The ghosts of Hadley Hall

Sir Charles Hadley was trying to remember if he 350 years old or 400? In any case a year or two either way didn’t make too much difference. He knew he was expected to be somewhere but for the life of him couldn’t think where it was supposed to be. ‘Oh well that was old age for you!’ he thought, and then it suddenly came to him, he was supposed to greet the tourists as they arrived to look at his home. Ever since his latest ancestor had decided to open the Hall to visitors he’d been in a bit of a muddle.

Haunting wasn’t the same these days he thought as he walked through walls and locked doors, Then at last he came down to the ground floor and took up his place at the foot of the Grand Staircase.

----O----

Joan had always wanted to see the Ghosts of Hadley Hall for herself. Her husband however didn’t believe in them. “I’m not going to spend money to see a lot of actors wearing sheets and make up pretending to be ghosts.” Then he went to the pub for a drink with his mates.

His opinion didn’t stop Joan’s intention but there were also the kids to consider. But in the natural course of events children grow up and leave home! Then her husband died shortly after a long drinking session at his pub, and at last Joan was free to do as she wished. So she bought a coach ticket for a day trip to Hadley Hall. The driver already had a book full of tickets to give to his passengers and Joan made sure she was the first person off the coach to get into the Hall before the rush.

A man dressed in very old fashioned clothes greeted her at the foot of the staircase and told her that she should visit the portrait gallery to get the best idea of the history of the place. He was a real gentleman and insisted that she was on the right hand side of the staircase so that she could hold on to the banister as they walked up together.

When they reached the top he pointed out that she should turn right to see the portraits. He’d been such a kind gentleman and she’d completely forgotten her manners in the excitement of finally being in the Hall. She turned to wave her thanks after leaving him and had rather a shock as she saw him walking through the wall at the top of the stairs. That experience certainly changed her mind about her husband’s belief that all ghosts were fakes.

The very first owner of the Hall had been Sir Charles Hadley; the building had been finished in 1640. He wasn’t very lucky when the civil war broke out, he’d fled from an attack by Cromwell’s troops and his horse didn’t quite manage to clear the stream he was asked to jump. Of course the fact that the horse was carrying all Sir Charles gold and jewels in the saddle bags at the time might have had something to do with it. Unsurprisingly Sir Charles fell from his horse and drowned.

Since then he’d haunted the Hall searching for his lost fortune. After about 350 years the owners and staff at the Hall had become used to his search and for years took little notice when they saw him.

In 1950 in the aftermath of the second world war the current owner, who in the tradition of the estate was also named Sir Charles, began to find the upkeep of the property becoming to expensive for his private pocket. Like several landowners of the time he decided to open the Hall to the public.

Nowadays some of the family were beginning to talk to Sir Charles’ ghost, as he took more and more interest in the running of a tourist attraction.

With a well behaved ghost wandering round in the building and grounds, Hadley Hall soon became famous and people flocked there in large numbers. Sir Charles would greet visitors as they arrived and after taking their entrance money, direct them to the Hall. Once there the ghostly Sir Charles in his 300 year old clothes would greet them also and lead them upstairs. Then he would fade from view to the delight of the crowd and unknown to them take up a position in the portrait gallery.

This became one of his favourite moments of the day, as the tourists walked past his portrait many of them would comment on the amazingly life like quality of the painting. At that moment he would often step out of the picture frame and make everyone jump, or sometimes he would materialise just behind the person making the comments and start an argument about the accuracy of his portrait.
Apart from making his visitors jump he was unfailingly polite and if any of his victims became upset he would always apologise profusely.

There was only one place in the building where he would never go. A 1907 Rolls Royce Solver Ghost bought by one of his descendants was kept in pristine condition in one of the old stables on the premises. Visitors were allowed to look over a rope preventing them from touching the sparkling car and getting sticky fingerprints on its paintwork. The car had been bought because it was capable of breaking the 60mph barrier and its owner had been obsessed with the thrill of speed.

Occasionally on fine warm days with little wind, the current owner would drive slowly round the estate in the car just to show off the vehicle and keep the machinery in working order.

This situation had continued to the present day but the ghost had become more and more fed up with being asked the same old questions very week. He decided that he ought to do something about the situation and joined a trade union for the disembodied. He read the brochure with interest and went to Sir Charles (the one who still had a body) to tell him that in accordance with the current rules and regulations concerning the haunting of property he would no longer be working on Bank holidays nor at weekends.

He remained adamant despite all the arguments put forward by the owner and having given due notice stopped haunting one Saturday morning.

The owner was furious at the prospect of losing most of his income, which was actually paid during the weekends and on Bank Holidays. Once the news got around attendances fell off dramatically and before long the Hall wasn’t making enough money to pay its way.

When the actual monthly income was made known to Sir Charles, he got in a terrible passion because of the ghost’s trade unionism. “Its all that damned ghost’s fault,” he shouted when he heard the figures and he stamped off in a temper to relieve his feelings by having a roar round the countryside in his Jaguar. Unfortunately the car was in for a service and the only vehicle available was the old Rolls.

He climbed in and slammed the door behind him. Then he put his foot flat to the floor and purred off. It was a most unsatisfactory car for working off his temper. By his Jaguar’s standards there was no performance whatever. A tricky bend in the estate’s road came up and he braked at his usual point. He was still going quite slowly from the modern point of view but even so the old Roll’s brakes were not up to the job of stopping him like those in a modern high performance car.

A rather solid looking oak tree apparently reversed into his path and Sir Charles broke his neck as the car stopped suddenly.

“Damn! He exclaimed as he got out of the wreckage slamming the door once more behind him. Then he noticed the driver slumped over the steering wheel and suddenly realised that it was his body sitting there. After the initial shock he burst out laughing at the thought that there were now two ghosts at the Hall and he wasn’t going to join any namby pamby trade union! He’d fire the existing ghost and do the job himself.

He got back to the Hall by the simple method of thinking where he wanted to be. Perhaps there were some advantages in being a ghost after all. The old ghost looked a bit upset when Sir Charles turned up and went off to contact his ghostly union friends. They immediately convened a meeting and came to a unanimous decision.

“We’ll have to picket the Hall to make sure he doesn’t turn you out of your job,” they said and sure enough the next day there was a small crowd of ghosts waving placards. “Last in first out” was one of the more acceptable ones.

Fortunately all the ghosts were wrong and nobody took any notice of the picket line. Sir Charles son and heir naturally named Charles after his father in the tradition of the Hall; was already in charge.

The youngest Sir Charles was talking one evening to his wife. “The ghosts are still a draw for the tourists,” he said, “but it’s time those two idiots stopped quarrelling and pulled together for the good of the Hall! It would be nice if they could stop bickering in public. I wish I could think of a way to make them pull together.”

“How about alternating the ghosts with one on the gate one week and the other in the Hall?” she replied.”

The younger Sir Charles was upset at being relegated once a week to the inside job and soon came up with a modern solution to the problem. He got one of the staff to make him a placard, ‘Have your picture taken with a real ghost.’

Then old Sir Charles began to get worried that he might lose his job because of the popularity of this idea and on his week at the gate tried to think up an idea of his own. On his next time in the Hall, as well as his old trick of jumping out of his portrait he began waving his own placard, ‘Learn very old time dancing from a very old timer.’

One of his best pupils was Joan who still came to the Hall on a regular basis, especially now she was learning very old time dancing. She’d already mastered the Crinkle Crankle and was looking forward to learning the opening steps of the Gavotte on her next visit.

Dancing lessons became so popular that the younger Sir Charles began to teach the dances of his period and had already started with the Charleston.

The youngest Sir Charles (the one who still had a body) was so pleased with the increase in visitors with the new arrangement that he was able to afford to have the old Rolls Royce restored and put on display once again.