Aston Hall - Birmingham, West Midlands
Aston was first mentioned as Estone, in the Domesday book of 1086, meaning, East Farm. Aston was one of only two manors in the area with a priest, the other being Northfield, its church of St. Peter and St. Paul may have been an Anglo-Saxon Minster. The tower of the present church is the only part of the 15th century gothic church surviving. During the mid 19th century, Birmingham architect, JA Chatwin redesigned and rebuilt the majority of the church in the 14th century gothic style that we see today.
Many of the Holte family from Aston Hall are commemorated in St. Peters and St. Paul’s, including William Holte who died in 1518, Sir Thomas Holte who lived from 1571 to 1654, the builder of Aston Hall, Edward Holte who died in 1593 and Sir Charles Holte who lived from 1722 to 1782, the last in the line of the Holte family.
Many of the Holte family from Aston Hall are commemorated in St. Peters and St. Paul’s, including William Holte who died in 1518, Sir Thomas Holte who lived from 1571 to 1654, the builder of Aston Hall, Edward Holte who died in 1593 and Sir Charles Holte who lived from 1722 to 1782, the last in the line of the Holte family.
The Holte family were one of the great Warwickshire families who took on much of the county’s administration during the 16th and 17th centuries. In the early 16th century, John Holte acquired the manor of Aston.
Sir Thomas Holte was born in 1571 and the eldest son of Edward Holte and Dorothy Ferrers. After studying in Oxford, Thomas became a lawyer. He purchased the manors of Lapworth and Bushwood I Warwickshire, land was a sign of great status during that period. In 1599, Thomas purchased the lay rectory of Aston and became the High Sheriff. In 1613, he built Aston Hall, the extravagant three storey Jacobean house, designed by the architect John Thorpe, which was completed in 1835. |
|
Thomas married Grace Bradbourne who died before Aston Hall was completed and be later married Anne Littleton, all together, he had 9 children between both wives. Thomas died in 1654 aged 83 and out lived all of his children with the exception of one but it was his grandson Robert Holte, son of Edward who inherited the house.
Thomas had a reputation of being a very mean, cruel man. His son Edward was a groom and personal servant to King Charles I. Edward met and married a girl named Elizabeth King, daughter of the Bishop of London, who had no prospects or money. His father, Thomas was against the marriage as he wanted Edward to marry into wealth to help further the family, Thomas cut Edward out of his inheritance.
In August 1627, the King wrote to Sir Thomas:
"Wee have taken knowledge of a marriage between your sonne and a daughter of the late Bishop..... and your dislike thereof......
Sir Thomas was ordered by the King to reinstate Edwards inheritance, yet he refused. Instead, he begrudgingly made a settlement to pay Edwards £5000 of debts off".
Two months into the English Civil War, King Charles I honoured Sir Thomas Holte with a visit to Aston Hall to ensure his loyalty and support. In December of 1643, Colonel Leveson the Royalist governor of Dudley Castle sent 40 musketeers to fortify Aston Hall. This gave a clear message that Sir Thomas Holte was in support of the King. The house came under attack that same month. The 40 musketeers held off the attack but eventually had to surrender. Thomas had £1000 worth of damage and the property was taken by the parliamentarian forces and Thomas was taken into custody. Thomas wasn’t kept for long as a prisoner,he was released and regained his property on the 20th of February in 1644 after paying a huge fine of £4491 which seriously damaged his finances for the future. In the 1650s, Sir Robert Holte, Thomas’s grandson, transformed the South front of the hall, disguising the damage that had been caused from cannonball fire, he left one cannonball hole in the staircase so they could boast of their loyal service to the King.
Aston Hall continued to be occupied by the Holte family until 1817 when it was sold and leased by the son of the great industrial pioneer, James Watt. In 1858, the house was purchased and opened as a public park and museum by the Aston Hall and Park Company Ltd. and was the first of the great houses to be opened to the public. After financial difficulties, the house was bought by the Birmingham Corporation in 1864. Many people flocked to see the house and were amazed by the paintings and decor as they’d never seen anything like this before. Many psychics and mediums who visited the house claimed to see and be in contact with the spirits of previous residents.
At the top part of the house is the Long Corridor, named so as it is a corridor that was built as long as possible, a place to show off paintings and others items worthy of showing off to impress guests. The long corridor leads to the tower and to the servants quarters, one of which is known as Dick's Garret. Many people have seen the apparition of a man hanging from the rafters in Dick's Garret, and is believed to be the ghost of a past servant boy who was caught stealing in the time of James I. Rather than having to face his master and bring shame to his family, he is believed to have hung himself in his room. It is unknown when Dick lived or died but a servant named Dick staying in that room is listed on an inventory dating from 1771. The novelist Maria Edgeworth referred to Dick’s Haunted Gallery in her writings after visiting Aston Hall while it was occupied by James Watts Jr in April 1820. Alfred Davidson wrote a history of the Holte family in 1854 and wrote:
‘This gloomy spot, into which just sufficient light gains admittance to make the darkness more apparent, is rendered still more dreary by the association’s connected with it. It has long been known by the name of Dick’s Garret, being so denominated from a domestic who there hung himself from a low rafters in the roof’.
Many visitors to the house have been witness to a grey or white lady on the upper floor. She is believed to have been a daughter or granddaughter of Sir Thomas. It is believed that he locked her in a room on the upper floor for 16 years because she tried to elope. In the 1893 edition of the Aston Hall handbook, it quotes ‘her poor demented spirit appears as the ghost of a white lady’. During the English Civil War, many rumours were spread amongst opposing forces and this could be one of those rumours. Some historians believe that there could be an element of truth in the story but that she was a lunatic member of the family Th At was hidden from view.
A couple celebrating a wedding anniversary visited the Aston Hall as part of their celebrations. They were in a room on the upper floor when the woman saw a black figure walk past the room. She described feeling chills through her body. She called her husband to tell him what she had witnessed. As he was very sceptical about the paranormal, be just laughed. Just as he laughed, the black figure walked past again, he turned away and walked off. She walked after him and asked what he had seen. He said that he didn’t believe in ghosts but what he had seen looked like a lady but there was no one else around that are of the house, only themselves.
Another prominent ghost who has been seen more often in recent years is that of the Green Lady, believed to be the disembodied spirit of a former housekeeper to Sir Thomas Holte, Mrs Walker who was in service at the house in 1645. She seems to appear more often when major cleaning or renovations are taking place.
During the mid 1980s, a member of staff began locking up the oak doors between the Great Hall and the Saloon. As he walked across the Great Hall he saw a lady in a flared green dress with a lace collar, she was sitting on one of the two chairs that are placed either side of the oak doors. The receptionist who’s desk lies opposite the doors didn’t see anyone there. When he told a previous supervisor who had retired, he told him that he had seen her before, over 20 years ago. On the night he saw her, he had been called out by the police who were attending as an alarm had been triggered. As he entered the house he saw the same green lady walking down the stairs.
Another member of staff witnessed the green lady one afternoon in the 1990s. He was working in one of the corridors when he looked through a window where you can loom across through another window, when he noticed a woman walking past. When he approached where she was seen, she had gone. As the hall doesn’t open until 2pm, there was no way that a visitor could have been there as it was before 2pm. He described the woman as wearing a green velvet dress with fair hair and around 5 foot 2.
Only a few months later, another member of staff was on duty at the top of the house, at the top of the second oak staircase near to Dick's Garret. He was sat on a chair when two visitors walked up the stairs and passed him to enter the housekeepers room and then into the nursery room. They then walked back, past him to go back down the same staircase in which they entered. The house closes at 5pm so he didn’t expect to see anymore visitors as it was 4:30. His supervisor contacted him on his radio to tell him to start locking the rooms upstairs. As he started to lock the rooms he had a feeling that someone was in the nursery room. He started to walk along the corridor towards the nursery when he noticed an old lady with her back towards him wear g a bottle green coloured dress. He thought that it was a visitor who had come up the spiral staircase near the nursery but then he realised that the door at the bottom of that staircase had been locked at 4:15. He realised that the dress that she was wearing was from the 17th century, and that she was slightly transparent as he could see the picture on the wall that she was standing in front of. Moments after seeing her she vanished. Straight away he contacted his supervisor his the radio and told him what he had seen, he replied by telling him that he’s just seen the ghost of the green lady and that he’d seen her two years ago.
One day a group of schoolchildren visited the house. They were all standing in front of the teacher in the Great Hall when one of the boys kept turning around to look behind him. When the teacher asked him what was wrong, he told her that there was a woman in a green dress sitting on one of the chairs next to the oak door. The teacher didn’t see anyone there.
Many other strange happenings have been seen around the house, children have been seen in the nursery along with the rocking horse moving as if it is in use, voices and footsteps have been heard in rooms and corridors when no one is around. There’s is legend that there are secret tunnels that run from the house, under the road and over to St. Peter and St. Paul’s church. When Henry McGowan, the Bishop of Wakefield was the vicar at Aston Church, between 1938 to 1945, someone broke into the old charnel house and found some old gravediggers tools. They dug up an old area of the floor where it was known to have been a mass burial and found a pile of bones. The next morning when the vicar arrived at the church, he found a skull had been tied to a gravestone along with two crossed bones.
Thomas had a reputation of being a very mean, cruel man. His son Edward was a groom and personal servant to King Charles I. Edward met and married a girl named Elizabeth King, daughter of the Bishop of London, who had no prospects or money. His father, Thomas was against the marriage as he wanted Edward to marry into wealth to help further the family, Thomas cut Edward out of his inheritance.
In August 1627, the King wrote to Sir Thomas:
"Wee have taken knowledge of a marriage between your sonne and a daughter of the late Bishop..... and your dislike thereof......
Sir Thomas was ordered by the King to reinstate Edwards inheritance, yet he refused. Instead, he begrudgingly made a settlement to pay Edwards £5000 of debts off".
Two months into the English Civil War, King Charles I honoured Sir Thomas Holte with a visit to Aston Hall to ensure his loyalty and support. In December of 1643, Colonel Leveson the Royalist governor of Dudley Castle sent 40 musketeers to fortify Aston Hall. This gave a clear message that Sir Thomas Holte was in support of the King. The house came under attack that same month. The 40 musketeers held off the attack but eventually had to surrender. Thomas had £1000 worth of damage and the property was taken by the parliamentarian forces and Thomas was taken into custody. Thomas wasn’t kept for long as a prisoner,he was released and regained his property on the 20th of February in 1644 after paying a huge fine of £4491 which seriously damaged his finances for the future. In the 1650s, Sir Robert Holte, Thomas’s grandson, transformed the South front of the hall, disguising the damage that had been caused from cannonball fire, he left one cannonball hole in the staircase so they could boast of their loyal service to the King.
Aston Hall continued to be occupied by the Holte family until 1817 when it was sold and leased by the son of the great industrial pioneer, James Watt. In 1858, the house was purchased and opened as a public park and museum by the Aston Hall and Park Company Ltd. and was the first of the great houses to be opened to the public. After financial difficulties, the house was bought by the Birmingham Corporation in 1864. Many people flocked to see the house and were amazed by the paintings and decor as they’d never seen anything like this before. Many psychics and mediums who visited the house claimed to see and be in contact with the spirits of previous residents.
At the top part of the house is the Long Corridor, named so as it is a corridor that was built as long as possible, a place to show off paintings and others items worthy of showing off to impress guests. The long corridor leads to the tower and to the servants quarters, one of which is known as Dick's Garret. Many people have seen the apparition of a man hanging from the rafters in Dick's Garret, and is believed to be the ghost of a past servant boy who was caught stealing in the time of James I. Rather than having to face his master and bring shame to his family, he is believed to have hung himself in his room. It is unknown when Dick lived or died but a servant named Dick staying in that room is listed on an inventory dating from 1771. The novelist Maria Edgeworth referred to Dick’s Haunted Gallery in her writings after visiting Aston Hall while it was occupied by James Watts Jr in April 1820. Alfred Davidson wrote a history of the Holte family in 1854 and wrote:
‘This gloomy spot, into which just sufficient light gains admittance to make the darkness more apparent, is rendered still more dreary by the association’s connected with it. It has long been known by the name of Dick’s Garret, being so denominated from a domestic who there hung himself from a low rafters in the roof’.
Many visitors to the house have been witness to a grey or white lady on the upper floor. She is believed to have been a daughter or granddaughter of Sir Thomas. It is believed that he locked her in a room on the upper floor for 16 years because she tried to elope. In the 1893 edition of the Aston Hall handbook, it quotes ‘her poor demented spirit appears as the ghost of a white lady’. During the English Civil War, many rumours were spread amongst opposing forces and this could be one of those rumours. Some historians believe that there could be an element of truth in the story but that she was a lunatic member of the family Th At was hidden from view.
A couple celebrating a wedding anniversary visited the Aston Hall as part of their celebrations. They were in a room on the upper floor when the woman saw a black figure walk past the room. She described feeling chills through her body. She called her husband to tell him what she had witnessed. As he was very sceptical about the paranormal, be just laughed. Just as he laughed, the black figure walked past again, he turned away and walked off. She walked after him and asked what he had seen. He said that he didn’t believe in ghosts but what he had seen looked like a lady but there was no one else around that are of the house, only themselves.
Another prominent ghost who has been seen more often in recent years is that of the Green Lady, believed to be the disembodied spirit of a former housekeeper to Sir Thomas Holte, Mrs Walker who was in service at the house in 1645. She seems to appear more often when major cleaning or renovations are taking place.
During the mid 1980s, a member of staff began locking up the oak doors between the Great Hall and the Saloon. As he walked across the Great Hall he saw a lady in a flared green dress with a lace collar, she was sitting on one of the two chairs that are placed either side of the oak doors. The receptionist who’s desk lies opposite the doors didn’t see anyone there. When he told a previous supervisor who had retired, he told him that he had seen her before, over 20 years ago. On the night he saw her, he had been called out by the police who were attending as an alarm had been triggered. As he entered the house he saw the same green lady walking down the stairs.
Another member of staff witnessed the green lady one afternoon in the 1990s. He was working in one of the corridors when he looked through a window where you can loom across through another window, when he noticed a woman walking past. When he approached where she was seen, she had gone. As the hall doesn’t open until 2pm, there was no way that a visitor could have been there as it was before 2pm. He described the woman as wearing a green velvet dress with fair hair and around 5 foot 2.
Only a few months later, another member of staff was on duty at the top of the house, at the top of the second oak staircase near to Dick's Garret. He was sat on a chair when two visitors walked up the stairs and passed him to enter the housekeepers room and then into the nursery room. They then walked back, past him to go back down the same staircase in which they entered. The house closes at 5pm so he didn’t expect to see anymore visitors as it was 4:30. His supervisor contacted him on his radio to tell him to start locking the rooms upstairs. As he started to lock the rooms he had a feeling that someone was in the nursery room. He started to walk along the corridor towards the nursery when he noticed an old lady with her back towards him wear g a bottle green coloured dress. He thought that it was a visitor who had come up the spiral staircase near the nursery but then he realised that the door at the bottom of that staircase had been locked at 4:15. He realised that the dress that she was wearing was from the 17th century, and that she was slightly transparent as he could see the picture on the wall that she was standing in front of. Moments after seeing her she vanished. Straight away he contacted his supervisor his the radio and told him what he had seen, he replied by telling him that he’s just seen the ghost of the green lady and that he’d seen her two years ago.
One day a group of schoolchildren visited the house. They were all standing in front of the teacher in the Great Hall when one of the boys kept turning around to look behind him. When the teacher asked him what was wrong, he told her that there was a woman in a green dress sitting on one of the chairs next to the oak door. The teacher didn’t see anyone there.
Many other strange happenings have been seen around the house, children have been seen in the nursery along with the rocking horse moving as if it is in use, voices and footsteps have been heard in rooms and corridors when no one is around. There’s is legend that there are secret tunnels that run from the house, under the road and over to St. Peter and St. Paul’s church. When Henry McGowan, the Bishop of Wakefield was the vicar at Aston Church, between 1938 to 1945, someone broke into the old charnel house and found some old gravediggers tools. They dug up an old area of the floor where it was known to have been a mass burial and found a pile of bones. The next morning when the vicar arrived at the church, he found a skull had been tied to a gravestone along with two crossed bones.
#trueghoststories #astonhall #astonhallghost #astonhallhaunting #astonhallhistory #birminghamghost #birminghamhaunting #birminghamhistory #westmidlands #westmidlandshaunting #westmidlandsghost #westmidlandshistory #aston #holte