Chingle Hall
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Chingle Hall, previously known as Singleton Hall, was built in 1260 by Sir Adam de Singleton. It is located in the village of Goosnargh, near Preston, Lancashire, UK. The house is famous both for its supposed hauntings and also the fact that it is the oldest inhabited brick building in England. It is also notable for the second family to occupy the house, the Wall family (relatives of the Singletons), back in 1585.
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[edit] John Wall and the Catholic Reformation
John Wall was born in the Hall in 1620. He became a Roman Catholic priest in 1641. This was at the time of the Catholic Reformation, when it was illegal to practice mass in Britain. Chingle Hall was used as a place of worship by Catholics and many priest holes and secret compartments were made for the people taking part in the mass to hide if the Hall was raided by the king's soldiers. Father John Wall was most active priest, conducting secret mass on a regular basis.
In 1678 he was apprehended at Rushock Court near Bromsgrove, as he was tendering the Oath of Supremacy. He was taken to Worcester jail, where he was offered his life if he would foresake his religion. He declined. Brought back from Worcester, he was drawn and quartered at Redhill on the 22nd of August, 1679. His quartered body was given to his friends, and was buried in St. Oswald's churchyard. Mr. Levison, however, secured the martyr's head, and it was treasured by the friars at Worcester until the dissolution of that house during the French Revolution. It is rumoured to be buried the Hall’s grounds or hidden in the building itself. The Franciscan nuns at Taunton claim to possess a tooth and a bone of the martyr. He was Canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
In 1764 the house was passed to the Farrington family during these times Chingle hall was a hub for zealous religious activity. Great effort was made to keep alive the Roman catholic traditions, cavities were built into walls and tunnels were dug to some of the surrounding buildings as a method of escape.
[edit] Hauntings
Inside the Chapel there are a number of wooden beams going across the ceiling. Some of these beams have strange symbols on them. No one really knew what these symbols were, until some scientists took samples of the wood. They found that the wood was much older than Chingle Hall, and had a lot of salt in them. The wood may have actually come from an old Viking longboat.
During the 1950s one of the beams covering a section of the wall in the Chapel spontaneously caught fire, and, just as quickly as it had started, it inexplicably extinguished itself. After this incident a wooden cross was found embedded in the wall. The smell of wood burning lingers in many of the rooms.
There is supposedly a poltergeist in the kitchen, but it does little more than rearrange the pots and pans. The visions of monks are one of the most commonly reported phenomena. In the Priests' Room upstairs, a man with shoulder length hair has been seen to walk outside the window. That would not seem to be too unusual until you consider that the window is about twelve feet above the ground.
One of the rooms considered to be most haunted is Eleanor's room. This room belonged to Eleanor Singleton (her Death certificate gives her names as Elnor), who was reportedly kept captive there for over 12 years and died/or was murdered there at the age of 17. Visitors have claimed to be overcome by a deep feeling of sadness when in this room. Some also smell lavender and feel phantom tugs at their clothing and some have even fainted. The room is now decorated with toys and dolls left by guests at the house. Orbs have been seen by many visitors to the property, sometimes only visible to one or two members of the group.
It was in Eleanor's room in 1997 that paranormal investigator Darren Done had a unique experience. As he stood at the room's window preparing to record vision of an area outside where sightings of a ghostly monk have been reported, he was suddenly knocked in the face with such force that he fell to the ground. The incident, which he is unable to explain, remains vivid.
On Christmas day 1980, Gerald Main and ghost-hunter Terence Whitaker spent time at the Hall in a vigil and recorded rapping sounds emanating from one of the priest's hiding hole. At the time of the knocking noises they recorded a significant decrease in temperature and saw an 'indefinable shape' move across the floor.
In 1985, sounds of bricks being moved were recorded by a visitor in the Priest's Room, which seemed to originate in the Priest's hiding hole. He peered within and saw part of a human hand moving one of the bricks. As he watched, the hand stopped moving and disappeared. This witness later managed to capture the sounds of footsteps on tape and a shadowy form on film. Later bricks were found scattered on the floor of the Chapel on the ground floor.
During January of 1996, a team from the Northern Anomalies Research Organisation investigated Chingle Hall. During the visit one member of the group managed to capture two photographs of a blue/white light which appeared on and near the oak-beamed ceiling. What is notable is that the taking of the photographs and the light were witnessed by a several people in the house. When tape recorders were used in an investigation, sounds were heard and recorded within the Priest's Room but nothing was heard or recorded on the cassette in the passageway outside.
[edit] Today
Presently the house is occupied by a married couple. The current owner is a historian, and research into the house and previous occupants continue. Owners do not allow overnight sleepovers anymore and ask that people respect their privacy and stress that the house and gardens are private property. A Public footpath runs along the road outside the house.
[edit] A Skeptic's View
A number of visits were made to Chingle Hall in 1970 by three investigators who were determined to discover whether the Hall was indeed haunted. Some of the results were published by Peter Travis in his book "In Search of the Supernatural". The only scientist of the group, Barrie Colvin, came to the firm conclusion that the expectation of paranormal activity had a bearing on the conclusions reached by many of the investigators of the time. When a party of college students visited in order to carry out some tests, many of them were "seeing" paranormal events before even entering the building. Chingle Hall is a prime example of many participants claiming to witness paranormal events despite a complete lack of objective evidence to support the claims. However, no doubt the stories will continue and become increasingly embellished as time goes on.
[edit] External link
- Ghost Story Information and pictures of Chingle Hall
