WEDDINGTON CASTLE - An Online History

APPENDIX V: Ghosts of Weddington

No Castle history would be complete without its tales of ghosts and spectres - and Weddington Castle is no exception...

Whilst not claiming any historical accuracy here, the stories below are included as a sample of some of the supernatural accounts that have come to light around Weddington Grove and the Castle. Whilst the last account is from the 1960s, long after the Castle itself had disappeared, the old fashioned cycles suggest the apparitions may have once been residents of the Weddington estate - maybe even the Castle itself!

These accounts are all taken verbatim from the Nuneaton Society website (www.nuneaton-online.org.uk), for which grateful acknowledgements are given to its Chairman, Peter Lee. Any further ghostly stories that readers may have will be much appreciated and can be emailed to: update@weddingtoncastle.co.uk  

1. The Wraith of Weddington Grove

This story appeared in the Nuneaton Chronicle in 1919 and the editor said a very respectable businessman in Nuneaton, in good faith, gave it to him and it was published without responsibility on the editor’s part. The businessman was a keen fisherman and often went out on lone fishing visits to streams in the area. During a very hot day in August 1919 he walked out through Weddington and Caldecote to the Leicestershire borderlands where he dabbled in his favourite pastime.

Needing some refreshment after his hot and tiring labours he took a drink “at an honest Leicestershire Ale House” (The Red Gate perhaps?). He then started to walk back to Nuneaton through Caldecote, but stopped to rest against a stout oak post whilst sitting on a patch of dry grass to recover from his exertions before the final leg of his journey home. He seemed to doze off but after a little while woke with a jolt to find himself in the presence of what he described as “Two very odd fish”. “One was a bald headed lantern jawed individual, with a close cropped grey beard, wearing a black doublet, knee breaches, and a wide linen ruff about his neck. The other man was standing on the opposite side of the gate, and beyond the fact that he wore a pair of leather breeches and a countenance of abnormal gravity. I was not able to size him up with that particularity which is very properly demanded from those who project themselves into the journalistic limelight.”

Recovering his composure somewhat and thinking that he must be in the presence of someone returning from a fancy dress party in town he thought it must be very late and said politely to the character in the ruff:

“Pardon me, can you tell me what the time is?”
“Thou hast no cause to ask my pardon. Time and I are no longer partners – and to the belly god of his raging lust for strong liquor, eternity cannot satisfy his appetite.”
“Well spoken brother Burton: until tomorrow night, farewell!”

Our writer looked towards where the other character had been standing but to his shock he had vanished completely. Deciding to pull himself together, and as he was still in the presence of one of the characters he enquired:

“Your friend” said I, “is a particularly hefty speed merchant; would it be troubling you too much to tell me his name?”
“His name is George Fox, of near-by Drayton. He has no love for those who convert day into night at tippling feasts.”

From his newfound companion who appeared as real as you and I he learned that he was talking to a Mr. Burton of Linley!

George Fox (1624-1690) born of a pious family, was founder of the Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers.

Robert Burton of Lindley (1577-1640) English, Scholar, writer and Anglican Clergyman wrote a famous book: “The Anatomy of Melancholy”. The Lindley estate once encompassed the village of Fenny Drayton and the nearby Royal Red Gate Inn. (Why the ROYAL Red Gate? – because Queen Adelaide is thought to have stopped there as she travelled from Warwick Castle to Gopsall Hall in Leicestershire in the 1830’s. The purpose of her visits to the Red Gate – to visit the bathroom – hence the Royal in Royal Red Gate!)

2. Weddington Hall

Weddington Hall stood in Castle Road, Weddington. It was more often called Weddington Castle but was not a castle at all. It had been castellated in the popular taste of the day by a Georgian architect – Robert Lugar (1773-1855)– for the new owner of the estate in 1807/8 – Lionel Place. The former Elizabethan mansion (whose deeds stretch back to 1591) set in beautiful parkland and gardens covering 350 acres, which dropped down to the River Anker, was encapsulated within an outer casing of sandstone and enlarged. Throughout its life it passed through several family ownerships but by 1916 it had become a hospital for British soldiers sent home from the trenches to be rehabilitated. Neglect and the 1920’s destruction of many of the estates that surrounded the growing towns and villages of England meant that the grounds were ripe for re-development and in 1928 it was unceremoniously pulled down for housing development. There are numerous reports of ghosts seen in the house and grounds but their identities are unknown at present.

(Amongst Robert Lugar’s other commissions was Balloch Castle in Scotland (1809); Cyfartha Castle, near Merthyr Tydfil, (1825); Newlaithes Hall, Horsforth, Yorkshire, (c.1828); Betteshanger House, Sandwich, Kent (1829))

3. The Cycling Ghosts of Weddington

This story was emailed to Peter Lee by David French who wrote: “I was born and raised in Nuneaton and left in 1965 when I was 21. I saw three ghosts, men riding old fashioned bicycles. I was with four of my friends at the time and three also saw them. We were still in high school and about 14 years old. We were passing a churchyard in Weddington on our way from scrumping apples in Caldecote. The ghosts were about 20 feet or more in the air just riding along. Has anyone else had a similar experience in Weddington?”

This is a remarkable sighting never having heard of either cycling ghosts – particularly ghosts at a great height above ground level.