Saturday 5th August 2023
A few days before Christmas, 2008, a handful of ‘West Midlands Ghost Club’ members visited the site of Shrewsbury Battlefield, in Shropshire, and the associated ‘Battlefield Church’… the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.
The latter was built in the early 15th Century, on the site of the Battle of Shrewsbury – hence it’s title – which took place on the 21st July, 1403. The conflict concerned was waged as part of a revolt, by the powerful Percy family, against King Henry IV and – while the combat concerned greatly ended in something of a military stalemate – the death of Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy (after receiving an ‘arrow to the face’, allegedly!) ended the rebellion against the crown…
At the time of our initial visit, we had recently been informed that some type of ‘ghostly activity’ had been reported here. However, available data was scant at best and, as the information concerned had seemingly originated with a ‘paranormal group’… it had to naturally be treated with a degree of care and scepticism.
Never having so much as seen the locality previously, our casual, mini-investigation was mounted via a walk of much of the known battlefield itself and then particular emphasis placed on observation around the churchyard itself, where the alleged activity had supposedly occurred.
On the latter, it had been suggested by a number of sources that the graveyard area – as well as the site directly occupied by the church structure – consisted of a ‘mass grave’. Subsequent digging in the area – including archaeological excavations – possibly seems to bear out this hypothesis?
Nothing of any potential interest was noted during our stay, but it was an enjoyable visit to an historic part of my favourite county…!
Subsequently – with no other ‘spooky stories’ or accounts forthcoming – little further thought was given to this location. However, in mid-November, 2023, John Chance had told me that he was intending to take a look at the church and kindly asked if I should like to tag along!
In contrast to 15 years earlier – and despite the fairly similar times of the year involved – we, on this occasion, saw the locality in bright, warm, Autumn sunlight… a considerable change to before, which had been a dark, terribly cold and damp evening!
Being a Sunday, in a rural setting, the church was wide open to visitors and proved to be a lovely, well-maintained edifice! There is a mass of fine woodwork and carved stonework to be found, including – delight of delights – a ‘Green Man’, or ‘Foliate Head, between the topmost portion of two windows, in the South wall! (Unfortunately, the sun was glaring so brightly through the latter, it proved nigh-on impossible to even ‘look at’ the sculpture, let alone take a good photograph of it! See image below). Also of considerable interest – in a side room off the main body of the church – there is a large, exquisite reconstruction ‘diorama’ of the battlefield itself, created with highly detailed, model miniatures!
After leaving the battlefield site, John had suggested that we pay a visit to the nearby ruin of the 12th Cent. ‘Haughmond Abbey’… a location that I’d certainly heard of a number of times previously, but had never even so much as ‘seen a picture of’, as far as I was aware?
John informed me that he had actually taken the time to visit the location one night, a few years earlier, but found it tightly locked off to nocturnal visitors… at least, of the ‘living’ kind, anyway!
Dating from the early 1100’s, the site turned out to be – by far – the largest, most expansive, ecclesiastical property that I’ve ever personally visited! Founded as an Augustinian abbey, the ruinous footprint that remains today describes a mind-boggling complex of buildings, which, in their time, must have been a most impressive structure to behold…
Local legend has it that the site was connected to Holy Cross Abbey (Shrewsbury) and the (reasonably distant) village of High Ercall (Shrops.), by a 3-mile-long network of tunnels. Needless to say, such examples of ‘subterranean-passageway-folklore’ are myriad in the U.K. and pretty-much none of these suggested, underground routes have any basis in fact, whatsoever… this instance included!
Again, while previously having been aware of this site for some time, I had never known of any associated ghost stories, to the best of my knowledge? I have to admit that I did find this latter-mentioned quite peculiar, as pretty-much every historic site these days – and especially those of such ancient heritage – have attracted at least one or two spooky tales, over the years, eh?
Following our visit, I had made a point of searching the array of Shropshire-ghost-related volumes on my bookshelves, but – sad to say – none of them even hinted at anything related to this location!? However, coincidentally, just couple of weeks or so later, I happened to be leafing through the glossy volume ‘Haunted Heritage’, by John Mason – a book dedicated to the ghostlore attached to ‘English Heritage’ sites – when I was overjoyed to see the name ‘Haughmond Abbey’ leap out of the page at me!
It seems that the author, at least, had previously heard reports of ‘ghostly monks’ being reported here and had taken the time to visit the site on the weight of these accounts… In questioning the on-site custodian about such things, Mason had been told that, while she hadn’t personally experienced anything untoward herself, a previous caretaker had indeed spoken of seeing a ‘lone monk’ wandering around the ruins... as had, supposedly, numerous visitors to the location!
Sceptic that I am, it still has to be said that it seems only right to me that such a pretty, peaceful place should have a - suitably gentle - ghost ‘in residence’… and what better apparition than a silent, ‘phantom monk’ to walk this wonderfully historic region?
As always my most heartfelt thanks go
out to John Chance for, once again, putting up with my presence on one of his
fascinating adventures!
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