Hotel Discovers Ghostly Guest May Be Agnes and Not Maud!

Lockdown has allowed a medieval Northumberland castle hotel to realise its resident, and currently exclusive-use ghost, may not be who people have long thought her to be.

Langley Castle Hotel, located seven miles from Hexham, has regularly had guests and staff claim to have seen a grey lady, sobbing uncontrollably as she heads to a window and jumps.  

The legend, for a good 100 years or more, is that she is Maud – the widow of the knight who built the castle in 1350, Thomas de Lucy.  It has been suggested Maud flung herself from the window in question, having learned of her husband’s death in battle.

But when others started to say Maud was Thomas’s daughter, and with time to delve into history more deeply during social distancing regulations, Langley Castle decided to enrich its daily Battlements Tour information with some other facts and figures.

That time-travelling exercise has discovered that Maud was indeed Thomas’s daughter.  However, she married twice, so did not take her own life after the death of husband number one and died before husband number two.

Research has also thrown up an unknown fact – that Sir Thomas also married twice.  Whilst his first wife, Margaret, died before him, the death of a second wife, Agnes de Beaumont, is shrouded in mystery.

“We now realise we have an exclusive-use guest, with free rein to wander around our castle, whether she fancies a rest on a four-poster, a spa bath or a swing on our chandeliers, and we haven’t a clue who she is,” says executive general manager, Margaret Livingstone-Evans.  

“Our grey lady’s identity can definitely be said to be a grey area. We are just hoping some genealogy experts can tell us whether this is actually Agnes, as staff – some working here for over 30 years – have always called her Maud!”

There is now some speculation as to whether the grey lady may finally check out of Langley Castle, if her true identity is finally revealed.  

“Perhaps she’s just been hanging on for her rightful recognition,” adds Margaret. “If she is Agnes, she seems to have been wiped from most historical records, so we’d like to get to the bottom of it all.  If we do, perhaps she will finally rest.”

More information about the castle’s rich and colourful history can be found at www.langleycastle.co.uk

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Editors notes

Langley Castle, built in 1350, is located in Langley-on-Tyne, Northumberland and is one of the few authentic, fortified medieval castles in England. It has a rich history, with strong links to Jacobite rebellions, is located just a stone's throw from the World Heritage Site of Hadrian's Wall and boasts features including battlements, seven-feet-thick walls, window seats set into the walls and the best example of medieval garderobes in Europe. It is one of the most exquisite wedding venues in the north and also offers a wide range of options when it comes to exclusive use, with the castle being available for weddings, family celebrations, Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs, D&D-style events and a wide variety of corporate functions.