Name: Blickling Hall
Locality: Blickling, Norfolk NR11 6NF
Built: 1619-27
Owner: National Trust
Grade I
Website: NT
Tall tales myths and legends
We arrived at Blickling Hall on a gorgeous sunny day. This building is one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. A Jacobean mansion with hedging that has taken years to grow and shape, the place looked like something from a children’s fairytale. But behind this pretty facade hides some legendary spooky tales. The most famous ghostly spectre who re-visits the grounds is that of Anne Boleyn the second wife to Henry VIII. Blickling Hall was the ancestral home to Anne, she was subsequently executed by her husband King Henry for miscarrying a boy child, he had her beheaded for not producing a male heir to the throne. Locals have reported seeing a blue light then visions of a bloody oozing head in Anne’s lap.
Her shade has been sighted travelling at high speed in a spectral carriage pulled by headless horses and a headless horseman who is said to be that of her father Thomas Boleyn, who after his death was condemned to driving this spectral carriage with his headless daughter in the back for a thousand years, he had to drive over 12 bridges before the early morning cock crowed out.
The original hall where Anne lived stood near the large lake not the Jacobean mansion you see today. One night a local man who was driving his car on the road past the hall braked suddenly nearly over-turning his vehicle after seeing what could only be described as a dark shadowy mass that was moving very fast up the road towards him, he was very sure he had heard horses hooves. Apparently he still has the insurance claim form with the date of the accident written on it, May 19th which coincidentally is the anniversary of the execution of Anne Boleyn!
Another story is that of Sir Henry Hobart who was the 4th Baronet of Blickling Hall, he had had a quarrel following a parliament election and got involved in a duel with Oliver Le Neve. He came worse off after been stabbed by Neve and he died of his injuries in his bedchamber in the western turret at Blickling Hall.
Creepy groaning noises have been heard by staff in this very room on the anniversary of his death, people have also described that this area of the building has a strangely odd atmosphere compared to the rest of the hall. One of the staff members dogs totally refuses to enter that particular room, instead it just stands there in the doorway snarling at an invisible force. An RAF officer who was a complete sceptic in his beliefs into the supernatural stayed in this room, but was made to question his beliefs after seeing three doors shut simultaneously!
View Larger Map
