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Dudley Castle is a highly active location for paranormal
phenomena with several reported stories and incidents of ghosts/spirits
being witnessed or felt.
Dudley Castle was built by
the Normans. Providing protection since around 1071 the castle saw many
changes over the centuries. The infamous John Dudley rebuilt the castle in
the Renaissance style only to be beheaded by Queen Mary for trying to put
Lady Jane Grey on the throne of England. The civil war came and went
with Dudley Castle having supported the Royalist cause and surrendering in
1646 after the defeat of Charles I at Naseby. In 1750 a fire all but
destroyed the accommodation at Dudley Castle. The fire is said to have
burned for three days.
The WOLF Paranormal Research
Team have investigated Dudley Castle on 9 occasions to date. Each
investigation brings a new development in our studies. For
confidentiality purposes, the full reports derived from each investigation
is accessible to participants of the investigations only or upon special
request from individuals requiring research information. However,
the following page gives a brief history of the documented ghosts at
Dudley Castle and some of the findings we uncovered.
Dudley Castle is said to have several ghosts, these include:
The Ghost of the Grey Lady
The Grey Lady is rumoured to be the ghost of Mrs Dorothy
Beaumont. She was the wife of the Royalist Second in Command when the
castle was besieged by Parliamentary forces in May 1646. She died of
natural causes, perhaps childbirth and has been sighted on several
occasions. Positive sightings of the Grey Lady have been seen
walking down the steps that you can see in picture 2 above.
The Black Monk
On rare occasions, a monk in a black habit appears.
Staff have witnessed him once at the entrance to the keep and twice in the
window of the Castle’s Chapel. Near the Castle are the ruins of St James
Priory, founded in the late 1100s. It was given to Benedictine Monks from
Much Wenlock Priory who wore black habits. A more recent sighting of
the Black Monk was reported to staff at Dudley castle by a policeman who
was convinced that he witnessed a black figure which appeared to be
wearing a habit walking along the top of the castle ruins - see picture 1
above. Poltergeist
The shop has probably seen the most
heightened level of activity where staff are convinced a poltergeist is
present. A heavy shop stand was pushed over and objects have been
observed falling off shelves or being thrown across the room.
Unfortunately, the WOLF Paranormal Research team could not find any
documentation to support these claims and experiments around the shop area
did not provide any evidence to suggest there is activity. Needless
to say, the shop now has a strong reputation for Poltergeist activity and
so will definitely be investigated again at a later date
The location of 2 coffins which are incomplete.
Reports of seeing a ghost where only the legs are visible stems from this
very atmospheric room. Almost immediately upon entering this room,
the Research Team were overwhelmed by a strong feeling of
apprehensiveness. Trigger objects and séances were conducted in this room
with some interesting results. On this particular photo, you can see
an orb and some other light anomalies surrounding it to the top right hand
side of the coffin. Obviously there are several explanations for
orbs (dust particles, humidity) but as there were only 3 people in the
undercroft at the time of this picture, the area was undisturbed so is
more feasible of being an actual orb suggesting possible paranormal
phenomena.
The Education Centre
A combination of corridors linking to chambers with pictures and
educational material. The furthest point chamber was the scene of a very
fulfilling séance. The presence of a small female child was strongly
felt by both Director & Research Consultant, Simone Taylor and
Investigations Officer, Vanessa Penny. The young child appeared to
be dancing around and very happy at the thought of having so many people
in attendance. This was confirmed by the accompanying medium who
joined the room later that night without any prior knowledge of what the
Investigators had picked up. An older female spirit also was sensed
in this area - whilst it was suggestive that this was the child's mother,
we could not identify a direct connection and concluded that she was
either the child's carer or judging by what she was wearing, a possible
servant at the Castle.
The Cottage
An area of Dudley Castle that is not so publicly displayed as an area for
Paranormal Phenomena. Only on 2 of the 4 visits were we allowed
access to the surrounding area of the cottage. Both times the Research
Team and participants felt a very strong and rather unpleasant energy the
closer to the building we got. There was a feeling of sheer
unwelcomeness and a keen need for us to move away the entire time we were
in the vicinity of the cottage. Unfortunately the building itself is
not accessible to anyone so we could not gain direct entry.
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