Tamworth Castle and the Black Lady

Britain is full of castles; many of them are remarkably well preserved considering their great ages and violent histories. All of them have ghostly tales to tell.

We have some pretty fine examples here in the Midlands and I recently paid a fascinating visit to one of the best – Tamworth Castle.

Tamworth has a history stretching right back to Saxon times, when it was the capital of Mercia. Its strategic location meant that it has been fought over many times.

Ethelfleda, the Lady of the Mercians (and a daughter of Alfred the Great), built a wooden fort here as a defence against the Vikings. A couple of centuries later the Normans arrived and built a castle on the site of Ethelfleda’s fort.

The first owners of the castle were the Marmion family who had helped William I invade England. One of them, Robert Marmion, seems to have had one of the earliest (and most painful) ghostly encounters on record.

For reasons best known to himself he decided, in 1139, to expel an order of nuns from their convent in Polesworth. The nuns were forced to join another convent in Oldbury. They were not at all happy and before they left they angrily prayed for help from their founder, St Edith, who had died two centuries before.

That night, the ghost of St Edith appeared to Robert Marmion in his bedchamber (now known as the Lady’s Chamber). She told Marmion that unless he restored the nuns to their rightful home he would suffer an untimely death. Before she vanished, this scary nun struck the Baron with her crozier (a heavy wooden staff). Marmion cried out in pain and immediately promised that the nuns could return to Polesworth.

Whatever you make of this story it does seem that something made Baron Marmion jump on his horse and ride to Oldbury to personally inform the nuns that they could return to their convent.

The ghost of St Edith is known as the Black Lady and her spirit is said to have carried on haunting the castle long after the Marmion family had vacated the premises.

Ghostly figure seen on the staircase at Tamworth Castle – could this be the infamous ‘Black Lady?’ circa

1949

Apart from the Black Lady many people have claimed to have seen another spectre known as the White Lady. Her story seems to be based much more on legend since it involves the Knights of the Round Table. The White Lady was said to have been kidnapped and imprisoned by an evil Knight called Sir Tarquin, an enemy of King Arthur. Despite this she fell deeply in love with her abductor. However, Arthur’s best Knight, Sir Lancelot was determined to rescue her. When he arrived at the castle he drew his sword and slew Sir Tarquin in front of her eyes. The White Lady was so distraught that she threw herself from the battlements. The gallant Sir Lancelot had obviously wasted his time.

Over the centuries the castle was passed from one powerful family to the next and was visited by many Kings and Queens. It narrowly escaped being destroyed by Cromwell in 1643. He was furious that he had been forced to lay siege to yet another Royalist castle.

In 1897 Tamworth Castle was bought by Tamworth Corporation for the princely sum of £3,000.

Since then a steady stream of visitors and staff have passed through its gates and wandered through its old rooms and corridors. A lot of these people have claimed strange experiences and ghostly encounters.

Late one night a member of staff was alone in the castle. She was waiting in the reception area while an engineer was outside checking the alarm system. She was startled to hear footsteps and furniture moving in the room above. The staff member knew that nobody could be in that room. Although she had experienced odd things before, this time she was overcome with fear and ran out of the building, where she met the alarm engineer. He told her that he had seen a strange figure looking down at him from one of the windows.

Another member of staff was working in the Tamworth Story room when she felt as if someone had thrown sand into her eyes. At the same time her colleague saw a blue mist swirl around the room.

A member of the public had an almost identical experience. Just outside a room known as the Haunted Bedroom. He felt as though somebody had thrown something in his eyes and then rush past him. When he told a staff member he was informed that strange things like that happen all the time.

Haunted Bedroom at Tamworth Castle

We really enjoyed our visit to Tamworth Castle and many thanks to the friendly and helpful staff. The castle has fascinating exhibitions and an exciting programme of annual events.

We will definitely be making a return visit. I would love to get a glimpse of that scary nun, the Black Lady.