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Kenegie

Now a country club, this16th century Tudor manor house to the north of Penzance is one of Britain's most haunted houses. Objects have been known to move by themselves, electrical equipment (e.g. torches, cameras, batteries) may play up, and numerous ghosts have been seen and heard there.

The three most famous ghosts of Kenegie were all connected with the Harris family who owned the Manor during the 17th and 18th centuries. Possibly the most famous ghost of Kenegie was that of a spendthrift heir known as "Wild Harris" who is best remembered because the power of ordinary clergymen was found insufficient to lay him.

He extended his walks all over the grounds and far away down in the "bottom" towards the mill. He was also seen on horseback, on Kenegie Downs and elsewhere. Belated market folks and others dreaded to pass Kenegie gate, as they frequently saw the Squire's spirit standing in the alcove just over this grand entrance. The ghost mostly wore a hunting-coat, riding boots,and a steeple-crowned hat with a feather, or a long black gown and a flat cap with lace and a plume.

On winter nights the squire's ghost, with a dozen or more of his old cronies or like spirits, would assemble in the bowling-green summer-house, where they might be seen from the mansion, and heard talking, singing, swearing, and shouting, in a state of uproarious mirth. Eventually, the famous ghost-layer Reverend William Polkinghorne was called in, and led the ghost of Wild Harris to the hilltop fort of Castle-an-dinas, where he bound the spirit to count the blades of grass within a marked area nine times over and to reach the same tally each time!

Thrifty Old Harris in his lifetime made great additions to the house and walled gardens, and was most unwilling to leave them when he died. His spirit, however, merely came on one certain night in every year to review the place in which he had taken so much delight; and only required that the principal entrance door and the one opposite should be left open on that night. It was believed that any negligence in leaving open these doors at the stated time would be a cause of misfortune to the Harris family, or a token of its decline.

Consequently, the custom was duly observed until, within a few years of the time when the last Harris of Kenegie disposed of his ancestral home, the spirit came and found the doors closed. He made much unearthly wailing until cock-crow, then went away moaning and never returned. It is surmised that he has, ever since, shut himself up in his family vault where he has plenty of company. Before that unlucky time, crickets were heard chirping around the hearths of their old home all night long, but afterwards not one was heard or seen ... sure token of impending misfortune.

A more troublesome ghostly visitor had been housekeeper at Kenegie and a great favourite with a later Squire Harris. The very night after her funeral the disturbances began. The shadowy figure of this old woman, in a long-bodied gown and kirtle, was often seen passing quickly through the court. On occasion over the years, a new servant would venture down to the kitchen in the small hours of the morning, wishing to get ahead with her work (on washing days especially).

However, when she entered the kitchen her light would be blown out, she would receive a slap in the face from an invisible hand, and when she turned to leave the room she would receive a kick behind, all of which made her remember in future to stay abed until cock-crow. The whole household was frequently annoyed by this noisy ghost prancing along stone-paved passages from one room to another, banging doors behind her, till she entered the kitchen, where she would next be heard winding up the old-fashioned clockwork roasting-jack.

After an interval of scolding and shrieking, she would beat the table or dresser with a rolling-pin, making the pewter plates rattle ... her way of announcing that the roast was ready, and of summoning the servants to dish it up. The living inmates would be glad to hear her high-heeled shoes pattering up the stairs and along the gallery, until they stopped at her late master's bed-chamber door, which was usually the conclusion of her exploits for the night.

Finally, the spirit was confined to a small room within the house. She was given a fleece of black wool, and required to card the black fleece until it became white, then to spin it and knit stockings with the resulting yarn. Her closet door is walled up or plastered over so that few know exactly where it is situated, though the sounds of her labours are still often heard in some remote part of the building. Bedfordshire | British Isles | Cornwall | Dorset | Ghost in Cornwall | Howfield Manor | Ramhurst | Sandford | Somerset |