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CHARLTON HOUSE

 

 

Charlton house has stood for over 400 years, built between 1607 -1612 for Sir Adam newton, who was a tutor to Henry, prince of Wales- The eldest son of James l. One of London’s surviving great Jacobean mansion set in charlton park, red brick with white stone dressings and classic Jacobean styles make it stand out for miles, a very majestic and grand looking building.... with sinister secrets.

Each of the long rooms have a unique fireplace coupled with beautiful strap work ceilings and original features. It is within one of these fireplaces the remains of a baby where found and a mystery was founded. Witnesses over many years, have claimed seeing a white figure of a woman carrying a baby, is this the mother of the child who’s remains where found? The grounds have undergone a number of changes over the last four centuries but remain evocative of times gone by.

Our guests have experienced some very intense moments in the basest area in particular, witnessing shadows and hearing voices on our spirit boxes! Table tipping has become a highlight here with immense activity on some occasions! One one investigation we heard the piano in the Grand library play 2 notes on its own! The attic is not for the faint of heart, with many of our guests not lasting a full vigil... will you be brave enough to encounter the paranormal entities that roam the halls of Charlton house? Book on with our deposit option now!

 

Charlton house played a vital role during the First World War . As a divisional headquarters of the Red Cross for Greenwich and Woolwich. It later served as a wartime hospital,then a museum and library and is now a community centre. This beautiful mansion has seen its fair share of occupants over the centuries, there have been reports of poltergeist activity of objects being moved and a grey lady carrying a swaddled baby. The cause of the disturbance is thought to be sir William Langhorne one of the occupants who lived in charlton house from 1680 he died in 1715 an east India merchant still never having aired an heir. His desperation for a child of his own keeps his spirit forever on the prowl for a fertile bride and mother .

Are you brave enough to investigate this haunted mansion with the Twilight team?

 

This summer it is time to return to the most haunted castle in the uk, The breath taking St Briavels in glouchestershire. 
Built in the early 12th century by William the conqueror,St Briavels was an important royal castle on the frontier with wales  and forest of dean, it was also a royal hunting ground with the king alone being allowed to hunt. 
The castle was in royal possession by the 1160s and a small but impressive keep was rebuilt by king Henry. 
The forest of Dean was important for another reason, it was one of the centres of the medieval iron industry, a vital source of supply for the manufacture of weapons, especially crossbow bolts, a favourite weapon of the mercenaries who where employed in considerable numbers by Henrys son, King John, who built a new hall and elaborate chamber block at St briavels.
Under Edward I, thousands of cross bow bolts where produced at the castle in preparation for the Kings Welsh and Scottish campaigns. With the conquest of Wales completed by the end of the 15th century, the castkes importance declined rapidly and unused buildings where demolished in 1680.
In the 18th and 19th century, the castle was rediscovered and became a debtors prison. King johns former bedroom, The solar room, was used as a court room. One can still find a stone which shows marks of swords and axes, a stone believed to relieve people of their heads! The oubliette, (french meaning "to foregt", was a common form of punishent and is still present in the castle today, in fact it is one of the many bedrooms guests will be sleeping in over the weekend with us!  The prison was closed due to many local riots and in the 20th century the castle was completely renovated. 
There is an abundance of ghost stories and famous haunted stories from St Briavels, the Oubliette room has reports of loud screams, bedsheets pulled off in the middle of the night and dark figures looming at the foot of the bed. We have witnessed green lights dancing in the chapel, mist/smoke appearing in the middle of the room and disappearing just as quickly, LOUD screams heard as we ate breakfast! The list goes on and we could tell you endless ghost stories from the castle, but there no better way to find out, than to  investigate it yourself with your friends!

We have limited the number of tickets available for this event to ensure a quality run weekend.

Your weekend includes:
*breakfasts both days and Saturday night dinner- all snacks and refreshments are available all weekend 
*Both evenings paranormal investigations of the castle and grounds
*Accomodation inside one of the beautiful castle bedrooms (Some rooms based on sharing, please ask for more info)
*Paranormal and dowsing workshops for new ghost hunters 
*Optional witchcraft circles with spells during Saturday day time 
*Access to all our range of paranormal equipment all weekend, to use with friends to conduct your own experiments
*Whilst we can NEVER promise you paranormal activity, we can promise a GREAT weekend, full of fun and laughter, with wonderful memories to take home!
All places can be booked with a deposit!

The hotel takes its name from an ancient defensive earthwork which runs for three miles from Pinner Hill to Bentley Priory and which dates back to Roman times. The earthworks formed part of the boundary of the territory belonging to the Catuvellauni tribe of Ancient Britons and was constructed to help keep out marauding Romans.

The earthworks were originally known in Anglo-Saxon times as Grim’s Ditch but the word ‘Ditch’ evolved over the ages into ‘Dyke’ for reasons that are not known. The land on which the hotel stands is carved out of the estate of the ancient Augustinian Priory of St Gregory which was founded by Ranulf de Glanville who subsequently became Chancellor and Chief Justiciar of England. The original Priory building is thought to have stood in nearby Clamp Hill and in 1248 it was renamed the Priory Bentley in memory of a monk who had been accidentally killed there.

 

In later history it belonged to the Dean of Canterbury before falling into the hands of Henry VIII, not by reason of the Reformation but because it was swapped by Thomas Cranmer for lands in Wimbledon. Granted by the Crown to William Sacheverell and Robert Needham in 1546, the land passed through many hands until 1788 when it was purchased by the 9th Earl of Abercorn.

 

As a private house prior to becoming a hotel the Grim’s Dyke’s 140-year history was very much tied up with the fortunes of four famous Victorians – an artist, an architect, a banker and the greatest comic dramatist of the age.

 

The building that is now the hotel was designed by the architect Norman Shaw as a country house for the eminent Victorian artist Frederick Goodall. Goodall in 1856 had purchased 100 acres of land at Harrow Weald from the 2nd Marquess of Abercorn which included the site of the present building. Shaw and Goodall were kindred spirits and were both members of a social circle that met throughout the 1840s at Redleaf in Kent. Building work on the house started in 1870 and Goodall and his family took up residence two years later but they only lived there for a few years. For both professional and family reasons Goodall missed being so far out of London and in 1880 he sold the house to Robert Heriot, a partner in the private bank CJ Hambro & Son, and moved to St. John’s Wood. Heriot was effectively in day to day control of the bank particularly when its then chairman Everard Hambro was either hunting in Scotland or at his home in Biarritz.

 

In 1883 Heriot added a billiard room designed by Arthur Cawston adjacent to what was formerly Goodall’s studio. This room included an inglenook fireplace but it was designed in a coarse Gothic style quite out of keeping with Shaw’s original scheme. Ten years later, Heriot put the house on the market, retaining Shaw’s services as an agent. By now the grounds were showing signs of neglect but this did not deter Sir William and Lady Gilbert who were to become the house’s last and arguably most illustrious owners. They viewed the property while touring in the neighbourhood and then set about organising the purchase for £4000 in August 1890.

 

Gilbert had an international reputation as one of the foremost English dramatists and his collaboration with Sir Arthur Sullivan resulted in one of opera’s most enduring and successful partnerships. His plays, both comedies and drama, had been a popular feature of London theatrical life since 1867. At one point he had five shows running simultaneously at different London theatres and in addition, touring companies were taking his work to the suburbs of the metropolis and to the provinces. . During their 21 years at Grim’s Dyke Sir William and Lady Gilbert made many changes to the 40 acres of grounds surrounding the house. Sir William created a home farm which gave him plenty of scope to indulge his great fondness for animals. He grazed a small herd of thoroughbred Jerseys and also kept pigs and poultry. . The construction of the lake which had a surface area of around 1.5 acres was probably the biggest gardens and grounds project undertaken by Sir William and his wife but it was also the place where Sir William met his untimely death on May 29 1911.

 

He used to bathe there in the summer and one day gave two local girls permission to swim with him. However one of the girls got into difficulties and Sir William tragically drowned trying to save her. Lady Gilbert stayed on at the house until her own death in 1936 when it was acquired by the Middlesex County Council and the London County Council who jointly leased it to the North West Regional Hospital Board. It was used from 1937 to 1962 as a rehabilitation centre initially during the Second World War for women suffering from tuberculosis although after the war male patients were also admitted for rehabilitation. Recently, it has emerged that the Grim’s Dyke was used for secret military work during the Second World War. Details of this work remain classified until the 2040’s but it is believed that the house was used to examine captured German machinery and parts of shot down aircraft which were analysed by Allied scientists from Bletchley Park. This secret work was so important to the war effort that it is thought that both Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower visited the house.

 

Several well-known TV series and feature films at the time were filmed here and the house and grounds can be seen in several classic Hammer House Of Horror productions. In addition much of the iconic 70’s comedy ‘Futtocks End’, which was written by and starred the late Ronnie Barker who at one stage lived in nearby Pinner. was filmed at the Grim’s Dyke. The hotel is still used by film and tv companies. The wedding night scene from last year’s ‘One Chance’ about the life of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ winner Paul Potts was filmed at the hotel and location scenes for ‘Eastenders’ and ‘Holby City’ are regularly filmed here.