‘The Knight on the Tiltyard’
Back in the mid to late 1960’s, my mates and I, could be found fishing the Finham, and Inchford brooks that flowed behind the castle on a regular basis. Sometimes with nets, catching Sticklebacks, and Minnows or fishing with rod and line for the trout. The trout where discovered by accident when fishing a stretch close to the ford, which would lead to the ghostly encounter. (Tony is pictured far left)
We fished this area over the next couple of years, and caught many trout. Then one day my friend and I were again fishing there, when we had an experience, that to this day, I have no explanation for………..
At that time, the entrance was at the front of the castle, opposite castle green, so it was generally quiet around this area of the castle, with mostly people hiking around the fields. Access to the tiltyard back then wasn’t as easy as it is today.
On the ford side of the tiltyard, the embankment slopes steeply down to the brook. On the other side, steps lead down to the bridge, that spans the brook. I’m not sure if back in the 1960s, the steps even existed.
We were happily fishing that day, when something caught my eye …… I turned to my left to see what it was, and to my utter amazement, there, on the tiltyard, about ten yards along from Mortimer’s Tower, stood a ‘crusader knight’, in all his glory, sword in hand, and a large red cross on his tunic. My fishing companion, Glenn Smith saw it too, so it wasn’t just me seeing things! We were in awe, but scared witless. It just stood there, motionless.
We decided to hide behind the trees by the brook, and observe it. I can’t remember how long the knight stood there for, but he was facing in our direction, and that made hiding behind the trees seemed like a good idea at the time. After a while, he turned around and walked off into the trees behind him, and disappeared. Strange thing was …… as mentioned earlier, the far side of the tiltyard slopes steeply down to the bridge, but somehow he had walked straight across into the trees, seemingly in mid-air, and not down the slope! Not long after this strange event, we headed that way to have a look around for any clue as to who/what it was. But there was nothing about. The knight had literally vanished into thin air ………..?
‘The Saintlowe Tower Lady’
My second encounter at the castle, was in September of 2005. I now live in Florida, and was on vacation, visiting my home town. So I decided to go into the castle as it holds such great memories for me. It was mid-week as I recall, a cold still day, and it seemed as if I was the only one in the grounds. It was dead quiet.
I walked around most of the castle then decided to go into the Great Hall, and then up the spiral staircase inside Saintlowe Tower. I exited the doorway at the top of the staircase into what was once a room. The vast windows on the left-hand side now look out over the echo meadows (or the mere as it would have been centuries ago), and there to my surprise was a lady, dressed in a long flowing blue dress, sat on the stone-seat (pictured) looking out of the window. But before I had the chance to gather my senses as to what I was seeing – she had vanished……….
Ghostly goings on at the castle, who can say? But what I can say is this; I did witness these two unexplainable events. Both scary, but enlightening encounters in their own way. ‘Strange but True’.
Tony Dilworth 2024