Blickling, Norfolk, England

Blickling Hall

Blickling Hall

Blickling Hall is a stately home that has been in the care of the National Trust since 1940. Sir Henry Hobart, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and 1st Baronet, who bought Blickling from Robert Clere in 1616, built Blickling Hall on the ruins of the old Boleyn property in the reign of James I. The architect of Hatfield House, Robert Lyminge, is credited with the design of the current structure.

 

It is noted for being the home of the Boleyn family, and where Anne Boleyn spent part of her childhood. It is said that every year, on the anniversary of her execution (19th May 1536), Anne Boleyn's headless ghost arrives at Blickling Hall with her head in her lap, carried in a carriage driven by a headless coachman and drawn by headless horses.

 

Sometimes, Anne's carriage is followed by the ghost of her brother. His afterlife woes are continued on the anniversary of his death (17th May), when his headless body is dragged around the surrounding countryside by four headless horses.

 

Another legend states that her father is doomed to travel in a coach that takes him over 12 bridges back to his former home.

 

A more recent ghost is that of a young man who lived at the Hall when it was divided into flats before the Second World War. Although he died in an accident away from the Hall a few years later, his ghost returned on the anniversary of his death to play a prank he once played in life on his 21st birthday.

Blickling,

Aylsham,

Norfolk,

NR11 6NF.

 

For further information, please visit:

www.nationaltrust.org.uk

 

For further information, please read Haunted Britain by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe; Ghosts: Mysterious Tales from the National Trust by Sian Evans and Britain's Haunted Heritage by J A Brooks.

Location

Visitor Information

Blickling is a village and civil parish in the Broadland district of Norfolk, England.

It is located about 1.5 miles northwest of Aylsham on the B1354 road.

Pictured left is Blickling Hall courtesy of Evelyn Simak. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.