Hampton Court Ghosts…

Catherine Howard:

Screaming lady in the Haunted Gallery

She is believed to frequent Hampton Court’s Haunted Gallery where she was dragged back screaming to her rooms while under house arrest, accused of committing adultery by her husband King Henry VIII.

Catherine was the fifth wife of King Henry VIII and in 1541 was accused of adultery and put under house arrest at the palace. But she escaped from her guards and ran down the gallery looking for the King to plead for her life.

She was caught and dragged back screaming to her rooms … and in due course executed at the Tower of London.

Strange … but true?

Is there any evidence to support the stories of Catherine’s ghost?

Anecdotal evidence

Grace-and-favour residents in neighbouring apartments have claimed to hear screams coming from the gallery.

Visitors today are often strangely affected in the gallery. On one evening in 1999, during separate tours of the palace, two female visitors fainted on exactly the same spot in the Haunted Gallery approximately half an hour apart.

So well known was Catherine’s story that, before the gallery was opened to the public in 1918, it was already called ‘The Haunted Gallery’.

Scientific evidence?

Psychologists from the University of Hertfordshire could not explain the eerie feelings of visitors following a week-long investigation in 2000.

They found, against their expectations, visitors’ experiences tended to occur in specific areas of the gallery.

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Sybil Penn:

The Grey Lady of Hampton Court Palace

Sightings of Dame Sybil Penn, servant to four Tudor monarchs, began around 1829 when the church at nearby Hampton was rebuilt and her impressive tomb moved.

Sybil’s old haunts

Dame Sybil – otherwise known as the ‘Grey Lady’ – has reputedly haunted several parts of the palace including the state apartments and Clock Court.

Strange … but true?

Is there any evidence to support the stories of Sybil Penn’s spectre?

She lived at Hampton Court

Dame Sybil had a long connection with Hampton Court. She was famously the nurse of Prince Edward and she also nursed Elizabeth I through small pox at Hampton Court in 1562 only to die of the same disease herself shortly afterwards.

A weird coincidence?

Immediately after Dame Sybil’s tomb was disturbed, strange noises like those of someone working a spinning wheel were heard through a wall at Hampton Court. A search revealed a previously unknown chamber containing … an antique spinning wheel.

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Skeletor (watch video below):

The famed CCTV ghost

‘Skeletor’ is the name that was given to a ghostly figure who appeared on a CCTV camera at Hampton Court Palace in winter 2003.

Near to Clock Court, Hampton Court Palace

On three consecutive days, palace security staff were called to close one particular fire door near the palace’s Introductory Exhibition.

On the first day, CCTV footage showed the doors flying wide open with great force but there was nothing to reveal why.

On the second day, the same thing happened but this time a ghostly-looking figure in period dress suddenly appeared on the screen and closed the doors.

The doors opened again on the third day but there was no further sign of the ghostly doorkeeper.

Strange … but true?

Is there any evidence to support the stories?

Spotted by a visitor

It wasn’t just security staff who thought they were seeing things. A visitor wrote in the palace’s visitor book on the second day that she too thought she had seen a ghost in that area.

Celebrity phantom

CCTV footage of the figure caught the attention of the world’s media, with reports in newspapers and on TV and radio as far a field as India, Australia and Peru!

Source: http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/stories/ghosts