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Title: Burton Agnes Hall, Archway in Hall - HLS05719
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Title
Burton Agnes Hall, Archway in Hall - HLS05719
Description
Slide 14 - The paneling of the room is very beautiful, and most elaborately worked, and the round-headed arch adds to the appearance of richness.
Such a place as Burton Agnes would scarcely be without its ghost, and the story as related in the neighbourhood, is so curious as to be worthy of a place here. It carried back the mind to the time when three sisters were co-heiresses of Burton Agnes and, according to the legend, appear to have been greatly concerned in the building of the place. One of them, who had a very special interest in picturesque mansion, made her sisters promise that, after her death, her head should be removed from body, and be preserved within the house she loved. The promise was made to pacify her, but when she was dead it was forgotten, and shortly thereafter, great disturbance in the Hall betokened the disquiet and return of her ghost to the scene of her mortal pilgrimage. In alarm, the coffin was then brought to the surface, and ghoulish hands carried the head of the deceased lady into the mansion, whereupon the disturbance ceased. Time passed on and one day a maid servant threw the mummified remain from the window, and it fell upon a passing wagon, which seemed rooted as by magic, to the road, and could not be moved until the skull was removed to its place.
Again, one of the Boyntons who was skeptical of the lady's power, had the skull buried in the park, but the dreadful wailings began afresh, and ceased only when the skull had been restored. The place where the skull remains is pointed out to be in the wall behind one of the pictures.
Such legends are attached to many old houses, but few places can be so appropriate for the ghostly footfall as the oak paneled chambers of Burton Agnes Hall.
Such a place as Burton Agnes would scarcely be without its ghost, and the story as related in the neighbourhood, is so curious as to be worthy of a place here. It carried back the mind to the time when three sisters were co-heiresses of Burton Agnes and, according to the legend, appear to have been greatly concerned in the building of the place. One of them, who had a very special interest in picturesque mansion, made her sisters promise that, after her death, her head should be removed from body, and be preserved within the house she loved. The promise was made to pacify her, but when she was dead it was forgotten, and shortly thereafter, great disturbance in the Hall betokened the disquiet and return of her ghost to the scene of her mortal pilgrimage. In alarm, the coffin was then brought to the surface, and ghoulish hands carried the head of the deceased lady into the mansion, whereupon the disturbance ceased. Time passed on and one day a maid servant threw the mummified remain from the window, and it fell upon a passing wagon, which seemed rooted as by magic, to the road, and could not be moved until the skull was removed to its place.
Again, one of the Boyntons who was skeptical of the lady's power, had the skull buried in the park, but the dreadful wailings began afresh, and ceased only when the skull had been restored. The place where the skull remains is pointed out to be in the wall behind one of the pictures.
Such legends are attached to many old houses, but few places can be so appropriate for the ghostly footfall as the oak paneled chambers of Burton Agnes Hall.
Creator
George Hepworth
Source
Hebden Bridge Literary & Scientific Society
Date
1905 , 1900s
Rights
PHDA - Hebden Bridge Local History Society
Relation
Pennine Horizons Digital Archive
Identifier
HLS05719.tif
Collection
Citation
George Hepworth, “Burton Agnes Hall, Archway in Hall - HLS05719,” Pennine Horizons Digital Archive, accessed April 28, 2024, https://penninehorizons.org/items/show/7115.
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