THE HISTORY

Warwick Castle is situated in Warwickshire over looking the River Avon. The first instructions to build the castle was by Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great in 914 and the first castle to appear on the site was a wooden motte and bailey in 1068 at the command of William the Conqueror. Throughout the middle ages, under successive Earls of Warwick, the Castle was gradually rebuilt in stone.

Over the years it has had 36 different owners plus four periods as crown property under seven different monarchs. It was the family seat of three separate creations of the Earls of Warwick, and has been a family home for members of the Beaumont, Beauchamp, Neville, Plantagenet, Dudley and Greville families. Three times a woman (or girl) as been in ownership and eleven of the owners were under 20 when they inherited it, including a girl aged two and a boy aged three. At least three owners died in battle, two were executed and one was murdered. In 2007 Merlin Entertainments Group took guardianship of the castle who which they remain guardianship of it to this day!

Warwick castle was attacked in 1264, besieged in 1642 and damage by fire in 1871, the Castle has nevertheless survived the ever-changing fortunes of history.

The collection of armoury on display at Warwick Castle that you see today is regarded as second only to that of the Tower of London.

Has you can imagine with such a vast history its seen its fair share of occurrences including battles, execution, torture, plague and even witchcraft!

The Hauntings!

The Dun Cow

The story goes that the Dun Cow was a huge cow, the size of a double decker bus, and originated from Shropshire. She was able to supply milk to all who needed it, but one day a witch milked the Dun Cow into a sieve. This enraged the cow who broke free, wreaking terror across the landcape. Eventually, the cow was slain by Guy of Warwick.

Today an alleged rib o show of the “Dun Cow” located to Guy’s porridge pot

It is said that the the phantom ‘Dun Cow of Warwick’ appears a few weeks before a death in the family of Warwick castle.

While I was there I did take a photograph of a bone on the wall which was located near Guys Porridge Pot……I would be interested to see if it is this bone, I can only assume that it is.

The Grey Lady

The grey lady haunting of the castle is a mystery and people can not place who it may be but many of the family have reported seeing the ghost of a grey lady.

The Grandmother of the present Earl was always seeing her, while many servants have borne witness to catching a glimpse of her furtive figure flitting about the long corridors. Doors open without reason, the “Grey Lady” appears and then passes on, and when the astonished spectator goes to find her there is nothing.” (mjwayland)

if you was to look up a digital haunting of warwick castle to this day, the ghost of the ‘grey lady’ is hardly documented but during the 1920’s the haunting of the ‘Grey Lady’ was the most reported ghost sighting at the castle.

Black Dog! – The Witch in Disguise!

Moll Bloxham, who lived in a hovel by the walls of Warwick Castle was allowed by her master to sell surplus milk and butter from the Castles table. But she took to cheating her customers and was eventually evicted. She was said to have place a curse on the castle, and roams the grounds as a ghostly black dog with bright red eyes! Some believe the curse was broken when the beast was lured from the highest tower into the River below and was killed!

The Ghost of Sir Fulke Greville

One of the alleged hauntings of the castle is that of Sir Fulke Greville, the owner of Warwick Castle. The story goes that one day Greville was arguing with his most trusted servant and the servant turned on Greville and stabbed him. Instantly regretting his actions, the servant sliced his own throat leaving Sir Greville to die a lingering death due to infection. Moans of agony are often reported around the grounds and many have been a dying man emerge from Sir Greville’s own portrait! The interesting thing is though is that Sir Fulke Greville didn’t actually die at Warwick castle but was murdered in Holborn, London, His body was laid out in his favourite room however and this is where most people have still reported hearing his cries.

The Dungeon Haunting

In 2009 it was decided to build a new feature to the castle and that was the Dungeon attraction, where the idea was to create a torture chamber where workers from the castle dress up and basically scare the socks of the visitors.

During its construction Site manager Paul Woodfield was left petrified when he spotted a strange figure in the hallways at the site. He was so scared he immediately upped tools and ran away in fear. He stated to Birmingham Live

When we started clearing out the site for the new dungeon, which is in what used to be the castle’s armoury, I started to notice some pretty strange things. I kept smelling lavender which, for a building site, was very odd indeed.

Later that day I saw a tall, slim man wearing some kind of tunic and trousers walking out toward the doorway.

At first I thought it was just my imagination and asked the other guys if they had spotted anything, but nobody else had seen anything so I carried on as normal.

When I saw him again later that day, I knew it was no trick of the mind.

Needless to say the list of ghostly activity persists and who is actually affecting people in some circumstances lays a mysteries….another spooky occurrence in the castle is hearing loud footsteps marching through, growls and groans and rapid temperature drops. There is a eerie presence of mystery to this beautiful castle and with many castles I am sure there is many untold stories to this place, but who or what allegedly haunts this place they have clearly at some points have wanted to be heard!