The Shire Hall - Eeerie chills and a ghostly girl Standing on the site where the County jail previously was this haunted 17th century hall is one of the oldest working Courts in the Country today. The hall was built because the old Town Hall, which was situated in High town just outside the butter market began to collapse mainly due to the fact that the whole weight of the building was on wooden stilts. The top floor started to crumble away and soon became unsafe and so the hall was demolished and a new Shire Hall was built sometime in between 1816 and 1817 on the site where the old main county gaol was. John Howard who was the Prison reformer examined the building and said that drink was available too. It is said that there was a window in the Golden Fleece Inn that opened up into the first court court of the old gaol, the pub was adjoined to the building. When construction started two of the Citys Inns had to unfortunately be demolished to make way for the new hall; these two Inns were The Flower Pot Tavern and The Catherine Wheel. Amazingly the two court rooms in the hall still have their original wooden paneling and the one Court room still has the S shaped hook which is kept to the side of the Judges chair. The hook was where the black cap was kept and before pronouncing the death sentence the Judge would wear the hat over his wig, remarkably this hook is still intact. The first ever trial was held in 1817 and the architect who designed the hall was Sir Robert Smirke, he was an impressive and well respected Designer as he also designed Eastnor Castle amongst many other fine buildings. The cost was a total of 25,000 pounds and at a later date a further 3500-00 pounds was urgently needed for the Judges quarters which were opposite the Old House museum in High Town. Henry the 2nd started the court system and when the Courts first opened only the English were tried here, no one from the Welsh borders were ever allowed to be tried by an English court, however today thats changed has everyone gets tried. In 1948 when the Grand Jury Act was revoked there would have been a hearing in front of a Grand Jury before a defendant would go to trial, the case was heard and the Grand Jury would then go to the Grand Jury room to discuss amongst themselves whether there was a case to answer to, the room today is used for the witnesses waiting to go to court. The Shire Hall still has all of its original features and there are still many of the old signs to be seen around the court, in the cells there is still the old heavy iron gate, Security staff claim they hear this gate slamming occasionally on it own accord. Creepy footsteps are also heard walking up and down on a regular basis . It has been said by Staff that the Cell area is the most haunted part of the Shire Hall and that paranormal activity seems to mostly come from this area. The most known and certainly the most chilling ghostly disturbance occurred whilst there was a group of School children visiting the Shire Hall, the children were all lined up in the corridor waiting to go into the main hall when they all saw the ghost of a little girl outside the halls main front doors. The girl was apparently peering through the glass window and then mysteriously vanished, this was seen by a member of staff as well. The Shire Halls most famous trial was of a man called George Armstrong who was also known as The Hay Murderer he killed his wife and was found guilty and was later taken to Gloucester prison to be hanged. Hangings used to take place in Hereford when the Shire Hall was a Prison. The public hangings took place where the War Memorial Monument now stands in the Square. Old tales say that a disturbed Prison Governor around this time used to keep the dead bodies for his own personal use , to feed to his pigs. With so much history, memories and energy in this building expectedly the hall is home to many ghosts, footsteps and icy chills have occurred frequently, a dark apparition was seen by a member of staff in the Jury waiting room and the odd smell of cigar smoke has passed by on the odd occasion. The Town Hall which is just opposite the Shire Hall is also said to be haunted, a ghostly apparition was once seen on the CCTV footage in the halls car park and many other spooky occurrences have happened in the hall. The hall was built in 1902 and was opened by Princess Henry of Battenburg, Beatrice a daughter of Queen Victoria, it cost 32,000 pounds to build the hall. In the Shire Hall there is always more history to learn and there are ghosts of the past that like to visit which makes it one of Herefords most remarkable buildings.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 13:56:59 +0000
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