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The Ghost of Hampton Court!
Submitted on the Ghoststudy message board
To the skeptic it may simply look like a fuzzy CCTV image of someone in
a long coat walking through a doorway. Experts say the long-coated figure
could be the best proof yet found that things really do go bump in the
night... and the day too. The mystery surfaced two months ago at the
16th-century palace, once home to King Henry VIII. Security staff heard
alarms ringing near an exhibition hall, indicating fire doors had been
opened. But on investigation they found the doors closed. Perplexed, they
examined CCTV footage, and that is when it got spooky. The cameras showed
the heavy doors popping open but no one there. Then, suddenly, the long-
coated figure appeared and slammed the doors shut. The guards were told the
same thing happened at the same time - about 1pm - the day before.
To add to the mystery, the doors also flew open at the same time the very
next day. But the ghostly figure has been spotted only once. The suspected
spook has not just been sighted by CCTV. Australian tourists also claim to
have seen a ghost near the exhibition area. The palace, in West London, has
ruled out its guides as suspects because they do not enter that part of the
building. Psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman said the spectre, nicknamed
Skeletor, might prove to be a significant discovery. 'It could be the best
ghost sighting ever,' he said. 'I haven't seen anything that would match
that at all.'
Hampton ghost makes appearance
Close-up
Enhanced close-up
Viewer comments
"Leading to the Chapel Royal is the passage known as the Haunted Gallery, so
called because legend has it that the ghost of Henry's fifth wife, Catherine
Howard, has been seen and heard passing along it. After the Queen had been
accused of unfaithfulness by her husband, she was kept prisoner in her
apartments. But one day, so the legend goes, she contrived to evade the guards
and ran towards the Chapel , where the King was hearing Mass, to make a last
plea for mercy. Her way was barred by more guards, who dragged her, shrieking,
back through the gallery. Three months later she was beheaded at the Tower. "
Could this be the ghost of Katherine Howard. If you look at the clothing, it
does look very much like the clothing worn by women during the times of Tudor
England . . . Large bell-like sleeves (made popular by Anne Boelyn to hide her
"sixth finger"), a split skirt to show a brocade peticote beneath . . .??? It is
said that Katherine's ghost runs through the castle towards the chapel, as she
did in life, to plead with her husband, Henry VIII, to forgive her for lying
about her past and her adulteress affair with Thomas Culpepper. She never got to
Henry however."
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