Hinton Ampner

Hinton Ampner is an elegant Hampshire country estate today cared for by the National Trust, but behind its peaceful gardens lies one of England's more remarkable historic ghost stories. Importantly, the building visitors see today is not the house in which the original haunting occurred. The earlier manor stood nearby and was demolished in 1793, after decades of stories concerning disturbing unexplained activity. The estate has considerably older origins. Hinton Ampner belonged to the Bishop of Winchester at the time of Domesday, and a Tudor manor was later established on the site. During the English Civil War, the house was reportedly used by Parliamentarian forces under Sir William Waller around the time of the Battle of Cheriton in 1644. By the eighteenth century it had become the home of the Stawell family and subsequently came into the occupation of William and Mary Ricketts. It was Mary Ricketts whose experiences transformed Hinton Ampner into a celebrated haunted house. While her husband spent extended periods away on business in Jamaica, Mary began experiencing disturbances within the manor. Crucially, her story survives through written accounts and correspondence, making Hinton Ampner considerably more interesting historically than locations whose ghost stories appeared centuries after the alleged events. Mary described hearing extremely loud noises during the night, including what sounded like doors being violently slammed. Other sounds resembled people moving around parts of the house despite no obvious person being responsible. The disturbances became sufficiently persistent that they could not easily be dismissed by those living there. More unsettling were reports of voices. Conversations appeared to take place in otherwise unexplained circumstances, while witnesses also reported strange figures. One particularly disturbing tradition concerned an apparition dressed in clothing resembling a grey or dark gown, although descriptions vary between later retellings. The experiences were apparently not confined to Mary. Servants and visitors were also said to have encountered unusual sounds or phenomena, contributing to the family's conviction that something genuinely strange was happening inside the house. Eventually the Ricketts family left. The old manor continued to carry its supernatural reputation until 1793, when it was demolished and a replacement house constructed a short distance away. Later tradition naturally suggested that the haunting had contributed to the decision, although architectural fashion and the desire for a more suitable residence also played their part. The story refused to disappear with the building. A detailed account was published in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1872, drawing upon earlier testimony and helping establish Hinton Ampner as one of Britain's classic historical haunting cases. The story was subsequently discussed by generations of writers interested in ghosts and psychical phenomena. Hinton Ampner is therefore unusual. The physical rooms associated with the original disturbances disappeared more than two centuries ago, yet the testimony surrounding them survived. There is no need to invent murdered servants, secret passages or fictional tragedies to make the case interesting. Mary Ricketts left something far more valuable: an eighteenth-century account of a family who became convinced that something they could neither see nor understand was moving through their home. Type of Phenomena: Apparitions / Disembodied Voices / Unexplained Sounds / Poltergeist-like Activity Haunting Classification: Historic Documented Haunting Account Reported Phenomena: - Violent door-slamming sounds - Unexplained movement around the house - Disembodied voices and conversations - Apparitional figures - Disturbances experienced by more than one occupant - Original haunted manor demolished in 1793