{"id":262,"date":"2019-06-15T20:42:41","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T20:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/?page_id=262"},"modified":"2019-06-15T20:42:41","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T20:42:41","slug":"setting-the-scene","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/?page_id=262","title":{"rendered":"Setting the scene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Setting the scene                  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those interested in ghost stories, witches, witchcraft and the\nlegends of magical and mythical England, the Suffolk\/Essex borders with the\nvillages of Borley, Lavenham and Clare offering much of interest for the ghost\nhunter or sceptic.  Lavenham has been the\nscene of perhaps the most horrifying of all films about the terrifying practice\nof witch-finding, as well as the setting for Godric\u2019s Hollow in the Harry\nPotter films.       <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lavenham, Hedingham or Framlingham are among the most likely\nlocations for the final resting place of both the Holy Grail and the sword\nExcalibur, and Borley and Lavenham have many ghosts with Borley Rectory, The\nSwan and Tickle Manor appearing in the top ten most haunted places in Haunted\nBritain for example.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The village of Lavenham is also said to be cursed.  It certainly sits within the heart of ghost\ncountry.            <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This collection sets out some of the best-known stories and legends of ghosts and witchcraft in or associated with Borley, Lavenham, Clare and neighbouring villages as seen from Lavenham’s tall church tower, both true and fantastical, where fact is often more remarkable than fiction. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The White Lady found on the stairs
seeking her dead Cavalier husband<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A chilling welcome <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting to the south east of the village of Lavenham are the woods\nalong the road to Brent Eleigh where the first Neolithic farmers settled at\nabout the same time as Neolithic Rome was established, some 12000 years\nago.  This settlement almost certainly\nsurvived the two great floods that would wipe out most of the population of\nwhat is now East Anglia, with only those who had settled on hilltops surviving\nthe huge tsunami that would split England from France a mere 10000 years\nago.  So devastating was the first flood\nthat it remained in the ancestral memory of our settlers, who stayed on their\nhill top camp and made no attempt to farm the lands below.  Indeed, during the flood, their settlement\nwould have been an island surrounded by water and fear of a repeat of such a\nflood must have influenced how our ancestors lived for centuries.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the River Po burst its banks resulting in the destruction of\nthe only cities in our world some 6000 years later, again there would have been\nsome flooding of the valleys around Lavenham. \nSo devastating was this second flood that written records from the\ncivilisation of Ur, the first cities in the world, disappeared for two hundred\nyears, only for those records to commence again in the time of King Gilgamesh\nII.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those fortunate to have camped in Lavenham and Eleigh’s woods tell\nstories of the spark of flints and shadows among the trees as the spectres of\nour first residents still look down over what the village of Lavenham has now\nbecome.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning south and west you can see the straight line of the Roman Road that skirts around the village.\u00a0 To the north of the road is the mound where it is thought that druids buried their sacrificial victims.\u00a0 Fear of the spirit of this place would see the Romans avoid settling in Lavenham almost totally.\u00a0 Accounts of druid\u2019s mounds found elsewhere in the Roman Empire indicate that the druids themselves would usually be tortured and then crucified on their mounds.\u00a0 Even so, any Roman coming in sight of the mound would make the sign against the evil eye (and some still do to this day).\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the morning mist rolls back, you can occasionally hear the\nchink of the armour and the distinctive glint of metal as the sun reflects off\nthe breast plates of the marching cohorts, all hurrying to get past the dread\nof the place.           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further west, beyond the church tower, is the \u2018new\u2019 Lavenham Hall,\nbelieved to be on the site of one of the two Saxon Hall Houses that formed part\nof the Anglo Saxon village of Laffa\u2019s Ham. \nIn the fields beyond where the village Carnival is held each year are\nthe burial mounds of those Saxons, sitting in a circle around a small pond,\nhaunted by the skeletal and spectral figures of barrowwights.              <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their whistling, screaming cry can be heard most Autumn mornings especially at the time of an old moon.\u00a0 This is commonly mistaken for the cry of a banshee.\u00a0 Burning a fire of hazel and oak on the night of the first Harvest Moon is said to summons the wights from their mound to take captive anyone so foolish as to do so.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even further west and slightly north are the remains of the \u2018old\u2019 Lavenham Hall also called \u2018The Lodge\u2019.\u00a0 On the 28th August each year, the spectres of the hurrying young Aubrey de Vere and his family can be seen as they packed their bags to leave the country for Holland after the parliamentary victory at Colchester.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lavenham was heavily supportive of Cromwell and the Eastern\nAssociation, with Aubrey\u2019s friends offering the only resistance.  The total and devastating defeat at Colchester\nwould see Aubrey depart to be with the King\u2019s son, only to return in 1651, when\nhe was sent to the Tower of London without benefit of a trial (Cromwell had\nsuspended the Magna Carta on the basis that it had always been written to bind\nKings but never Parliament).     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next is the graveyard and chapel of rest; an island of peace\namidst the ghosts of our village but with the frightening stones of the plague\ngraves around the porch door.  Opposite\nis our church (a magnificent monument built in thanksgiving for the Lancastrian\nvictories at Bosworth and Stoke Field, subsequently enhanced in honour of Henry\nVII on his death by rich merchants in the village such as the Spring family and\nJohn de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford).        \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The south door, facing towards Acton and Sudbury, has symbols that\nrepresent the furthest west location of the famous \u2018oyster trail\u2019, as well as a\nrepresentation of the Grail.  Beneath the\ntower is thought to be one of the last resting places of the Grail and also of\nthe Spear of Longinus, painted in the possession of the Spear Shaker\u2019s heir,\nHorace de Vere, Baron Tilbury, ancestor of the Arthurian Knight of the Round\nTable, Bedevere.  It is more likely that\nthe spear is buried with Horace in his magnificent tomb in Westminster Abbey as\nhe was buried in full armour.            <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much further north we see Frogs Hall Road and the fields where the\nparliamentary troops would practice their artillery fire (their stone cannon\nballs can still be found in those fields). \nNot all returned to our village from the siege of Colchester and some of\nthe dead ask still to be remembered as they continue to practice with musket\nand cannon.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet further north and west and we can just see the Second World\nWar airfield and its control tower. \nThere are many eye witness accounts of the sound and shadows of the B24s\nand B17s that were based there coming in to land out of clouds or the morning\nfog, seeking to return at long last after their raids of Germany and Holland\nover 70 years ago.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As we follow the Railway Track to the east, passing the remains of the signal box where an employee of the Great Eastern Railway met his death when encountering a ghost, we can see Borley and Clare, and the path trod by the Giant that haunts Lavenham Park at night wresting cloaks, hats and scares off the unwary.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To our north is Bury St Edmunds, happy home to many ghosts, to our south is Sudbury with its cursed cat and bishop\u2019s skull whilst across to Hadleigh in the east is Kersey and its story of a time slip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And now we turn back to enter the Norman, medieval, Tudor,\nGeorgian and Victorian village: a show place for innovative architecture from\nthe 13th to the 21st centuries \u2026 and the residence for many spirits and\nghosts.”          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this section of the web page, we will read of the curse placed on the village, of the Witchfinder General and the sad story of the only \u2018witch\u2019 from Lavenham to face trial and be burnt, the ghost of the Cavalier who never came home from the siege of Colchester and still climbs a staircase that has long since been removed, the beautiful but sad lady who haunts one of our shops, the housekeeper who haunts a room at the Swan, the giant ghostly white rabbit or the green children.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We meet \u2018Boy\u2019 who haunted more than one house and may still haunt\nothers, the ghost of the Angel linked to its sign and of a former inn-keeper at\nthe Angel, \u2018Becky\u2019 who haunts the cross hall at De Vere House, the ghosts of\nFrancis and Henry de Vere, the curse of one family hounded by a reflection in\nthe pond before Lavenham Hall and of the doppelganger at Wixoe.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to Spooky Suffolk<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Setting the scene                  For those interested in ghost stories, witches, witchcraft and the legends of magical and mythical England, the Suffolk\/Essex borders with the villages of Borley, Lavenham and Clare offering much of interest for the ghost hunter or sceptic.  Lavenham has been the scene of perhaps the most horrifying of all films about the … <\/p>\n

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