Lady of Lumley and the Aussie cricket team

Northeast from Durham you will find the town of Chester le Street and a little way past the Durham Cricket ground is Lumley Castle.

One of the famous ghosts of here is lady or (Lily of Lumley) She was the wife of the founder of Lumley Castle Sir Ralph Lumley who, in 1389 converted his manor house into a Castle. Sir Ralph would often be away from the castle leaving his wife Lily alone. On one of these occasions two Catholic priests paid a visit to the castle in the hope of converting Lily of Lumley to Catholicsim.

Lily refused and in anger they killed her and threw her body down a well. When Sir Ralph returned, the priests said that Lily had left him and had become a Nun. Almost immediately after her death a shadowy female figure was seen floating along the corridors. Over the years she has been seen numerous times, and many a hotel guest has seen the figure wandering up and down the corridors. Lily may have even had a hand in trying to help the English Cricket team to win Test Matches. The first happening was in 2000 when the Indian cricket team stayed there. Harsha Bhogle was part of the team and was staying at the hotel. He said he felt unnerved in the hotel and couldn’t rest in his room. There were noises as though someone was walking around the room. After that visit he has been back many times to Chester le Street for matches but he has never and will never stay in the Lumley hotel again.

The next incident happened 5 years later when again the Bangladesh team were staying at the hotel. By the third night most of the team had been told tales of the ghosts that was said to haunt Lumley. Three team members were that scared that they decided to stay in one room. In the middle of the night all three heard and saw a white figure in the room and could hear a child crying. The Captain, Habibul Bashar walked up to the figure and in Scooby doo style pulled the sheet from the figure to see fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza under the sheet with a tape recorder in his hand. A week after this event the Australian team were staying at the hotel and something happened that is said to have scared the mighty Shane Watson so much, that he spend the night on Brett Lee’s floor. Was this the reason that after 16 years Australia lost the Ashes to England. It has been said that Lumley Castle has many hidden passage ways that lead to and from most rooms so was it Lily of Lumley that helped the English Cricket win or was a member of staff who was a cricket fan having a bit fun with the visiting teams?

Courtesy of Andrew Ross, Paranormal NORTH EAST England. Plus podcasts of paranormal interest