Chillingham Castle Ghosts

Most of the Chillingham Castle ghosts are not the literally, 'tortured souls', that one might expect to find given the atrocities that went on there. Built over 800 years ago to stop the Scots from invading England. Anyone captured would find themselves in the Dungeon with its Torture chamber, the floor of which slopes to allow the blood to drain away.
There was no escape except death and prisoners made marks on the walls, which can still be seen, counting off the days until this merciful release from their unendurable suffering. If a prisoner was really unlucky then he came in for the attention of John Sage.
John Sage
This cruel and sadistic torturer, who died about 1200, has often been seen wandering around the castle. He used to take great pleasure in his grisly work, even devising new and 'improved' methods of inflicting pain on his victims. During the three years he held the job, he is said to have tortured to death over 7,500 people and killed several hundred others in various ways.
At the end of the war with the Scots, wanting to rid the castle of the prisoners, he rounded up the Scottish adults and older children being held and burnt them to death in the court-yard. He then took an axe, which can still be seen, and hacked to death the smaller children in the Edward room. The chandelier in that room sometimes swings by itself and people report a foul smell and strange atmosphere.
John Sage's undoing was when he accidentally strangling his girlfriend as they made love on the 'torture rack' in the castle dungeon. Unfortunately for John Sage, his girlfriend's father was a Border Reiver who said that he would gather a great army and attack the castle if Sage was not put to death. John Sage was publicly hanged from a tree in the castle grounds in front of a very large and enthusiastic crowd. And as he slowly died, people cut off pieces of him as 'souvenirs'. So ended the life of a truly detestable man.
Radiant Boy or Blue Boy
The most famous of the Chillingham Castle ghosts was the 'Radiant Boy' or 'Blue Boy'. The sound of a young child in absolute terror or fear would be heard at the stroke of midnight in the Pink Bedroom coming from a point where a passage had been cut through the 10 foot thick walls. The sound would suddenly cease and the wraith of a young boy, dressed in blue and surrounded by a bright aura would approach the old four-poster bed.
In the 1920's, building work was being carried out and the bones of a child were discovered along with scraps of blue bones were discovered. These were interred in the local graveyard and the Radiant Boy ceased making his appearances.
However, people who sleep in the bed in the Pink Room, report that one wall of the room still lights up with bright flashes of blue light.
Two lady ghosts
A Chillingham Castle ghost who can be seen today haunts the 'Inner pantry'. She is very frail and dressed in white, hence the name by which she is known. A watchman who slept in the room to guard the silver that used to be store there, saw the woman whom he assumed to be a guest. She asked him for water and as he turned to get her some, she disappeared. It has been suggested that the reason the spectre was so thirsty was that she had been poisoned.
Lady Mary Berkeley is another Chillingham Castle ghost. She is not seen but the rustle of her dress is heard by visitors or they feel a sudden cold chill as she endlessly searches for her husband. He scandalised the area when, in the 1600's, he seduced and ran off with his wife's younger sister. Poor Lady Mary was left all alone in the castle with just her small baby girl for company.

Castle of Mey (Barrogill Castle), Scotland

Haunted castles don't come much more modern than this. The Castle of Mey or, as it was originally known, Barrogill Castle is not a medieval fortification but was built in the 16th century by George Sinclair, the 4th Earl of Caithness. It is the daughter of his son, the 5th Earl, who haunts the castle.
The story goes that Elizabeth Sinclair fell in love with a ploughman who worked on a local farm. Her father was horrified that she should consort with a 'commoner'. So he imprisoned her in a room at the top of the castle's tower to prevent her from seeing him.
Some people say that one day she leaned too far out of a window to try and catch a glimpse of her lover working in the fields and that she fell to her death. Others say that she was so unhappy that she threw herself from the tower window.
Whatever the truth is about her demise, today the so-called 'Green Lady' can sometimes be seen sadly drifting around the castle. The place that she is most often observed is the tower room in which the lovelorn girl was imprisoned.

Carlisle Castle, Cumbria

Carlisle Castle is haunted by the ghost of a woman. In 1823 a soldier saw and challenged her. When she failed to stop, he lunged at her with his bayonet . When the bayonet went through her and struck the wall behind, he collapsed with freight and died of shock shortly after. A woman's skeleton wearing a Scottish tartan and holding the skeleton of a small child was discovered bricked up in the Captain's Tower in 1820.
In 1992, movement sensors outside the gift shop were triggered three nights in a row by something invisible.

Ghost of Threadneedle Street

Although it was an execution that is responsible for the ghost of Threadneedle Street, it is is not the spectre of the hanged man who haunts the area in and around the Bank of England.
In the early 19th century, it was not just murder that carried the death penalty. Many far less serious crimes also did. And it was for forgery that Philip Whitehead, a former employee of the Bank of England, was charged at the Old Bailey on 2nd November 1811. He was found guilty and hanged in early 1812.
In order to spare the feelings of his sister Sarah, the fate of her unfortunate brother was not made known her. One day, she turned up at the Bank and asked to speak to Philip. The clerk, probably not realising who she was, told her the full story. Poor Sarah, the shock drove her mad. Every day after she would enter the Bank of England and ask to speak to her brother. She was always dressed in a black dress with a black veil over her head and face. This earned her the nickname, the 'Black Nun'.
She would even accost Bank customers. She accused Baron Rothschild of stealing £2,000 from her to which he responded by giving her a half a crown and saying that he would pay her rest of her money the following day.
Eventually, in 1818, the Bank officials had had enough. They paid her a large sum of money on condition that she stayed away. She must still have retained a certain amount of sanity, enough to know when she was 'on to a good thing', and she promised not to darken their doors again. And, at least in life, she kept her word.
Sarah returns
However, when Sarah died, she was buried in the church yard of St. Christopher-le-Stocks which later became part of the Bank's gardens.
Maybe this is why, many times since her death the so-called 'Ghost of Threadneedle Street' has been seen, late at night, both inside and outside the Bank and also in Bank Underground Station. She is still dressed in black but now she also has strangely red painted cheeks. And looking at the ground, she invariably asks the observer the same question, 'Have you seen my brother?'

Claydon House

Now owned by the National Trust, the haunted house of Claydon House was the home of the Verney family for over 400 years.
Sir Edmund Verney was Standard Bearer to King Charles I at the Battle of Edge Hill in 1642. The victorious Roundheads demanded that Sir Edmund relinquish the flag. He bravely refused to do saying, "My life is my own. My Standard, the King's". So, Cromwell's men ran him through. But still they could not wrest the Standard from his grasp, so they hacked off his hand and took the Standard and its grisly attachment off in triumph.
It was not until much later, from a ring upon one of its fingers bearing the likeness of the King, that the hand was identified as belonging to Sir Edmund.
The appendage was pried from the flag staff and returned to Claydon House, Sir Edmund's former home, for burial. But ever since, the ghost of Sir Edmund Verney has appeared at the house, apparently searching for the rest of his body which is forever missing on the field of battle.
Grey Lady
Another specter to be found to be found here is the 'Grey Lady' whom some have identified as being Florence Nightingale. It could be possible. She lived many happy years in the haunted house and even kept a pet owl there. I wonder if she ever met Sir Edmund!