Garrie Hall
Many houses in Britain boast a ghost or even a poltergeist, and a few harbour more exotic spiritswith manifestations that are as bizarre as screaming skulls and pictures that bleed. However, even these pictorial stigmata are put to shame by the manifestation at the de'Vere house in the heart of rural Leicestershire.
The house itself does not command any significant interest, being a classic example of a small but luxurious family dwelling built in the years preceding the Wars of the Roses. It sits in extensive gardens, at the bottom of which is the de'Vere pool. It is this pool which, on several occasions, has changed from water to blood.
The demise of the de'Vere family is as well documented as many events of the period. During the English Civil War, just before the restoration of the monarchy a small band of common foot-soldiers in the service of the Roundhead army deserted. They ran amok, raping and pillaging throughout the countryside.
Charles de'Vere had been left a cripple after the Battle of Marston Moor and could do little to protect his wife and daughter from the marauders. The family were slaughtered and their bodies thrown into the pool.
It is said locally that on every 100th anniversary the pond fills with blood in remembrance. However, it has been recorded that the manifestation is sporadic in nature, rather than a regular, repetitive haunting.
Britain's Haunted Heritage, A C Toone, 1899
1 The pool is haunted by the tormented soul of Charles de'Vere.
A lesser known manifestation is that each time the water turns to blood, the portrait of Charles de'Vere hanging in the hall cries real tears.
2 The soil beneath the pool is on a clay base and occasional natural movement of the earth's crust brings the clay to the surface, staining the water red.
3 Deep below the de'Vere house a nest of the Cthonians festers and seethes. It is their burrowing and worming which disturbs the soil beneath the pool.
Copyright (c) 1990 Garrie Hall
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