Belgrave Hall
Located in the village of Belgrave, close to the city of Leicester in England, Belgrave Hall was built between 1709 and 1713. The hall has had numerous owners over the years, some of which were famous to both history and the local area. During 1936, the hall was sold again and became a museum with it's garden becoming a public park. Discussions regarding the hall being haunted seem to have sparked attention following the public release of cctv footage captured on the 23rd of December 1998. The footage showed what people thought to be ghostly white figures outside the hall, and this prompted the location to be investigated by numerous teams. It's thought at least three apparitions haunt this location, with even more spirits, plus ones originating from a time before the house was built, being reported.
History
When Belgrave Hall was built, it was located in a then small village three miles from the town, now city, of Leicester. It was built for the hosiery merchant Edmund Craddock (alternative spelling Cradock) and his wife Anne. Sadly, both Edmund and his wife had died by 1715, which was soon after the building was completed in 1713. As a result, the hall passed out of the family and into the ownership of John and Helen Simons. During 1721, the Simons extended the walled gardens to create an extensive front garden, but that is all that's seemingly known of the Simon's ownership. During 1767, the Simons put the hall up for sale and so it was bought by William Southwell for his brother-in-law William Vann.
William died during 1772 and as a result the estate was divided into two. William's son, Richard, stayed in Belgrave Hall, but William's other son, also called William, built the Adam-style Belgrave House during 1776. This house is located on the other side of Church Road, and William lived there; and so left the hall to his brothers. The land Belgrave House was built on had been acquired under the Simon's ownership, and was located to the west of Belgrave Hall.
During 1796, Richard was succeeded by his younger brother James, and James' wife Hannah. James and Hannah both stayed at the hall until 1844. James, and his brother William, both served as the High Sheriff of Leicestershire during their lifetimes. The hall passed on to New ownership because James had died, and Hannah died during 1844. James left the hall to a cousin, Ann Hunt, to have following the death of both he and Hannah; but Ann had also died by this point. As a result, Ann's heirs begun to sell the property during 1845. The next owner was John Ellis, and he didn't complete the purchase of Belgrave Hall until 1847 when he was fifty-eight years old. During his ownership, he added a bay window to the back of the hall.
John Ellis was a wealthy businessman who was responsible for bringing railways to Leicester during 1833. He served as the director of the Midland Railway, and was an MP for Leicester during the mid-1800s. John was also associated with George Stephenson, who built the first railway in Leicester. John first met George during 1828 while George was working on the Liverpool and Manchester railway. John Ellis played such an important part in the railways that he was involved in the construction of every railway in Leicestershire, aside one, by the time of his death.
John was Leicester's most prominent figures at the time, and he had a wife, a son, and seven daughters. When John died during 1862, Belgrave Hall passed to William Henry Ellis who then sold the hall to his sisters during 1868. Under the ownership of the sisters, the house was turned into a focal point for local culture and support for the suffragette movement. During 1889 the sisters were able to buy back part of the old park to the west of Church Road from the owners of Belgrave House. This reunited the gardens to be as they were under the Simon's ownership. Margaret, the last of John's daughters, died during 1923 and so the building became owned by Thomas Morley (alternative spelling Morely). Thomas was the final private owner of the house and owned it until 1936 when he sold it to the Corporation of Leicester for £10,500. In the same year as the sale, the grounds were opened to the public.
During 1974, the site passed from the Leicester City Council to the County Council, and the hedge which created a division in the west gardens was removed. The ownership has since returned to the city and the location has been used as a museum. Belgrave Hall is a grade II listed blue and red brick building, and has been described as a plain middle class building. It's surrounded by walled gardens that spans two acres of land and contains yew trees and wisteria that were planted by the Ellis family in the mid-1800s.
Hauntings
The discussion around Belgrave Hall being haunted really seems to have stemmed from the 23rd of December 1998. Some sources have cited the year for this event as 1999, but this could be when the event hit the news due to the Christmas period. The exact date the footage was captured seems to be the 23rd of December 1998, and the time was 4:50am. I have come across different descriptions of the footage, so perhaps multiple pieces of cctv footage were captured. One description is that two ghostly figures were recorded on the security cameras outside of the hall. Another description is that the footage showed a six foot tall white figure hovering outside a rear window for five seconds before disappearing over a nearby wall. All sources acknowledge the mysterious footage as showing at least one apparition of the white lady, with some speculation suggesting it's a woman in a victorian dress.
It's been speculated that the white lady is Charlotte Ellis, one of the seven daughters of John Ellis. Sarah Jayne, another daughter, is also speculated to be one of the apparitions. It's unknown why people commonly believe the white lady to be Charlotte, and not one of the other sisters. The footage made the news, and it prompted paranormal investigators to become involved. A team from the International Society For Paranormal Research, the ISPR, were invited to investigate the incident. This team concluded that there were previous residents, children, servants, and spirits from before the hall was built present here. The team also found the space where the cctv footage was recorded to be the least haunted area of the grounds. As a result, the team dismissed the footage as a leaf which had been caught on the camera lens on a stormy night. They also said that if the figure on the footage was real, then it would have been over 10ft tall. The team from Ghost Hunters International have also concluded that the footage was not paranormal, but was likely people wearing reflective jackets walking around.
A woman in a victorian style dress has been seen for many years at Belgrave Hall, and one of these sightings, aside the cctv footage, also occured in 1998. During this year, some staff members were talking about work by the main door when one member of the group saw something out of the corner of his eye. He told the group that he had just seen a woman in a 'terracotta coloured victorian style dress' walk down the stairs and turn into one of the adjoining rooms. When he properly looked towards the figure, it disappeared. Another staff member has also reported seeing the same figure on the first floor landing, although it's unknown which year this sighting occured.
The most reported sighting is that of a woman in a victorian style dress, known as the Victorian Lady. She can also be seen on the lower ground staircase and gazing though a window into the garden. It's believed she causes the sounds of footsteps on the stairs, and that she is Charlotte Ellis. Charlotte is also referred to as the Green Lady and the Grey Lady. Charlotte was born during 1836 and died aged 81, during 1917, within the hall. The Victorian Lady can also be seen on the garden path.
Staff and guests have also reported seeing shadows, and the smells of cooking pccuring throughout the building. These smells are of fresh bread, stewed fruit, and gingerbread. The staff and guests have also reported hearing footsteps occur on the upper floors. The apparition of a dark male figure have been seen, unexplained bangs have been heard, and doors are known to open and close on their own. There are also the apparitions of children, one of which is believed to be a young boy who died of tuberculosis. It's also believed that there is a strong and violent male spirit on the upper floor, but it's unclear if this is the same as the dark male figure.
People have been touched or prodded through the building, with many of these reports relating to the old dining room. The nursery is also a site of several reports, with a shy, sad young girl being sensed here along with the spirits of John Ellis and Edmund Craddock. Apparently, Edmund is not a particularly welcoming host. Shadows have also been seen in the cellars and kitchen, plus peering around doorways. Plus, footsteps have been heard above the stables despite there being no floor to walk on above the stables. Poltergeist activity is said to occur in the lower rooms with objects disappearing and reappearing days later.
Other activity includes room alarms activating when no one is there, footsteps on the first floor landing, and apparently stones are thrown in the courtyard. The courtyard activity is believed to be caused by the ghost of a man who fell from the roof. Margaret, the final surviving Ellis daughter, is also thought to haunt the hall. One potential haunting, which is purely speculation from me, is that of Abraham Shaw. Apparently he burgled the property during 1784, stealing some spoons and a cruet set. He died as a result, and is thought to haunt the Guildhall in Leicester. As his crime occured at Belgrave Hall, I feel this leads to the possibility of him haunting this location too.
Helen Gladwell, a staff member at Belgrave Hall, has said paranormal encounters happen on a weekly basis with her having numerous experiences across her two years of working at the location. Helen also believes the activity is due to the high amount of quartz within the building which could potentially trap energy which is then released in the form of the paranormal activity experienced. Overnight vigils and ghost hunts are frequently held at Belgrave Hall, and so it has been heavily investigated by a number of people and teams. It's also been said that final private owner of the hall, Thomas Morely, sold it due to being fed up with all of the ghosts. This has only been said by one source though, so lacks credibility.
Summary Of Hauntings
1. Charlotte Ellis, aka The Victorian Lady, The Grey Lady, The Green Lady, wears victorian dress - lower ground staircase, first floor landing, garden path
2. Sarah Jayne (?)
3. Margaret Ellis
4. John Ellis - nursery
5. Edmund Craddock - nursery
6. Young girl, shy, sad - nursery
7. Young boy, died of tuberculosis
8. Dark male
9. Male spirit, strong, violent - upper floor
10. Shadows - cellers, kitchen, around doorways
11. A man, fell from roof, throws stones - courtyard
12. Footsteps - upper floors, stairs
13. Bangs
14. Doors open
15. Doors close
16. Smells of cooking, fresh bread, stewed fruit, gingerbread
17. People touched - old dining room
18. People prodded - old dining room
19. Poltergeist activity, objects disappear, reappear days later
20. Abraham Shaw (?)
My Thoughts
I'm extremely glad to hear that the cctv footage captured towards the end of 1998 led to the property being investigated in 1999 as it rules out certain potential shenanigans from the Most Haunted team which could have been at play when they investigated the location in 2003. I've speculated for other locations that the Most Haunted team could have fabricated, or added emphasis, when it came to certain pieces of reported phenomena; so it's good to see they couldn't have made up the discussion around the victorian lady, only added to it.
It's also good that the cctv footage has seemingly been debunked by a couple of different investigation teams. This doesn't mean the location faked the footage for publicity, but rather found the footage to be odd and this likely sparked external paranormal discussion. It's incredibly interesting to me that despite the footage being debunked by these teams, they have also said that a number of spirits do haunt Belgrave Hall. This indicates to me that either the location is haunted, or that the investigators may have been pressured by the owners of the hall to say it was haunted in order for the hall to retain publicity. Personally, I think it is haunted.
I don't know if the specific people mentioned to haunt the location do haunt the location, but I absolutely wouldn't be surprised if past residents, owners, and workers do haunt the property. The activity, aside apparitions, aren't too extreme either. Smells, bangs, and footsteps are all incredibly common pieces of activity for a haunted location to have reported. This makes the hauntings seem far more grounded, and therefore more real to me. I didn't find much about the man who fell from the roof, so that's an iffy one; but apparently staff have confirmed this event to have happened. I would expect for this location to provide good activity during an investigation due to the amount of spirits said to be here, and with how active and capable they seem to be. I definitely think it would be worth investigating if Abraham Shaw is present here, due to him apparently haunting the Guildhall as a result of robbing Belgrave Hall.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading to the end of this article! I was expecting for Belgrave Hall to have far more events to have happened here as the name sounds quite grand, and so was surprised to find it's history is mostly a passing of hands. I was also delighted to read about the hauntings here as they do all seem far more grounded than ones I've written about for other locations. It's always refreshing to read about hauntings which sound real, as opposed to ones that seem to have been fabricated by locations or investigators.
A special thank you goes to Damain, Nicolette, Kerry, GD, Chris Willcx, Nicola Jada, Nita Raveling-Hamilton, David Lee Jones, theinoculator, 1141520851813892291920, Angeles Wernicke Zapiola, Ke v, Crispinfandom, Jacks-and-graves, The Cornish Ghost Whisperers, Beardo Gets Scared, Starlight Phoenix Paranormal, Paranormal Penny Pinchers, the Australian Paranormal Society, Codegas Codex of Curiousity, Phantom Detectives LLC, Shadow Walkers Paranormal Investigators, South Of Spooky, Don't Scare Claire, blogparanormalexpresso2stuff, Paranormal Connections, Phantom Seekers Paranormal, chatibelieveinghosts, and Purbeck Paranormal Investigators for your continued support of The True Paranormal. If you want to be thanked in an article, or in the monthly appreciation post I make across social media, then please share my articles and tag 'The True Paranormal'. If I see that you've shared, then I will publicly thank you!
If you want to follow The True Paranormal you can do so on Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube, X (formerly known as Twitter), Tumblr, and Pinterest. You can also subscribe to The True Paranormal on YouTube, or directly to this website through the bar on the left which will give you email notifications. That bar also lists all of the links which will take you to The True Paranormal's various social media platforms. If you want to contact me about your own experiences, or about anything at all paranormal, you can email thetrueparanormal1@gmail.com
A Donations Message
If you've enjoyed this article, it would be massively appreciated if you could donate anything you can towards The True Paranormal. With your donations, I can continue to build up the database and document haunted locations, paranormal experiences, and the individuals which are involved in the paranormal. If you are interested in donating, then you can do so through PayPal. My username is Daniel Carr and my paypal email is danielcarr130913@gmail.com. If you donate, I will be sure to thank you across social media and in my articles. Anything donated is much appreciated.
Sources I Have Used
7. The BBC
8. Wikishire
10. Haunted Rooms
12. Which Museum
13. Archives Hub
14. GPS My City
15. Haunted Hovel
17. Visit England
18. Nature Spot
19. UK Ghost Hunts
24. Ticket Source
27. Fright Nights
Comments
Post a Comment