Woodchester Mansion 27/5/11

Woodchester Mansion near Nympsfield, Gloucestershire is unique, in that it is an unfinished gothic masterpiece. Benjamin Bucknall was the Architect, and William Leigh the wealthy owner and builder.  The Mansion is situated at the west end of Woodchester Park, and William Leigh originally looked at Springthorpe House (the site of the now Woodchester Mansion) as a potential home. However, he decided too many repairs were needed and demolished Springthorpe in order to build his Gothic vision, Woodchester Mansion. However, the fortunes of the Leigh family were not consistent and the building was never finished. Leigh was also a perfectionist and this slowed the building works - however it also meant that the work produced was incredibly beautiful.

In one room of the Mansion, visitors can still see the tools left behind by Freemasons working on the site. I have often wondered why craftsmen would simply leave the tools of their trade behind? The story goes that Leigh ran out of money and didn't pay them, but surely you would not leave expensive tools behind? The very things that your livelihood rests on?

The night began with a walk around the mansion, and the energies felt very high. The kitchen area, bathroom and third floor all felt really energetic, so these were the areas we decided to do vigils in.

To start with, however, we did one large vigil with the whole group, in the cellar.  As we called out in the cellar I heard a man whisper in my ear "my name is Eric". I told the group what I had heard, and then suddenly, there were three loud raps on the cellar door! Then a horrible gravelly voice was heard to say  "it's me, Eric"!  We asked Chris, the keyholder, if Eric had been picked up before, and he confirmed that Eric was a stone mason working on the Mansion - what a great start to the night !

We then split into two groups, with me and Susan Ingleby taking the lower floor, Michael and Sam Hill taking the 1st floor.  Sue and I had some brilliant table tipping and Michael's group encountered a woman called Charlotte, who was stuck in the mansion and wanted to be moved on with her babies.  At one point, when we were in the chapel, we thought we saw two figures with torches and assumed it was someone from Michael's group - Michael and Sam saw the same thing and assumed it was our group!

In the chapel, on man became overwhelmed with the spirit of James, a foreman at the Mansion. Sue and I had to bring him back gently - wow this night was really kicking off! Nothing prepared us though for the events on the third floor...

The final vigil was a large group vigil on the top floor.  We decided to try and move Charlotte and he babies into the light. At the point where Charlotte was about to go over, all hell broke loose. People began screaming and we felt an energy rushing towards us. The torches were switched on and we saw one lady had completely fainted - her name? Charlotte.

After making sure she was OK, we continued to move the spirit over, but the third floor felt very threatening with all sorts of scary images being seen. I saw a white snake slithering across the floor, for example.

The end of the evening seemed to come very quickly and one lady came up to me at the end and said "I was a sceptic, but not any more".

What a night ! Join us on a ghost hunt by following the link to Dusk Till Dawn events at the top of the page.

Until next time, happy ghost busting !