Haunted Winchester

Above: Look out for the limping monk around the Cathedral’s cloisters

Above: Winchester

Above: The gargoyles found on the Cathedral are said to ward off evil spirits

Above: Alfred the Great

Above: Follow the ghost trail through Winchester

With a history stretching back over 2,000 years it is perhaps no surprise that Winchester claims to be among the most haunted cities in England. All the supernatural standards are present: black-cowled monks stalking empty churches, the sound of footsteps where nobody can be seen and a headless horseman terrifying those who set eyes upon him. But there are other unique spectres haunting our ancient capital, like a drowning pony, kings and queens of days gone by and the innocent victim of a notoriously merciless magistrate.

High spirits
On a stormy night when an eerie wind howls outside and a fire crackles in the grate, an old pub is the perfect setting for a good ghost story. Fortunate then that Winchester has no fewer than five which actually claim to be haunted themselves.

The most famous tale of all is set in the Eclipse Inn near the cathedral, where the tragic figure of Lady Alice Lisle has been seen in an upstairs window, gazing down on The Square below where she was executed by Judge Jeffries in September 1685. She may also haunt the ladies toilets as many a female customer has mentioned an odd chill and strange feeling when visiting the loos.

Another sorry story is behind the old woman’s spirit haunting the Hyde Tavern. Dating from the 17th century, this lovely inn stands outside the boundaries of the old city walls and when this elderly pilgrim came looking for shelter there one snowy winter’s night she was turned cruelly away. Found dead the next morning from hypothermia, it is said her spirit still struggles to keep warm as guests in the inn’s rooms have been awoken by unseen hands pulling away their bedclothes and leaving them chilled to the bone.

Royal visit
A wealth of royal patronage has bequeathed some surprisingly regal spectres. King Charles II wanders the Cathedral Close, where a bricked up doorway in an old wall once led to the home of his lover Nell Gwynn.
Perhaps more dignified than the merry monarch sneaking off to his mistress, the cowled figures of Alfred the Great, his wife Alswitha and son Edward are said to emerge from Victorian houses built upon the site of their graves. That their real tombs have been excavated elsewhere entirely has done nothing to dampen the local belief in this tale!

The limping monk
The cathedral, begun in 1079 under the direct orders of William the Conqueror, is the scene for more than one ghostly encounter. Centuries of dead clergymen are buried there and, if local people are to be believed, not all of them remain resting peacefully beneath the ground.  One particular monk has been witnessed many times limping around the cloisters and towards an odd pile of stone, where he then disappears. 
Interestingly, this pile is all that remains of the original site of the cathedral’s west wall and there would almost certainly have once stood a doorway there. Perhaps even more curious, during excavations of the site, among the many skeletons of monks found was one with a deformity of the hip, meaning he would have walked in life with a limp...

Lady in black
Not so innocent is the presence felt just around the corner, in a little walkway known as Water Close. Late at night, when darkness fills this narrow walkway and a certain point has been reached where even the light of the stars is blocked out by the boughs of an overhanging tree, ladies have been known to feel a sinister unseen hand push them forward. They then ‘trip’ over something unseen on the ground, but which they report as having the unmistakeable feeling of a dead body.

The poet Keats, one of Winchester’s most famous visitors, reported seeing
a ghost on the night of his arrival. He wrote in his diary about an inexplicable fear he felt at seeing an old lady in black dress and lace hat tapping a stick as she walked behind him along Colebrook Street. He was left even more frightened when she walked up to a door with a lion’s head knocker, number 26, and simply vanished from sight.

Haunted High Street
Of course, an historic city sees many of her buildings put to modern-day uses quite unforeseen by their original occupants. Like the Hambledon Shop at 10 The Square, whose cellar forms part of all that remains of William the Conqueror’s great palace. Poor Alice Lisle has been seen many times there. There is also a pizza restaurant that was once the home of Queen Emma, wife of Canute. Diners have reported hearing the noise of a rushing crowd coming from the passageway beside it, only to find nobody there when they go to investigate.

Ye Dolphin Inn on the High Street is now a clothes shop, inside which a decapitated head has been seen floating, while staff at Russell and Bromley’s shoe shop will not venture alone into the ancient cellar now put to use as a storeroom as something described as odd, strange and very nasty has been encountered there.

The drowning pony
Perhaps the strangest story of all is the one about a poor pony which got carried away by the leat flowing beneath the Broadway and towards the Abbey Gardens. This tragic creature drowned and its terrified whinnying can still be heard on dark nights when all around
is quiet.

Hair-raising tale
After hearing about all these ghosts, a last drink might be required to stiffen one’s nerves inside the Bell Inn at Saint Cross. During the 1960s a young man left there after an evening spent with friends and walked beside the nearby historic almshouses and towards his home. It was then that he came across the ghost of a cowled monk and, fleeing from its sight, sprinted back to the pub. There, to the amazement of his friends, it was found that his jet black hair had turned a snowy white.
Many restless spirits and strange spectres are said to be haunting Winchester. The question to ask this Halloween is, are you brave enough to look for them?