Annesley Hall – History and Ghost Sightings

History

Annesley Hall is a location that over the years I have been extremely interested in and drawn too. Annesley Hall and Newstead Abbey are the two locations that growing up as a teenager myself and friends would often visit on a night to share the odd ghost stories or two.

The two locations are connected in many ways and some of the hauntings between the two locations could be seen as the same spirit haunting both.

Annesley Hall is reported to be one of the most haunted buildings in Nottinghamshire. It is a historic Grade II listed country house and has a longstanding reputation for all kinds of strange and spooky phenomena.

The Hall dates from the mid-13th century and was the home of the Annesley family, passing to the Chaworth family when Alice, heiress to the Manor of Annesley, married George Chaworth, third son of Sir Thomas Chaworth of Wiverton, in the 1440.

Mary Chaworth, who lived at the Hall, was the boyhood lover of the poet Lord Byron, who lived at nearby Newstead Abbey. Byron’s poem “The Dream” concerns the meeting of two lovers on Diadem Hill, part of the Misk Hills range, which belonged to the Annesley estate and here is a fragment of the poem which Bryon wrote:

These two, a maiden and a youth, were there
Gazing—the one on all that was beneath
Fair as herself—but the boy gazed on her;
And both were young, and one was beautiful:
And both were young—yet not alike in youth.
As the sweet moon on the horizon’s verge,
The maid was on the eve of womanhood;
The boy had fewer summers, but his heart
Had far outgrown his years, and to his eye
There was but one beloved face on earth,
And that was shining on him; he had look’d
Upon it till it could not pass away;
He had no breath, no being, but in hers;
She was his voice; he did not speak to her,
But trembled on her words; she was his sight,
For his eye follow’d hers, and saw with hers,

Mary and Bryon were never meant to be or the two families didn’t want them to be. In a style of Romeo and Juliet, the two families had a feud between each other which started when the uncle of the Byron (who was dubbed ‘The wicked Lord’) had killed the then Lord Chaworth in a duel outside the house and which carried on for many years. Bryon was left heartbroken when he had gone to visit Mary one day. He had overheard Mary state that she would never marry Bryon. Bryon left to pursue his own life and Mary went onto marry John Musters. Neither of them was happy in their marriages and Bryon even quoted later on in life that if he had married Mary that life would have been very different.

The Chaworth-Musters family lived there for many generations before selling the property in 1973. In 1997 a disastrous fire gutted the main building and left it in a state of disrepair.

Ghost Sightings

Many believe that both Mary and Bryon haunt the Hall in search for each other. There has been many reports that Mary has been seen walking in and out in and out her own bedroom as well as walking through walls.

There has been sightings of Mary and Bryon at nearby Newstead Abbey also.

Mary’s son Charles is reported to haunt the Hall and he is said to throw stones and other objects at people.

Bryons Uncle ‘The Wicked Lord’ is said to haunt the cellar area with strange knocks being heard.

In what is called ‘Byron’s bedroom’, also known as the Blue Room, many people have experienced being pushed by an invisible force. Visitors to the hall have reported mysterious scratches and burn marks within this area.

Whispering has been heard issuing from the library, as well as an inexplicable smell of cigar smoke.

A ghostly figure is sometimes seen peering out of one of the windows in the mews. This apparition is thought to be the spirit of a young servant girl who hanged herself off the staircase in the laundry centuries ago after suffering from the hands of a man, it is believed that she appears at the windows looking if her abuser will return.

The ghost of a pregnant woman, rumoured to have been murdered, is occasionally glimpsed beside a fireplace, holding a baby. In the 1940s an alarming discovery was made when human remains were unearthed at the hall. The bones were analysed and found to be dated from the 1600s. They were the remains of a pregnant woman.

A shadowy figure has been spotted by many stepping out onto the main road. One women reported seeing a shadowy figure, appear from nowhere and on the point of impacted disappeared. It is unknown if this is of a women or a monk as the motorist described the ghostly figure as wearing a ‘swirling dress that floated in the air’. The motorist was that scared that she just carried on driving as fast as she could even skipping red lights.

Annesley Old Church or also known as ‘the Church of All Saints’

Annesley old church is a disused church in a ruinous condition which stands on a mound extremely close to Annesley Hall. Now days to actually see Annesley Hall you have to park at this church and walk up through the graveyard to view Annesley Hall.

The building remains are Grade I listed and the site is scheduled as an ancient monument. The present building, constructed by the Annesley family in 1356, replaced a previous Norman building on the same site which is believed to date back to the 11th century. The graveyard is the burial place of many plaque victims.

The ghostly figure of a monk has been spotted in a dense black garb within the graveyard. Even though there was never a monastery at Annesley, Newstead abbey Is a only a short distance away where there was. It is believed by many that this ghostly monk could be making his way there or may be making his way back to Felley Priory which is only two miles away.

Another report is of a women who has been spotted sitting on the side of a nearby well, some have even reported seeing the women raise from within the well.

Over the years many Paranormal investigators have visited here when the building was functional and when it got abandoned but now days the land is now private making it inaccessible for people to enter. Rumour is that in it abandoned state witchcraft has been practiced here, but I am not sure if that is people just making assumptions of paranormal investigators going in to explore.

The graveyard can still be explored and the pure beauty of Annesley Hall can be seen from this point so well worth a visit by any investigator or urban explorer.

Here is a 360 picture I posted to the fan page and a live tour I did for a look around.

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