Storyteller: The ghosts of Powderham Castle

Every Summer, my partner and I have a date at Powderham Castle, where we attend the Let’s Rock Exeter 80s Day in its magnificent grounds. We have been doing this for many years now, and it's always an enjoyable day out, as long as the weather behaves itself!
This year it was on Saturday, July 1, which started out a bit blustery, but ultimately was a warm and sunny day. As I sat there in the VIP area, soaking up the sounds and the atmosphere, my mind drifted back to previous times when I’ve visited the Powderham area, for the church and the castle are both very haunted...
I was first drawn to the church after hearing reports that spooky figures are often seen in the vicinity of the graveyard. I visited, by day and night, to see if we might get lucky and capture something on camera. Sadly, we didn’t experience anything unusual there.
The castle itself is said to have a haunted room, as well as many secret passageways. The only way to visit them is to join a guided tour, so, many years ago, we did. Unfortunately, as much of the building is still lived in by the owners, visitors are dissuaded from taking any pictures or videos, and, although I enjoyed our look around, I found this restriction very disappointing from an investigators point of view.
Subsequently, I did hear a tale about a Japanese tourist, who, having been shown the haunted room and told about the ban on photography, deliberately hung back from his tour party, in order to satisfy his own curiosity, and take some pictures. The story goes that the tourist rushes after his group, screaming, as if he has seen a ghost! He collapses, and when he finally comes round, refuses to say what he has seen. A little bit of research helps to fill in the blanks...
Powderham Castle was built in 1379 by Sir Phillip Courtenay, and passed down through the generations, until it has become home to the 19th Earl and Countess of Devon, and their children. They seem to be fairly open minded about the fact they live in a haunted house, and tell a story about their son, who would regularly come into his parents’ room at night, too afraid to sleep on his own, until one night he didn’t...questioned the next morning about why he didn’t, his reply was that a nice lady in grey had tucked him into bed and looked after him. From that day onwards, he was never scared of ghosts again.
The Grey Lady has often been seen wandering around the estate, mainly in the library, or following a route between the castle and the church. She is said to be the spirit of Lady Frances, who married Viscount Courtenay in 1741. Twenty years later, at the age of 40, she was dead.
Some stories say that the lady who walks the corridors, was killed in a carriage accident, that the sound of a carriage over gravel can often be heard around the estate. Was this the tragic fate of Lady Frances? Do her appearances really act as an ill omen, especially presaging the death of the head of the household?
During the Second World War, she was blamed for several strange occurrences during the blackouts. Having made sure that all the curtains had been secured over all the castle windows, in advance of an air-raid, all the household had proceeded outside, feeling they would be safer there, only to find that the curtains were wide open, and a light shining brightly, from what was known as the haunted room.
On the occasion of the birth of an heir to the estate, on the night of another air-raid, shutters that had been nailed open just that morning, were found to have been nailed shut by unseen hands. Maybe the Grey Lady didn’t have it in for the heirs to the estate after all.
Someone whose sighting of a local ghost wasn’t quite so lucky, was a friend of the rector of Powderham Church. One evening, the rector and his friend were out walking near the church, when they spotted two figures ahead of them that they were sure were the wife and child of the friend. Before they could catch up and make sure, the figures disappeared into the churchyard. The friend thought nothing more of the odd sighting, until three weeks later, when his daughter died very suddenly.
A good friend of mine used to live in the rectory by Powderham Church, and he once had a most extraordinary experience there. One night, he and his siblings had been left at home by their parents, and as the time for their return drew near, they went out to open the gates to the driveway. As they stood and waited, they all saw a horse drawn carriage come up the lane towards them, go through the church gates opposite, up the church path and into the church itself! Was this Lady Frances making another of her appearances?
The other regular sighting around the castle, is of a woman carrying a child, and the explanation behind this particular haunting is quite macabre. Over 200 years ago, whilst carrying out some renovations in what’s known as the Guard Tower, workmen found one of the walls to be hollow. Breaking through, they found themselves in a secret room, containing the bones of a woman and child.
In the past, the lineage of a powerful family was carefully guarded and maintained. Sadly, it would seem, somebody felt that the only way to keep their sordid little secret, was to brick up the mother and unwanted child, and just let them starve to death. Even though the remains were given a proper burial in Powderham Church, their ghosts are still seen to this day, in what is now known as the Haunted Room. Sometimes just a disembodied hand materialises through a solid wall. Maybe this is what the Japanese tourist witnessed, and never wanted to talk about?
All this research has made me want to pay another visit to the castle, and, who knows, maybe one day we might be invited to hold a proper investigation there.