Haunted Salisbury Weekender - 4th to 6th September 2009

Join us on a Haunted weekend in historical Salisbury. Salisbury with at least 6,000 years of history has a number of haunted and historical buildings. Paranormal Tours are excited at what we've lined up for this special "weekender". Our base camp for the weekend will be at The Kings Arms Hotel now family run, the Kings Arms Hotel is situated within the heart of picturesque Salisbury. A listed Tudor building rumoured to have housed both King Charles 1st and 2nd.

Our other location is also new to Paranormal Tours, The Kings House Museum. The Kings House is a Grade I listed building whose history stretches back to the early 13th Century. The museum itself houses many wonderful and historic artefacts from Wiltshire’s prestigious past including that of items and a burial from Stonehenge, the famous "Amesbury Archer", early Beaker People items and hundreds of lost pieces found onwards from 1854 when workmen started to put in a new sewer system, starting in Salisbury High Street. It's amazing what had been lost in the street and now recovered and on display for all to see.

To keep you busy over this weekend we have also organised a private visit and tour of Salisbury Cathedral. For over 750 years pilgrims have come to Salisbury to seek inspiration in the glory and peace of the building and surrounding Cathedral Close. Whether you come to marvel at or to be awed by the beauty and scale of the cathedral interior or to study the original Magna Carta in the Chapter House this will be great insight into one of the finest Medieval Cathedrals in Britain.

To carry on the Paranormal theme we have organised a private evening ghost walk around the city followed by an exclusive tour of another haunted location, The Wardrobe Rifles Museum. The Wardrobe is now a military museum called The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum and is situated in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close. There are thousands of artefacts on display and in the reserve collection relating to wars in and including Afghanistan, China, the Crimea, South Africa and the First and Second World Wars. The collection includes weapons, uniforms, medicines and even grave markers! Each item has a history attached to it. Paranormal Tours have conducted a number of investigations at this historic location and has some interesting results.

So all in all a there will be plenty to keep you busy on this fabulous 3 day event.

Situated in the very heart of historic Salisbury, The Kings Arms Hotel lies within easy reach of some of the most important treasures of Southern England. The stone for Salisbury cathedral was cut in what is now the restaurant, placing the hotel's initial construction around the same as that of the cathedral, which was built in 1220 AD, making the original building almost 800 years old. Some of the original stone and ironwork is still left exposed inside the property.

It is also claimed that King Charles I stayed in the hotel on his tour of England, whilst trying to retain his head during the civil war, and that his son King Charles II also stayed in the same room and planned his escape to France through Southampton and on to the Netherlands.

The building today consists of two and three storeys in parts with attic spaces with the west side being from around the late 1500's and the north range part of the building being of an early 17th Century structure. In 1638 the property was leased by the Dean & Chapter to William Symonds, records detailing '...newly erected house, heretofore seven tenements commonly called the Seven Deadly Sins'.

In 1649 the house was then leased to Sir Giles Mompesson and occupied by a Henry Hewett. Along with being a living dwelling, the building has been split in times to make way for shops and trading places including one time being that of a stonemasons workshop. Today, the hotel is a family run business offering the finest hospitality, restaurant and atmosphere.

Activity

Paranormal activity at this location is many and varied, recent activity includes that of a fire door opening and closing on its own and staff living at the hotel hearing furniture being moved around in the bar area below.

The housekeepers have a real dislike of the atmosphere in certain rooms, feelings of being watched bestowed upon them. Sensitives that have stayed in the hotel have sensed a female presence in a couple of the rooms and also that of a highwayman hiding away in the upper floors.

The Kings House is a Grade I listed building whose history stretches back to the early 13th Century. 1220, following a meeting in a flat meadow, the Abbot of Sherborne wandered over to the plot of land that had been allocated to him for his new house, right in front of the currently under construction cathedral. He, and his successors set about to build and over time rebuild what was named, Sherborne Place.

After the Dissolution in 1539, the Dean and Chapter were eventually granted the freehold and the house itself was occupied by a series of tennants. It was deemed to be fit for a king, when King Charles visited and stayed here on two occasions in 1610 and 1613. One of the rooms in the house still bears his coat of arms in memory of these events. It was from this time that the current name of 'The Kings House' came and was changed in 1780 in memory of these royal visits.

Throughout most of the 18th century the house was owned by members of the Beach family however mostly sub-let to numerous tennants. One memorable tennant is that of a Mrs Voysey who ran a school for young ladies until 1799. Another famouse resident was that of Lieutenant-General Henry Shrapnel, the inventor of the explosive shell that bears his name. Another military resident was that of Sir John ("Black Jack") Slade (1st Baronet) making General in 1837.

After this time the house was then subdivided and Miss Margaret Bazley, the mistress of the Godolphin School, was one of two tennants. The school subsequently moved into Kings House until 1848 when an outbreak of cholera forced a move away to Milford Hill.

From 1851 to 1978 the teaching them continued when it was home to the Diocesan Training College for School-mistresses, latterly the College of Sarum St. Michael. After the closure of the college the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum bought a 125-year lease on the building and from 1981 the King's House opened its doors to the general public.

The museum itself houses many wonderful and historic artefacts from Wiltshires prestigious past including that of items and a burial from Stonehenge, the famouse Amesbury Archer, early Beaker People items and hundreds of lost pieces found onwards from 1854 when workmen started to put in a new sewer system, starting in Salisbury High Street. It's amazing what had been lost in the street and now recovered and on display for all to see.

As befits and historic house, the King's House has its own share of ghosts and legends. There is said to be a 'Grey Lady' haunting the north staircase area and that of a horseman who rides across the rear lawn. This horseman also coincides with a similar report from The Wardrobe Rifles Museum only a few buildings down on the same stretch of land. Blasts of ice-cold air, strange knockings and strange temperature fluctuations have been experienced by members of the museums staff.

Another legend is that there is said to be a bloodstained stone somewhere in the building which will not wash away. This is thought to be that from Henry Stafford, 2nd Earl of Buckingham that was beheaded on 2nd November by Richard III for treason on his part in the Rebellion of 1483. Stafford was also one of the main suspects for murder and disappearance of the 'Princes of the Tower' (Edward V of England (November 4, 1470 - 1483) and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York) but never proved. Does his spirit still remain at The King's House and where exactly is this bloodstained stone?

Transportation to and from the locations (all are short walking distances from the Hotel)

Parking (all day parking available at nearby car parks to the hotel, free after 6pm)