Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court was Henry VIII’s palace, and three of his wives left traces there. Jane Seymour died in the palace after giving birth to Prince Edward in 1537. Her ghost, a “sad white wraith carrying a lighted taper,” has been reported on the Silver Stick staircase near the anniversary of Edward’s birth, October 12. Sybil Penn, nurse to Edward VI, died of smallpox in 1562. When her tomb was disturbed in 1829, a spinning wheel was found inside a sealed chamber behind a palace wall.

Catherine Howard’s ghost is the one that runs.

The Haunted Gallery

Catherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife, was arrested at Hampton Court in November 1541. According to tradition, she broke free from her guards and ran screaming down the corridor now called the Haunted Gallery, trying to reach the king and beg for mercy. She was dragged back. She never saw Henry again. She was beheaded at the Tower on February 13, 1542. She was about nineteen years old.

Her ghost repeats the journey. Visitors and staff have reported a woman running and screaming through the gallery. In 1999, two female visitors fainted at the same spot in the corridor, thirty minutes apart, during separate tours.

The 2003 Footage

In October 2003, security guards noticed a fire door near Clock Court kept opening by itself. They reviewed the CCTV footage. On three consecutive nights, the doors were caught swinging open with force. On the second night, a figure appeared in the doorway: robelike garments, one arm reaching toward the door handle, a face that appeared “unnaturally white” compared to the outstretched hand. The guards called it “Skeletor.”

The footage was released to the press in December 2003. A visitor had left a comment in the palace guest book describing a spectral figure in the same area on the same day.

Hampton Court spokeswoman Vikki Wood told the press: “We’re baffled too. It’s not a joke, we haven’t manufactured it. We genuinely don’t know who it is or what it is.” Security guard James Faukes said the face “just didn’t look human.”

NBC, the BBC, and dozens of other outlets broadcast the footage. No one has come forward to claim responsibility. The footage remains unexplained.

Sources

Bibliography. The same list is held in the article’s frontmatter for the citation tools that read it programmatically.

• Historic Royal Palaces archives
• CCTV footage, October 2003 (released December 2003)
• NBC News report, 19 December 2003
• Hampton Court Palace visitor book entries