Bradgate Park - Leicestershire
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member SMacB
N 52° 41.591 W 001° 12.965
30U E 620561 N 5839633
There have been numerous reported paranormal phenomena in Bradgate Park over the years, most notably that of the ghost of Lady Jane Grey, the 9 Day Queen.
Waymark Code: WMY0Z9
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/30/2018
Published By:Groundspeak Charter Member neoc1
Views: 0

There have been numerous reported paranormal phenomena in Bradgate Park over the years.

  • Lady Jane’s ghost has been reported driving through the park on New Year’s Eve on her way to church.
  • Civil war soldiers have been mistaken for Park Rangers and when approached they disappear into thin air.
  • The bank of the River Lin, which runs through the Park, has seen a white lady on many occasions.
  • Singing in the chapel has been heard by several staff at the same time when no one else was present inside or outside.
  • Soft footsteps walking in the chapel when staff have been alone.
  • Pony and trap have been heard near Hallgates and the ditch and pale, only to disappear.
  • Horses hooves on cobbles heard in the ruins courtyard, which is covered with grass.

"“Childhood home to Lady Jane Grey and Leicestershire’s most famous ghost story. Haunted Heritage have been working with the Bradgate Park Trust for two years running historical ghost walks and the demand has been astronomical, selling out months in advance. The New Year’s Eve story of Jane travelling through the park in her carriage is part of Leicestershire culture. However, it is not just Jane, there are many more as we discovered when we started doing the walks. The HH team have captured several quality EVP (Electromagnetic Voice Phenomena) whilst near the ruins and photos that have captured strange phenomena. The HH team were given permission to carry out an investigation in order to debunk some of the phenomena previously captured. We left with more questions and strange experiences than when we arrived .""

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

"It is the ghost of Lady Jane Grey which is perhaps the most well-known at the park. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve a ghostly coach leaves the ruins and travels to nearby All Saints Church. As Lady Grey climbs out of the coach, she and the coach vanish! Others report ghostly disembodied voices, sounds of military drums and other eerie unexplained sounds. Apparitions have been witnessed and photographed on many occasions. There are many reported cases of phenomena and Bradgate Park has become notorious to locals and mentioned in many paranormal publications.

Lady Jane Grey  - The Nine Days Queen was pronounced monarch on July 10th, 1553.

Thin and freckled with sandy hair, and so short that she wore elevator shoes, Lady Jane Grey was Henry VIII’s great-niece. She was born in the same month in 1537 as his son and successor, Edward VI, and her ambitious parents, hoping to marry her to Edward one day, paid special attention to her education and brought her up a convinced Protestant. A bookish intellectual, she was quite unable to cope with the real world and with being a pawn on the political chessboard. It was an extremely dangerous chessboard.

The virtual dictator of England under the sickly young Edward was John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. By 1553 Edward was clearly unlikely to live much longer. Northumberland knew that if Edward’s sisters Mary or Elizabeth took the crown, his days in power would be over and Mary would restore Roman Catholicism. He decided to put his own family on the throne and in May he had the fifteen-year-old Jane married, against her will, to his fourth son, Lord Guilford Dudley, who was about the same age. Jane went straight back to her parents, but as the King grew weaker, Northumberland ordered the marriage to be consummated, and it was.

Northumberland persuaded the dying Edward to declare Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate and transfer the succession to the Lady Jane. The royal council, which viewed Northumberland as mice do a cat, accepted the decision, with misgivings. Jane was told, but apparently did not take it in. Mary and Elizabeth were summoned to the dying king’s side at Greenwich, where they could most easily be neutralised. Mary set out, but the shrewd Elizabeth took to her bed and said that she was ill.

Edward died on July 6th. Mary, on her way to Greenwich, was warned of the trap and rode pell mell for Norfolk. Elizabeth stayed in bed. The King’s death was kept quiet and on July 9th Jane was taken to Northumberland’s mansion outside London, Syon House at Isleworth, where the Duke, her husband and her parents were waiting with members of the council, who to her surprise treated her with immense deference. Northumberland announced that she was queen and she fainted before, with the utmost reluctance, accepting the throne ‘if what has been given to me is lawfully mine’. The following day she was proclaimed by heralds with flourishes of trumpets at various places in London, to the stony disapproval of the citizens. One man who incautiously said the Lady Mary had the better right had his ears cut off.

In the afternoon Jane arrived by barge at the Tower, tried on the royal crown, which made her feel faint again, and had a blazing row with her husband and his mother when she said she would not make him king. The banquet that evening was spoiled by the arrival of a letter from Mary to the council firmly asserting her right to the throne and demanding immediate support.

Jane continued going through the motions as queen in the Tower, but Northumberland had miscalculated badly. The Lady Mary was well liked (she had not burned anyone yet) and he was not. Mary’s support grew and she gathered a sizeable army, while Northumberland’s men deserted. So did the council in London. By July 18th only three of them – including Jane’s father – remained loyal to Northumberland. The others left the Tower on the improbable excuse of urgently needing to talk to the French ambassador and had the lord mayor of London proclaim Mary next day. Her father told Jane she was no longer queen and she said she was delighted to hear it and could she go home, please?

Poor Jane had been queen for nine days and there was no question of going home. She was held prisoner in the Tower while Northumberland was arrested and her parents hastily made their peace with Mary. Elizabeth left her bed of sickness and arrived in London on the 29th to greet the triumphant Mary, who reached Aldgate on August 3rd as trumpets blared, cannon boomed, bells rang and citizens cheered themselves hoarse.

Northumberland was executed for high treason three weeks later. Jane was considerately treated in the Tower, but when her father witlessly joined Sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion in January, Jane was considered too dangerous a focus of plots to be allowed to live. She and her husband went to the block on February 12th, 1554. She was sixteen years old."

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

There are regular Ghost Walks in Bradgate Park  - Haunted Heritage

Public access?:
Public Park


Visting hours:
There are pay car parks at the Hallgates entrance, Newtown Linford and Hunts Hill (at the top of the park near Old John). The park is open from dawn until dusk all year round, though the public footpaths which run through the area mean that in practice the park is always accessible.


Website about the location and/or story: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
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