Ghosts at Christmas by Darren W. Ritson Read Free Book Online Page B

accident to the vicar’s carriage at Monkton Wells owing to one of the horses seeing a ghost. As mentioned by ‘B.T.’ in last weeks Herald . As regards to the ghost of a monk recently seen in the Roundhouse, well many years ago the ghost of a monk used to be seen disappearing towards the quarry adjoining Monks Wood. I was once told by a very old workman, who had worked at the Priory in his younger days, that on Christmas Eve at midnight the monks could be seen walking down the steps leading from the upper room of the old Roundhouse, and making their way towards the priory barn.
    So, why do the monks haunt this area? Well, it has been suggested that the Round House was known as a ‘counting house’ during the monk’s occupation of the priory, and by all accounts it had been ‘tampered with’ in some way. Unfortunately, my source does not go into details as to what happened there, but categorically states that, ‘As if to protest this sacrilege, the ghosts of the monks have taken to haunt.’
T HE B ATTLE OF E DGEHILL , W ARWICKSHIRE
    On 23 October 1642 the Battle of Edgehill took place in Warwickshire. Twenty-four thousand men fought against each other, with many men perishing on the battlefield. The ironic thing is that that particular battle had no victors, with both armies eventually making off in their respective directions after camping out on the battlefield after the fight. The battle was fought between Charles I – who had 11,000 men – and the Earl of Essex – who had 13,000 men – on the sloped banks of Edgehill over-looking the Avon Valley, south of Warwick, and it marked the onset of the English Civil War.
    Sixty-two days after the battle, on Christmas Eve, the sounds of battle cries, galloping and neighing horses, and the thud of far-off drums being beaten were heard by three wandering shepherds and many other locals. Then, out of the blue, the two armies appeared in phantom form in the skies over Edgehill, battling out once more the fight that had recently occurred there. This spectral scene was reported to have lasted for many hours before it slowly faded into the ether, leaving the skies over Edgehill silent once more.
    Those who saw the spectral forms on 24 December 1642 rushed off to sign declarations to bear witness to what they had seen. This resulted in many people gathering at the site the following night to see if the phantom soldiers would return oncemore. December 25 1642 saw the Battle of Edgehill being played out once more in spectral form, giving many more people a chance to see, and verify for themselves, these ghastly visions of brutal warfare. Many people continued to return to the site to see for themselves what everyone was by now talking about but for the next four of five days the vision failed to appear. It was almost a week later (some suggest 31 December) when the ghost armies appeared once more, much to the delight of those who were awaiting them. Interestingly, when King Charles I heard about the visions, he sent some of his men to see the spectacle. It is reported that a number of these men saw the re-enactment and actually recognised some of their fellow comrades while doing so. They all testified this on oath to Charles I.
    The following evening, the phantom soldiers took to the battlefields (or battle skies in this case) for one last time before fading away into the atmosphere, never to be seen again. However, it is said that for many years after the Battle of Edgehill, on 23 October, the sounds of the battle could be heard as though it was being played out yet again, only this time no visions appeared. Peter Underwood comments in his book The A–Z of British Ghosts that within the space of twelve months of the battle being fought, a small pamphlet was published that described the spectral re-enactment of the armies that fought each other on that fateful day back in 1642. It is thanks to these writings that the story of Edgehill remains in our modern-day literature, and