Perhaps it’s the feeling in the air that autumn is about to arrive, but I’m in the mood for a good old gothic ghost story (although frankly, when aren’t I?). When writing about haunted houses I am often faced with a dilemma between the desire to share a really good story and the guilt that the people living there may not share the same enthusiasm.
(c) Staffordshire County Council
Fortunately, in this instance, I have no qualms, as the location for today’s tale was demolished in the 1960s. Well, sort of. Part of Bellamour Old Hall in Colton still stands as ruins, rumoured to be cursed after attempts to raze it to the ground were met with a series of accidents and mishaps. The hex on the house was said to have been placed by former owner Lady Mary Blount, who later built a new Bellamour Hall alongside it for her son. The journal of a Miss Mary Bagot of Blithfield mentions that a stash of treasure was supposedly hidden somewhere amongst the stones of the old house. Are these two legends linked in some way?
The new Bellamour Hall is also no more. It was taken down in the 1920s and sold off piecemeal. When the two halls were still standing, the old one seems to have been used as a residence for senior servants on the estate. George Morrall, head gardener, lived there with his family in the late 19th century. Later, his son Harry succeeded him in the role and spoke to a local newspaper about the spooky side of his former home.
Harry Morrall explained that his twin sister Charlotte was born at the Old Hall. Presumably, as her twin brother, he must have been born there too, and a check in the Colton parish registers confirms that in July 1882, both Harry and Charlotte Morrall were born at Bellamour. It was on the evening of 15th September 1905 that Miss Morrall woke to see what she described as someone in flowing black robes with a beautiful face beckoning to her. Exactly a year later she saw the same thing and between visitations she sometimes heard footsteps walking the floorboards of the old hall.
Although he never witnessed the apparition himself, Mr Morrall did hear the phantom pacing the corridors. On one occasion, he saw the door latch to his room lift up as if someone was about to enter but, when he shouted, the presumed paranormal intruder changed its mind and left. The twins found out from another member of the Bagot family that a man had supposedly been murdered there in 1698, his widow becoming a nun.
Possibly related to the haunting of the old hall are reports of cries emanating from a nearby meadow. Intriguingly, this seems to be near to the site where the stone foundations of a medieval chapel lie beneath the lawn. Bones and the carving of a stone head with a grotesque human face were also found here by the Reverend Parker c.1921. Then, there’s a message I was sent a few years ago by someone who was left unsettled by a dream about a Victorian boy standing facing the boundary wall surrounding the Bellamour estate and hearing the word ‘angry’ as she awoke at 3.33 am.
One final story dates back to around the time of the attempted demolition of the old hall. In 1963, the owner invited a psychic from Birmingham to visit and she claimed to have picked up on a lady with a cross around her neck and a man carrying a Bible. Underwhelmingly, she also claimed to have seen ‘lots of trees around’. Wait, I’m getting the word…..’cobblers’.
I’m looking forward to digging into these tales of hidden treasure, crying bones, beckoning nuns and phantom footsteps to see if any truth is buried within them. Watch this space for more about Bellamour…
Sources
Links With the Past, Sophy Louisa Bagot
Staffordshire Advertiser, Saturday, 25 May 1929
Rugeley Times, Saturday, 30 January 1982
Lichfield Mercury, Friday, 20 August 1943
Lichfield Mercury, Friday, 21 September 1923
Lichfield Lore 