Annesley Exclusive

How it started......

It was a nice summers day evening, and we were having a wonder around the old church (Annesley Old Church) attached to Annesley hall, and was fascinated to see the back of the Hall in plain site, not to mention the amount of graves in the church yard that once was the souls of those who lived and worked in annesley hall.

The church now stands in ruin and is a grade 1 listed building now maintained by A.D.C.

In 1356 after the terrible period of the black death a third church was built close to the ancestral home of the Annesley family, Annesley Hall. This is what we know today as Annesley Old Church.

There use to be an effigy of a knight wearing a patterned cap with roses on it, laid to rest here and is considered by some to be that of Sir Henry Chaworth, from the Tudor period. Although The Hills of Annesley by Lyons suggests its Sir George Chaworth, a knight who died in 1589. In1924, permission was granted to remove the ancient font from the Old Church, the same documentmentation also permits the removal of what is called a "Crusader's Effigy" from the Old Church in order to place it along the West Wall of the church on the North Side of the West Door. In 1975 the effigy was moved to the North Aisle.

A effigy of a lady, from about 1220, was rescued from the Old Church by the KCS in 1977 and depicts a heart burial. It is considered to be an effigy of Leonia de Raines, the sister of Ralph Britto de Annesley, who gave the Norman church into the care of the monks of Felley Priory in 1158. Some versions give her name as Leonia de Raines, but the Order of Service for her rededication uses Raines. Bess of Hardwick (of Hardwick Hall ) was one of her descendants.

We were happily snapping away photos when we were asked by security what we were doing and why we were there. So many people have damaged the Old Church and the Stones and along with the Hall the Church is patrolled by security guards and the police.

After explaining what we were doing there he escorted us around pointing out interesting facts. Thank you!!!! :)

Standing proud is a monument of a anchor to George Chaworth Muster commander R.N Traveller, lost in South America

The Annesley area was referred to in the early works of Lord Byron, in particular 'Hills of Annesley' and 'The Dream'. The latter is assumed to be located on Diadem Hill, from which there was once breathtaking views of Annesley Hall and church.

Today Diadem hill is enclosed by a dual carriageway and has been extensively planted with conifer trees for logging.

Mary Ann Chaworth (1785-1832) lived at the adjacent Annesley Hall and was romantically involved with the young poet Byron. They first met in 1803 when Byron was 10 and Mary 12; Byron was on holiday from Harrow School came to stay at Newstead. He often rode over to Annesley Hall, afterwards staying the night. But it wasn't to be. She thought him a 'lame, bashful, boy lord', though Byron later wrote "Had I married Miss Chaworth perhaps the whole tenor of my life would have been different." Instead, Mary Chaworth was married in All Saints church to John Musters in 1805, and she walked from the Hall which was only a few yards from the Church, to her wedding.

As it happened, Mary Chaworth was the Grand Niece of the Lord William Chaworth who had been spitted on a sword by 'Wicked Jack' Byron, the poet's great uncle. Lord Chaworth was killed in the duel, which took place at the Star & Garter Club, London. The Byron family's solicitor, a Mr Hanson, had suggested to a younger Byron the poet that as Miss Chaworth was only a year or two older then he had better marry her. "What Mr. Hanson", replied the well-read boy, "the Capulets and Montegues intermarry"?

Mary Chaworth's marriage to John Musters deteriorated and on 23 December 1814 she started writing to Byron. He had become famous by then and was no longer interested. Mary separated from her husband on 10 April 1814 and tried to visit Byron in Hastings, but he ran off just in time. In the following years she became mentally unstable. Her son, Volunteer 1st Class Musters, died of malaria in Brazil in 1832 during a voyage with the ship The Beagle, shortly after he had become a new friend of Charles Darwin. She died in 1832 and there's a memorial for her in the 'new' All Saints Church, Annesley.

The first reference to a church at Annesley was in 1156, when the "tithes of Annesley Church" were given to Felly Priory. The early 12th century church would have been a simple rectangular stone building, but it was altered in the 13th century to replace the apse. A new south aisle was built in the second half of the 14th century and a square tower was added to the west end of the church at about the same time.

By the 1930's the church was in disuse and "almost ruined beyond repair". One of the conditions of the sale to Ashfield District Council was that the church walls should be lowered to a safe height, the roof having long since gone, and the upper portion of the tower was to be removed.

As previously mentioned, the church is sited only a few yards from Annesley Hall. According to "White's Directory of Nottinghamshire 1853":

Annesley Hall, the seat of Captain Phillip Hammond, is a large ancient mansion, surrounded by a fine park, well stocked with deer, and extensive woods. The church, dedicated to All Saints, stands on a gentle eminence near the Hall, and has a tower with five bells. The living is a perpetual curacy, certified at £52. The trustees of the late John Musters Esq. are the impropriators and patrons, and the Rev. Richard Howard Frizell is the incumbent. A feast is held on the nearest Sunday to Old All Saints Day.

We would like to thank A.D.C for much historical information and word of mouth urban legends from Carl

We did what!!!!!

So after making the necessary arrangements we were there 11pm on a hot July night and it was pitch black, when I say black you can see nothing at all,

All we were armed with between us is a torch, two cameras (Cannon Eos 400D Digital) and an E.M.F meter.

The eerily rustling trees put us on edge, but we decided to turn off our torches and get accustomed to the darkness with our own eyes.

The Hall looks so different at night and it would be quite easy to get lost, everything looks the same, we are so grateful we have such a great guide.

We started off by walking through the gatehouse with the famous clock tower; much of the hall is in ruin and is unsafe so we were very careful as to where we were standing.

Our first point of call was apparently the servants quarters, where our guide said that he was there one evening and along with himself (by the way he is quite sceptical - not easily led) another person saw a face of a man in the door way with black hair swept back, as quick as it materialised it disappeared into the darkness..

We spent a while taking shoots, our aim was not necessarily to catch anything but to really enjoy the evening with the history.

We moved around the entire Hall and gardens within the next 3 hours taking everything in, snapping as many photos as we could.

So what we bring you now is the photos with a description of any story behind the picture and also the Orbs we caught on camera.

We did have a funny experience… The Hall has many booby traps set up by the staff there, and after disabling one on the traps we moved around the Hall, but on the way back out one of us became entwined in this very fine fishing line, and as we were walking forward in the near dark we were getting more and more tangled up, which in turn was moving this metal pin near another room.

It sounded like bells, so we froze and were all looking at the door in eager anticipation of maybe Byron himself, snapping along and talking out loud until….

We noticed what had happened, it just goes to show that everything is not what it seems sometimes, it did lighten the damp musky atmosphere I must admit.

Anyway less of the chat and onto the photo….

Squire Charworthot got one his servant girls pregnant, wanting to avoid a scandal they packed off the young girl to live with an Aunt in Nothumberland. But unlike most the Squire made sure that the girl left with a purse full of silver, and sent regular maintanace to the girl as the birth was approaching.

Although the servant girl could not write the Aunt send regular letters back to Annesley.

After a period of time the young girl gave birth to a healthy baby boy, in turn the squire sent larger payments to make sure they were both well taken care of. In return the young girls Aunt sent many letters keeping the squire upto date with his son's progress even sending a lock of hair!

All seemed well with this arrangement, but one evening a groom of the household saw the girl wondering around the gardens looking pale and sick.

Concerned the groom called out to her, surely supprised to see her.

She simply ignored him and faded away, worried the groom ran into the house to inform the squire of what he had just seen, the Squire in turn sent his Steward to Northumberland to see if indeed the girl and his son were "well and healthy".

After a travel the Steward was horrified, not only to find out the young girl died shortly after giving birth, but her son was put into a workhouse by his Aunt.

The Aunt had pocketed the money to fund a lavish lifestyle. Wearing a bonnet and a shawl the girl is still seen today wandering the grounds for help, she is still seen today.

Is this the same young woman without her bonnet who sits by the well in the garden?

The Old Church, located behind the Hall habours its own residents. A man wearing a black cloak or cape is seen crossing the road upto the Church, is he a vicar wearing a cassock, or could it be James Annesley? James was thought to had died after a fall in Ireland, although after many years he turned up in London declaring that he had been sold into slavery in the American Colonies. He escaped and married a girl while working as a fur trapper, unfortunately his wife passed away.

Devastated, James took a job as a seaman and found his way back to England, he fought his wicked Uncle Baron Richard Annesley and was given his own private apartments within the Hall and a private income (sufficent to keep him quiet the wicked Baron must had thought!). Whoever the spectre is, they certainly seem devoted to the old ruin.

A womans ghost has been caught above a staircase where the a woman's body was found.

She is thought to have met with a violent death after she was made pregnant by a member of the landed gentry.

28th July 2008 11-30pm

It had been such a hot day and we were so tired, but after pulling up to the slip road the blood rush kicked in.

We had such a weird feeling, the whole Hall seemed darker than before, waiting for the guide seemed to take ages, but we were pleased to see him when he pulled up.

The weather conditions were perfect, it was calm and warm.

Armed with our cameras, EMF meters and mobile's we set off into the grounds.

Have you ever had that feeling that someone is watching you? You turn around and there is nothing there, but you know that eyes are on you?

that's how we felt.

The hairs on the back of our neck were stiff!

We carried on calmly walking around the grounds taking as many shots as we could, shots of anything in the hopes of catching something on film.

We had made a deal though at the beginning of the night that we would not look at the images until we arrived back home safe and sound (in case we did see anything!)

We were told about another Urban Legend by our good friend Carl, adjoining the gate house is the servants quarters, one young lady was unfortunate to fall pregnant by the Squire of the Hall at that time.

The unfortunate woman's name was Mary, she hung herself from the rafters in the servants quarters, and is said to roam around the area, the place she took her life, imortalised forever in the place she once called home. The head and shoulders of a woman at a window in the servants' quarters has also been seen.

To see the orbs we caught look to the gallery on your left- what do you think?