There’s no surprise that there are ghosts associated with Woodchester Mansion. How could there not be? A spooky gothic mansion in a secretive valley, of course there are ghosts!
To paraphrase Rev Davies writing about nearby Chavenage House in 1899, ‘Of course it must have its ghost, like every house laying claim to a respectable antiquity.’ Except – Woodchester doesn’t have respectable antiquity, does it? The great gothic pile is not a ruin haunted with the ghosts of the ages, but an unfinished house dating back only to the mid-19th century. And yet the ghosts are there…
Our walk starts at the car park for Woodchester Park. Coming down from the car park, head right along the unmade road towards the mansion, with the woods rising up on either side of you. Eventually you will see the slightly disturbing house appear ahead of you, its windows dark and free of glazing. Open till the end of October, the Trust that runs it will offer you a warm welcome, and when we went in July it was a blissful oasis of cool in the burning heat.
The Woodchester Mansion you see today is the sadly unrealised dream of William Leigh, a Catholic convert who wished to create a devout gothic home for himself and possibly a Catholic community. He also provided the impetus at the other end of the lakes in South Woodchester for a priory and church to be built, the church still serving as the main Catholic church in the area. Leigh commissioned local architects Charles Hansom then Benjamin Bucknall to build the house and chapel in a French gothic style, inspired by the great 19th-century French architect Viollet-le-Duc.
The estate, with its lakes landscaped in the spirit of Capability Brown and Humphry Repton, once belonged to the Lords Ducie. There was a house on the site before, Spring Park. Once, it’s said, the young Lord Ducie, recently ascended to his seat, placed his lady love – not his wife – in the place of honour. But when he went to take his own seat, he found the cadaverous ghost of his father staring, Old Hamlet-like, back at him. The young man fled the estate and never went back, selling it to the rich Leigh, and settling at Tortworth.
The house Leigh built and never finished has a panoply of ghostly sightings. None of them seem linked to the sad story of the Leighs, who lost their two daughters and daughter-in-law before Leigh died and the building work stopped through lack of money. Some say there was a murder on site, and that’s why the building work seemed frozen in time, tools left abandoned by the workmen as if they had fled in terror. There’s no evidence of that, although there were said to be accidental deaths. To round up the ghosts, there’s a ‘tall man’ in a corridor, a shorter fellow staring sadly up at the dilapidated chapel, a young girl running up and down the stairs, the dismantled clock chiming the hours, and a demonic presence in the cellar…
When you’ve finished at the house, backtrack slightly up the path you came along and you’ll see a path to the left heading into the woods marked red and yellow trail. Follow the waymarked signs along the winding woodland path before it drops down onto the road again. When the path forks, take the right-hand path heading down to the second (from the mansion) of the many lakes that run along the valley. Walk by the lake, then, when you reach the end, cross over to the other side and follow the path alongside the next one, Middle Lake.
This is the most haunted of all the lakes, with centuries of history all piled into one stretch of water. The oldest is a Roman centurion, strayed from the Roman settlement at the other end of the park. Next is probably the headless horseman who rides by the lake and house in Civil War gear: one Sir Rupert de Lansigny, who killed his young cousin in a duel to gain the estate. His uncle, the boy’s father, stepped forward to challenge Rupert, but another man, John de Tresthaye, stood in his place. Sir Rupert, realising that John was a better fighter than he, tried to flee, but was cut down at the Middle Lake. The coffin that floats above the lake is said to be that of a suicide victim from King’s Stanley, the coffin launched onto the lake. There’s even a Dominican friar who skated on thin ice and fell through, and unlike many sightings of monks, nuns and friars, this is made more likely by the Dominican Priory just down the road in South Woodchester.
The most dramatic tale is much more recent. In 2001, a woman walking by the lake saw something… uncanny. A strange illuminated mist rising from the water that coalesced into a winged figure. She wrote of her experience to the local paper. The story blew up from there, and the national papers were soon reporting on the Angel of Woodchester Park.
READ MORE: Exploring the Neolithic long barrow called Wayland's Smithy.
In the Second World War, American and Canadian soldiers were billeted at the mansion, and the lakes were used for training. In the latter part of the war, a pontoon bridge was built at Middle Lake, and the soldiers were training on the water. But the bridge collapsed, and the soldiers on it fell into the lake and died, crushed by the bridge falling on top of them. It was said that an angel, like the Angel of Mons, had appeared above the lake the day before the accident. It appeared again, and was caught on camera by one William Doidge in the 1950s.
There was great media excitement about the tale, but sadly it was all a hoax drummed up by a local writer and architect to raise awareness of the Park – at that time sadly closed due to the foot and mouth outbreak. However, more tangible ghostly reminders of that time have since been heard, seen and smelt. Swing music has been heard playing, a GI lighting a cigarette has been seen by the side of the lake, and the smell of bacon cooking wafts over it.
When you come to the end of that lake, cross back over, admiring the view down the lake as you do, and make your way back along the other side. When you come to a crossroads, go up to the right and follow the road all the way back to the mansion. Before you retrace your steps to the carpark, take one last look at the great edifice that sits as a symbol for lost ambitions and dreams, and perhaps you may see the black dog that is said to appear by the mansion to signal the demise of someone close to the project – but hopefully not, it’s probably just the bats that live there!
ESSENTIALS
Distance: 4 miles.
Duration: 2 hours, longer if you visit the house.
Level: Easy footpaths.
Parking: Carpark for Woodchester Park and Mansion, off the B4066
Toilets and refreshments: Woodchester Mansion
Transport links: Stagecoach bus 65 goes from Stroud and Dursley to Nympsfield, and it’s a 15-minute walk from there to the carpark
Further reading: Mysterious Gloucestershire by Mark Turner, and Woodchester, A Gothic Vision: The Story of William Leigh, Benjamin Bucknall and the Building of Woodchester Mansion by Liz Davenport.
LINKS
- Route: gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_5387195.html
- Woodchester Mansion: woodchestermansion.org.uk
- Woodchester Park: nationaltrust.org.uk/woodchester-park
Kirsty Hartsiotis is based in Stroud and available for hire as a storyteller and speaker. She is an Accredited Arts Society lecturer. Her books include Wiltshire Folk Tales and (with Anthony Nanson) Gloucestershire Ghost Tales and Gloucestershire Folk Tales for Children. She is also the curator of decorative art at a Gloucestershire museum.
