Shrigley Hall Hotel History

The name of Shrigley came from the original owners De Shrigley’s and passed down by marriage to the Downes family in the 14th century. The Downes family lived on the estate for over 300 hundred years. Shrigley Hall was sold to William Turner in 1818.

The present Hall was built in 1825.

William Turner had only one daughter and heiress Ellen Turner , who in 1826 whilst only 15 years of age was the most outrageous case of abduction ever chronicled.

On March 7^th 1826, Gibbon Wakefield assisted by his brother took the girl away from school at Liverpool on false pretences. Ellen was then taken to Gretna Green where she was married to Edward Gibbon Wakefield. From there they travelled to London and then to Calais where Miss Turner was rescued by her Uncle. The Wakefields were tried at Lancaster on March 3^rd 1827 when they were both found guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Ellen later married Thomas Legh and died at the age of 19 after giving birth to their only child Ellen Jane.

Ellen inherited Shrigley from her Grandfather and later married the Reverend Brabazon Lowther and lived at Shrigley Hall. Brabazon Lowther died on 30^th December 1877 and Ellen died November 1906. Her son William inherited Shrigley Hall. He had 4 sons none of whom lived at Shrigley as they had virtually grown up when their family had inherited the estate.

In 1929 the Hall was sold to the Salesians order for £3000. It was converted into a missionary college. The priests built the church in 1936 from stone quarry from the estate. The church was designed by Phillip Tilden and was a shrine to Saint John Bosco. The salesians ran Shrigley as a college and had approximately 200 boy students there at any one time. Many of the boys became priests or brothers and work all over the world particularly in third world countries.

The Salesians left the hall in 1986 and moved to Savio House in Bollington village. Work commenced to create what Shrigley Hall is today and in 1989 the doors opened for the first time as a Hotel.

In 1994 Shrigley Hall Hotel became a member of The Paramount Group of Hotels.

Introduction

We arrived at Shrigley Hall at 5.30pm, where we were greeted by Ranjith, the Duty Manager, who took us to the suite we had been given for our investigation. After we had settled in, we went to meet up with Ranjith to get a run down of the places we could visit to do our investigations. The Hotel was amazing and it had a great feel, we could not wait to get started.

Before we started any investigation, the team enjoyed a meal in The Courtyard Bar and then returned to our base to get things set up and do some base readings.

At 8pm we set a camera recording in the room, while we went to look around The Tilden Suite and the Leisure Club, both based in the old Church. On our return we looked over the recording on our Laptop and found the room alive with energy, orbs dancing all over the room, they were various shapes and sizes, some dull and some very bright. Some people say orbs are only dust but these light anomalies could be seen by the naked eye and all of the team could see them darting all over the room.

Before we started any séance we went to have a look around the Salesians Cemetery but as it was still early in the evening we decided to leave and return later in the investigation.

After we had our coffee the group once again split into two and Denise, Chris and Rhianne stayed in the room and just sat in the dark asking questions and they got some very interesting things happen to them. The wardrobe door swung open and foot steps were heard running across the floor and loud bangs coming from the room. Chris said that he felt as though there was something around his neck and it felt like it was burning, later we found out that many guests had checked out early, saying that it felt like someone was trying to choke them, could Chris have felt the same as those guests. Also at that time Denise felt her chair vibrate underneath her and this carried on for a couple of minutes, how can you explain that?

While this was going on in the room, the other team members were in the Tilden Suite for a vigil, it all seemed very quiet, plenty of orbs caught on camera and a few foot steps but nothing much to report.

The two teams decided to meet back up in the room and conduct a séance together, with all lights out and the team circled around a table, we placed a glass on the table and started asking questions, the glass started moving in response to all our questions and at one point came very close to flying off the table. At the time this was happening, Robbie said that he could see a young girl standing in the corner of the room, he said she was about eight or nine years of age and dressed in old clothing, maybe Victorian or earlier, Chris also saw the young girl as did Louise and they both said they felt a sense of calm with her presence there.

One of our team was not feeling well and we felt it was best to break the circle and have another break, after all, we had a long night ahead of us, so lots of time to carry on our investigations.

After 1am Chris, Kristian, Robbie and Louise wanted to go back to the Tilden Suite to carry out a séance, after taking some pictures we all sat down and started to work with the energy in the room, immediately Chris felt someone touching his head and placing their hands on his shoulders, at this time Robbie said he could see a figure walking behind Chris and also Louise caught a bright orb moving behind Chris , Robbie could still see the figure behind Chris, and he said it was just standing behind him. Chris said that he felt like something hot had just brushed across his cheek, and after the séance the team discovered a scratch on his right cheek. Later the team found out that there was a spirit of a priest who did not welcome visitors to the building as it used to be the church he resided at, could this spirit have been what caused the scratch on Chris’s face. The team called it time in the Tilden Suite and headed back to the room we were based, once again we looked over footage from the video cameras we had set up and again the room was alive with light anomalies, varying shapes and sizes and al moving at different speeds.

Our final part of the evening was to be a séance in room 211 which we all felt lots of energy and heard many foot steps and knocks from the wardrobe, also the hangers moving.

Chris started the séance by saying a protection prayer that we use each time we go to investigations, and which has proven very helpful in many investigations. Chris said the name Ellen but he was not sure if it was a Christian name or a Surname, later we found out that an Ellen Jane had lived at the Hall many years ago, he asked her to come forward and talk to us, but we only got footsteps and the sound of a child laughing in the room with us.

As our team had travelled such a long way for our investigation and most of our team have kids to get back to we decided to call it a night and have some sleep. While trying to sleep Kristian jumped and said that someone had just whispered in his ear, he said that they said Phew!, could this be relief from the spirits. We are not sure, but plan to return for further investigations as we have been invited back from the hotel staff, and we will return.

Conclusion.

Our night at Shrigley Hall Hotel was interesting and at times quite scary, but that’s part of what we do and to experience the Paranormal activity we did was worth the journey.

All at Fatfield Haunted would like to say a big Thank you to the staff and Management at Shrigley, you made us feel so welcome and we can’t wait to come back and visit you again.

Finally a BIG THANK YOU TO LOUISE DAVENPORT you gave us so much help and it is greatly appreciated.