Midnight Mass at Beaulieu Abbey Church

Originally founded as a Cistercian Abbey by King John in 1204, Beaulieu Abbey Church became the parish church of Beaulieu after the dissolution of the monasteries.

Many monks and other spirits are known to haunt Beaulieu Abbey, but the strangest haunting would happen on Christmas Eve.

Reverend Robert Powles, the last vicar of Beaulieu, served between 1886 until 1939. He claimed that he was in contact with ghosts that haunt the church on a daily basis and claimed that he often communicated with them. He would speak very openly to his parishioners about them, in one comment he said, “Brother Simon was here again last night. I heard his boots squeak".

During his last few years as vicar in the 1930s, he would organise a special midnight mass for the ghosts on Christmas Eve each year.

Elizabeth Varley, the sister of the owner of Beaulieu Abbey, Edward Montagu, knew Reverend Powles very well and said:

“He always appeared perfectly sane and seemed to be on good terms with the ghosts, whom he saw and spoke to regularly".

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