Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire is a moated manor house first built during the late 1300s. One of its early owners was the nobleman Sir Nicholas Brome who stabbed his own local vicar to death in the library of the house. He had arrived home suddenly and saw the vicar tickling his wife under her chin then exploded with rage. Some curious stains can be seen next to the fireplace and it is said that this is the vicars blood, there forever to condemn Sir Nicholas.
He was forced to rebuild the church as penance but while he was at it had a drawbridge and small cannon ports added to the house!
Baddesley Clinton was a staunch Catholic stronghold during the religious persecutions of the Tudor era and has several priest holes still visible today, where priests would hide, sometimes for days, when the house was raided. The house was also a major location in the Gunpowder Plot, the cellars used to store the gunpowder itself. Phantom footsteps are constantly heard throughout the house and are said to be the echoes of the priest's hurrying to their hiding places.
One more ghost at Baddesley Clinton is the figure of a 19th century soldier in red jacket and white belt seen marching up and down the upper landings, thought to be that of Major Thomas Ferrrers who was killed during the Napoleonic Wars. Quite why his spectre is on duty a thousand miles from his place of death is a mystery.
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