Lanhydrock House Hauntings
St Petroc was born in Wales in 468 as the youngest son of a Welsh Chieftain and he died in 564. He ministered to the people of the kingdom of Dumnonia, which we now know as Devon and Cornwall, where he is associated with a monastery in Padstow which is named after him, Petroc Stowe, which means Petroc’s Place. The relics of St Petroc were moved from St Petroc’s Priory in Padstow to Bodmin Monastery in the 9th century. The monastery was recorded as being under Benedictine rule in 936 and was possibly a nunnery. By the 11th century it became one of the wealthiest Monasteries in Cornwall. It became an Augustinian monastery in 1124 and stayed under this rule until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.
After the Dissolution, the local Glynn family owned the land who in turn passed it on the Lyttelton family. Thomas Trenance was granted ownership of the land in 1577 through marriage and in 1630, the land was bought by Sir Richard Robartes. Richard, 1st Lord Robartes came from a wealthy family of tin minors from Truro and gained his peerage for the sum of £10,000 from the Duke of Buckingham, a favourite of James the 1st.
Sir Richard Robartes started to build the a house but he died four years later. His son John Robartes, the 1st Earl of Radnor continued with the construction, the fortified granite walls have the years 1636 and 1642 carved into the walls indicating the years they were built. John Robartes fought for Parliament during the English Civil War and the Parliamentarian General, the Earl of Essex used Lanhydrock House as his command post. In August 1644, Sir Richard Grenville captured the house and then garrisoned Royalist forces there during the English Civil War. Lord Robartes escaped by sea, leaving his children as captives. Lord Robartes regained the house after the execution of Charles the 1st. Robartes retired from public life after he disagreed with Oliver Cromwell’s policies. During his retirement he built the impressive gatehouse in 1651, which still stands today.
The peerage ended with the death of the 4th Earl of Radnor when he left the estate it to his sister Mary. The house was passed on to Anna Maria Hunt by the late 18th century, the great niece of Henry Robartes, the 3rd Earl of Radnor. She married Charles Bagenal Agar, the 1st Viscount of Clifden in 1804 and had three children. By 1818 her husband, along with their youngest and eldest children had died. She lived a lively social life, mainly staying in London until her death in 1822 when the estate was passed on to her middle son, Thomas Agar.
Thomas Agar lived in Lanhydrock House and in 1869 revived the Barony which made him the 1st Lord Robartes of the 2nd creation. He also took on his ancestors name, Robartes, by Royal Warrant.
Thomas Agar Robartes and his wife Juliana carried out extensive reconstruction of the house and gardens but on the 4th of April 1881, a disastrous fire destroyed the South wing and caused extensive damage to the central section. The fire started in the kitchen, catching hold of some open timbers in the ceiling. The strong winds forced the fire along the South wing. Lady Juliana Robartes was rescued from an upstairs window but she died five days after the fire from smoke inhalation. Her husband, Lord Robartes died less than a year later, its said that he died of a broken heart.
Their only son, Thomas Charles Agar Robartes, known as “The Little Lord” due to his small size, inherited the house. He rebuilt the house keeping the original Jacobean style but using modern resources such as concrete and steel to make the house more fireproof. The cost would have been around £50,000.
Thomas's son and heir to the estate, Thomas Agar-Robartes, known as Tommy, became a Liberal politician in 1910 and was known as the best dressed man in parliament due to his fashionable look. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War One, Tommy and his brothers, Alexander, Victor and Cecil volunteered to fight. His other brother, Gerald worked for the Foreign Office and their sister Constance became a nurse. Tommy was killed on the 30th of September 1915 during the battle of Loos in France. He was trying to rescue another soldier from No Mans Land, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The man he rescued was Sergeant Hopkins who described the following:
“He came 80 to 100 yards right across the open in broad daylight and within 200 yards of the enemy and dragged me into safety”.
As he wasn’t married, his estates past onto his younger brother Francis after their father died on the 19th of July 1930.
The house became a home for evacuees during World War Two, when children were moved from the cities to the countryside to avoid the bombings. Many of the children who stayed there recalled how the family were so kind to them.
In 1953, after facing high death duties, Francis handed the estate over to the National Trust who manage the estate until this day.
GHOSTS
Over the years, many ghosts have been witnessed in Lanhydrock House by staff and visitors.
The Long Gallery, which runs down the entire length of the North wing of the house, is host to the apparition of a little old lady who wears grey clothing. She is also often seen sitting on one of the armchairs in the Drawing Room and is always mistaken for a real person. Nobody knows who she is but it’s guessed that she maybe the wife of John Robartes, the 1st Earl of Radnor.
Another female ghost has been seen in Her Ladyships Room, she’s believed to be the shade of Lady Juliana Robartes who died from smoke inhalation after the great fire in 1881.
In 2004, The Paranormal Society was invited to Lanhydrock to hold an over night vigil in the most active areas of the house. These were held in the Prayer Room, The long Gallery, the Nursery Suite and the servants quarters. On that night they, along with a psychic medium, allegedly experienced many paranormal happenings including:
• A former head butler called Albert Leah who died of natural causes in 1890.
• A servant girl from Ireland who committed suicide when she became pregnant by another servant who was married. It’s believed that her name was Annabelle O'Connor and was 22 years old.
• A little girl called Emily who died in the 1760s of a heart defect when she was 10 years old.
• A small boy who liked to play hide and seek in the Luggage Room.
• A maidservant called Elizabeth Hargreaves who died in 1823 after a fall down the stairs.
• A tailor who used to clean the shoes of the household.
• A toddler who died of scarlet fever in the 1820s.
• A teenage boy who was trampled to death by a horse in 1795.
• A man wearing a top hat and blue waistcoat.
• A Catholic priest from the 16th century who felt guilty after he’d had an affair with a domestic servant who he got pregnant.
They also claimed to have experienced many other phenomena such as the sound of a table moving across the floor of the Long Gallery, the smell of cigar smoke in the Smoking Room, a young girl giggling in the Nursery, the smell of strong perfume, and sudden drops in temperature.
During the time of World War Two, a housemaid was employed to help out as many of the staff had gone to war, after a while it was just herself and the Head Housemaid left to run the house. Her sleeping quarters were moved to a smaller room at the top of the house but she only ever stayed in there for one night.
It was 11:30 at night, and she was sitting up in bed, reading a book of hymns when she noticed that the temperature had suddenly dropped. She then said that she felt like someone was pressing down on her. She was too terrified to move and sat awake all night. The next morning, she described what had happened to the Head housemaid who then said that we put you in that room and we knew that you didn’t know anything about the haunting, we’ve known about it for years.
She was later told a story that a former Lord Robartes was a gambler and that he offered his daughter in marriage as his stake in a card game, in which he lost. His daughter was horrified and rather than marrying the man that had won her, she committed suicide by jumping from the tower. Her bedroom was the room where the maid had stayed for the one night.
The story must be untrue as the room is part of the Victorian servants quarters and none of the Robartes family ever gambled a daughter. There was a suicide in the family but that was Alexander Agar Robartes sometime between the two world wars.
It’s thought that the haunting could be related to Annabelle O'Connor, the pregnant Irish servant who was encountered during the vigil, but its not known if she was a real person.
In 2018, a man and his wife were visiting Lanhydrock House and took a guided tour. When they reached the 1st floor of the house, the man was drawn to the stairs that lead to the 2nd floor that were closed off by a rope to stop visitors entering. He had an overwhelming feeling that he should go past the rope and climb the stairs but he didn’t. He stood at the rope looking up into the corridor on the next floor when a beautiful young lady walked out. She was wearing a long flowing dress, like a ball gown, she had long flowing blond hair which looking like it was being blown by a strong wind. She started to walk down the stairs and then she disappeared. He was stunned and stood still for a few moments to gather his thoughts before he re-joined the tour party.
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