Aston Hall

OVERVIEW

A red-brick Jacobean prodigy house in Aston, designed by John Thorpe and built between 1618 and 1635 for Sir Thomas Holte, bought by Birmingham Corporation in 1864 as one of the first country houses to be saved by a local authority. Birmingham Museums runs it and publishes its ghosts under the heading Most Haunted; in 2019 a national survey named it the country's top haunted heritage site.

HISTORY

Charles I stayed here in October 1642 and a Parliamentarian force besieged and took it in December 1643; cannon damage to the great staircase is still shown. The Holtes held it until 1817. Tradition has Sir Thomas locking his daughter Mary in an attic room for sixteen years for refusing to give up a suitor, until she died.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The Grey Lady, taken to be Mary Holte, on the stairs and in the Long Gallery; a servant boy, Dick, said to have hanged himself in the attic after an accusation of theft; a Green Lady, a housekeeper named Walker, in the great hall. The museum reports around two sightings a year and runs ghost tours; the stories are the museum's own.

VISITING

Museum opening, free or ticketed by season; ghost tours and 'fright nights' by booking.