Chingle Hall

Chingle Hall
Location of Chingle Hall in the City of Preston district
Location	Whittingham, Preston, England
OS grid reference	SD 55681 35812
Built	1260
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Chingle Hall moated site
Designated	12 November 1991
Reference no.	1011878

Chingle Hall is a grade II listed 13th century manor house in the township of Whittingham near Preston, England. The house contains a small private chapel, complete with priest holes, and has been home to several alleged episodes of paranormal activity.

History

Originally, the land where Chingle Hall now stands was owned by Ughtred de Singleton from around 1066. In 1260 Adam de Singleton built a small manor house known as Singleton Hall. It was surrounded by a moat and the studded oak front door was accessed via a small wooden drawbridge, which was replaced in the 16th century by a brick-built bridge. The door and bridge have survived to this day, although some of the moat has now dried up. The hall, renamed Chingle Hall, remained in the possession of the Singleton family until Eleanor Singleton, the last of the line, died in 1585. The house then passed to the Wall family through the marriage of William Wall with Anne Singleton. Their son Anthony Wall, once mayor of Preston, died there in 1601. In 1680 the house was extended westwards. The Walls owned the hall until the mid-18th century when the house passed to a local branch of the Singleton family.

From 1794 the house was owned by the Farrington family for some hundred years before being bought by the Longton family. In 1945, the house was rented by the Howarths before they bought the property in 1960. After Mr Howarth died the house stood empty and was badly vandalised, until Sandra and John Coppleston-Bruce bought the house in 1986 and restored it. The property was then bought by the Kirkhams in February 1995.

The current owner is an eminent professional person and local historian who has carried out detailed research into the history of Chingle Hall and the families who have lived there since its construction. The house and gardens are private property and not open to the public.

Saint John Wall

Some have made the claim that Saint John Wall was born in the Hall in 1620. It is unlikely that he was a member of the Preston Wall family. He became a Roman Catholic priest in 1641. Some have claimed that Chingle Hall was used as a place of worship by Catholics during the time of the Catholic Reformation when it was illegal to practice mass in Britain. In 1678 John Wall was apprehended at Rushock Court near Bromsgrove. He was taken to Worcester jail, where he was offered his life if he would forsake his religion. He declined. Brought back from Worcester, he was drawn and quartered at Redhill on the 22nd of August, 1679. His quartered body was given to his friends, and was buried in St. Oswald's churchyard. A Mr. Levison, however, allegedly acquired the martyr's head, and it was treasured by the friars at Worcester until the dissolution of that house during the French Revolution. The Franciscan nuns at Taunton claim to possess a tooth and a bone of the martyr. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Hauntings

Chingle Hall has been at the center of several alleged episodes of paranormal activity.

Inside the Chapel there are a number of wooden beams that run across the ceiling, some of which are etched with strange symbols, indicating possible ritualistic use in another location. When samples of the wood were scientifically examined they were found to have a high salt content and to be much older than the house, indicating that perhaps they were once ship's timbers that had been recycled.

It was reported that, during the 1970s, one of the beams covering a section of the wall in the chapel spontaneously caught fire and, just as quickly as it had started, inexplicably extinguished itself. (There is no evidence of this to be found today.)

Among other phenomena, there is supposedly a pot-rearranging poltergeist in the kitchen, and visions of monks in the hallway and on the stairs. One of the rooms alleged to be most haunted is thought to have belonged to Eleanor Singleton, who was said to be "ideota" and who died at the age of 18.

On Christmas Day 1980, Gerald Main and ghost-hunter Terence Whitaker spent time at the Hall in a vigil and recorded rapping sounds emanating from one of the priest's hiding holes. At the time of the knocking noises, they recorded a significant decrease in temperature and saw an 'indefinable shape' move across the floor.

In 1985, sounds of bricks being moved were recorded by a visitor in the priest's room, which seemed to originate in the priest's hiding hole. The visitor peered within and saw part of a human hand moving one of the bricks. As he watched, the hand stopped moving and disappeared. This witness later managed to capture the sounds of footsteps on audio tape and a shadowy form on film. Bricks were later found scattered on the floor of the ground floor chapel.

During an investigation of the hall by the Northern Anomalies Research Organisation, two photographs of orange lights, which appeared on and near the oak-beamed ceiling, were captured. The investigator in question did not see these lights, but rather a white flickering effect, which prompted him to be take a number of photographs in the Chapel Room whilst standing in the dark by himself. Notably, both the taking of the photographs and the light itself were witnessed by a several people in the house. When tape recorders were used in an investigation, sounds were heard and recorded within the priest's room but nothing was heard or recorded on the cassette in the passageway outside.

External links

• "Case Report 1990-2003". Ghanon: Paranormal Investigators - Wirral Cheshire North Wales Merseyside.