The Ghosts of Athelhampton House
Athelhampton House is in the village of Puddletown near Dorchester in Dorset, England, close to the river Piddle where the town takes its name. It’s name comes from the Olde English word Pidele, a river name meaning fen or marsh and tun, meaning farmstead. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the Bishop of Salisbury held the Manor with Osbold as tenant. In the 13th Century, the name Athelhelm first appears when the de Loundres family held the manor.
In 1350, the heiress to the Pydele manor married Richard Martyn, who’s descendent, Sir William Martin fortified the manor and used 160 acres of the land for a deer park in the 15th century. Sir Williams grandson, Robert Martyn married Elizabeth Kelway but after he died she married Sir John Tregonwell, who became very wealthy after the dissolution of the monasteries. He used a huge amount of money to add an extension to the manor where his coat of arms is on display in stained glass.
Next of own the manor was Sir Nicholas Martyn, who became Sheriff of Dorset in 1581. He married Margaret Wadham, the sister of Sir Nicholas Wadham. As Nicholas and his wife Dorothy didn’t have children, Margaret was a co-heiress along with her two sisters.
Nicholas and Margaret had ten children, three son’s and seven daughters, 6 who passed away leaving only 4 surviving daughters who become co-heiresses to the manor.
All four daughters married. The eldest, Elizabeth married Henry Brune and then Thomas Hanham after Henry’s death. Jane married Chidiock Tichborne who was executed on 20th of September 1586 as one of the Babington Plotters, which was a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth the 1st. She then married Tristram Dillington until his death when she then married Edward Richards, High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight. Frances married Thomas White and the youngest daughter Anne married Anthony Floyer. After the death of Sir Nicholas in 1596, the house and park was divided into four quarters for each of his daughters. Three of the quarters were consolidated in a single unit and sold to Sir Robert Long in 1665 but Anne’s quarter remained within the Floyer family until the middle of the 19th century.
In 1684, Mary Keightley, the aunty through marriage to Queen Mary II and Queen Anne, took James Long, 3rd Baronet, to court in an attempt to take his share of Athelhampton to recover a debt, but after his wife, Susan Strangeways died, James Long and Mary Keightley married, resolving the case. It’s believed that a meeting took place on the staircase on the west wing of Athelhampton, making plans for the Glorious Revolution which put Mary II and her husband and cousin William III of Orange on the throne.
The larger share of the house passed through the Long family to Catherine Tylney-Long. Her brother James was intended to inherit their fathers fortune but he died just before his 11th birthday in 1805, so the estates and financial investments worth £300,000, £29,900,000 in todays money went to Catherine. She became known as “The Wiltshire Heiress" and was believed to be the richest commoner in England.
As you can imagine, she had many men interested in marrying her but her main two suitors were the Duke of Clarence, future King William IV (4th) and William Wesley-Pole, 4th Earl of Mornington. She married William Wesley-Pole on the 14th of March 1812. He was known as being a cruel man to Catherine and left her for Helena Paterson Bligh, wife of Captain Thomas Bligh. Catherine died aged 35 and William was involved in a court battle for custody of their children, which he lost. He did manage to take possession of her share of Athelhampton which he sold in 1848 to the tenant farmer George Wood, who also managed to buy the other quarter of the house from the Floyer family, bringing the house together to a single owner again.
The house and part of the land was sold to Alfred de Lafontaine in 1890, who was a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Alfred was friends with the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, who was a regular visitor to the house. Hardy first visited the house as a teenager when his father worked there as a stonemason and he stayed associated with the place being involved in its restoration. Athelhampton is believed to be the influence for Bathsheba's Farmhouse in Hardy’s novel, Far From the Madding Crowd.
The Cochrane family bought the house from Lafontaine in 1918. They built the north wing on the foundations of a previous building in 1921. The house was sold again in 1930 to Mrs Harmsworth, wife of the 2nd Viscount of Rothermere. It was purchased in 1949 to Rodney Phillips and his wife Marika and her mother, a Russian-French painter. It was sold again in 1957 to Robert Victor Cooke and it stayed within his family until 2019 when it was bought by Giles Keating, an economist and author. The house is open to the public everyday from 10am until 4pm.
GHOSTS
The Martyn family crest includes a monkey sitting on a tree stump and there family motto was, “He who looks at Martyn’s ape, Martyn’s ape will look at him”.
In the 15th century, Sir William Martyn imported an ape which he kept as a pet and it was free to roam the halls. The Martyn’s were a Catholic family and one of William's daughters wanted to marry a protestant man. As this was forbidden in those days, she took the decision to take her own life. She went into a secret room behind the panelling in the Great Chamber and without realising, the ape followed her. She bolted the door and killed herself. The family searched for her for days, when they finally searched the secret room, the found her body and the body of the ape who was lay next to her, he’d starved to death.
The ghost of the ape is rarely seen but when he is spotted, he’s stares into people’s eyes. He is often heard scratching at wood behind the panels of the Great Chamber, and many people have said that they’ve heard him laughing after he spanks women as they walk around the Chamber. He is said to have appeared in the background of many visitors photos.
Another ghost that's seen in the Great Chamber is that of a Grey Lady. It’s not known who she is but it’s believed that she could be the ghost of the wife of James Long who died of fright after being confronted by debt collectors. She is often seen walking the in the corridors of the upper floor and has been seen passing through walls.
The author and broadcaster James Wentworth Day interviewed a retired housemaid and the housekeeper about the haunting, which was published in the December edition of Country Life magazine in 1966.
The maid said that she “walked into the Tudor Room, and saw the Grey Lady sitting in a chair just after the last of the days visitors had gone”. She approached her and said, “I’m sorry madam, but I am afraid that the last of your party has just gone and the house is closing to the public. Would you very much mind leaving.” The Grey Lady stood up and left without saying a word.
When the Cooke family owned the house, Robert Cooke reported seeing her walking through the wall in a bedroom.
The dark apparition of a hooded figure believed to be a monk or a priest has been seen many times walking down the drive and into the Great Hall. He is usually seen just out the corner of your eye. One of the housemaids reported seeing the ghost in broad daylight. She was walking along one of the corridors when she noticed that she could hear footsteps coming from behind her. She turned around to witness what appeared to be a monk standing outside of the bathroom.
Also in the Great Hall are the ghosts of two men having a dual. An account from a Lady Vivien, who wrote a letter to James Wentworth Day was published in Country Life magazine. She was a guest of a friend invited to the house and was interrupted whilst reading before dinner.
“She looked up to see two young men come into the room who did not address her but started to dual. She was very annoyed and asked them kindly to stop but with no effect, so she got up and pulled the bell for one of the servants. Nothing happened so she returned to her chair feeling most irritated. During this time the young men were still fighting till one got wounded in the arm and they left the room”.
Alfred de Lafontaine came into the room shortly after, and the lady, who was still irritated, said, “My dear Alfredo, what extraordinary people you have staying here". Then she told him the story. Alfred seemed slightly annoyed, and said, “I can’t understand what you are talking bout as you met all the guests who are staying, at tea".
The two men have never been identified but the house did have connections to the English Civil War.
In the 1990s severe poltergeist activity was reported in the north wing. When people were in bed, the covers would be pulled off, doors would slam without anyone being around, the doors would also lock and would only be unlocked if the ghost was asked nicely. Light switches would turn on and off and drawers were dropped out of chests. Some assistance was called for to deal with the mischievous spirit and helped to move on, nothing has happened since.
In 2018, two visitors to the house saw a Lady in a very out of date wedding dress in the gardens. One of them asked reception staff if there was a wedding and the other said that she’d seen the bride in the gardens and avoided the area so that she didn’t disturb the wedding photos. There was no wedding and no bride.
William Martyn was the collector of wine duties in Poole in Dorset and wine was stored at Athelhampton. In the wine cellar, the sound of tapping is often heard which is believed to be the ghost of a cooper from the times of the Martyn family.
In July 2023, three members of staff who were working together heard the voice of a woman saying hello.
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