Welcome back. This is part two of my interview with Amy, recorded on location last September. In part one, we explored the long and often brutal history of Dudley Castle and the people who once walked its halls and beautiful grounds. In this episode, we hear about more experiences, from strange encounters and ongoing activity to the moments that make even
seasoned investigators stop and take notice. We dig deeper into the ghosts and legends most closely associated with the castle and the phenomena that continues to be reported by staff and visitors alike. Now I Part one set the scene. Part two is where the hauntings truly.
Begin during the firing seventeen fifteen. Now, there's lots of conspiracy theories as to why that fire happened. Okay. One of them is that there was flower being stored too close to open fires and combusting set the place light. Another theory was it was coen forgers who had got in at the bottom end of the castle and they were smelting, using the pantry fireplace to smelt down metal to make coinage.
Wow.
Okay, okay, that's my theory, and I'll tell you why. Because after the fire, and the family had left. The family had left the castle. They'd gone to Himley, or they were living at Imly, or they rented their parts of the castle to local people. Rooms were left. There was no sort of maintenance left up here. They were just laying You could come and walk through any time.
Security, no security.
These coins forgers they reckon got in. Also, there was a guy known locally as Castle Jacob, and Castle Jacob was actually a hermit or a tramp, and he was well known for being in and around the castle. It turns out he was actually using a tunnel from underneath the gates the warden's arch that run into the little round building right in the corner of the of the sampit the wood what they called the east watched. He
was using that to come and go. He was actually living there for five years with nobody knowing he was there. And he set up a little cobbling business and go down into the tower, pick people's shoes up, take them back men, take them back and get payment for it.
Nobody knew.
Nobody knew. The other theory was he was actually part of this this purging plot. So the fire happened. Nobody knew why the fire happened, it was seen eight miles away in the middle. On the twenty fourth of July, it was seen eight miles away in the center of Birmingham, massive fire. Malten lead in the roof, lead run down and you'll see the black marking under the chapel window when we go outside, and that is a score of the fire. So the whole area was it looked like
a volcano going up. Nobody came up to put the fire out. Yeah, because there was a rumor gunpowder was being stored up here. You ain't going to come if there's gunpowder. So it was actually put out by the rain three days later. He burned three days and three nights and that's recorded in the local parish registers. Earler Dudley was just like, oh, well, this burned and let's
leave it. You know, it's whatever. And then about thirty four years later, in seventeen eighty four, he just suddenly decided he wanted to do a bit of a clean up, so he sent his men up here and they discovered
a skeleton in the kitchen area. Around this skeleton was crucibles ice metal, which proves the coin for forge theory, and there is an article in the Barrows Worcester Journal in November seventeen eighty four talking about this, talking about the Skelington, talking about the base metal in the crucibll.
This was really found, yet really found.
Its documented. It is said that the Earl of Dudley kept well, he kept the skeleton because they were Georgia. They were weird. As I teld to you earlier, they kept the skeleton as a souvenir of the fire. So he never was buried. And we have quite an angry spirit that can push, pod and poke, and he gets really close to you. I've experienced it. It stinks. It's like whiskey and body and mixed together. It gets wrong.
Oh my god.
And when I was doing ghosts nights back in the day, I used to I used to say there is a particular smell. You will smell it. I'm not going to tell you what it is. And people would smell.
It and they would confess.
That. And he's known to push and people. I mean I was sent up for a first daid in November. I mean it was dead. There was nobody here, pardon there was nobody here. A lady was walking through castle creatures and said she was pushed over. There was nobody else in there, So.
You're talking big polty.
Yeah, yeah, he is known to We think the mediums have picked up on him and said he is angry. He's very angry because he never got Christian burial that he deserved it. He thought he deserved. We don't know what happened to this girling. I was just about the Earl of Dudley took it. We having to clue what happened to it.
That is that is absolutely chilling. Investigations, countless investigations here has there been any any planning evidence?
Vs EVP is one of my favorite things ever because there's sometimes when you get the intelligent answers when you're asking questions. It's recorded and then you play it back and it's given an intelligent answer. I've heard that. I mean, I was doing a ghost it was it was during COVID actually, and there was only six of us, and it was Jane Harris helped my houses haunted. She was here and a couple of others and they were under
a group called HD Paranormal at the time. And I did some e vps in down in the Creatures and one of the hosts. Craig said, do you know anybody here? And it's clear as day of the name Amy. Oh yeah, clearest Day come back. They recorded it and it was like Amy. I was like, oh my god, wow. Yeah, So EVPs are one of my favorite. We did it all lady. It was all ladies in here, uh seance all the science. It was like watch and wait. Yeah, and it was just females. The males are gone and
we did EVPs and there was males voices being picked up. Yeah, and they were saying names like James and things like that, and names that you couldn't associate with the Castle.
Yeah.
So yeah, EVPs are, yeah, one of my favorite things. And vps.
Again, you've been here for how long ago, twenty three years now, twenty three years. You've seen people come and go. You've obviously got very close friends here. What's the most chilling would you say, an unexplainable experience that you or any other member of the Castle and the zoological team past or present, that they've ever had, that you've ever had.
My most chilling one was back in the sixty seventies they used to challenge young keepers to spend the night in here, in here, I mean, this room doesn't bother me. I can sit quite comfortably in here three o'clock in the morning on my own, in the dark. It doesn't bother me.
Missus the chapel under cross this, as you said to me, this was probably a more like a critic.
Yeah, but back in the day this used to be house the aquarium here, Yeah, it was there was part it was part of the aquarium. And things used to happen in here. Things like doors would be open, keepers are going lock the doors, go out and come back and the doors will be open when they come in. The front door would be open, or something like that. Lots of old spots, lots of cotspots, things like that, things that couldn't explain, filters turned off when they shouldn't
have been, and things like that. And they used to challenge young keepers when the keeper. This is local law that when the new keepers started, they used to challenge them to stay here in this room. Three keepers young keepers decided to take up the challenge. Next morning they were found in the bar down at the back, sleeping
on the high bales. So the then came out with the zoo goes, what the hell are you doing on the you're supposed to be sleeping in the undercroft and the when we were sleeping in the undercross until we had all the chanting coming from the back of the room, we went outside and there was a figure walking down the key steps. So then we decided to sleep again.
Chant So that ties in again with bunks. Yeah.
Oh, that's a well known story of the chanting.
Yeah.
We've Adrian Akadas who have stayed in this building complaining that they've been kept up all night by the chanting coming from the back. Wow. But like I say, that would have been the way into this room. Yeah, yeah, you mentioned that down into the back.
Do you believe that the hauntings are residual energy from the past or intelligent entities or something else entirely? And we are going to lead into something that we've chatting.
Them both, Okay, I mean the little girl that I've seen, I.
Explained, would you would you go into that side? Yeah?
I have spoke about this on another podcast. But I've started doing ghost nights about well twenty three years ago, and one of the very first I did was with the group called Flight Nights. Okay, and there was about seven of us in this room.
Can I just say. And I'm not doing this because the microphones are switched on, and I'm not doing this because we're doing a podcast. But I have just gone absolutely freezing cold right here. I don't normally I'm not joking. I don't normally get this, but I'm serious. I've just pulled my sleeves down.
Because I'm talking about them.
I don't know. I don't know, but I don't. I don't. I'm not usually affected by the cold.
If you're sort of in this room, the more you can be talking like we're talking, you're ignoring them.
I'm just moving over to grab something. This is this is kind of live as we're doing it. We're not going to cut I'm just going to get this rugged out because that's a bit strange.
Yeah, that was. If you sort of tend to be talking about them but not calling or trying to interact with them, they do tend to do things right, Okay, And that sounds weird, but it's true. Many times I've been doing things in here, even I've not been talking. I've been talking about them, but not to them. They'll
be carrying me label. But the like I was saying fright nights was and there were seven of us in here, and it's in a little circle, and it was quite strange because it was I was a complete and not a skeptic. I said to you, you couldn't tell me that there was a thing called ghost. I mean, I've got an interest because of what my mom had told me early.
Okay, so we are looking at we are looking at the MF meter right now, and please Amy, just double check what I do. There is no power There is no power source anywhere here now, and I am not kidding you. There is there is no power source anywhere near this. Wow. That is that is really strange. Okay. Now, so you've look at that. You've also mentioned the name, but we're going to go into that right now as you go through your experience.
Right So, like I say, you can tell me there was sort of ghost or anything. We were in a circle and we saw flashes of light, little like flashes of light, and I was like, what the helve that? And next thing we know, little girl about five six years old. She got dirty blonde to light brown hair, little white dress on but I'll never forget does she got no shoes on, and we're all seven of us took her out asked what we'd seen. We all said
the same thing. Then about fifty fifteen years later, the last grotto, because I look after the grotto during Christmas. The last grotto we did, which is in the building next door to this, we were. I come in six six thirty in the morning, walked in, and the buildings strange because to get the back set of lights on you have to walk. You put the first set of lights on, but then you have to walk through a darkened passage to get to the next set of lights.
And I was walking through and there's a ramp that goes up into the back back room and she was walking the same little girl, no shoes, white dress, smoking up the ramp. And then last year in the grotto, I walked in again. It was about about seven o'clock in the morning, and she was in the bats. She was behind the bats. We've been told by mediums her name's Ellie, and that she was here sometimes sometime in
the thirteen maybe thirteen fourteen hundreds, probably a servant. We've got no record records of our but she's known for poultgeist activity because she will move the things and she is very, very attracted to lights and she will move the lights up and down.
So when you saw her, was she solid?
Yep, so solid if you want.
To me now, I mean we both just sat here and you've seen this. I've got an ef me to just registering and clock in a way. There is literally hardly any reading there I have just you might have heard my camera clicking off and I've been taking a few fat This thing has been this thing has been going mad. Literally at the time that I'll pull my sleeves down because I've got really, really cold, and anybody who knows me knows that I'm not.
Really But you said earlier about you got an EMF meet with you. She's a that she knows the flight more than one times three times there, but she will respond respond. When we're doing ghost nights, she will respond and she uses lights. I mean Christmas. She'll move things in the grotto like Teddy Bears and back in the eighties and nineties where are batting closure is that was actually a castle gift gift shop and things of move
in there. The Teddy Bears had moved. I'll told you the story of the big key racking that went right across the what's it? And my friend who worked right across the building. There was no wind in there, It just went across. That was a story that was mentioned on Most Haunted when they did the Live here this also and my friend who used to work in them, or I should say friends or Memento, he used to work in there, J Cooper, and he'd done a display of jams and the whole lot was took off a
shelf and placed on the floor. The building was lot. There was nobody in there, and you've been in there. Flagstones if they fell the smash, yeah.
No damage at all. I want to talk about something that we spoke about earlier, and this fascinated me straight away because you mentioned it in the historical aspect before we even started. Then I've got you to speak about it again. But we interviewed Richard Foedix a while ago and he spoke about the stone tape theory, which you are a very very big believeryh Yeah, and you mentioned something to me that absolutely blew me away, which was I did not realize the water source because we were
talking about silica water. You storm data on microchips and stuff. I had no idea about the water source. And when you said that to me. That was big kind of Eureka moment. So that is why you would say that this is probably a very very strong proponent.
Oh yeah, I really believe in that. I spoke to other people don't believe it. But I'm a massive fan of the stone tak theory because there is nothing more natural in this world than this stone. Yeah, I mean this stone. I mean behind you. We've got one of the stones from the Priory. That stone dates for eleven hundred.
And I've seen this stone by the way, and it's got an ingredient.
It was the key stone for the priory. You know, you sat on a limestone reach you've got water under. It's got to be there's got to be a reason that places like this have hauntings. And I'm a big, fat fan of the stone type theory. That energy is recorded, like you saying data something Matt triggers it to reply. That's what the Green Lady is, hundred percent. She never interacts, you see her. She does well, it does and goes.
It's very very strange that the grand Lady doesn't interact. But the little girl, the.
Little girl, I think she's an intelligence. Richard Felix actually put this really well when he was here at Dudley Castle, and he's one of the things I've stuck with in my head. You'll never hear of a caveman haunted.
Yeah, he spoke about, Yes, you're nearly here.
Of a caveman haunting. Why religion and there was no fear yet, there was no fear. People didn't think about purgatory and things like that. As you move through time, religion comes about. People are scared to death if they've done something wrong. And I think people some people or stay their spirits ut move and they stay stay where they are. Maybe it's because they loved loved a place, or maybe it is that fear that something is got
those legs. Yeah, stone tape. Something's triggered that to play, and I mean that's that's the coffin guys from thirteen twenty one.
There was a fascinating sighting that you spoke to me earlier about that and that involved who it was. Did we not record this, I'm not sure about it.
So back in just after these coffins were because these coffins were actually the big one was don down at Dudley Priory. Smaller one was phoned to local church, but both coffins were then housed in Priory Hall. Priory Hall then got turned in the nineties into the Registry Office marriages, births and deaths. It was this I did. It wasn't a really good thing to have two coffins when you're going to register a marriage or a birth, so they
decided to bring the coffins up to here. The big coffin we believe belonged to John Dey Summery, who was one of the Barons of Dudley. He actually built finished the building the keep back in the thirteen hundreds. Now, when these coffins were first moved up here, this room was different. You could actually come in here every single day to watch a little film about the history of
the castle. And a cleaner was sent up after a busy bank holiday Monday, and she was covering away, hoovering away, suddenly looked up to the bottom end of the coffin and saw two legs with riding boots on. Now she was quite used to the then castle keeper coming in in costume, so she just thought it's him, and she was like morning. Adrian then looked up a bit further and there was nothing above the legs.
His legs were sold.
There was solid in her now her she made a bit of a force. Her sister, who was cleaning as well, came in and said, what on earth going on? And she says, there's two legs in the coffin. There's two legs in the coffin. She took her sister down to calm down, down to the restaurant. They sent people up to have a look when she recounted this story of what had gone on, and they can't find anything in this room. You can see this room. There's not a lot of places you can hide. There was nothing in
this room. Those legs. Something's triggered that to play. And I think that was stone tape theory. I think that and I heard that. So it's one of the things that got me into all the paranormal around the castle. I was always into the history, but this is one of the things because that lady was through marriage related to my mom, and my mom told me the story because her mom, MYNN, had said to her, you'll never guess what's happened to Dudley Castle. And she recounted the story.
But that's one hundred percent would have been a stone tape.
Well, we covered the bit that I was going to talk to you about Richard Felix in the stone Tack theory, but you mentioned something to me before we started recording, and these are the wonderful nuggets that as a podcast, a show like this, you are after these kinds of things all the time. And you mentioned an absolute blinder earlier on and it just goes to show that it's not just people that can appear as ghosts, but it's
also animals. Would you kindly tell us about the sighting that happened obviously a long time ago with a specific animal.
Okay, so very first curator head zoo keeper Dudley Castle, was a guy called Harry Hatch and he actually lived on in the little Cottage which is just down the way, and he raised loads of animals and hundred loads by far, though his favorite was a cheetah. He was called Sylvia
and took her everywhere we didn't. They actually appeared on Blue Peter back in the early days of Blue Peter, and she bit his hand live on her and I've tried to get as I said to you, I've tried to get the footage, but apparently it was live, so it wasn't recording. However, Sylvia was his favorite, and he used to walker exercises in the castle courtyard and we've got pictures. We've got pictures of local dignitaries coming and stroking and things like that. I'll let you have.
One to see it.
When when he comes time to put her in an enclosure, wouldn't capture in the cottage and like exercises up here. And then when she died, she was actually buried next to the cottage. She's in the garden area, just to the side of the cottage. And but what my very first goes it was my very It was a group
called Evy Evenings. They were doing one of their first up here and I took the group down to do a history tour, gone down to the cottage and I'd left the medium and the main host in the grounds and all of a sudden, I come belt him down and I'm like, one, are your big cats is out? We've just seen a big cat running through the middle of the and I don't think so. So on the phone to my boss like I'm like boss, and he was like, right, I'm coming on, So you come on.
Checked all the the enclosures, nothing, nothing, nothing, unlocked, nothing everywhere, and he goes comes up to me and I was told him what had happened, and he goes, Oh, it's Harry's cat.
Harry's cat.
And he goes Harry's cat, Harry's cat. He says he's been seen before running around the courtyard.
Stn't take I just find that amazing. Again the beep, just to let you all know it was the the emf me to switch in itself off. That wasn't anything doing it. That is just that that story absolutely encapsulates everything about this place. It's not just people, it's not just going back hundreds and hundreds of years. You've even got a cheetah.
Yeah. I mean this all the stories people have often heard where the old elephant houses. Have you because you back in the day that the elephants with the chain and people have heard the chain. Wow, I had elephants since two thousand and three, but I'd hear the chain.
That's been reported many times. And the reptile House. I can tell you a good one about the Reptile House because I was doing a ghost one of the towards the end of before I retired from Goes Tonight and there was a group up here, new group, and they come on. The hosts come on a little bit before to get a feel for the place and set some stuff up because I wanted to put like a drum where the drummer boy archwrails and things like that. And I was in the castle and bloke medium from the
group conting goes, is anybody working in there? And I went where he was there? I went all the ref tilers, the sum be because there's only me on site. Anyway, he says, because I've just seen a man standing by that first enclosure. Through the main door, you could see the first thing. So I've just seen a man. And I went, now there's nobody on and he went, now I've definitely seen a man. So again on my phone,
I'm like, boss, are you medding anything? Of you come on to Medica and thin and he was like no, no, I'm sating on the setty. He says. My wife's the way I'm looking after the kids. And I went all right, he said good and check. He said good and check. So I went down and checked the back door. Back door was locked, everything, nothing disturbed. So I phoned the header section, the reptile header section, because she lived at the time, just outside and I was like, you're not
on site, are you? And I went no, I said, you're not in the reptile.
No, I'm not.
I'm at home. And he says, anger, and I'll come up with the keys so we could walk through. And so we went and went through, walked through. Nothing there at all, but one of them monitor lizards was like up the glass, which was quite rare because she was like, that's rare for him to do that like that. And she came in to speak to the medium and I says, can you tell me what you saw? Mad and green buld head. That's why I thought it was my boss, because he's man and green old head keeper. And I
was like, there's nobody in there. I tell you there's nobody in there, because he was standing looking in the first enclosure, and I went, okay. A couple of weeks before this had happened, she was working late. They were really doing the floor, so they were standing in the floor. There was her, her husband, one of as the head of the gardens, and one of her one of her junior keepers. Was all working late. She thought it was then,
but then the two of them were outside. The two lads were outside in the quarantine area, which is completely outside, and she'd been staying in the floor and she felt someone clab on the back of her a T shirt. So she was like she went outside to have a gut him. And I was like, we haven't been in the building, but it proper grabbed a shirt. Wow, So
we think. I mean, there's been reports in there anyway of things like something called the key j angler when people are working in there December November, December, when the zoo is really really quiet. They can be working there on their own and I'll leave the keys jangling, so they ultimatically think it's a member of staff coming through, but it's not. There's nobody there.
Are there any areas of the place that the public can't access and can you talk about some of those areas. Unfortunately today we're not going to be allowed in those areas down to health and safety. There's a lot of work going on and things like that. But yeah, could you talk about there.
Is there's areas of the castle that aren't at the moment, I will say at the moment accessible because of health and safety. There's a problem with stone because of the way that and because of other issues. We've got a problem with some of the stones, particularly in the Sharrington Range coming down. Yeah, so they are locked off for
that reason. The secret areas you're on about, I mean, we've got a lot of caverns underneath us and one of the places I would love love to go at the caverns that are underneath us, because one of them is called the World War Two Cavern and it's set out with offices underneath. That's standing at the bottom opposite where our camels are currently. During World War Two they used to run the ammunition train into it, but it's in offices and I'd love to get my get down there.
There's also where the chair lift is. There is a cavern behind there. Unfortunately it's flooded, but i'd love to get in there. Wow.
Yeah, obviously we can't get in. But do you have that access to getting them or is it a case of there is no access to get into them.
There is access to get into them. The problem is there's a lot of bats. Because one of the caverns over at Reven's Less collapsed and the bats migrated down. The one behind the chair lift is actually flooded halfway through, so that's full of water. But the World War Two tunnel you can you can't and people do. I'd love to do a ghost walk down that is amazing.
We spoke about tunnels.
Tunnels, Yeah, well, the local legend is that there is a tunnel that runs from Dudley Castle down to Dudley Priory, which would be a heck of a tunnel. It would if it's been done, but it wouldn't. It will make sense because you would want an escape route down to the priory. That's never been discovered. Whether it's there or not, I'm not sure. Two tunnels that I do know are definitely here. There's a tunnel between the two barbicane at the front gate, so they'd have been used to move soldiers.
That was discovered, That was rumored for many years, then discovered in the nineteen eighty nineteen ninety gigs. They found that tunnel. The other tunnel is where the water's arches and it's the one that Jacob would have used to move underneath to get to the wardens at the east watchtower at the in the sam Pit area. Now that unfortunately that has collapsed half way across because they put the stairs. It steps in in the nineteen hundreds, so
that collapsed half way across. However, there is still a access and there is Felix, Yeah, which Felix Young. It is one of the Felix brothers. I think it's will actually went down and across and came back many years ago.
You also mentioned earlier on that you literally bumped into something and you saw a door.
Oh yeah. Back in there. There's a report about the castle from the from a guy called Harraldikespeare and on it there's something called the screen's passage and I really want to find out where this But there was work done in the eighties twelve and the what was the visitor to castle creatures and it was blocked off and
I really wanted to find this, this Screen's passage. And they were doing some work in the platroom what we call the platroom now, and there was a door and never been through that door, and one of the guys went ive, got the curve you want to have a look and looked opens up and there's the screens faceted. Wow wow. But yeah, so that was this castle. The history on this castle is so immense and it never fails to surprise and you find something new out every day.
That brings me to my next question. What originally drew you to this castle? And we spoke earlier about even you as a as a as a little as a teenager, both as a historian but also as a person who was such a vested interest in the paranormal. What draws you to this even even as a.
Kiss grind in blood. I mean, I'm well known for upping the walls and gaining when I was a young star used to get into trouble for it all the time. Are you like every Dudley kid did. Yeah, he'd come out in one of the walls for three days. But I never went to the zoo. Always came to the castle. And the history on it is you would take two three layers of the history of this building off off it. Yeah, and it is just immense. It's like I say, I
think he's walked through the courtyard. You're walking in the steps of history, you know, and as a historian. And the more you dig into the history of it, the more you love it, the more you find, the more
you want to find more and more and more. I mean, like I said, you're probably one of the most underrated barons we had here d from the six when you look at his history and the people he was associated with, and he was here and he lived here, he was born here, he died here, and Dudley was such an amazing historical place that that's what attracts me. And I love learning, I love finding out about things, and this
gives me the perfect opportunity. Like I said to you, you find something new every day about it and you do a little bit of dig in. I told you about Graham who was the medium. Yeah, and he said to me, I'm picking up on the name Gaunt, like John of Gorne, and there's no link between us and John of Gone, nothing at all. And I was like, right, okay it because I'm not changing it. It's gone. This is a medium that I really chose. And I was like, right, I'm going to do a little bit of dig in.
And he took me a load to dig through the history because a lot of the records, as I said to you, in Staffordshire. Yeah, so it took me a lot of digging. But one of the baroness's, her second husband, was Maurice de Gornet, the Gaunt connection, and I'm like that blows my mind.
Yeah, we'll be talking about this. That is something that you have written. There aren't many people that are going to be able to dig down if the records are only held over there. They're only a select few people that are going to be able to get to that.
And I mean that's what attracts me as as for the paranormal side, but also as a historian, because then I'm like, Oh, we've got a baroness who's got second husband, what's his family story? That's that's what I've I personally think you should do. You can't have a ghost story without backing it up with it. I know some people are different with me, but you can't have a true ghost story without a proper history link.
Well, I certainly think Richard Felix would back you up.
I mean, there's there is absolutely no way. I mean I've said to you before, I've I've seen good mediums and I've seen a very very shocking medium and one of them tried to tell me Lady Jane Gray was haunting the courtyard. Mary Queen of Scott's was here and somebody was being you dispensed, the younger was being executed on the keep and I'm like Lady Jack. There is no written evidence to say that Lad Jane Gray ever
come anywhere close to Dudley. Okay, her nearest place to here was Leicester, possibly Leicester, and even that's debated now that she was born at Leicester. Debating now that she was born in London, she wouldn't have come here. Mary queenis goes this was like inspected as a possible prison for her. It was a tup ray that I were
thinking of moving her here. They did, and because the building was in too much of a disrepair it would have took too much A lot of big Catholic houses in the area as well, so they decided to move it to Chartley. Then she went to father in Way where she was executed, and you dispenser, Yes he did old the castle for about a year, but he was executed in Evesham. So this medium had obviously been on the internet going oh no, yeah, I'll make a story
up about that now. But it's going to know. My thing about it is people are paying their order and cash to come on gas, to come on ghost walks. They deserve the real stories, of course, and if you can't back it up, I'll go toe to toe with anyone on the history of this place, anyone. But if you can't back that up with history, then you know what I mean, I don't believe it's true.
You know what I mean.
You know I've heard that. Like I said, I've heard some really really good I've had some really good mediums here, some real stellar mediums, and I've had some male shockers. And you know, I mean, I'm very much known to actually tell people I'm like now that day happened. Yeah, And like I said, I said to you earlier, I'll go toe to toe with anyone on the history of this place.
It's from my point of view, sitting here with yourself in this environment, in this room, it's an absolute pleasure to have talked to someone with this much passion about where they work, not only because of where you know, where you work, but because of that history, because of these paranormal stories and the legend and the folklore, if you like, and all of these potential people that did come here, the importance, as you said, of who were
walking the grounds of this place, these massive historical figures that were in Dudley. Yeah, I think you were actually mentioned to me a little bit earlier that Birmingham wasn't the place.
No, no, I mean the Baron of Birmingham or the Birmingham had to do felt to the Baron of Dudley. Yeah, I mean Dudley was seen as I mean you're in central England, even more so than Birmingham central. You're in central England. This little place of ours was a powerhouse. Mean, we started the Industrial Resolutions, Newcoms engine was here, you know, we we were at the forefront. This place was and he is historically so important and people should know about
its history. And like I said, Birmingham, Birmingham was like you know, I still thinking personally, but Dudley was central too. I mean we were you you could put anything, any major historical event event in England and somewhere along the line there'll be a connection here. Yeah, you know, like I said, John Sutton the sixth I mean brought the body of Henry the fifth home from France when he died. He saw eighty seven years of history from him from Dudley.
He died, but was born here. He died here. He was a major figure, a diplomatic figure. I mean King's absolutely loved him. I mean Richard Richard the third, Henry the seventh, Henry the fifth, and he was close friends with Henry the sixth. You know, he was a grad stuard of England. He looked after the royal finances. He was a major person and he here, I mean even going back. There's a baron called William Percival and he had a son called Nicholas. And I've been doing a
lot of digging on finding who Nicholas's mother was. And he turns out she's one of the biggest Irish legends in where he's de verd. She's one of the major Irish legends. After William died, Henry Henry the third arranged a marriage to one of the Irish magnate She was a second wife. He'd already got children. Her children kept her name for Dawn. She built Castle Larache over in Ireland.
She was known to ride out in full armor, and when her second husband died, she refused to remarry and became a femdom, which means she was her own person. She was allowed to. Yeah, she was here, she was in this castle. She's one of the biggest Irish female legends.
Strong Irish.
At Dudley Castle, her first husband was William William Pursval the summary, I mean, how amazing is that?
Yeah? Yeah, it is absolutely utterly fascinating. If you sat here right now, you've graced me personally, and you're going to be gracing all of our listeners, and you've it's been an absolute true people never visited Dudley Castle before yourself. What would you say to them? Why should that come to Dudley Castle?
The history for the absolute history of this building. Other castles in this country they've got history. This has got. I mean this was probably one of the first castles that was converted to stone. I mean it was so important. It was known as the Castle in the Woods. It's got legend to it, it's got myth to it, it's got folklore to it. Come listen to what the history of it. I mean, even if you don't want to come, get the books out, read the books, because you'll be
amazed at what has happened in this castle. Amazed and the links it's got. Like I said, possibly every historical evenge you can put some kind of link to here, especially with the barons. I mean the barons were I mean John Dee Sunray knighted with Edward the Second at the Feast of the Swans and dressed from the royal wardrobe. I mean, this man was up there. He was known as a true, true what's it of the king, a true supporter of the king, and he was here. He was here.
Mean, so there you go. It's got everything, it's.
Gone everything You've got us as well. You know, ninety years of Dudley's in two years time. I mean, you've got everything in and it's just a pleasure to explore it. And like I said to you, I learned something new every day every day. Very very very wise person said to me many years ago. He said, when you think you know everything, walk through the door and don't come back, because that's when you get complacent. And I've always by that, and I find something new way to every day.
It's absolutely refreshing. We're going to call and we're going to call it close to this section of the interview, but we've got a real treat now because we're probably going to grab a quick coffee or something, and then Amy's going to actually tight me on a bit of a personal visit around some of these areas where some of these paranormal activities taken place, and we're going to have a little bit of a chat. It's going to be windy because it's blowing a gale outside at the moments,
and we've got a bit of weird Weathermie. Yes, still mainly there to go, so we shall be back very soon. Thank you so much, nobody. And that brings us to the end of part two, but there's still more to come. In part three, Amy takes me out on location around the castle itself and its grounds, visiting some of the areas where spirits and ghosts are sent to Rome. We also explore spaces rarely discussed and in some cases, rarely seen, as we step directly into the place where so many
of these stories originate. Join me for Part three, where history and hauntings meet face to face.
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