Temple Newsam House

"It was the most malevolent looking creature I ever saw."

Ranking amongst the great historic estates in England, Temple Newsam House is situated within over 1500 acres of beautifully landscaped parkland, woodland and farmland. This wonderful Tudor-Jacobean house earns its place in history as the birthplace of Lord Darnley, infamous consor Temple Newsam House c1950 (Leodis image) t of Mary Queen of Scots, and for more than 300 years the home of the Ingram family. Today the house is in public ownership, following its sale to Leeds City Council. It seems only fitting that a house of such pedigree should have an equally impressing array of ghostly inhabitants, and on this score Temple Newsam certainly doesn't disappoint.

The Blue Lady is the house's most well known spectre. She was seen by Lord Halifax, the last owner of the house (before its sale in 1922); he describes his encounter in his famous Ghost Book: one winter night in 1908 he was awoken at 12:15 to witness a beautiful lady in a blue dress and lace shawl glide through the room, stop thoughtfully at the dressing table for a few moments, and then exit via the adjoining Miss Ingram Room. Despite immediately pursuing his beautiful visitor, no trace of her could be found. The consensus of opinion names the Blue Lady as one Miss Ingram, daughter of Catherine Fairfax of Gilling, whose portrait may be seen hanging in the house. The room this encounter occurred in was for many years known as the Blue Damask Room, or simply as the Blue Room. It has recently been renamed the Gothick Room.

The Darnley Room, reputed birthplace of Lord Darnley (although there is no truth in this claim), is the home of two ghost. A young boy is said to emerge from a wardrobe and mournfully wander around, seemingly lost and alone. While a member of the Knights Templar, the original owners of the property, is said to wander around the room and adjacent corridors, in full armour!

Room Number 4 is a bedroom whose door has been seen to open and close of its own accord. From this room the phenomenon of the Phantom Ball is also sometimes heard; this is when the sounds of heavy furniture being moved seemingly resonate from the floor below, despite the fact that people downstairs have heard nothing and done nothing to cause the noises. It is generally thought that these sounds are shadows of the past, when furniture was moved out of the room below to make space for the dances which were not infrequently held there.

The Long Gallery (also known as the Picture Gallery) has at one end a chapel that dates from 1890's, the original chapel having been moved from the floor below. In the early twentieth century a Huddersfield man and his wife both witnessed a monkish figure emerge from a door near the chapel, enter the chapel itself and then disappear near the organ. Years later the gentleman still vowed "if you paid me money I wouldn't go into that long gallery again, nor would my wife. It was the most malevolent looking creature I ever saw." William Vickers, one of the house's foremen during the second world war recalled an incident one summers evening while he was making his rounds of the deserted rooms; when he looked into the Long Gallery "...framed in the door of the chapel at the far end I saw a kind of mist, a film. I looked again and it wasn't there. It had no face and no shoes... Flimsy and dark. My first thought was to get back to where there was company." When he did find some other people on the ground floor the first comment he received was: "You look like you've seen a ghost!". It has been speculated that the monk's disquiet arises from the moving of the chapel; could this be a place he used for worship during his lifetime?

The peace of the Red Room is often disturbed by terrifying screams of terror and agony; the history behind this is sadly unknown.

In addition to the Blue Lady, a White Lady has also been seen; she is believed to be Lady Jane Dudley, a young lady who fell under the spell of Lord Darnley. Sadly her love was unreciprocated, and news of Darnley's engagement to Mary, Queen of Scots was too much for the infatuated youngster. She was later found in her room hanging from her girdle. Her apparition has been seen on many occasions.

In 1704 William Collinson was a manservant at Temple Newsam, for reasons unknown he strangled his girlfriend Phoebe Gray and hid her body down a well in the farmyard. Shortly afterwards, the grim discovery of her body was made and with the help of the testimony of another servant Collinson was found guilty of the crime and hanged in York. His ghost has occasionally been seen in and around Phoebe's room. Additionally, the sound of dragging has also been heard coming from the murder room.

With so much supernatural activity present it is not surprising that Temple Newsam has been called the most haunted house in Yorkshire.