John a portrait of herself in a green dress. Versions differ as to what happened next, some say Donna Leonora Oviedo entered a convent where she spent the rest of her life. The more dramatic version of this tale of unrequited love has the Spanish lady following Sir John to his home, Thorpe Hall, in England where she committed suicide in the garden.  Wherever Donna Leonora died, ...

Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel "The Haunting of Hill House" has been adapted to film a few times, the 1999 Jan de Bont adaptation with Liam Neeson, Catherine Zita Jones and Owen Wilson used Harlaxton Manor near Grantham in Lincolnshire for the exterior shots. Harlaxton is a house which is itself believed to be haunted. Built by Gregory Gregory (1786-1854) the current Harlaxton Manor replaces a 14th century manor house formerly used as a hunting lodge by John of Gaunt, later purchased by Gregory's ancestor Daniel De Ligne.  Sadly Daniel's first child died in a tragic accident. The death of the baby had been foretold to Daniel and his wife Elizabeth who did everything they could to prevent this tragedy. They employed a nursemaid to stay with the child at all times. The nurse did her best to obey her employers instructions but fell asleep whilst holding the babe who slipped out of her arms and into the fire. (Source: Mrs Delves Broughton "Beautiful Homes: Harlaxto...

In the midst of a thunder storm on 4th August 1577 Black Shuck appeared in Suffolk, the huge black dog with blazing red eyes burst in through the door of the Church of St Mary in Bungay  and proceeded to run "all along down the body of the church with great swiftnesse and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible fourm and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them bothe at one instant clene backward, in somuch that even at a momet where they kneeled, they stragely dyed" ( quote Abraham Fleming ) "This black dog or the divel in such a likenesse" ( quote Abraham Fleming ) then made his way to Blythburgh, just outside Southwold on the coast, where the storm was lashing down upon the Church of The Holy Trinity.  Black Shuck threw open the church doors and leapt into the church in the middle of a service: "All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monste...

  Imagine being 8 or 9 years old, out with your brother or sister and a few friends in a place you are not supposed to be as dusk is falling. Time has run away with you as you were having fun out and about without parental supervision. But now you're getting a little tired and are beginning to think that you should all go home especially as it is getting dark and lots of little people, half the size of you, have appeared in cars. They are laughing and they are chasing you around, some of your friends have been in the out of bounds "swamp" and come out covered in mud.  It would be quite scary wouldn't it? This is apparently what happened on 23rd September 1979 to a group of primary school children playing in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, when they were chased by gnomes driving small cars. Each car had a gnome driver and a gnome passenger, eventually the children ran out of the park and the gnomes stopped following them. Back at school a few days later each child was indiv...

 The 31 Colleges that comprise the University of Cambridge are housed in beautiful historic buildings set in stunning grounds, with the oldest, Peterhouse, being established in 1284 by the Bishop of Ely it's hardly surprising that many Colleges are believed to be haunted. In this blog post Haunted Isles takes a look at some of the ghosts of the Cambridge Colleges: Peterhouse Two of Peterhouse's ghosts have been subject to exorcism, a poltergeist was exorcised from a student's room during the 18th century, also a "presence" in the old courtyard was exorcised by a College Dean. However during the 1990s the ghost of  an 18th century Peterhouse Senior Fellow, Francis Daws narrowly escaped exorcism. Francis Daws, 18th century Senior Fellow of Peterhouse College, committed suicide in 1789, apparently in an act of remorse following his part in the election of the unpopular Master, Frances Barnes. It is believed that the ghost of Francis Daws was responsible for the 1997 ...

  In his 1993 book 'Ghosts and How to See Them' the late President and Chief Investigator of Britain's Ghost Club, Peter Underwood,  advises that even if we see or hear things that we cannot explain "it does not mean that ghosts are responsible." He then proceeds to tell us about one such incident that he experienced: The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) had asked Peter Underwood to investigate a case of ghostly music in a London home that had left other investigators baffled. Music was heard at various times of day and night in the downstairs rooms of the house, the owner didn't seem disturbed by the music but was seeking an expert answer as to what was going on. Upon arrival at the house Peter and the owner sat and talked about the unexplained music when lo and behold it started playing in another room. Mr Underwood went to investigate, the owner followed him and the music stopped.  Peter Underwood spent three hours in that house, going from room to room...

In his 1980's book "Timpson's England a look beyond the obvious" author and broadcaster John Timpson writes of Barnwell Abbey: "For sheer variety in ghosts it would have been difficult to beat Barnwell Abbey House in Cambridge. There was a squire, and a White Lady, and a poltergiest, and a disembodied head. There was also the statutory clanking chain and, less likely, a ghostly squirrel and a hare." Timpson goes on to suggest combining all the above into one ghost story but concludes with: "But alas it is too late. All that remains is a building called Cellarers Chequer and these restless spirits with their ghostly menagerie must have long since departed." But have they? Barnwell Priory itself fell victim to the Reformation and was dissolved in 1538 subsequently falling into ruin, Abbey House was built on priory land and Abbey House is reputed to be very haunted.   One ghost is that of Squire Jacob Butler, the oldest barrister in En...