Oakwell Hall seems to be having a renaissance period at the moment, ‘Shirley’ a gorgeous house linked to the Bronte Sisters, with tales of crisis apparition. The house has been relatively ignored by ‘ghost hunters’, but thats changed somehow ?
Classified as a Crisis Apparition: Possible Veridical Haunting (Hallucination)
Oakwell Hall in Batley, West Yorkshire is a local haunt of mine ‘so to speak’ it has a famous legend. The ghost of William Batt, a former owner of Oakwell Hall in 1684 the ghost story comes from the Victorian writer Mrs Gaskell in her “Life of Charlotte Bronte”.
“Captain Batt was believed to be far away; his family was at Oakwell; when in the dusk on winter evening, he came stalking along the lane, through the hall and up the stairs, into his own room, where he vanished. He has been killed in duel in London that very same afternoon of December 9th 1684.”
“Captain Batt was believed to be far away; his family was at Oakwell; when in the dusk on winter evening, he came stalking along the lane, through the hall and up the stairs, into his own room, where he vanished. He has been killed in duel in London that very same afternoon of December 9th 1684.”
Jules (right) at Oakwell Hall
A classic crisis apparition sighting, there is a legend that he left a bloody footprint behind in a bedroom, I remember seeing a dark stain on the floorboards many years ago but I can’t remember which room I saw it in. Maybe it was just my young imagination.
A more modern witness saw children playing in the rear garden the children were wearing period costume they ran off into a dead end part of the garden totally vanishing into thin air and never to be found outside nor inside the hall.
This is the back garden where the small children in period costume were seen by two visitors, only to just run off into a dead end disappear into thin air.
Location: Birstall – Oakwell Hall
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 09 December 1684 (Crisis Manifestation), other sighting in 1987
Further Comments: William’s family saw him enter the hall on 09 December (some sources say Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, according to other accounts); they were surprised as they thought he was in London at the time. However, William suddenly disappeared and the following day the family discovered he had been killed in London around the time of his mysterious appearance. A woman wearing a Tudor dress was spotted hear in 1987 by an employee. The ghost stood by a window for several minutes before disappearing.
Wikipedia entry
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 09 December 1684 (Crisis Manifestation), other sighting in 1987
Further Comments: William’s family saw him enter the hall on 09 December (some sources say Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, according to other accounts); they were surprised as they thought he was in London at the time. However, William suddenly disappeared and the following day the family discovered he had been killed in London around the time of his mysterious appearance. A woman wearing a Tudor dress was spotted hear in 1987 by an employee. The ghost stood by a window for several minutes before disappearing.
Wikipedia entry
