A place I like to visit from time to time is Aston Hall, a beautiful Jacobean mansion set amidst the grimy factories and and victorian terraces of inner city Birmingham. Of course when it was built,nearly 400 years ago, Brum was little more than a collection of cottages and metal bashing workshops. The Hall would have been surrounded by green fields and lush countryside. It must have been quite a sight!

Back in those days the big man in these parts was Sir Thomas Holte. Rich and powerful, a close friend of King James. Holte began building Aston Hall in 1618 and it took over twenty years to complete. History does not paint a very flattering portrait of Sir Thomas. Cruel and violent, as a young man he embedded a hatchet into the skull of an incompetent cook. Sadly I cannot find any reports of a ghostly cook wandering around with an axe sticking out of his head. Now that would be a ghost worth seeing!

Aston Hall is definitely haunted and the most often seen ghosts seem to have their origins in the early days when nasty old Sir Thomas was in charge. One of these ghosts seem to be of his daughter Mary. She was horrified at the prospect of being forced into a marriage with a man she detested. Mary and her true love, a young man of lower social status, went on the run. Unfortunately she didn’t get far and Sir Thomas dragged her back to Aston Hall. In his eyes she was now spoilt goods, no ‘respectable’ (i.e rich) gentleman would want to marry her now. He locked her in an upper room and threw away the key. Poor Mary suffered sixteen years of loneliness and despair before succumbing to madness and death. Her ghost, a shimmering white figure, is known as the ‘White Lady’ and is said to glide around the upper floors. (It seems to be compulsory in stately homes and castles to have a ‘White Lady’!)

The ‘White Lady’ has a companion known as the ‘Green Lady’ who has been seen sitting on a chair in the Great Hall. This ghost is supposed that of a Mistress Walker, an elderly servant to Sir Thomas Holte. She is described as wearing a green, high collared dress and is said to be so lifelike that people think she is a member of staff in period costume. This kind of ‘real’ looking ghost makes me think of the ‘recording’ theory that some people apply to ghostly sightings. Somehow images from the past are replayed in the present.

One of the upper rooms is known as Dick’s Garrett and is thought to contain the spirit of a servant boy. This young man, Dick, was accused of theft and locked in the room to await his master. Guilty or not he knew he would be in for horrific punishment. Unable to bear his harsh existence any longer he took his own life.

A strange phenomena has been witnessed by staff in the kitchen. A glowing white ball suddenly appears out of the wall and bounces around at high speed before disappearing. This part of the Hall is known to have been damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War.

Aston Hall was home to some very lucky and very rich people until 1858 when it was bought by the Birmingham Corporation and opened to the public. It was opened by Queen Victoria herself but the day ended in tragedy when a young circus acrobat fell to her death. Victoria witnessed this unfortunate event and was said to very distressed.

Whenever I have been to Aston Hall I have sensed many spirits in residence there. I think some of them are stuck in a confusing limbo, unaware that they have passed on.

I would recommend a visit especially to one of the ‘Candlelight’ nights they have every couple of years. It really is a beautiful sight.