The Saturday Strangeness

By NeilA Last edited 186 months ago
The Saturday Strangeness
Ghost dog

71. A Gaggle Of Ghosts: Part One

With All Hallows Eve just over a month away I'd like to share with you some of London's finest, although not necessarily most known ghost stories which The Saturday Strangeness has been bereft of since its beginnings.

Sutton House at Hackney, built in 1535 and in the care of the National Trust, is most certainly a very haunted building. In 1990 an architect visiting the premises encountered a ghostly blue lady whilst he was laying in bed. The figure hovered above him, and appeared to be a rather aggressive spectre that also shook the bed of a house steward more recently.

A white phantom lady also haunts the place and is said to be the deceased wife of John Machell who once owned the house. She died during childbirth in the house during the 1570s. However, the eeriest spirits which the house harbours are spectral dogs, which also date back to the middle of the 1500s when Mr Machell, who was then a wealthy wool merchant, owned such animals. Their banshee-like wails are often said to reverberate around the rooms, especially at night when a majority of apparitions are said to wander and act.

Dogs are emblazoned on the family coat of arms, and anyone who visits the house with their own dogs are sure to be in for a surprise, for it is often noted how such animals act rather strangely as if in the presence of some unseen entity. The ghostly dogs are said to loiter at the top of the staircase for it is at the bottom of the stairs that visiting dogs sit, and refuse to go any further, yet always stare wildly up the flight.

Photo by Terminalnomad Photography on flickr

Last Updated 20 September 2008