Posted on October 13, 2009 - by Andrew

The White Lady of Speke Hall

Speke Hall is an historic Tudor house accompanied by impressive and beautiful gardens. The main part of the house was built in 1540 and construction continued throughout the years including a change to the laundry area in 1950s. Edward Norris made the last significant change in 1598 by adding the northern range.

The famous families of the house include Watts, Beauclerks and the family Norriss. Speke House is currently run and owned by the National Trust*.

Hauntings at Speke Hall

There are reports of murders and ghosts at Speke House. The most common story is of a woman who was so ruined by the philandering ways of her husband killed her baby and then herself. One variation of the story has the poor woman drop her child through the thunderbox toilet and another suggests she was a maid in the house who was made pregnant by one of the lords.

Another variant suggests that the White Lady of Speke House is Mary Norreys (Norris) herself who haunts the Tapestry Room. In this variant, Mary threw her baby son out of the window and into the moat before killing herself after discovering that her rakish husband Sidney Beuaclerk had lost almost all their worldly belongings in a gamble.

Visitors to Speke House have reported cold spots in various areas; especially the bedrooms and the names Anne, Mary and Catherine are used with equal frequency.

The house has a priest hole – a spy hole through the chimney from a bedroom – used to warn priests when people were close by. During the reign of Elizabeth I there was a period where Catholics faced persecution and the priest hole was used to help them hide or flee.

Visiting Speke Hall

The Trust* sell tickets to Speke House for £8 (£4 for children) or about half that for access to the gardens only.

Speke House is just minutes from Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport but many visitors take the train and travel from Hunts Cross* or Halewood to the house.

The site BuyAGift sometimes has ghost tour tickets for the area*.

In Pure Spirit

Have you been to Speke House? What did you think of the impressive gardens and the old house?

Do you believe the stories of ghosts and orbs?

Disclaimer: Links marked with a star(*) are revenue links.

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