Ivery House

Hello everyone. Joy here. It’s not until you start talking to people that you realise how many have experienced something inexplicable which they put down to the paranormal.

I was chatting to a lady at the duck race on May Day who told me about an experience her sister had a long time ago. She’d woken up in the night to hear someone walking around her bed, but no one was there! What she didn’t know was that I already knew the story she’d told me. Except from a different person at a different time, and actually in a different house – but they are very old houses that happen to be next door to each other! Does this constitutes a paranormal experience? If we look at the history of the houses, is there a likely hood that both houses were once joined together leading to the shared experience in different houses? It’s a possibility, but equally, is it that the hot water pipes have been playing up under the floor boards for a number of years?

In my last blog I wrote about the ghost children in the grave yard and the disturbances in the attic at Wroughton House. Apart from the church the other interesting building in the vicinity is Ivery House. It was once the old rectory. The date stone is 1727 and the vicar at that time was Thomas Sadler (1716-1755), but 1727 is more likely a refurbishment date as the original house is Elizabethan and a similar age to the old yew tree in the church yard. It isn’t the house that I want to tell you about in this blog however, it’s the massive yew hedge that surrounds the garden of the house.

The Cromwell Yew Hedge

This yew hedge has an important part to play in the folk lore of Wroughton. It was believed that it was planted to commemorate Oliver Cromwell riding through the village. A previous land lady of the Fox and Hounds told me that Oliver Cromwell rested at what was likely to have been a cottage brewing beer on the site of the current pub. Local stories tell us that the horses of Cromwell’s men were watered to the west of the current pub. In fact up until the 1950’s village children were taught at school that the hedge was planted in commemoration of Cromwell’s brief association with Wroughton.

Disappointingly the claim has been fully investigated by Wroughton History Group, and given that Cromwell’s travels are well documented, they cannot find any evidence that Cromwell ever rode through Wroughton. Why then would local people perpetuate a myth that is unlikely to have happened? Well I have a theory that explains why and also credits us West Country bumpkins with the crafty thinking of our moon-raking ancestors.

On 27^th May 1998 a hoard of 219 coins was found buried in the garden of Waterfall Cottage in the Pitchens. The coins all date up to 1643, which if you’re a history buff you’ll recognise as a date falling at the time of the English Civil War, which Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads won. In the hoard is a large amount of Royalist minted coin, which might seem odd if the village en mass went to the trouble of commemorating Oliver Cromwell, - the enemy of the Royalists.

The hoard suggests strong links between the villagers and the Royalists, who would have been buying bread and beer from the nearby miller and maltster. It’s my thinking that confronted with the victories made by the Roundheads the miller buried his money realising the coinage would implicate him in fraternising with the Royalists. The whole village was probably complicit in supporting the Royalists, providing horses and food, and so they planted the yew tree hedge as a smoke screen when Cromwell’s army won the civil war to suggest they were actually Roundhead supporters from the start. Canny beggers….

With regard to the myth that Oliver Cromwell rode through the village there are many stories told by local people that refer to this unsubstantiated event. It’s wise to remember that an absence of records doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

On the supernatural side there are stories telling of the ghosts of Cromwell and his men riding down the High Street. Most tales are of an auditory nature, which is hearing the sound of horses walking, trotting and galloping as opposed to actual sightings. One person told me they’d come out of the White Hart and heard someone riding down the High Street. They were curious as to who would be out on a horse late at night. They turned around fully expecting to see someone on horseback and was dumbfounded to see no one.

Brown Jack (Spencer's Barn in the background)

Given Wroughton’s horse racing history and the daily rides through the village to the gallops, I’m inclined to think the ghostly hooves are as likely to be Grand National winners like Brown Jack, Ally Sloper and Ballymacad from Barcelona Stables in the Pitchens, - or the Derby winner, George Frederick from Fairwater stables in the High Street. I’d be interested to hear if anyone out there has experienced a phantom horse sight or sound, so let me know your stories by leaving a message in the comments or emailing to thejoybells@yahoo.co.uk

If you’re one of the few people I haven’t told, I just want to add… I’ve written a book! It’s a spooky story (what else), for children, based in Wroughton. You can purchase it from Amazon here’s the link

Seven for a Secret Never to be Told 
by Joy McNally-Bells 
Link: http://amzn.eu/2a0afvz

If you’re interested in booking a ghost walk, or have a ghost story from the village you think I might be interested in or simply want to know about a certain location in the village that I might have some knowledge of, please leave a message or send an email.

Until next time, when hopefully I can report back on an overnight ghost hunt at a local pub…hold onto your hats and don’t get scared now…