The Spirits of Levens Hall, South Cumbria

by Patrick Bernauw in Paranormal, January 22, 2009

I describe all the characters that haunt Levens Hall; including a gypsy woman, phantom black dog, mysterious pink lady, traffic ghost and the spirit of a harpsichord player.

Levens Hall, in South Cumbria, is a Tudor style sixteenth century residence, built on the site of a twelfth century Pele Tower. The house is open to the public from April to October. A Lakeland guide once described the park as ‘the sweetest spot that fancy can imagine’. The picturesque manor house has become world famous because of its topiary garden, with the yew trees that have been cut to amazing shapes for the past three centuries.

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And of course, there are ghosts too…

The Curse of the Grey Lady

Somewhere in the 18th century, a gypsy woman knocked on the door and politely asked for food and shelter from the bitter winter cold. When the people of the house saw she was a gypsy, they turned her away. But with her last and dying breath she cursed them: “No son will inherit the Hall until the river Kent doesn’t flow anymore and a white fawn is born in the park.”

Levens Hall had a herd of Norwegian black fallow deer, and little white offspring. Nearly two centuries later, in 1896, during a particular harsh winter, the river Kent froze over again and a white fawn was born… together with Alan Desmond Bagot. At last, there was again a boy born in Levens Hall… but the sinister ghost of the Grey Lady is still seen wandering around the grounds and the corridors of the manor. She has appeared on the bridge over the Kent and to several members of the Bagot family, mumbling about those stuck-up people in the house who let her die of starvation and thought they could get away with it unpunished.

The Phantom Black Dog

Sometimes, the Grey Lady is accompanied by a ghostly little black dog. In the 1950’s, Mrs. Bagot confirmed that a phantom dog occassionally rushed down the staircase. He still does. The black dog uses to skip playfully before the visitors as they ascend the stairs and he disappears without a trace when they reach their room. Or he appears so close to their feet that they overbalance in an attempt to avoid stepping on him… and then simply vanishes into thin air.

Pink Lady & Traffic Ghost

In 1973, the Ghost of the Pink Lady made her first appearance. Two separate groups of visitors have seen her, wearing a mob cap, gliding across the hall and walking in the garden. In that year, a Traffic Ghost also was seen frequently at the narrow bridge leading to the house. When she made a sudden move into the road, a motorist tried to avoid her and had a nearly fatal accident.

Since then, some people have identified the Traffic Ghost as the Pink Lady, others say it’s in fact the Grey Lady and some say it’s the ghost of an old woman who got killed by a car when she crossed the street.

The Spirit of the Harpsichord

Around 1950, Father Stonor was called at Levens Hall to see someone ill in bed. Het let himself in the house (in those days, you didn’t have to lock the door) and in the main hall he heard someone playing the harpsichord, while a bright electric light was burning above him.

Father Stonor didn’t disturb the musician, spent some time upstairs and when he was about to leave the house, the player was still playing… The priest noticed now a faint light under a door and voices from an adjacent room, where he found the lady of the house and some tea party guests. When he wondered why they were sitting here in the candlelight, he was told that the power was cut… And when they rushed out to see who was playing the harpsichord and which heavenly light was shining in the hall, there was not any light to be seen anymore, nor was there a harpsichord player to be heard. And the only person who could play the harpsichord, was Mr. Bagot… who was away on business.