Guys Cliffe House

31st May 2014,

Guys Cliffe House

At the end of May, myself, Dave, Maria and Andrew had the privilege to join West Country Paranormal and Dark Paranormal for an event share at Guy Cliff House.

History

Guy's Cliffe has a long and varied history; from its humble beginnings as a secluded place of worship in the 5th century to the legends of Sir Guy of Warwick which secured its place in folklore. The establishment of a chapel in the 15th century by will of King Henry V. The Tudor period ownership as a timber framed house. Leading into its ownership and creation of the familiar Palladian Georgian style house by Samuel Greatheed, Member of Parliament for Coventry and also a St. Kitts and Nevis sugar plantation owner, Its ownership by the Heber-Percy family, its use as a Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital in the First World War and during the Second World War as a Boys Home by the Waifs and Strays Society... The steady and sad decline into the romantic partial ruin... Right up to the present day under its ownership by the Freemasons & on-going preservation by the Friends of Guy's Cliffe...

Guy's Cliffe is a hamlet on the River Avon on the Coventry Road between Warwick and Leek Wootton in Warwickshire, England, near Old Milverton. in the civil parish of Leek Wootton and Guy's Cliffe. Formerly the smallest Parish in England, it was merged with Leek Wootton to become Leek Wootton and Guy's Cliffe Parish Council.

The name Guy's Cliffe originates from the name of the country house and estate that the land belonged to, which in turn was named after the cliff which the house itself was built on. The house has been in a ruined state since the late 20th century.

Guy's Cliffe has been occupied since Saxon times and derives its name from the legendary Guy of Warwick. Guy is supposed to have retired to a hermitage on this site, this legend led to the founding of a chantry. The chantry was established in 1423 as the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene and the rock-carved stables and storehouses still remain. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII the site passed into private hands.

The current, ruined house dates from 1751 and was started by Samuel Greatheed, a West India merchant and Member of Parliament for Coventry 1747-1761.

The estate also comprised a mill, stables, kitchen garden and land as far as Blacklow Hill.

Blacklow Hill is north-west of the house. It is the site of an ancient settlement and the location of Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall's murder.

In 1308 Edward II travelled to Boulogne to marry Isabella, leaving Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight to act as regent. Resentment against Edward's rule and Gaveston's position of power grew, some barons began to insist Gaveston be banished. Edward could do little to prevent Gaveston being captured in 1312 under the orders of the Earl of Lancaster and his allies. He was captured first by the Earl of Warwick, whom he was seen to have offended, and handed over to two Welshmen. They took him to Blacklow Hill and murdered him; one ran him through the heart with his sword and the other beheaded him.

In 1821 Bertie Greatheed erected a stone cross to mark the execution of Piers Gaveston, "Gaveston's Cross" and later commented in his diary that he could read the inscription on the cross with his telescope from the house.

1900 Onwards

The house was used as a hospital during World War I and in the World War II became a school for evacuated children.

Guy's Cliffe estate was broken up and sold in 1947. In 1952 the mill became a pub and restaurant and was named The Saxon Mill, the stables became a riding school, the kitchen garden became a nursery, all of which still exist today. A toll house also stood by the road to the north of the Saxon Mill, but this was demolished in the mid-20th century.

The new owner of the house intended to convert it into a hotel, but these plans came to nothing and the house fell into disrepair. In 1955 the house was purchased by Aldwyn Porter and the chapel leased to the Freemasons, establishing a connection with the Masons that remains today. The roof had fallen in by 1966. In 1992 during the filming of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (The Last Vampyre) a fire scene got out of control and seriously damaged the building, leading to an insurance claim. English Heritage has given the building grade II listed status.

Two new houses were built within the grounds, Heron House and Guy's Cliffe House (note: the ruined house and by the 1980s, when the parishes merged, the population of the Parish of Guy's Cliffe was no more than 4 people. The new boundary split the original estate: the stables and nursery are not within the current Parish of Leek Wootton & Guy's Cliffe, but the house, mill and modern homes are.

The Investigation.

We arrived at the location early evening and were greeted others who had already made the long journey to Warwick. After introductions, tour and refreshments, we split into our teams and headed off to our designated areas. Our team had the Masonic Room at the top of the building to start off with. We climbed the stairs and soon settled in to start our investigation.

We positioned ourselves in different areas in the room and proceeded to call out to see if we could get any spirit activity going. At first (with most paranormal investigations), nothing much happened at all. We got a few light anomalies on video and now and then we heard a noise or 2 but nothing that we could solidly say was paranormal. We switched the light on and had a little look around the room. In the room was a door that led to a clock tower. You could see the pendulum from the stairway up to the clock face which was fascinating but also felt a little threatening to me. We decided to move to another location and settled on a small room that was down on the next floor.

In this room were a table and 4 chairs. We decided to set up a table tipping experiment. We positioned our cameras around the room and proceeded to call out. It didn’t take long before we started to get taps and knocks coming from the table. We continued to call out and I started to feel very threatened. To me the atmosphere had taken on a very sinister feel. The table lurched to one side with quite a lot of force. I was quite expecting to have my leg grabbed from under the table with unseen hands! We asked a few questions such as are you female?, Male?, Did you live here? (The usual questions). We didn’t really get a clear response but the energy was very strong which made me feel that it was male. Just as we were really getting into the swing of it another team came up the stairs to go into the room we had just come from which caused the energy to disperse. We tried to get the energy going but couldn’t get any strong responses. We decided to move on.

We were going to go into the masonic room on the ground floor, however, another team was in there so we decided to go and investigate some of the outside areas. We went to another location that was in the partly ruined area of the building. We attempted to call out here but it was quite draughty in this room which made it very difficult to listen out for the subtle noises which may indicate that energy was building.

We moved to the old stables where there is reputedly a very old chest or coffin which had some mysterious stories around it. We attempted to call out in here and we did get a few responses such as taps noises, however, again it was very hard to tell if this was paranormal or natural noises or mice/rats.

We moved onto the wine cellar, however, when we got in there we discovered a locked off camera had been set up by another team so we decided to have a break and then agree on which area we would try in next.

After our break we had the opportunity to investigate the masonic room on the ground floor. It was in this room that we got the most activity. We sat down on one of the pews in the room and started to call out. We quickly started to get responses to our questions and I realised that the pew we were sat on seemed to be moving. It felt like something was tugging the back of the pew back causing it to rock backwards and forwards. This motion got stronger and stronger and you can actually see this happening on the video footage we have of this room. The atmosphere in the room felt electric but it didn’t feel threatening. The more we laughed the stronger this phenomenon got. I started to worry that it was going to break the pew we were sat on. We spent a good hour in this room enjoying the interaction we had with this spirit. The energy did eventually start to fade so we decided to move on.

Our next location was in one of the out buildings. We joined a couple from one of the other teams who were doing some table tipping. Again, the energy was very strong with this séance and surprisingly did not disappear when we joined in (which can happen if people’s concentration is interrupted). We learned from the couple we had joined that we were talking to some of the soldiers that would have been recuperating at the house when it was used as a hospital in the First World War. These spirits were a lively bunch who seemed to like to play games and join in. The atmosphere in the room felt almost like there was a party taking place. We experienced quite a lot of movement from the table which lifted and moved. Also, the 2 camera’s that were filming in the room both lost their power in the space of a few minutes. Just as we were packing up, we heard something hit the back of the room with quite a force. We didn’t find what the object was but this is commonly known as an apport and we quite often experience it when we decide to leave an active area. It is almost like the spirits are trying to get your attention or cheekily send you off.

By now, it was getting very late. As we had quite a journey back, we decided to make a move. The other teams however, stayed on to finish the night at the wonderful Guy Cliffes House.