The Haunted Hall of Wycoller

I said in a previous entry that Wycoller still had something to show us.

Wycoller Hall is a ruinous shell that only hints at the building it once was. But it has a romantic aspect, seen over the ford across the beck and it has a literary connection, a mystery, and a ghost story.

The view over the ford is better seen than described, so we'll start with that.

The ford - if not the cobbled surface that now leads into and out of it - is Wycoller Beck's oldest crossing. There are others of venerable age that you can find by clicking the link above.

Did I mention a ghost story? There are several actually. But one involves a West Indian woman who is sometimes seen standing by the ford. The story goes that a master of the hall visited the West Indies and married there, but on returning, regretted his haste and threw the unfortunate wife overboard on the way home. The spirit apparently swam all the way to England and upriver...

The hall was built by the Hartley family in the late 1500s. It was extended 200 years later incurring much debt. It is said that Squire Henry Cunliffe was hoping to attract a wealthy wife with the larger hall, but he was to be disappointed and left this world without heir or money but with the satisfaction of a man with debt and no close family to have to take it on!

Our second ghost story involves a phantom coach that draws up outside the hall. No one seems to know who it contains or what the purpose for the journey is.

Inside the hall is this splendid fireplace, with a seat running around the inside of the chimney so that guests can site all the way around the fire. A stairway entered to the left of the fireplace leads up around the back of the chimney to a room above and in front of the fireplace.

Up these steps runs our third spectre, a horseman - who courteously dismounts before running up the stairs - but who then commits a dastardly deed by murdering some unfortunate woman: a wife? a servant? an early exponent of girl-power? Sadly there is no historical evidence for any such murder at the hall, so either the ghost has lost his way and murders someone in frustration, or it's all a figment of someone's imagination...

To the right of the fireplace is our mystery. A keyhole-shaped opening in the wall with a space behind it. It could have been merely a wood store for the fire, but then why make it such an unusual shape? Or it has been suggested it could be a space for powdering wigs - the wig and powder being applied at arm's length and the narrowness of the opening lower down preventing too much powder from floating into the room covering everyone with a white dust...which could be another reason for the murder upstairs... "My best frock coat - ruined!!!"

The literary connection is of course that of Charlotte Brontë. She spent time here and didn't particularly enjoy it so we are told. The description of Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre would certainly match that of the hall, approached through woods of densely packed trees...

Brontë lovers flock here in pilgrimage and to nearby Haworth across the Yorkshire border. The land rises steeply behind the hall and is said to have inspired Wuthering Heights.

The hall is well worth a visit, being romantic, atmoshpheric and intruiging all at the same time.

Large versions of the photos: hall and ford, interior, fireplace detail