St.Albans
Other accounts
The following accounts are first-hand accounts from G.P.S members.
17 The High Street
This account is not of an actual experience, but the background to photos taken of the premises seemingly showing the ghost of a young girl.The photos were taken around November 2009. The reason behind taking them were purely for personal interest, and I had taken many photos in St.Albans that particular day – I had no prior knowledge of any ‘ghostly’ tale attached to the premises, and did not realise that the photos I’d taken were related to a story featured in a publication:
HAUNTED HERTFORDSHIRE – A ghostly gazetteer.
The account mentions 17 The High Street, and the sad tale of a young girl whose father owned the premises. The girl fell in love, and decided to marry a young man who worked for her father. Her father, however didn't like the idea and locked her in an upstairs room, where she tragicaly took her own life. Her ghostly grey figure supposedly haunts the premises, and she is often seen around Christmastime. Phantom footsteps have also been heard on the stairs.
It was after reading the account in question, and some familiarities, that I remembered the photos I’d taken, and I wondered if the photos I’d taken were of the same place?After taking them, I had viewed the images and mentioned that there seemed to be the ghostly face of a young girl in the upstairs window. – It was, to me quite clearly a young girl, almost in profile but her eye, nose and mouth could be seen.Her colour was ‘grey’ and her features darker shades of grey, in colour. It also looked as though she was holding a bunch of flowers by her face. At the time, I did show other people and most could see the face without me mentioning it at all, some even saw a male face to the right hand side of the picture as though looking over the girls shoulder.Upon checking, the photos and the tale related to the same premises!
Grove House
ACCOUNT 1: First-hand account – Gateway Paranormal Society Member: Psychic/Clairsentient
DATE OF ACCOUNT: July 2009
This happened on the same day as my first experience in French Row. We had returned from the Abbey (this time in French Row I felt nothing) and had walked up the town, into the Grove House Charity shop, which is located off the High Street.
Again, this was another place I had been into previously. On this particular visit, I was in there about 5 minutes in all. During my time in there, I felt I was struggling to breathe, as though there were hands around my throat. I got the distinct impression that someone had died there, and the circumstances had been violent. The ‘murder’ had been quick and felt planned – whoever had been responsible had known before this that they had to murder this person. The feeling went, and I left the shop, stopping outside briefly to tell the person I was with what had happened.
Usually, after leaving this shop I stay on the same side, and walk down into town again. On this day I noticed (for the first time) the blue plaque almost opposite the shop on the other side of the road. I may have noticed it on this day, as I had stopped outside the shop for a moment, rather than walk straight into town.
We crossed the road, and read the writing on the plaque:
I wonder if the Castle Inn spanned what is now the road, and incorporated the area of the Grove House Charity shop, and whether the Duke was murdered in such a violent way?
