Haunted Ramsey?
October is a chance to celebrate Halloween. Its origins are Celtic, and at this time of the year, the Celts believed the barrier between the spirit world and ours was penetrable, so they would scare them away during the festival of Samhain.
Lingering Spirits in Ramsey?
The abbey in Ramsey was founded in 985 and was home to at least 80 monks before its dissolution in the time of Henry VIII. There is little to see today of that great and wealthy abbey apart from the 15th Century Abbey Gate House, the Abbey School with part of the surviving 13th century Lady Chapel, and the parish church of St Thomas à Becket with its bell tower constructed from the abbey’s stone. With so much ancient history, could there be any ghosts or spirits lingering in Ramsey that might need scaring off this Halloween?
Could Abbey House be haunted?
Plague Victims Roaming the High Street
The plague is said to have reached Ramsey in 1665 on a contaminated coat sent from London, and the victims are said to walk the streets late at night. The Ale House Kitchen in the High Street, which used to be the George Hotel, is said to be haunted by former landlady Mary, who died in a fire and is still said to blow out candles and naked flames. Sybil Marshall who wrote about her parent’s recollections of Victorian Fenland life retold her mother’s tale of a ghostly man in Biggin Lane dressed in old-fashioned clothing who walked into a pond and disappeared.
Paranormal Activity
On the other side of the town, the Paranormal Database reported ghostly activity at Ramsey Rural Museum in 2013 where unexplained noises were recorded, and images were captured of a dark shadow. Bodsey House is supposedly the site of several hauntings. There is a terrible tale of a 14th century nun who visited the house to visit her dying brother. Caught in the act, she was punished by being bricked up in the chimney breast and left to die. It is also said that two of King Cnut’s sons were drowned crossing Whittlesey Mere. Their tombstones are in the south-east corner of the existing dining room.gho
Front Page News – Spooky Sightings!
Perhaps one of the strangest ghostly sightings with a Ramsey connection made the national news in 1897! The Illustrated Police News reported that a cottage in Tick Fen on a farm owned by a Ramsey magistrate had been subject to strange rapping noises against the bed of a sick girl. This noisy ‘poltergeist’ was loud enough to be heard at neighbouring houses and even the landlord’s estate bailiff who visited from Ramsey, drove back at 3am ‘baffled’ as even his ‘cleverest of theories’ did not explain the mysterious knocking.
Tell us your Spooky Tales
These are just a few of the reported sightings of things that go bump in the night, but do you know of any more? We’d love to hear your ghost stories and spooky sightings in Ramsey and the surrounding villages? Email us on discover.ramsey@gmail.com or share them with us on our social media pages ‘Discover Ramsey’.