Chingle Hall

Coordinates: 53°49′09″N 2°41′22″W / 53.8192°N 2.6894°W / 53.8192; -2.6894 Chingle Hall dates from around 1300. It is located in the township of Whittingham near Preston, England. It was originally built by the Singleton family and owned by them until Eleanor Singleton, the last of the line died in 1585. The house then passed to the Wall family through the marriage of William Wall with Anne Singleton. Their son Anthony Wall, once mayor of Preston, died there in 1601. The Walls owned the Hall until the mid-18th century when the house passed to a local branch of the Singleton family.

Saint John Wall

Some have made the claim that Saint John Wall was born in the Hall in 1620. It is unlikely that he was a member of the Preston Wall family. He became a Roman Catholic priest in 1641. Some have claimed that Chingle Hall was used as a place of worship by Catholics during the time of the Catholic Reformation when it was illegal to practice mass in Britain. In 1678 John Wall was apprehended at Rushock Court near Bromsgrove. He was taken to Worcester jail, where he was offered his life if he would forsake his religion. He declined. Brought back from Worcester, he was drawn and quartered at Redhill on the 22nd of August, 1679. His quartered body was given to his friends, and was buried in St. Oswald's churchyard. A Mr. Levison, however, allegedly acquired the martyr's head, and it was treasured by the friars at Worcester until the dissolution of that house during the French Revolution. The Franciscan nuns at Taunton claim to possess a tooth and a bone of the martyr. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Hauntings

Chingle Hall has been at the centre of several alleged episodes of paranormal activity.

Inside the Chapel there are a number of wooden beams going across the ceiling. Some of these beams have strange symbols on them, possibly relics of earlier use elsewhere. When samples of the wood were scientifically examined,they were found to have a high salt content, and to be much older than the house indicating that perhaps they were ship's timbers being recycled.

It was reported that, during the 1970s one of the beams covering a section of the wall in the chapel spontaneously caught fire, and, just as quickly as it had started, inexplicably extinguished itself. (There is no evidence of this to be found today.)

Among other phenomena, there is supposedly a pot-rearranging poltergeist in the kitchen, and visions of monks in the hallway and on the stairs. One of the rooms alleged to be most haunted is thought to have belonged to Eleanor Singleton, who was said to be "ideota" and who died at the age of 18.

On Christmas Day 1980, Gerald Main and ghost-hunter Terence Whitaker spent time at the Hall in a vigil and recorded rapping sounds emanating from one of the priest's hiding holes. At the time of the knocking noises they recorded a significant decrease in temperature and saw an 'indefinable shape' move across the floor.^{[citation needed]}

In 1985, sounds of bricks being moved were recorded by a visitor in the priest's room, which seemed to originate in the priest's hiding hole. He peered within and saw part of a human hand moving one of the bricks. As he watched, the hand stopped moving and disappeared. This witness later managed to capture the sounds of footsteps on tape and a shadowy form on film. Later bricks were found scattered on the floor of the chapel on the ground floor.^{[citation needed]}

A team from the Northern Anomalies Research Organisation investigated Chingle Hall. During the visit one member of the group managed to capture two photographs of orange lights which appeared on and near the oak-beamed ceiling. The investigator did not see these lights but rather small white flickering lights which prompted the photographs to be taken in the Chapel Room whilst standing in the dark by himself. Notably, the taking of the photographs and the light were witnessed by a several people in the house. When tape recorders were used in an investigation, sounds were heard and recorded within the priest's room but nothing was heard or recorded on the cassette in the passageway outside.^{[citation needed]}

Today

The current owner is an eminent professional person and local historian who has carried out detailed research into the history of Chingle Hall and the families who have lived there since its construction. The house and gardens are private property.

References

External links

• Chingle Hall Report (1990-2003) by Kevin Griffiths-Boden, founder of Ghanon: Paranormal Investigators - Wirral Cheshire North Wales Merseyside