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- Aug 2, 2018
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Before Blenheim Palace in Woodstock Oxfordshire, there was a place called Woodstock Hall which was destroyed during Oliver Cromwell's time around 1652.
Sir Walter Scott wrote a novel entitled "Woodstock" which is a fictionalised account of some of the events that took place there. Essentially, Oliver Cromwell's commissioners arrived to take the place apart as it was a former residence of Charles I.
In the Everyman version of Scott's novel there is a quite extraordinary account of "poltergeist" activity that took place during the Commissioner's stay at the hall. There is also an explanation given of the those activities. The motivation behind scaring the commissioners out of the hall is clear - the country was polarised into Roundheads and Royalists - and here were some of Cromwell's commissioners about to take over and destroy a former residence of Charles I.
The "poltergeist" activity took the form of several different phenomena - but it included those that are familiar to us from more recent descriptions, including stones being thrown, household items being thrown around, lights (or in this case - candles) being snuffed out.
Although Scott gives a rational explanation for these goings on and there is a clear motivation, what struck me as slightly odd is that the commissioners for the most part stayed in their beds or never saw any of the people who were allegedly perpetrating the hoax. Because Scott's explanation is based on a former resident of the hall with a couple of servants using secret passageways to carry out these activities.
Incidentally, in Scott's novel - the poltergeist activities are not used as part of the plot, but Scott with a true Fortean spirit researched the whole thing.
Sir Walter Scott wrote a novel entitled "Woodstock" which is a fictionalised account of some of the events that took place there. Essentially, Oliver Cromwell's commissioners arrived to take the place apart as it was a former residence of Charles I.
In the Everyman version of Scott's novel there is a quite extraordinary account of "poltergeist" activity that took place during the Commissioner's stay at the hall. There is also an explanation given of the those activities. The motivation behind scaring the commissioners out of the hall is clear - the country was polarised into Roundheads and Royalists - and here were some of Cromwell's commissioners about to take over and destroy a former residence of Charles I.
The "poltergeist" activity took the form of several different phenomena - but it included those that are familiar to us from more recent descriptions, including stones being thrown, household items being thrown around, lights (or in this case - candles) being snuffed out.
Although Scott gives a rational explanation for these goings on and there is a clear motivation, what struck me as slightly odd is that the commissioners for the most part stayed in their beds or never saw any of the people who were allegedly perpetrating the hoax. Because Scott's explanation is based on a former resident of the hall with a couple of servants using secret passageways to carry out these activities.
Incidentally, in Scott's novel - the poltergeist activities are not used as part of the plot, but Scott with a true Fortean spirit researched the whole thing.