Penfound Manor

Nr Poundstock
Cornwall

History

Penfound Manor was originally a Saxon dwelling owned by William the Conqueror and was given to his half-brother, Robert the Count of Mortain. The Manor is reputed to be the oldest inhabited manor house in England and is still privately owned by the Penfound family who took their name from the manor when they moved in during the 12th Century. Originally built around the core of a medieval hall the house is not currently open to the public.

Paranormal Activity

The Manor is said to be haunted by the spirit of a broken hearted Penfound family member called Kate who died during the Civil War. Kate’s father was a Royalist who hated Parliamentarians but she is said to have fallen in love with the son of a Parliamentarian, John Trebarfoot. Deciding to elope with her love, Kate was caught by her father and a fight broke out. John was killed and both her and her father were fatally wounded. It is said Kate now returns to the house in search of her lost love on the anniversary of their deaths, the 26th April.

The Wellington Hotel

The Harbour
Boscastle
Cornwall
PL35 0AQ
Tel: 01840 250 202
Email: info@boscastle-wellington.com
www.cornwall-online.co.uk/wellington/

History

This genuine 16th Century coaching inn, was originally called Bos Castle Hotel but was renamed the Scott's Wellington in 1852, after the late Duke of Wellington. Parts of the hotel date back 300 years. It was extended in 1860. A number of prominent people have stayed at the hotel, including Edward VII, novelist Thomas Hardy and Sir Henry Irving, the first actor to be knighted. However, the hotel's history has been a fairly quiet one.

Paranormal Activity

A frock-coated figure with a ruffled shirt, ponytail and leather gaiters (much like a coachman or stableman) has been seen moving across the landing. The apparition of a young girl, seen outside rooms 15, 16 and 17, has been spotted on several occasions passing through windows and doors, while a little old lady has been reported passing through the closed door of room 9.

Prideaux Place

Padstow
Cornwall
PL28 8RP

Tel: 01841 532411
Fax: 01841 532945

www.prideauxplace.co.uk

History

A vast stately home with many windows and chimneys, built from grey stone and surrounded by acres of land that is now a deer park. The house was built by Sir Nicholas Prideaux in the late Tudor period after his family inherited the land in the early part of the sixteenth Century. Prideaux Place was built on the site of a monastic grange, previously inhabited by the former Barton of the Monks of Bodmin, who lost the land following the Reformation. The house has been owned and lived in by the Prideaux family for 14 unbroken generations, first recorded as Lords of Prideaux Castle at Luxulyan in 1066. The Prideaux Family is an ancient Cornish clan whose origins date back to the 11th Century and descend from William the Conqueror, Edward 1 and Queen Eleanor of Castile. The family were notoriously unlucky politically through the years backing Cromwell in the English Civil War and taking part in Monmouth's Rebellion of 1685. for this support Edmund Prideaux was sent to the Tower of London. Of the house's 46 bedrooms only six are habitable - the rest have been kept just as the American Army left them at the end of WW2 when they stayed there before being dispatched to Omaha Beach on D-Day.

Paranormal Activity

One particularly persistent phantom has become known as Scullery Boy, as he is often seen in the kitchen and pantry. He is said to looks like an Elizabethan kitchen hand, and is witnessed running from one to the other. Apparently he is so real looking that the first time the current owner saw him she thought it was her son William messing about, but when she went into the pantry the boy had disappeared. A 19th Century woman has been spotted sewing in a chair in the morning room. On the main staircase there have been many sightings of both a green and a grey lady. The green lady is also said to haunt the upstairs landing, the grounds and in a nearby bedroom, where she apparently likes to chase people out! It is thought by some that she is Honor Fortescue the young wife of Humphrey Prideaux, who threw herself off the balcony at the top of the staircase because she was so distraught at his early death.

The Grenville Room is said to carry within it a terrifyingly oppressive atmosphere that freaks out many visitors. The children of the current owners refuse to go in or near there. In the upstairs bedroom a guest was convinced that a supernatural dog was sitting under the bed growling at him. He sat up all night too scared to move, only to find that there was no dog there. The temperature is said to drop dramatically in the kitchen and pantry.