Notes

Note for: Thomas Grey, 1354 - UNKNOWN Index

[Master File.ftw]

[john gray.FTW]

West and East Horton are scattered settlements in undulating countrysid e, with views of the hills. West Horton is the site of Horton castle, on ce an important stronghold in the defence of the Borders.

Notes

Note for: Hugh* de Grey, 1203 - UNKNOWN Index

[Master File.ftw]

[john gray.FTW]

http://www.chillingham-castle.com/index.htm
At first a 12th century stronghold, Chillingham became a fully fortified C astle in the 14th century. Steeped in the Nation's history we occupied a s trategic position during Northumberland's bloody border feuds, often besie ged and often enjoying the
patronage of royal visitors.
In Tudor days there were additions but the underlying Mediaeval characte r, detail and strength have always been retained.

The 18th and 19th centuries saw decorative landscape refinements and extra vagancies including gardens and grounds laid out by Sir Jeffrey Wyatvill e, fresh from his triumphs at Windsor Castle.

Greys have lived here for 800 yrs.
It is the most haunted castle in britain.
We have a number of ghosts. The most famous is the "blue boy" who as midn ight rang out would cry and moan in agony or maybe fear. The noises cou ld be traced to a spot near a passage cut through a ten foot wall.

When the bloodcurdling wails die away a soft halo of light appears arou nd an old four poster bed. Anyone sleeping there, even today, can see t he figure of a young boy dressed in blue, and surrounded by light. Later b ehind the wall the bones of a young
boy and fragments of blue clothing were discovered.

Another ghost, Lady Mary Berkeley, searches for her husband, who ran off w ith her sister. Lady Mary, desolate and broken hearted lived in the cast le by herself with only her baby girl as a companion. The rustle of her dr ess can be heard as she passes
you by in the turret stairs. But there are more

Chillingham should certainly afford shelter to many wraiths of its depart ed owners and former dwellers. In this land of ancient dwellings very f ew houses have been lived in continuously from so early a date. For almo st eight hundred years the long
procession stretches, of men, women and little children who have lived a nd loved and suffered therein.

The district is full of romance, and the Castle being so close to the Bord erland was in old times the scene of many a raid from its Scottish neighbo urs, and its dungeons were probably seldom without some unfortunate inma te immured therein. We still see
on the dungeon walls ancient initials and lines scratched in by them to co unt the number of the weary days of their imprisonment. In what is call ed 'the inner pantry' there has been seen a frail figure in white. This w as where the silver in use was
stored and a footman was once employed to sleep there to safeguard it.

One night the footman had turned in when he was accosted by a lady in whit e, very pale, who asked him for water. Thinking for the moment it was o ne of the visitors he turned away to obey her behest, when he suddenly rem embered that he was locked in and
that no visitor could possibly have entered. On turning round he found t he figure had vanished.

This same figure was seen also by a guest who made notes of her psychic ex periences in the various rooms of the Castle without having been told of t he Castle's claimed hauntings beforehand. It was surprising to see that s he alluded to the longing for
water of a female ghost who 'must have been slowly poisoned in olden times .'

The Ghost in the Chamber
Not all the ghosts are those we see, some are merely felt. 'Impalpable imp ressions on the air,' the poet says -'A sense of something moving to and f ro,' a chill dark thing that creeps, or an oppressive atmospher e, as in an upper chamber, overlooking
the dell, where the sensitive cannot remain.

A lady's maid who had been given this room was found next morning on the s ofa in the dining hall. She had quitted her bed in a panic and nothing wou ld induce her to return. It is said that a former chef, who occupied the r oom, was driven to commit
suicide there, and we no longer use it as a bedroom.

Voices in the Library
In the Library, underneath the upper chamber, the voices of two men are of ten heard talking, but it is not possible to follow what they say and th ey seem to cease at once if one stops reading or writing to listen to the ir discussion. It disturbs no one
and many have heard it but none has accounted for the fact.

Many scenes in the movie Elizabeth were shot here.

Notes

Note for: Isolde* Bardolf, 1182 - 1246 Index

[Master File.ftw]

[john gray.FTW]

also b. 1168
The Village of Hoo St Werburgh

Here we have another of those Hoo Peninsular villages distinguished from i ts neighbours by the name of its 13th century church, one of the wonde rs of which is the yew tree in the churchyard which is said to be anythi ng from six hundred to a thousand
years old.

In fact, the parish became formally Hoo St Werburgh only as recently as 19 68. Before that, although the name was used, most of the local people simp ly called it Hoo - as, indeed, they still do.

When Richard Church wrote about Hoo in 1948 he referred to it as cut off f rom the mainstream of life, but since then the mainstream has broadened o ut a bit in this part of the county and today Hoo St Werburgh is no long er small and remote, but quite
large, although there is still a sense of remoteness about it, and some ve stiges of its past linger among the modernity.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the village was almost thrust i nto that mainstream of life when land that had been wholly agricultural un til then began to be valued more as an industrial raw material. Gravel w as dug there, bricks were made
there, so was pottery. The barges that carried away the products busied t he river frontage. The industrial life of Hoo St Werburgh lasted until t he 1930s after which it declined, leaving behind the pits from which the m ineral wealth was dig.

The embarrassing Dutch raid on the Medway in 1667 brought soldiers to Ho o, to man Cockham Wood Fort, but the fort was never needed and very litt le of it remains now. The Hoo fort, like its twin, Darnet Fort, was bui lt in the 1860s as part of the
defences against the expected Napoleonic invasion. Both were originally in tended to mount twenty-five guns on two tiers, but while the forts were st ill being built it was obvious they were going to sink into the marsh und er the weight of that much
ordnance, and in the end the Hoo fort was armed with only eleven 9 inch ri fled muzzle loaders, with stores and accommodation for the gunners.

The fort remains in reasonably good condition and although it was disarm ed before WW1 it remained Ministry of Defence property and cannot be visit ed.

Neither the brickworks nor the pottery have survived and today farmi ng is again the most important local industry, while most of the residen ts look to the Medway Towns, Thames-side or London for their daily bread.