Introduction
Walsingham – “England’s
Nazareth” – became a centre of pilgrimage after Richeldis de Faverches
experienced three visions of the Virgin Mary there in 1061, and remained so until
the suppression of the monasteries in 1538. It became one again only in the twentieth
century when the Shrine was revived. The
Martyrs’ House is a Grade II* listed building situated in the High Street; its
Georgian facade fronts an older building.
It takes its name from the fate of Nicholas Mileham, the last sub-prior of Walsingham, and Thomas
Guisborough or Gysborough, a layman.
They were imprisoned in the cellar the night before they were taken to what
became known as Martyrs’ Field close by and executed for their part in the 1537
Walsingham Conspiracy, a plan to defend the monasteries against dissolution
which was betrayed before it could be implemented. In 2004 an ecumenical “Chapel of Reparation”
was set up in the cellar.
In January 1996 the
Anglia Paranormal Research Group, of which I was a member, approached what was
then the ‘Sue Ryder Foundation Retreat House’, which occupied the Martyrs’
House. We had heard of strange phenomena
at the premises and wanted to find out what substance, if any, there might be
to them. The reply we received from the
manager stated that while there was nobody living or working there with
first-hand experience of anything untoward, guests had in the past reported
strange events. One part of the house
was more susceptible than any other, and one room in particular. As a consequence I visited on 28 March 1996
and interviewed two members of staff.
Below are my notes from the time, with the names of interviewees
removed. We did not take the case any
further as there seemed to be no current activity, and the accounts I received
had little evidential value.
After owning the
building for some thirty years, Sue Ryder Care (to which the Foundation had
changed its name) took the decision to sell the building as it was making a
loss (something that does not surprise me, given that in March 1996 the place
was entirely empty of guests). They
closed it on 23 December 2005, making the staff redundant. A charitable trust was set up to try to raise
the £800,000 required to buy the building and retain it as accommodation for
pilgrims, but Sue Ryder set a deadline of the end of January 2006. The fundraising effort was unsuccessful and
the Martyrs’ House complex was converted (if that is an appropriate expression)
into private dwellings. One wonders if any
strange occurrences were reported afterwards.
1996 notes
The Sue Ryder
Retreat House – the Martyrs’ House – is opposite the old entrance to St Mary’s
Priory, Walsingham, Norfolk. It is a
large, sprawling establishment comprising a gift and coffee shop and book and
bric-a-brac shops at the front, with the Retreat House at the back. There is accommodation for up to 46
people. Mrs G___ [Deputy in charge of
the Retreat House] described the service provided as B&B, but due to the
preponderance of religious imagery throughout the building, it is likely that
the bulk of guests would be in Walsingham for spiritual purposes; there were no
guests during my visit. There is a
chapel at the back of the complex for residents’ use. Mrs G___ did not know how long the premises
had been owned by Sue Ryder, except that it was at least 15 years. The building shows evidence of much
alteration over time, making dating of individual parts difficult. During renovations upstairs, wattle and daub
walls were uncovered, and part of one is on show. The tea shop extension at the front had
previously been a newsagent, and the gift shop had been a bookshop. The annex at the back was converted cottages.
Mrs G___ is in her
sixth year at the House and has not experienced anything paranormal. Her boss, Mrs P___ [the Manager of the
Retreat House], has been working there even longer, and neither has she. Anything Mrs G___ told me was second hand.
A presence had been
felt in some of the rooms and in one of the bedrooms above the chapel. Rumours particularly attached to room 17,
which is at the front, overlooking the high street and Priory walls. This room is different to the others in that
it is at the top of the building and has a small oval window and severely
sloping roof, the heavy oak beams making it seem dark and oppressive. The other rooms in contrast are small but
airy and light. There is just a roof
space above, but no attic. A
Spiritualist medium had visited the room at some point and felt a presence
there. She had blessed the room and
pronounced the entity “happier”. Mrs G___
could not say that she had noticed any change in the atmosphere. Another guest, a local writer again known to
Mrs G___, had felt a presence in room 17 which he thought to be a terrified
monk from the time of the Restoration (or possibly Reformation?).
In room 5 a guest
claimed to have seen a light around the door, although there was no light on
outside the room, and in any case the door was tight fitting. (Despite the
claim that there was no light on, presumably there would have been a light on
in the passage all night). Some people
then walked through the room and disappeared through the wall. This was before Mrs G___’s time and she had
no more details.
Room 4 is directly
below room 17. One night a visitor was
in bed and felt a presence sit on the foot of the bed.
A visitor had seen a
nun going up the stairs who had then disappeared, but Mrs G___ felt that this
witness was not reliable and the story might not be true.
Things had
frequently gone missing, especially building tools and kitchen implements, but
they had always turned up. This could be
due to the numbers of people involved.
Building work is carried out by volunteers who do short stints, so that
there is a high turnover. Although tools
are supposed to be kept in a central place, they could easily be mislaid. Similarly there are a large number of kitchen
users, so that it would be easy for somebody to put an item in a different
place.
On the other hand,
it is surprising how many things had gone wrong in the building that were
connected with water. For example, pipes
leaked, tanks burst, loos did not work, overflows had become blocked. These sorts of things happened more
frequently than one would expect. No
unusual smells had been reported.
The cellar was
reputed to have been used to imprison men overnight prior to their execution at
Martyrs’ Field next morning. It is now a
store room, tiled floor, low ceiling, recesses in walls. It is not much used, so there would not be
much opportunity to ascertain whether any activity had occurred there.
The ecumenical chapel
had been a barn [so I was told; the leaflet produced by the Sue Ryder
Foundation said that it was a derelict cottage] which had been doubled in size
and converted only last year. It had not
had an ecclesiastical use prior to this.
It is a functional, not very attractive room. Above it are two guest rooms, and in one of
these a visitor claimed to have seen monks walking across the room, but only
visible from the waist up, their lower halves being below the level of the
floor (presumably therefore visible in the chapel below?). It is possible that the ceiling level had
been raised during the conversion, but if so, there is no visible
evidence. Mrs G___ did not know which of
the rooms it had happened in – room 1 overlooks a small garden and courtyard,
room 2 overlooks the annex roof. The
lady concerned lived locally and was known to Mrs G___, who would endeavour to
see if she would consent to an interview.
The only other building at the back is a house occupied by a nun who has
been resident there for many years, but had never reported any strange
occurrences.
The regular cook in
the tea shop, J___, was also interviewed.
She said that Walsingham is full of ghost stories. She was in her fifth year at the shop, but
had experienced nothing, although she had heard the rumours. She did report that she had had a ghost at
home, which she had never seen, but had heard clomping up the stairs before
disappearing at the end of the passage.
In addition it was always cold upstairs.
However, after some rearrangement of the interior, the phenomena had
stopped. She also said that there was
supposed to have been the ghost of a hanged man seen by the Abbey gates
opposite. On the other hand, she had
been at Martyrs’ Field in the early hours of the morning, up until 3am, but had
never experienced anything.
Update 22 October 2018
On 2 October 2018 I
received an email from Mrs Susan Hart concerning the Martyrs’ House which
provides some information about the building prior to its occupation by the Sue
Ryder Foundation, and a subsequent email on 7 October with more details. She has given permission for me to use her
account here, for which I am grateful, though frustratingly the details of what
the paranormal activity, if any, might have consisted of are elusive.
As a teenager during
the 1960s, Mrs Hart’s late husband used to stay at the Martyrs’ House each year,
and frequently after that. He loved the
house to the extent that in 1976 he purchased it from Lady Pigott, a long-term
resident of Little Walsingham. He only
owned it for two years before selling it to the Sue Ryder Foundation in 1978
for £29,000. Mrs Hart was present when
Sue Ryder first came to view the house and says she loved it and wanted to
purchase it immediately (as Sue Ryder was a Roman Catholic convert the
Walsingham location would have been a draw).
During his time
there, Mr Hart was aware of paranormal stories circulating about the house and
said that often B&B guests would leave early because of frightening
experiences, though Mrs Hart was not able to say what these experiences
were. She characterises her husband as a
very strong, outgoing character who was a scientist, and not someone who was
gullible or easily deceived.
Mrs Hart mentioned
that on the first floor landing when she knew the property there were framed
photographs showing close-ups of a man’s and a woman’s faces, and she believes
their piercing eyes and looks had an influence on guests, who found them
unsettling. When she began staying at
the house with him, Mr Hart told her of an extremely frightening experience he
had had, so horrible he would not say what it was; it remained a secret, but he
continued to maintain it had occurred.
On another occasion,
a young student visiting during Mr Hart’s period of ownership was so scared one
night that he refused to return to his room, and slept on Mr Hart’s floor
during the rest of his stay. Mrs Hart emphasised
that while she cannot provide details of any of these experiences, she is
convinced they were genuinely frightening.
I would like to thank Mrs Hart for taking the trouble to get in touch,
and I would be glad to hear from anyone who can elaborate on the paranormal
history of the Martyrs’ House.
