This grade ll* listed house dates back to the late 1500’s but it has been altered and added to over the years. It has been home to the wonderful Peele collection of toys and books and a few “visitors”.
The staircase seems to be the focal point of the house, and there were said to be bloodstains that couldna be removed. Miss Peele who lived here all of her life would often see a mon crouching at the top of the stairs afore he disappeared in front of her and one of her families pet dogs ‘ould refuse to use the main staircase. A child is said to play hide ‘n’ seek here too and footsteps accompanied by whisperings are heard walking up and down the stairs, some say with the jangling of spurs, mebbe heading for the cellar where the sound of wood chopping is heard but on inspection there is nobody there. The smell and sound of sizzling bacon are also experienced here. Some say that this may be from a Roman Catholic burning but although earlier residents of Old House were indeed Catholics there is no record of any burnings and the coward in me likes to think it is just the smell of a good brekkie cooking.
I have read that the chopping and bacon smells are experienced at every house that Mary Queen of Scots stayed at on her route to her trial in London.
A ghostly figure, shrouded in mist, has often been seen loitering by the front door, mebbe it’s a ghoss that is scared of ghosses so wonna enter.
It is thought that Princess Mary Tudor, later queen, may have stayed here enroute to visiting her mother, Catherine of Aragon, at Ludlow in about 1526. There is some speculation that Catherine actually stayed here too and another royal visitor was Queen Mary, great-grandmother to King Charles lll.
Pop back in tomorrow if you can for a visit to Barracks Passage, oh! and dunna have nightmares.