WARWICK CASTLE

Warwick Castle stands in the City of Warwick overlooking the broad Avon River. Though there had been communities at Warwick for countless centuries, the castle began construction in the tenth century. The original architect was said to be Ethelfleda, the brilliant military daughter of Alfred the Great.

The castle was one of a network of fortifications built to defend against the Norman conquest. After the Norman Conquest Warwick Castle was handed to the first Earl of Warwickshire by William the Conqueror. In an act that would mirror the treacherous legacy of the castle, the Earl of Warwickshire was seized in his own castle and imprisoned until the crown paid a high ransom.

Warwick Castle passed to the ownership of the Beauchamp family and it was during this period that the castle began to grow into the dominating presence seen today. Warwick Castle passed through the possession of the social elite, witnessing many great figures and moments of English history. There had been 20 Earls of Warwickshire by the time the castle was passed over to the care of a heritage consortium in the 1970's. The castle attracts many thousands of tourists a year and is clearly an impressive building, regardless of its age.

A building that was so central to the local community and so important to England during more troubled times in history, Warwick Castle is said to be home to spirits from throughout the ages. One such story tells of Sir Fulke Greville, owner of Warwick Castle, arguing with his most trusted servant. The servant turned upon his master and stabbed him, instantly mortified at his actions, the servant sliced his own throat leaving Sir Greville to die a lingering death due to infection, isolated in the South Tower. Moans of agony are frequently heard around the grounds and a vision of the dying man is said to emerge from his portrait.

A slavering black dog was said to haunt the grounds of Warwick Castle after a woman named Moll Bloxham was caught stealing from the Earl. The Earl was so outraged that he ordered her to be publicly punished, at whose hands she suffered brutal indignity and torture. An embittered Moll Bloxham announced a curse on the castle. Soon after the disappearance of Bloxham, a black, slavering dog with red eyes began stalking the castle grounds. Attempts to kill the beast were met in failure and hound continued to terrorise the community. The curse was finally broken when the beast was lured from the highest tower into the River below.

As well as the more famous stories attached to the castle, Warwick has become an accessible and rich grounds for paranormal experimentation. Over the last ten years accounts of ghost reports have begun to be catalogued. Seances and ghost hunting evenings have been regularly held, with many psychics and mediums hearing similar messages from characters of a similar era. The tower occupied by a dying Fulke Greville has been shown to suffer extreme temperature shifts in particular. Though Warwick Castle has embraced a Halloween aspect of its spiritual community, it is a very haunted building with a dark vein of history running through it.