Abbey House, Cambridge
Abbey House or Old Abbey is a 16th Century house on the corner of Beche Road and Abbey Road in Petersfield, Cambridge, which has been described as both the oldest inhabited house[1] and the most haunted house in the city.[2]
History
Abbey House was built by Alexander Butler on the site of Barnwell Priory (dissolved 1539) and parts of the old ecclesiastical buildings can be found in the walls, cellar and gardens of the house.[3] Local barrister Jacob Butler inherited the house and much of the surrounding land, which played host to the annual Stourbridge Fair, in 1714, but lost it in a legal dispute prior to his death in 1765,[2] although according to Arthur Grey in Cambridge Revisited (1921) his unmistakable 6'4" fierce-looking ghost has been sighted in his old home.[4]
The house's reputation for being haunted came to local prominence during the occupancy of Prof. J.C. Lawson of Pembroke College from 1904 to 1910, on the family's first night in residence members of the household were reportedly woken at midnight by an unexplained crashing sound, and from 1907 onward, Lawson and others reported seeing the ghost of a nun wrapped in a dark robe, who failed to respond to questioning but stood at the foot of Mrs Lawson's bed sighing during a protracted illness, while children of another family resident in the house at that time reportedly received regular visitations from this nun, who they did not like very much.[3]
A local woman, who lived in the northern end of the house from 1904 to 1911, later reported that she had heard stories of the Grey Lady prior to her residency. According to these local legends the house was haunted by the spirit of a nun from nearby St. Radegund's Priory who used an underground passage, marked by a bricked up archway in the house's cellar, to meet with a cannon at Barnwell Priory who was secret lover.[3]
The Lawson's and others also reported seeing ghostly animals in the house and gardens, including Wolfie, Squire Butler's dog, a well-fed Red Squirrel, which vanishes when approached, and a large hare, which sits watching witnesses before disappearing.[5]
Lord Fairhaven of Anglesey Abbey gifted the house to the people of Cambridge at end of World War II in celebration of the cessation of hostilities.[1] The house was rented by the Cambridge & County Folk Museum until 1973 and then a series of private tenants, including Prof. Peter Danckwerts of Pembroke College, until 2001.[2] The following year, the house was put on the market for £700,000 and sold to the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, who as part of the contract agreed to open the house to the public.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Shelton, Nik (2002-08-21). "'Haunted house' to be opened". Cambridge News. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b c Petty, Mike (2012-12-03). "A House with a history". Cambridge News.
- ^ a b c Westwood, Jennifer; Simpson, Jacqueline (2010), "Cambridgeshire: Cambridge, Abbey House", The Penguin Book of Ghosts: Haunted England, Penguin, ISBN 9780141039749
- ^ Codd, Daniel (2010), "Modern Ghostly Encounters: Introduction", Mysterious Cambridgeshire, JMD Media, ISBN 9781859838082
- ^ Underwood, Peter (2009), "Old Abbey House: Barnwell, Cambridge", Haunted Gardens, JMD Media, ISBN 9781848682610