All this week we are proud to present you our very own ‘Haunted Guildford’ series from in-house blogger Charli Aisha Harris where spine-chilling stories of haunted folk and places in Guildford are recounted for your displeasure! Learn a little bit more about Guildford’s darker past with spectres, royalty, celebrity and of course plenty of death to share with you. Thought that Guildford was a sleepy market town…? Well think again as we uncover some of the scarier stories from our town’s history.
Guildford Museum can be located just down the road from another haunted Guildford location – the Kings Head pub. Quarry Street is a strange and adorable combination of different buildings and styles with a long and varied history, but it also has a long history of strange sounds, sightings and spine tingling legends.
The museum was originally built as a house, but in the late 19th century, part of the building was converted into a girl’s school. It is around this time that the chilling reports began; piano music could be heard drifting down from the top floor, followed by footsteps and a loud, sudden bang on the floor. As well as these eerie noises, a strange and hazy figure had been seen on multiple occasions going to and from number 48, a figure who seemed blurred around the edges and slightly translucent.
These sounds and sightings remained a mystery until a scandal was brought to light by one scared individual. A few years prior, the music teacher at the school, in a fit of despair, hanged herself in a room on the top floor of No. 48, now a part of the Guildford Museum.
As well as this tragic tale of the teacher, there were also rumours of the unearthing of skeletal remains during refurbishments in the 1950’s. These were supposedly of a man and a young child, though these reports cannot be verified.
Given the dark history of Guildford Museum, we cannot help but wonder if that cold chill experienced by some visitors is really just a draft? Or is it ghostly fingers warning of dark deeds from the past haunting the present?
Charli Aisha Harris
With special thanks to Philip Hutchinson, author of Haunted Guildford