BERRY POMEROY CASTLE
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The land which Berry Pomeroy Castle was built upon was given to Ralph de Pomeroy by William the Conqueror, as a reward for his loyalty and support during the Norman invasion, and the subsequent battle of Hastings.
The castle was constructed in a Norman design by Henry de Pomeroy at the end of the 13th Century. The castle remained in the Pomeroy family until 1547 when the current owner of the castle Thomas Pomeroy fell into financial difficulties. Thomas was forced to sell the castle to Sir Edward Seymour the lord protector and the brother of Jane Seymour the wife of Henry VIII.
Edward Seymour then constructed the manor house inside the confines of the castle, which lead to the mixture of architecture that you see in the ruins today. The castle stayed in the hands of the Seymour family until 1688, when they abandoned the castle to move to a more modern and up to date manor house. The castle was left to be stripped of all its valuable building material.
The castle has been the scene of numerous ghostly sightings and strange phenomena.
The White Lady supposedly haunts the dungeons, where she rises from St Margaret's Tower to the castle ramparts. This could be the spirit of Margaret Pomeroy, who was imprisoned in the dungeons by her sister Eleanor. Margaret slowly starved in the dungeons, and endured a long painful death. The reason Eleanor imprisoned her was that she was in love with the same man as her sister. And Margaret was far more beautiful than her.
Another story of the heroic fate of two Pomeroy brothers who were besieged at the castle. To save face from a long drawn out defeat, they dressed in full armour, mounted their horses, and rode off the top of the castle ramparts and precipice below. This part of the castle is now known as Pomeroy's leap and the spirits of the two brothers are supposed to be seen here.
There are many reports of paranormal activity in and around the castle. And it is supposedly haunted by several different spirits. The castle is known as one of the most haunted castles in England.
We went to Berry Pomeroy in October 2009
Wayne, Mike and myself - Lorraine arrived about 11.30pm. It was a cold dark night and we were really excited about going there. Berry is reported to be one of the most haunted castles in England. I have read lots of reports over the years about ghost sightings and also read about the legends connected to the castle. So we were all expecting we were in for a good night.
We walked down the woodland path to the castle and after about a ten minute walk we arrived at the bottom of the track. Then we saw the castle in the dark standing before us. The first thing you see is the gate house before you, looking quite intimidating and scary.
We started to explore the castle and make sure we were the only ones there. I had been to the castle a few times before in the daytime so I pretty much knew what the lay out was. The main place I was interested in investigating was the little room that was down a set of stairs. This was St Margaret's tower and is the only room that is intact in the castle. There is the gatehouse that is still intact but there was no access to that at all.
Making our way though the castle to the tower we finally got there. We climbed down the steep little spiral staircase down into the room. The room is a circular room and is not very big at all. It has three little windows and what can only be described as a recess in the wall big enough to sit in.
we set up our equipment and started to call out. We placed the EMF meter in the centre of the room and asked if there were any spirits present, and if they were could try and effect the meter. Wayne was stood at the bottom of the staircase and I was filming round the room and asking for some activity. I heard a small faint noise outside and I asked if there was anybody there, could they walk down the stairs towards us. I continued filming and then a bat flew towards me and I jumped and screeched. It was then that Wayne said that he had thought he had seen a figure walk down the stairs and when I jumped he said that the figure just faded away.
I was gutted as nothing was picked up on camera. After calling out for a little while longer we decided to move on and try somewhere else in the castle. But we decided that we would leave the voice recorder still recording in the room. We put the recorder in a little hole that was in the wall and we went off to investigate some more of the castle.
Continuing around the castle calling out we didn't really get any response. We could all hear a constant drumming sound that lasted for about five minutes. Other than hearing a few little noises that could have possibly been animals, we didn't really hear or see anything. So after about an hour or so investigating the castle we decided that we should make our way back to St Margaret's tower.
The little room seemed to have a different atmosphere to me when we went back. Before it seemed fine I didn't have a problem being down there. But now it seemed really oppressive and really cold. The night was a cold night so I put the temperature down to that. But the feeling the room was giving me was not nice. Wayne and Mike were feeling like that as well.
I started calling out and asking if Margaret was with us. As I asked I heard what I thought was a deep rumble. It came from the direction that Wayne was stood. I asked if it was him but he said that it wasn’t. Whatever it was I knew that I must have picked it up on video camera.
After calling out for a little while longer we decided to call it a night. We packed up all the equipment and started to make our way back out. As we were walking back I was still taking pictures around the castle. I took one photo and noticed that it had a mist in it, so I took a couple more straight after it in the same place. None of the other photos had anything in them.
All in all I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of activity we got. After reading all the things I have on the place I was expecting more possibly. I was hoping that we had picked up some things on camera and voice recorder.
This photo was taken while we were walking round the castle, it seems to have a strange mist in it. None of the other photos we took that night had anything like this in them.
Below are two photos taken one just before this one and one straight afterwards.
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