Monday 14th August 2023
Mention the Warwickshire town of Kenilworth and most people will naturally think of its castle… a vast, imposing – if ruinous – structure that has dominated the landscape of the region for 900 years.
However, there is an equally historic – if nowhere near a substantial or prominent – spot, within the town, which, unlike the castle, has quite a long-standing ghostly history associated with it.
Remnants of the Abbey of St. Mary stand (mostly) within the confines of the parish church graveyard of St. Nicholas. An Augustinian priory, built around 1124, it was constructed by Geoffrey de Clinton around the same date as Kenilworth Castle, which he was also responsible for. St. Nicholas’ Church was built nearby in 1291 and the priory was subsequently upgraded to the status of abbey by the Pope in 1447. As with many such religious sites, the complex fell victim to Henry VIII’s Dissolution Of The Monasteries, just under a century later. The bulk of the site is reported as being in a most ruinous state by 1700, save for the Gatehouse and Barn, which still stand today as a testament to the former glory of this location…
On March the 5th, this year, I trip to re-visit the castle again (since my last journey here some 25 yrs ago) and finally get to see the aforementioned ecclesiastical remains.
My interest in the latter not only stems from the fact that it is allegedly ‘haunted’… but the location is also rumoured to carry a ‘curse’ too!
While I’d not ‘dug enough’ to see published evidence for this myself, the online ‘Paranormal Database’ page tells readers that the sites founder Geoffrey de Clinton, made a promise that – should anyone try to take away the land associated with the priory – they would ‘be cursed by God’! I don’t know what historic evidence is for the latter, but we are assured that an array of ‘disasters’ supposedly dogged numerous individuals and companies who tried interfering with the land in the latter part of the 1900’s…!
As to the ghosts associated with the location, Meg Elizabeth Atkins, in her Excellent ‘Haunted Warwickshire’, mentions ‘gliding, cowled monks’ being seen in the vicinity! (No real surprise there, as to the kind of figures supposedly seen, eh!?) These have mostly been witnessed in the avenue of trees, in the graveyard, that run towards the church. Such stories were so entrenched in local lore, in the past, that one gentleman of the town told Atkins of his terror – as a young choirboy – re. the prospects of ‘meeting a ghost’ along the avenue…! (Below. Sadly, at the time of my recent visit, the 'canopy' of the avenue had clearly been treated to a 'trim'... severely detracting from the usual, atmospheric impact of the spot!)
As recently as 1997, ‘peculiar activity’ has been reported in the immediate vicinity. A most bizarre and disturbing account tells of 2 people walking through the graveyard and, initially, thinking that they were ‘being followed’ by someone? When stopping to check, they realised that the ‘people’ behind them were actually a ‘facsimile of themselves’… going through the motions of their own actions of moments earlier!? (Indicative of some kind of visible ‘time glitch’ in the area, maybe?)
A ‘ghostly monk’ has also been reported as haunting an ‘avenued path’, leading to Bridge Street in the town. This unfortunate, solitary figure I said to be ‘faceless’, however…
While little remains of the abbey site itself, the location is well maintained… and is definitely worthy of a visit to anyone who finds themselves in the region. Certain structural remnants are substantial… such as the Gatehouse and (near perfect), so-called ‘Barn’, that stands on the periphery of graveyard and adjoining play area. Other segments of ruin are incorporated into a rough ‘floor plan’ of the abbey itself, including wall sections created from small pieces of Medieval, decorated stone work…
Just before ending this post, I have to give a brief mention to Kenilworth Castle itself and very quickly outline my ‘love / hate’ feelings for the site as they stand today…
In short: I first visited the castle in November 1992, with no idea whether it was supposedly haunted or not. In those pre-internet days, if there was no mention of ghosts related to an historical site in any literature I owned, I would naturally call at a place and simply ‘ask about such things’ while there. This I had done with Kenilworth Castle and was told by numerous staff members that there was NO associated haunting. (In fact, so I didn’t feel too let down by this situation, staff most kindly noted Ashby del la Zouch Castle, in Leicestershire, down for me as a place that had recently reported some ‘ghostly goings-on’ in some type of internal, English Heritage-related periodical! As it turns out, that proved to be a rather fruitful lead, at that time!)
In subsequent years, I did come to see a somewhat scant mention of the site in the aforementioned ‘Haunted Warwickshire’. In the instance concerned, a lady had been attending a function in the gatehouse section of the castle, when she very briefly saw a vision of a woman - in simple head-dress and pale robe - appear and disappear behind a group of performing, Medieval musicians… Not wishing to cast aspersions on this potential ‘ghost sighting’, but this was the only case of this ever happening; the woman was in company, but no one else saw the figure… and, perhaps, her imagination momentarily conjured a romantic hallucination based on the historic surroundings and suitable ‘audio stimuli’ on offer, maybe…?
Moving forward in time to the general state of what now passes for ‘the paranormal field’ today and – only in the last few years – I have seen Kenilworth Castle turning up on numerous lists dedicated to Englands ‘Most Haunted’ properties!? It has also been dubbed ‘The Most Haunted Castle In The Country’ on a handful of occasions too, it seems! Needless to say, without waffling on, this new-found-status is nothing at all to do any form of potentially genuine ‘ghostly activity’ being reported at the castle… and everything to do with the very lucrative, money spinning narrative of ‘commercial ghost hunting concerns’ in the 21st Century.
No comments:
Post a Comment