Ghosts in England - Bristol and Buckinghamshire (1/6)

I'm starting this blog with a series of entries that will revolve around some legends from Great Britain, those that have always amazed me, especially after visiting some locations that some consider "cursed" whilst others look for explanations that could justify certain facts.

England has a significant amount of legends; probably the weather, the mysterious atmosphere and certain structures that transport us to other times contribute to spurring the imagination but, what if there is some truth behind them? That could be the question that remains open after watching each one of the episodes of the British television series "Most Haunted" or other series like "Living Dead Paranormal", "Ghost Hunters" or "Paranormal Witness".

Let's journey through the main counties of England, selecting just one or two mysterious events in each one of them.

Geographical location of the counties of Bristol and Buckinghamshire (Source - modified file)

Bristol

A haunted hotel

The current Arnos Manor Hotel was centuries ago an old mansion: Arnos Court, property of the affluent William Reeve, who even built a church on the land. Many years later the property was sold (in fact, part of the land currently makes up part of Arnos Vale Cemetery) and the house was extended, at the back of the house, to build a convent and school for girls.

Legend has it that a nun became pregnant and, scared of the repercussions from her community, took her own life. When the other nuns discovered her body they decided against giving her a christian burial and, instead, she was confined between two walls of the building. Everyone believed that the legend was a simple story until bombs fell during WW2 knocking down some walls whereupon human bones were found.

The property, repurposed as the current hotel, often receives complaints from guests who, especially those that stay in the room number 160, cannot understand why the bathtubs fill up by themselves or where the whispers come from that they hear sometimes. Some state to have seen the shadow of a female silhouette.

How to get there and how much does it cost to stay the night at Arnos Manor Hotel?

The hotel is located on Bath Rd, Arnos Vale and is accessible via bus from the centre of Bristol and also from the beautiful city of Bath.

Despite its imposing exterior it's a relatively cheap hotel, you can get a room for 60 or 70 euros a night and that's because it's located a bit out of Bristol. To point out one thing, the gardens are very well kept, more so than the interior of the hotel, and are spectacular. If you stay there at some point, I wouldn't recommend eating in the restaurant annexed to the entrance, it's nice but very expensive (we only looked at the menu, we didn't try any of the dishes) and there are, as alternatives, lots of good restaurants in Bristol.

We were in a fairly big room with very old furniture, which favoured the mystic atmosphere of the place, especially on a foggy day. In regards to the paranormal phenomena that may happen... we slept like logs!

Buckinghamshire

A private club with a dark past

If you go through Hellfire Caves, in West Wycombe, you must know that there exists a lot of evidence of the existence of ghosts.

Entrada a las Cuevas Hellfire (Source)

It is thought that the caves could have been the chosen place to establish an altar of witchcraft in ancient times, although it is also speculated that if may have been the private underground club of the owner (very close friend, in fact, of Benjamin Franklin); an elite club in which they probably performed satanic rituals with prostitutes in the inner temple. All of which, not too deep, under the Church of St Lawrence (and from there, its name, the hellfire under a heavenly sanctuary).

Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the Hellfire Club (Source)

Legend has it that a loyal friend of the owner, Paul Whitehead, paid a certain amount of money so that his heart was placed in an urn when he died and remained in the cave; the urn is still there but it is said that the heart was stolen by a soldier. Therefore, the ghost of Whitehead roams painstakingly through the caves in the attempt to recuperate his heart.

However the ghost seen the most in the caves is that of a girl in the place where she was murdered. It seems that she wanted to get married to a rich man and rejected all the men of the village. They tricked her one day sending her a note as if on behalf of the wealthy gentleman that had asked the girl to marry him; she attended the meeting, in the caves, dressed in bridal clothes, but what awaited her was far removed from a wedding ceremony. The young villagers began to throw stones and she ended up dying from a heavy blow to the skull. The ghost of Sukie, dressed in victorian style bridal white, has been seen on countless occasions and they have also heard screams, presumably from the girl.

How much does entry cost and how do you get there?

Entry to the caves costs just over 6 pounds and, if you dare some nights they carry out séances. We didn't end up entering; there were too many children, we guessed on a school trip, and they scared us more than the caves. However we did see other attractions: for 9 or 10 pounds you have the "Dashwood pack", as we christened it, that includes entry to the mansion of the extremely affluent Sir. The surroundings are incredible and there are illustrative and informative signs there everywhere you look.

Finally, to get there, we took a direct train from Marylebone station, in London, to High Wycombe (that still has the custom of weighing the mayor at the start and end of their term in office) and, from there, we took a taxi; the journey is worth it, especially when you start to ascend, for the fantastic views of the countryside in good weather.

Of course, of strange presences in the vicinity... we detected nothing.

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