The Curse of Littlecote House Wiltshire

The Haunting History of Littlecote House

By Clem Dallaway – Ghost Tales by the Fireside

Tucked deep in the Wiltshire countryside, just northeast of Hungerford, stands Littlecote House — an Elizabethan mansion surrounded by ancient parklands and timeless quiet. For more than seven centuries, its walls have witnessed tales of power, passion, betrayal, and death. Today, it is one of England’s most atmospheric and mysterious country houses, where history and haunting intertwine.

The History of Littlecote House

The earliest known house on the site was built in the 13th century when the de Calstone family held the land. Through the marriage of Elizabeth de Calstone to William Darrell in 1415, Littlecote passed to the Darrell family — a dynasty that would later become infamous in English folklore.

One of their descendants, Elizabeth Darrell, served as maid of honour to Catherine of Aragon, first queen of Henry VIII. She gained notoriety for her affair with poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, but it was another Darrell, generations later, who would stain the family name with darkness.

In the 1530s, King Henry VIII is said to have courted Jane Seymour at Littlecote — a connection through Jane’s grandmother, Elizabeth Darrell. From its earliest days, the house was a stage for royal secrets and whispered scandal.

But the final Darrell to hold Littlecote, William Darrell — remembered as Wild Will — would leave behind a legend far darker than courtly gossip. Reckless, proud, and wasteful, he alienated his neighbours, ruined his fortune, and lived a life of excess. After bitter legal battles, he reclaimed the estate in 1560, only to bring ruin upon himself and his family’s name.

The Legend of the Burning Child

In 1575, a local midwife named Mother Barnes of Great Shefford was called away under secrecy. Blindfolded, she was taken on horseback to a grand house where a woman lay in labour. When the child was born, the man who had summoned her — believed to be William Darrell himself — seized the infant and threw it into the fire.

The midwife was blindfolded once more and sent away with gold, but the horror haunted her. By retracing her route, she recognised the great hall of Littlecote House. Word spread quickly, and the whispers grew louder: William Darrell was a murderer.

Though Darrell’s wealth and family ties spared him from trial, his name was ruined. Soon after, he fell from his horse while hunting and was killed instantly. Legend says the horse reared in terror — at the sight of the burning child’s ghost.

A House Cursed

After Darrell’s death, the estate passed to Sir John Popham, his relative and lawyer — and perhaps, according to rumour, his accomplice. Popham built the magnificent Elizabethan mansion that still stands today, completed in 1592. He would rise to become Lord Chief Justice of England, but the dark story of how he gained Littlecote never faded.

Through the centuries, James I, Charles II, and William of Orange all visited Littlecote. In the 17th century, Dutch prisoners decorated its famous Dutch Parlour, their painted figures still watching silently from the walls. Later generations of the Popham family became known for education and reform, teaching the deaf and modernising their estate.

During World War II, Littlecote became military headquarters for both British and American forces, including the 101st Airborne Division before D-Day. Even then, soldiers spoke of strange happenings — lights in the upper windows, footsteps in empty rooms.

The Hauntings of Littlecote

For over four hundred years, Littlecote has been haunted by tales of Wild Will Darrell and his fiery crime. Visitors and staff alike have reported ghostly sounds of hooves in the night and the echo of a carriage racing up the long drive — only for the courtyard to be empty.

This phantom coach is said to appear whenever death nears the family. In 1861, the nurse of infant Francis Popham heard the unmistakable sound of horses and wheels approaching. By morning, the child was dead.

Others speak of spirits lingering in the Dutch Parlour, where unseen eyes watch from the painted walls, or of the Long Gallery, where a tall, shadowed figure — believed to be Gerard Lee Bevan, a disgraced early 20th-century tenant — is sometimes seen at the far end before fading into darkness.

During investigations by Peter Underwood and clairvoyant Tom Corbett, apparitions of a lady in the gardens and a restless presence in the Chinese Bedroom were reported. Even Mrs Wills, wife of former owner Major George Wills, admitted that the room “always felt occupied.”

And beyond the house itself lies Darrell’s Stile, where the cursed nobleman fell to his death. Locals still avoid it after dark. Some say the air there smells faintly of smoke — and that on certain nights, a baby’s cry can be heard carried on the wind.

Littlecote Today

Today, Littlecote House serves as a Warner Leisure Hotel, welcoming guests from around the world. Yet despite its comfort and splendour, many visitors have reported hearing phantom footsteps, unseen coaches, and doors closing softly in the night.

Perhaps the living and the dead share an uneasy peace here — or perhaps the house is simply waiting, as it always has, to remind us that beauty and horror are two sides of the same story.

For Littlecote, it seems, remembers everything.

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