Post by mattdean on Dec 14, 2004 15:39:59 GMT
I claim no credit for the following it is copied from the Collins 'Ghost Hunter's guide to Britain' published in 2000 - just so I won't have any policeman knocking on my door! 
St Osyth's Priory was founded by the Bishop of London, Richard de Bellmeis in 1121. The principal religious artefacts there are the bones of St Osyth, an abbess killed in 653 AD.
The legend of St Osyth is curious indeed. She was the daughter of king Frithewald of Mercia and Queen Wilburga. Betrothed to Sighere, King of Essex, she decided instead to take an oath of chastity and when Sighere accepted this he presented her with the nunnery of which she became abbess. In 653 AD Danish pagans attacked the area and she was killed by a sea captain because she refused to revoke her vows for him and refused to worship his gods. Acording to legend she was decapitated but picked up her own head and walked several hundred yards to the church of St Peter and St Paul. Unable to gain entry she died at the doorway and it is said that a spring of pure water burst from the ground where she died, the water able to heal the sick and the dying.
Her ghost is only one of many that have been reported through the ages at the priory.
In addition, a monk in white has been seen walking on the estate in the night, carrying a lighted candle.
From 1948 to the 1980's the priory housed a convalescent home run by nurses. One of those nurses, Mrs Joyce Bennett, lived near the Priory in the late 1970's and was called by a cleaning lady who was outside the office. The cleaner reported that 'the carpet had been trying to throw her up against the wall'. Not thinking of poltergeist activity presumably, Mrs Bennett failed to understand what the cleaner was trying to tell her. The carpet was fixed down for one thing. But she was able to witness this for herself as the carpet suddenly moved and threw the cleaner against the wall. That cleaner left, never to return and Mrs Bennett dsicovered that this had happened twice before.
When Mrs Bennett went into the laundry room on another occasion she saw someone else there and challenged them, knowing no-one else should be present. She asked what permission they had to be there. Suddenly the person wasn't there, only an icy patch indicating where the figure had been. She was later told that other people had seen the apparition of a monk there, walking through one of the wall of the room.
At one time, Mrs Bennett noticed a group of patients were sitting by a window, looking out, paying attention to some activity outside. She asked what they were looking at and was told: 'We are watching the monks walking side by side through the archway'. Mrs Bennett looked out but could not see any monks, indeed there were none at the priory at that time. However, she subsequently discovered that the location the patients had been indicating was a former monks' graveyard.
there - my fingers hurt now!! ;D
But I though that it would be an interesting place to do an investigation in? What does everyone think?
Matt
St Osyth's Priory was founded by the Bishop of London, Richard de Bellmeis in 1121. The principal religious artefacts there are the bones of St Osyth, an abbess killed in 653 AD.
The legend of St Osyth is curious indeed. She was the daughter of king Frithewald of Mercia and Queen Wilburga. Betrothed to Sighere, King of Essex, she decided instead to take an oath of chastity and when Sighere accepted this he presented her with the nunnery of which she became abbess. In 653 AD Danish pagans attacked the area and she was killed by a sea captain because she refused to revoke her vows for him and refused to worship his gods. Acording to legend she was decapitated but picked up her own head and walked several hundred yards to the church of St Peter and St Paul. Unable to gain entry she died at the doorway and it is said that a spring of pure water burst from the ground where she died, the water able to heal the sick and the dying.
Her ghost is only one of many that have been reported through the ages at the priory.
In addition, a monk in white has been seen walking on the estate in the night, carrying a lighted candle.
From 1948 to the 1980's the priory housed a convalescent home run by nurses. One of those nurses, Mrs Joyce Bennett, lived near the Priory in the late 1970's and was called by a cleaning lady who was outside the office. The cleaner reported that 'the carpet had been trying to throw her up against the wall'. Not thinking of poltergeist activity presumably, Mrs Bennett failed to understand what the cleaner was trying to tell her. The carpet was fixed down for one thing. But she was able to witness this for herself as the carpet suddenly moved and threw the cleaner against the wall. That cleaner left, never to return and Mrs Bennett dsicovered that this had happened twice before.
When Mrs Bennett went into the laundry room on another occasion she saw someone else there and challenged them, knowing no-one else should be present. She asked what permission they had to be there. Suddenly the person wasn't there, only an icy patch indicating where the figure had been. She was later told that other people had seen the apparition of a monk there, walking through one of the wall of the room.
At one time, Mrs Bennett noticed a group of patients were sitting by a window, looking out, paying attention to some activity outside. She asked what they were looking at and was told: 'We are watching the monks walking side by side through the archway'. Mrs Bennett looked out but could not see any monks, indeed there were none at the priory at that time. However, she subsequently discovered that the location the patients had been indicating was a former monks' graveyard.
there - my fingers hurt now!! ;D
But I though that it would be an interesting place to do an investigation in? What does everyone think?
Matt
