According to our calendar, on Wednesday 1 April we held our annual Ghost Census - a light-hearted entry for April Fool’s Day.

Hopefully, you won’t be too disappointed to discover that on that day there was no one wandering the corridors, checking in on our friendly spirits and spectres. No one counting the apparitions and wraiths, recording the objects moved or unexplained temperature changes. 

Like any old building though, Princethorpe does have a few ghost tales, some of which were shared by our Archivist recently on School Archives Day.

A disappearing priest (story from the 1970s – reported in 1985 College magazine.) 

An MSC priest who taught science at the College in the 1970s came back late one night, and was surprised to notice lights in the Chapel and the sound of the organ playing. When he went to investigate, the music stopped and he was met by an unknown priest who asked if he would assist him in saying Mass, to which he agreed. 

Immediately after Mass the unknown priest hurried into the vestry, while the MSC priest remained behind for a moment to put out the candles. On going into the vestry, the MSC priest found only a pile of vestments on the floor – the stranger had completely disappeared. 

Nobody else knew who the other priest might have been, or why he was at the College at that hour. Peter Rex, who wrote the piece for the College magazine, concluded the story by asking ‘Was it the spirit of some previous chaplain, returning to say a mass he had once neglected?’ 

The half nun (story from the 1970s – reported in 1985 College magazine.) 

During the 1970s, numerous first year boarders (the equivalent of today’s Year 7) reported seeing the figure of half a nun walking the corridors near the top floor dormitory (now S1, S2 and S3). 

Apparently there was no consensus among the boys as to which half of the nun it was (top or bottom, left or right)1; we also know that the older boarders were sometimes fond of playing tricks on the younger ones, so the jury’s out on this one!2 Either way, even by 1985 the College magazine reports that the half nun ‘has not been seen for some considerable time’. 

Civil War ghosts near the Woodhouse (story reported in 1985 College magazine.) 

Peter Rex’s piece in the College magazine states that on several occasions people had seen the following take place in a field on the bend in the Leamington Road, below Burnthurst Lane and near what was formerly the Woodhouse. Two figures – a man and a woman – in seventeenth-century clothing were seen running out of the woods into the field, followed by Roundhead soldiers. On reaching the middle of the field, the two people were surrounded by the soldiers, and then vanished. 

The grey nun on Burnthurst Lane (from ‘Midland Spirits and Spectres’ by Anne Bradford and Barrie Roberts.) 

In the early 1950s, a woman who lived on Burnthurst Lane had several sightings of a nun in a grey habit (the nuns of St Mary’s Priory wore black habits). Through her window, she saw the nun walking up the front path to her house, but when she opened the front door there was nobody there. 

Returning inside, the woman saw the nun passing one of her windows and walking towards the back door. Again, she opened the door and found no-one there. This occurred several times, always at around 4.30pm, and only in the summer months. 

Our archivist is always interested in your stories of Princethorpe, whether they include ghosts or not. If you have one to tell and photos to share why not email archives@princethorpe.co.uk.