Blog

A place I like to visit from time to time is Aston Hall, a beautiful Jacobean mansion set amidst the grimy factories and and victorian terraces of inner city Birmingham. Of course when it was built,nearly 400 years ago, Brum was little more than a collection of cottages and metal bashing workshops. The Hall would have been surrounded by green fields and lush countryside. It must have been quite a sight!

Back in those days the big man in these parts was Sir Thomas Holte. Rich and powerful, a close friend of King James. Holte began building Aston Hall in 1618 and it took over twenty years to complete. History does not paint a very flattering portrait of Sir Thomas. Cruel and violent, as a young man he embedded a hatchet into the skull of an incompetent cook. Sadly I cannot find any reports of a ghostly cook wandering around with an axe sticking out of his head. Now that would be a ghost worth seeing!

Aston Hall is definitely haunted and the most often seen ghosts seem to have their origins in the early days when nasty old Sir Thomas was in charge. One of these ghosts seem to be of his daughter Mary. She was horrified at the prospect of being forced into a marriage with a man she detested. Mary and her true love, a young man of lower social status, went on the run. Unfortunately she didn’t get far and Sir Thomas dragged her back to Aston Hall. In his eyes she was now spoilt goods, no ‘respectable’ (i.e rich) gentleman would want to marry her now. He locked her in an upper room and threw away the key. Poor Mary suffered sixteen years of loneliness and despair before succumbing to madness and death. Her ghost, a shimmering white figure, is known as the ‘White Lady’ and is said to glide around the upper floors. (It seems to be compulsory in stately homes and castles to have a ‘White Lady’!)

The ‘White Lady’ has a companion known as the ‘Green Lady’ who has been seen sitting on a chair in the Great Hall. This ghost is supposed that of a Mistress Walker, an elderly servant to Sir Thomas Holte. She is described as wearing a green, high collared dress and is said to be so lifelike that people think she is a member of staff in period costume. This kind of ‘real’ looking ghost makes me think of the ‘recording’ theory that some people apply to ghostly sightings. Somehow images from the past are replayed in the present.

One of the upper rooms is known as Dick’s Garrett and is thought to contain the spirit of a servant boy. This young man, Dick, was accused of theft and locked in the room to await his master. Guilty or not he knew he would be in for horrific punishment. Unable to bear his harsh existence any longer he took his own life.

A strange phenomena has been witnessed by staff in the kitchen. A glowing white ball suddenly appears out of the wall and bounces around at high speed before disappearing. This part of the Hall is known to have been damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War.

Aston Hall was home to some very lucky and very rich people until 1858 when it was bought by the Birmingham Corporation and opened to the public. It was opened by Queen Victoria herself but the day ended in tragedy when a young circus acrobat fell to her death. Victoria witnessed this unfortunate event and was said to very distressed.

Whenever I have been to Aston Hall I have sensed many spirits in residence there. I think some of them are stuck in a confusing limbo, unaware that they have passed on.

I would recommend a visit especially to one of the ‘Candlelight’ nights they have every couple of years. It really is a beautiful sight.

Yes, it’s that scary time of year again.
The shops are full of pumpkins and pointy hats. Little devils roam from door to door demanding money and sweets. If you don’t pay up, you may well find your front door decorated with eggs and flour (the little monsters).

There is, of course, a lot more to Halloween than this recent import of American trick or treatery.
Most cultures, the world over, seem to have developed a “Festival of the Dead” which is basically what Halloween is all about.

The barrier between the physical world and the spiritual world is weakened and the dead are free to walk amongst the living.

On October 31st, if you see somebody dressed as a ghoul or a vampire, they probably don’t realise it but they’re acting out an ancient tradition.

They are mimicking the dead in order to protect themselves from the visiting spirits.

Halloween, in Britain and north America, has its origins in Gaelic culture. Indeed, the reason why it is so popular in the US is because of the mass Irish immigration of the 19th century.

There was an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain which marked the end of summer and the beginning of the long dark winter. This was a critical time of change and they believed that normal time was briefly suspended.

This meant that the spirits of the “Otherworld” – some good, some evil – were free to invade.

A “Feast of the Dead” would be held to honour and placate these spirits (and to hope they would return to their world without causing too much trouble).

This pagan festival, like so many others, was eventually Christianised and November 1st became All Hallows Day. October 31st naturally became All Hallows Eve which we now call Halloween.

The church meant for this festival to be a commemoration of the blessed dead, the “hallowed”.

Over the centuries, All Hallows Eve became a raucous night of bonfires and bad behaviour. People could play tricks on each other and blame the evil spirits. (In some of our towns, Halloween is referred to as “Mischief Night”.) This is obviously how trick or treating developed.

Many traditions and superstitions became associated with Halloween.

Familiar games such as apple-bobbing were once taken seriously by young men and women. If you managed to grab an apple with your teeth, you were supposed to then peel it in one unbroken strip. You would toss the apple peel over your shoulder. The shape of the peel when it landed was supposed to be the first letter of the person you would marry.

Young women also believed that if they sat in a darkened room, on Halloween night, and stared into a mirror, the face of their future husband would appear.

There was a downside to this particular form of divination. If a skull appeared in the mirror the unfortunate girl was not long for this world.

Another form of Halloween fortune telling began in Ireland. Various little objects were baked into a fruit bread (a barmbrack). When the bread was sliced, the object you received would determine your future.

If you received a pea then you were destined not to marry. If you received a ring you would marry within the year. A matchstick would mean an unhappy marriage; a coin would bring good fortune.

The tradition of the American pumpkin also originated in Ireland. Instead of a pumpkin they used a hollowed out turnip and called it a “Jack O’ Lantern”.

Legend has it that Jack was a drunken farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a large tree. Jack then trapped the devil by carving a cross into the tree trunk.

In revenge the devil placed a curse on Jack. He was condemned to forever wander the dark roads and country lanes. His only light, a solitary candle in a hollow turnip.

Our modern take on Halloween bears little resemblance to the festival observed by our ancestors. They literally believed they were about to be visited by all manner of devils and demons from the underworld.

Hopefully that won’t happen to us this Halloween.

But you never know!

Have fun.

“Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me? Why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?”

On a wintry evening in 1852 a rather special event took place at Birmingham Town Hall. Charles Dickens gave the first ever public performance of “A Christmas Carol”.

Dickens imagined a series of ghosts haunting a selfish old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, one Christmas Eve. The ghosts showed Scrooge the error of his ways, that his wealth meant very little unless used for the benefit of others.

By the end of the story Scrooge had heeded the warnings and changed his ways. From now on he would endeavour to help his fellow man – starting, of course, on Christmas Day.

Since Dickens gave the first public reading, his “ghostly little book” has become an integral part of Christmas. In fact the book played a major part in helping to revive the Christmas tradition in Victorian times.

It seems strange to us now but after the English Civil War the celebration of Christmas nearly died out. (Cromwell and his Puritans didn’t like Christmas at all, he really was the Grinch).

The publication (to great popular acclaim) of “A Christmas Carol” seemed to awaken some distant folk memory in Europe and America. Like all great Christian festivals there are strong elements of Paganism in the Christmas tradition. Dickens gave us a good example of this in the Ghost of Christmas Present – an early version of the modern Santa Claus.

The Victorians began to re – invent the Christmas celebration with decorated trees (courtesy of Prince Albert), cards, gifts, parties and as much food and drink as they could afford.

Along with the festive theme, “A Christmas Carol” also, of course, has some very interesting ghosts that pop up throughout the story.

When Scrooge returns to his bare, dismal house he encounters his first ghost – that of his old business partner Jacob Marley. In life, Marley was as mean spirited as Scrooge. In death he is forced to walk the earth forever, bound in chains and made to witness endless suffering.

Marley warns Scrooge that he will meet three Christmas spirits and that, unless he takes note of them, he can look forward to a terrible afterlife.

The first spirit is the Ghost of Christmas Past who shows Scrooge some of the people and events that shaped his life. Lonely schooldays and a beloved sister. A kindly employer and a failed romance. Scrooge begins to get upset.

The second spirit is the Ghost of Christmas Present, a “jolly giant”. This ghost takes Scrooge around London on that particular Christmas morn. He shows Scrooge the impoverished, but happy, family of his clerk, Bob Cratchit. However, their happiness would not last long because their sickly boy, Tiny Tim, is dying. Despite this, Bob Cratchit says a toast for his mean old boss.

The ghost also shows Scrooge two destitute children. If they are not helped, their suffering can only spread.

Scrooge gets even more upset, but the final spirit is by far the scariest. This is the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come and Dickens made him into the image of the Grim Reaper. Scrooge sees his own death, unmourned and unloved. In fact some people are very happy to hear of his passing, they steal his money and make off with his possessions. He also sees the Cratchit family grieving for their lost son Tiny Tim.

Scrooge is distraught but realises he has the power to change things for the better. On Christmas day he sends a massive turkey to the Cratchits and gets medicine for Tiny Tim (who did not die!).

He even surprises his own long suffering family by attending their Christmas party and having a jolly good time.

Ebenezer Scrooge became a kindly old uncle to all those who knew him, never once begrudging a penny for charity or a helping hand to those in need.

There are now hundreds of different versions and adaptations of “A Christmas Carol”. The story has been turned into films, plays, musicals and cartoons. Even the Muppets did a wonderfully mad version (Jacob Marley had a brother called Robert).

So when the going gets tough, and you just can’t face another visit to Tescos or the Bull Ring, think of uncle Ebenezer and Tiny Tim. Think of Christmas trees and brightly wrapped presents. Think of succulent turkey and cranberry sauce, mince pies and tons of chocolate. Think of that warm drunken glow while watching Corrie. Think of Dean, Bing, Noddy and the great Jona Lewie. Think of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street”. Think of partridges in pear trees and Pogues in drunk tanks.

Think of the Nativity.

Bah Humbug? No, No, No (as Amy Winehouse might say).

Happy Christmas? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah (as the Beatles might say).

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with peace, love and light.