Prior's Court stands at Callow End near Pixham Ferry in Powick. Parts of it date from about 1500. The Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service holds copies of statements about its supernatural happenings under reference 899:120 BA1078, and described them in a Halloween blog post.
The statements are firsthand. A Mrs J. Abbott, a honeymoon visitor in July 1906, felt someone by her bed and saw a woman in an empire gown with outstretched arms who seemed to be indicating something in the garden. B. E. Huckfield, a temporary caretaker in the summer of 1905 for eighteen nights, heard strange noises in the early mornings and followed what looked like a human body through several doors, casting a faint luminous shadow. Mr and Mrs Archdale, living there with their son and a French governess in the summer of 1906, heard the rustling of a silk dress outside their bedroom doors, and saw a man in a monk's habit who seemed very angry, and a woman.
A Mr Hickson, described as an exorcist, visited in 1906 or 1907. He sensed a worse atmosphere in the house and thought a monk with evil power lay behind it, perhaps a false monk who murdered a mother seeking refuge when the house was a monastery. After the exorcism he felt that the bad influences had gone, leaving only a little restless presence. Local legend identifies a Grey Lady as one of two sisters who quarrelled over treasure. In March 1956 the occupier, a Mrs Hopkins, asked a valuation court to reduce her rates because staff would not stay on account of the Grey Lady, which the Worcester People and Places site reprints from a newspaper report of the day.
Comments