Speaker 1: Welcome to Part three of My Return to Dudley Castle.
Speaker 1: In this final episode, Amy takes me around the castle
Speaker 1: grounds themselves, guiding me through some of the locations most
Speaker 1: closely linked to reported paranormal activity, from shadowy corners to
Speaker 1: open spaces with long memories. This is where the stories
Speaker 1: we've been discussing throughout this series truly come to life. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you join us now in a section of the
Speaker 1: castle undercroft. Amy has been kind enough to stick around.
Speaker 1: Actually I'm keeping her way longer than she should be
Speaker 1: here for, but she's been so incredibly kind to have
Speaker 1: a wander around and give us a description where we
Speaker 1: are and what we're going to be doing here.
Speaker 2: We're actually what they call castle Creatures, which is the
Speaker 2: old visitor centric It's part of the undercroft, so Celerich
Speaker 2: so undercross are above grown storage areas, which is where
Speaker 2: we were before. This one is directly under we're under
Speaker 2: the anti chamber at the moment, but it runs right
Speaker 2: under the castle, the medieval castle. He is also clusters
Speaker 2: one of the most taunted areas right here.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, so.
Speaker 3: We're in the what we call the vestibule.
Speaker 2: So this is the entrance and we're looking at our
Speaker 2: four fathers of the castle. So we've got models of
Speaker 2: Anscorf of picking Ay, the very first Norman Lord Roger
Speaker 2: Dissummary the second, who is quite important because he actually
Speaker 2: founded the priory. He also founded the marketplace. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you know that Dudley has got one of
Speaker 2: the oldest markets in Europe.
Speaker 1: Again, didn't know that that wasn't a creaking doorphin Spirits,
Speaker 1: that was a creaking door because it's extremely.
Speaker 2: Windy, and obviously saying my one of my favorite barons,
Speaker 2: John Sutton the sixth, who was the guy I told
Speaker 2: you about, very good diplomat, awful soldier.
Speaker 3: That was human. And we've got Sir John.
Speaker 2: Dudley, who is the most famous baron. He was Duke
Speaker 2: of Northumberland and it was his plot that put Lady
Speaker 2: Jane Gray on the throne of England for nine days.
Speaker 1: Fascinating characters. Fascinating characters. And you've got obviously the dates here.
Speaker 1: So one of the dates represent do these represent their
Speaker 1: livesan no nose.
Speaker 2: These actually represent when they took the baronet ten seventy
Speaker 2: for Alan Scorff to approximately ten eighty. We know by
Speaker 2: ten eighty six because of the Doomsday book which we
Speaker 2: are in that his son was in charge of his land.
Speaker 3: So by that time he passed away.
Speaker 2: He's gone twelve thirty five is when Roger took over
Speaker 2: to twelve seventy two. He was killed in a hunting
Speaker 2: accident at Pen's Neet.
Speaker 1: Wow Okay, Wolverhampton.
Speaker 3: Pens nature because it was a chase.
Speaker 2: It was the hunting ground for the Barons of Dudley
Speaker 2: and it's where Elizabeth the First went hunting when she
Speaker 2: stayed here at the castle in fifteen seventy five.
Speaker 1: That's fascinating.
Speaker 2: And John Sutton longest serving baron, so he was barren
Speaker 2: from fourteen twenty two to fourteen ninety seven. He was
Speaker 2: actually born in fourteen o one. He's buried. He was
Speaker 2: buried at Dudley Priory and he was given quite a
Speaker 2: big like the Pope gave a two digrace.
Speaker 3: You had to say prayers for him.
Speaker 1: An important god.
Speaker 2: Very important and underrated in English history. And of course
Speaker 2: John Dudley he was here from fourteen fifteen thirty seven
Speaker 2: to fifteen fifty three. He was executed in August fifteen
Speaker 2: fifty three and he basically come the castle out of
Speaker 2: his cousin as head. He basically arranged a mortgage on
Speaker 2: the castle. The baron then defaulted on the mortgage and
Speaker 2: he basically went out, Its mine.
Speaker 1: Now, nice guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but John Dudley is probably our most important baron
Speaker 2: because he was so he done the Sharrington Range, things
Speaker 2: like that, He built that. So yeah, he is quite
Speaker 2: important to Dudley Castle.
Speaker 1: Okay, where are we going to move to? Now?
Speaker 3: I think we go through here.
Speaker 2: This is what we If you visitors have ever been
Speaker 2: to Dudley Castle and done investigations, that would have been
Speaker 2: in this room. This was This is the old Zodiac
Speaker 2: row okay, and now it's we call it the monopoly room.
Speaker 2: But he has got a fantastic model of what the
Speaker 2: castle would have looked.
Speaker 1: Like and it is spectacular. I've got to say it is.
Speaker 3: So this is one of the haunted areas of the castle.
Speaker 3: People often get quite scared in here.
Speaker 2: Especially when it's dark. I will openly say I like
Speaker 2: being in here on my.
Speaker 1: Own, and this is the room, the backroom that.
Speaker 2: I can manage this room, because I think the problem
Speaker 2: with this place is you've quite a way away from
Speaker 2: the doors when you're getting further in. This is part
Speaker 2: of the Tudor Palace, and a lot of servants would
Speaker 2: have been marying about in this area, and people have
Speaker 2: picked up on keys, they've picked up on cold spots,
Speaker 2: they've also and I'm not a big believer in.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I'm not a big believer in at all.
Speaker 2: Because you take a picture in here, you'll see thousands
Speaker 2: of orbs because of the dust. But the one I
Speaker 2: did really did spout my interest is we were in
Speaker 2: the corridor and was walking along and there was a
Speaker 2: light picked up on someone's phone and it was about
Speaker 2: head hot about this high, halfway three or four feet off,
Speaker 2: five or six feet off the ground. And I was like,
Speaker 2: that's interesting, because if that is spirit, it's going to
Speaker 2: be a little And then I figured it out because
Speaker 2: in the back wall you'll see the corbels, which is
Speaker 2: stones which jut out, and it's the floor level.
Speaker 3: So we're actually walking between floors.
Speaker 2: Here, right, Okay, so if we move into the corridor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, there's also some interesting visitors here, isn't there.
Speaker 2: We've got bats, We've got bats, we've got mice, we've
Speaker 2: got the.
Speaker 3: Rats, wow, black rats. All these things would have been
Speaker 3: in castles.
Speaker 2: Black rats are our native rat and they are blame
Speaker 2: for the bubonic play. But it wasn't actually the rats.
Speaker 2: It was the fleets that were on the rat the
Speaker 2: course problem. Right, So these the rats would i mean
Speaker 2: rats would have been on your table in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you'd have had them all through the places.
Speaker 3: Sorry, that's a sound effect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do have sund effects. So if you were
Speaker 1: listening to you're hearing farm animals though you're.
Speaker 2: Actually one female rat can have up to twelve twelve
Speaker 2: babies every twenty two days twenty three days, so they reckon.
Speaker 2: For every one yewman, that's about six to seven rats.
Speaker 1: And I'm actually watching these black rats climbing the grill
Speaker 1: on the ceilings, so they could literally.
Speaker 3: Get everywhere everywhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the fleas would bite the rat and the
Speaker 2: rat would die, and the fleet they needed to get
Speaker 2: another sauce of food. Fair food was blood, so humans
Speaker 2: nice and warm. The flea would drop dromp onto the human,
Speaker 2: bite the human, and that's how.
Speaker 3: The plague spreads.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, so it wasn't actually their fault.
Speaker 1: That's a bad rap.
Speaker 2: And these are the corbels.
Speaker 3: So that's the level of the floor, so that.
Speaker 2: All came that way.
Speaker 1: See what you mean about the heights of it.
Speaker 3: Now that's the top of the head.
Speaker 2: That is spirit. It's going to be the top of
Speaker 2: the head. Like I say, I'm not a big fan,
Speaker 2: but that one did interest me because it was it
Speaker 2: went in a direct line. It dust, animals skip about,
Speaker 2: but this went in a direct loin as if it
Speaker 2: was walking.
Speaker 1: Towards Yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 3: So we're still here.
Speaker 2: We're still in the tudor a part of the building,
Speaker 2: and people do get horrible feelings in this part. They
Speaker 2: do feel sick and things like that. This is this
Speaker 2: right here we've got Actually, I should point this out.
Speaker 3: This is a.
Speaker 2: Memorial because we've had both Queen Elizabeth's visit. So we
Speaker 2: have Elizabeth the first the eleventh of August fifteen seventy five,
Speaker 2: and then Queen Elizabeth the first visited Klarding.
Speaker 3: Elizabeth the Second visited to.
Speaker 1: Us in Jude That is fantastic.
Speaker 3: Nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 2: She actually opened this area when it was the visitor center.
Speaker 2: So when you get to this archway, you're going to
Speaker 2: travel back two hundred years without the aid of the Tardars.
Speaker 2: Because you're going from Tudah to medieval. Wow. So this
Speaker 2: is where John Dudley got to. This is where his
Speaker 2: building stops and the medieval building started.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The undercroft, as I said to you earlier, was Prosser,
Speaker 2: is possibly the oldest surviving room, complete room of the castle.
Speaker 2: The undercroft where we were before, predates the keeper.
Speaker 1: Wow. I mean this the wall, it sounds be so thick.
Speaker 3: It's huge.
Speaker 2: The thing was those lovely Victorians who did a lot,
Speaker 2: a lot of damage to places like castles, bashed through
Speaker 2: walls up here because there was a room locally that there.
Speaker 3: Was treasure being.
Speaker 2: Building ransacks, so they bashed through a lot of the walls,
Speaker 2: including this one.
Speaker 3: Right okay, So again in.
Speaker 2: Here you're coming through. You're coming through too. And that's
Speaker 2: that ramp I was telling you about where I saw the.
Speaker 3: Little girl, right okay, So it's not only seen.
Speaker 2: Her here, there was a hooded figure stood in the corner.
Speaker 2: I've seen that a couple of times. So this is
Speaker 2: possibly one of the more haunted areas. And we get
Speaker 2: a lot of mediums picking up on children and children
Speaker 2: would have been in this area. Servants started here quite young.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Okay, so you join us back and where
Speaker 1: we're going now.
Speaker 3: Just going up to the ramp.
Speaker 1: The back room fantastic.
Speaker 3: So this is the room I really really don't like.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is about this room, but
Speaker 2: it always gives me the creeps when I'm in there.
Speaker 2: It's not the nicest rooms.
Speaker 1: Now again, it's bright and it's airy. For someone just
Speaker 1: walking in here, it's bright, it's airy, it's I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is.
Speaker 3: With this room.
Speaker 2: I think there's just something about it. I think because
Speaker 2: of having the little passageway there and he's far away
Speaker 2: from the doors.
Speaker 3: I think that's what it is. Because if something happened,
Speaker 3: it'd be.
Speaker 2: Hard to get out, right. Okay, So I've had experiences
Speaker 2: in this room. I mean children have been I mean
Speaker 2: ghost grips will tell you. When I used to do
Speaker 2: the ghost lines, they call me in this room and
Speaker 2: I wouldn't come in and we're not coming.
Speaker 3: It took a lot for me to come in here.
Speaker 2: Okay, And I'd like say, it's one of those rooms there.
Speaker 1: It's getting to your now, yeah, yeah, I can see
Speaker 1: it's getting to you, actually getting to do you not
Speaker 1: like it? I mean quick description of the room. I
Speaker 1: will take a few photos, but you're talking mark twenty
Speaker 1: five thirty feet square something like that. It's it is imposing.
Speaker 1: It's bare stone walls, lots of lots of pictures of animals,
Speaker 1: lots of information about the animals. But yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 3: We have to stand them back towards.
Speaker 1: Right, it's really yeah okay, okay, And we've got the
Speaker 1: bats through.
Speaker 3: There, yeah, we've have.
Speaker 2: But that's the Old Castle gift Shop and that's where
Speaker 2: I was saying earlier.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of paranormal.
Speaker 2: Activity and poltergeist activity was quite every.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, right, where do you want to move on to?
Speaker 1: Now we go through the sure yeah, yeah, right, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to put this on pause and I'll
Speaker 1: take a quick photo.
Speaker 2: This is going to be really dark. I'm afraid because
Speaker 2: of our bats.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So this is the Old Castle Shop.
Speaker 2: And like I say, if any of your audience have
Speaker 2: washed the most Haunted from Dudley Castle from two thousand
Speaker 2: and three, it was the very first live they actually
Speaker 2: did came from here. This area was quite prominent in
Speaker 2: it because Derry Cocoura came in here and I did
Speaker 2: see the top of her head going down behind some shelves,
Speaker 2: and he picked up on the name Alice. I've got
Speaker 2: a mat I'm not big derry Coclera found but that
Speaker 2: name is relevant to the castle.
Speaker 3: And she was.
Speaker 2: And he also picked up on one of the most
Speaker 2: famous ghost stories about this area because back in the
Speaker 2: eighties this the castle was holding a medieval festival and
Speaker 2: there was a fancy dress There was a fancy dress
Speaker 2: competition and the lady who won it looked like nobody else.
Speaker 2: She was in sackcloth, she had sackcloth shoes, dirty.
Speaker 3: Hair, bedraggled.
Speaker 2: They went to give the prize to her and she
Speaker 2: disappeared and nobody could find her. There was security on
Speaker 2: the gates, nobody had left, so they didn't know where
Speaker 2: she was. And then Derrik Kora picked up on this
Speaker 2: spirit who literally said, I'm glad I won the prize.
Speaker 1: So, but.
Speaker 2: The skeptic in missays did he do a little bit
Speaker 2: of fishing on the internet because that is one of
Speaker 2: the most prominentes of the castle, or did he actually
Speaker 2: pick up on that, But he did give the name Alice,
Speaker 2: and not a lot of people because she was a
Speaker 2: baroness here, but she was married into the family and
Speaker 2: with the barons, the baronesses, A lot of people wouldn't
Speaker 2: go back that far. Roger the second whose busts down there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was his mum. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: bit of a strange room, very atmospheric.
Speaker 2: The things with this this room now, because it's the
Speaker 2: back room, it is quite imposing because it's dark.
Speaker 3: When it was the castle shop, it was quite light
Speaker 3: and area.
Speaker 2: It was a massive room and you'd have all stock
Speaker 2: here stopped, get moved about, right, okay, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: And staff did have experiences in here. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: people who saw things. People witnessed the keychain wracking going
Speaker 2: across the built from are here, come out there and
Speaker 2: cross there.
Speaker 1: So how long has this been here?
Speaker 3: The bats? Yeah, twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Forty and then the shop was obviously moved to its.
Speaker 2: The shop was moved, the shop disbanded and moved out
Speaker 2: so we could put the bats.
Speaker 1: In, right, should we move on?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Where are we going to go to now?
Speaker 3: I think we'll go down to the cottage and the waters.
Speaker 1: Are okay, right, okay, So we are back outside now,
Speaker 1: and where are we are?
Speaker 2: We're at the main gateway. Now, this is the triple gate. Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a mishmash of time, right, okay. And I
Speaker 2: said to earlier about archaeologists have a special work called features,
Speaker 2: So when the colleagues arelaging something, it's the feature. And
Speaker 2: this gateway is actually full of features. So the two
Speaker 2: inner walls, I believe it or not, are older than
Speaker 2: the two gateways.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So at one point this had six defenses to it.
Speaker 2: So you had you draw you had your motor obviously said,
Speaker 2: then you draw bridge, then you had behind the drawbridge
Speaker 2: was a pity. So our drawbridge was strange because if
Speaker 2: all you're up and only it was one that you
Speaker 2: could take literally lift up and take away right okay, okay,
Speaker 2: but it would cover the pit. So if you were
Speaker 2: inviting people in, yeah, they could come over the pit.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: And then you've got your pork coullis backed up by
Speaker 2: two big og doors and the same where we.
Speaker 3: Stood just here.
Speaker 2: But this this gateway, there's two outer walls are actually
Speaker 2: older than the two pork cullis gates, right, so they
Speaker 2: remains of possibly the second castle. I mean, if you
Speaker 2: have a look, we've also got these walls here which
Speaker 2: are probably where they started to rebuild and then thought,
Speaker 2: now we'll do it a different.
Speaker 3: Way, right okay, and left it.
Speaker 2: And then in the roof you can't see no, because
Speaker 2: of this scaffolding. There is the remains of the pork cullis.
Speaker 2: But another interesting one is this doorway here, and we
Speaker 2: don't know what that's for.
Speaker 1: Right, okay, stepping back a little bit, I noticed this,
Speaker 1: and I think this was what you were saying about
Speaker 1: the the one this one defense that may have this
Speaker 1: one defense that may have come down here. That's the
Speaker 1: poor cullige that would have been the location of the No.
Speaker 3: The murder hole is it actually in the middle.
Speaker 1: So you were trapped between there and there?
Speaker 2: Okay, So what if you were not an invited guests
Speaker 2: from you fight your way up the hill, get to here,
Speaker 2: and that bridge would be wide open. Poor Coullie would
Speaker 2: be white, wide open. As soon as you made a
Speaker 2: place for that courtyard that would drop and then you
Speaker 2: turned run.
Speaker 1: Back and they're going to.
Speaker 2: Yes, you're literally trapped in here like rats in a trap,
Speaker 2: and say, we don't know what this is for.
Speaker 3: It's where.
Speaker 2: The remains of a doorway, or it could be what
Speaker 2: they called a porter's window. So you could literally the
Speaker 2: gatekeeper wild bee to the side.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he could literally look through there and see
Speaker 3: who using the gateway. Right, Okay, but we're not one
Speaker 3: hundred percent sure.
Speaker 2: And that's the old thing with Dudley Castle, and it's
Speaker 2: one of the reasons I think people should visit.
Speaker 3: It is a mishmash of toyme.
Speaker 2: You go from Norman to medieval to Tudor to the
Speaker 2: Civil War.
Speaker 3: It's just amazing.
Speaker 1: Again just looking at those four figures in the well.
Speaker 1: I can't remember the name of the room that we
Speaker 1: were in.
Speaker 3: The vestible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as you say, the span of time that that
Speaker 1: that that goes over and this is so atmospheric, this
Speaker 1: is amazing.
Speaker 2: Well, the triple gateway unfortunately was part of the slighting.
Speaker 2: But upstairs where we see now there was probably a
Speaker 2: platform like a balcony with what they're called miulations in
Speaker 2: so there would be holes so you could drop things through.
Speaker 2: As you walked in, they'd be dropping things on you.
Speaker 2: And the drawbridge. When we did the archaeology digs, we
Speaker 2: didn't actually know where the point of the drawer, the
Speaker 2: plant for the drawbridge where we came down to, but
Speaker 2: we found it and it was just there where the
Speaker 2: elephant statue is.
Speaker 3: And I said about the tunnel.
Speaker 2: Tunnel runs under here, all right, okay, so it runs
Speaker 2: between these.
Speaker 3: These two were barbecane terrors.
Speaker 2: So there are big, big reund terrors that would stretch
Speaker 2: right the way up possibly to where the stoney is
Speaker 2: just up there, and maybe you'd fill in with your archers.
Speaker 3: And one of the brilliant.
Speaker 2: Features if we just go here, and if you get
Speaker 2: a photo of it to show your listeners, this is
Speaker 2: an arrow slit. You remember I said the ground had
Speaker 2: been raised up right, they ain't gonna shoot at your ankles.
Speaker 1: How deep are we talking about?
Speaker 3: One hundred and fifty four we reckon over the years?
Speaker 3: One hundred and fifty feet, Yeah, over the years.
Speaker 2: It can see the steps that would have gone up
Speaker 2: and these would have been filled with your archers to
Speaker 2: protect your gate.
Speaker 1: That's astonishing, that's astonishing. Yeah, we'll get some photos of
Speaker 1: that in a sex that is I cannot believe how
Speaker 1: as you say, yeah, you're not going to have an
Speaker 1: archer that's firing out that so.
Speaker 3: Fifty feet roughly one hundred and fifty feet. So we're
Speaker 3: going to head down now to the cottage.
Speaker 2: Because the cottage has one of the more macarb stories
Speaker 2: to it and a lot of people will know about
Speaker 2: the cottage. And then we've got the Wards Arch, which
Speaker 2: is where the drummer was shot.
Speaker 1: And again we still don't know who fired that shot.
Speaker 2: No, we don't know if it was someone on our side,
Speaker 2: twitchy fingers, someone on our side, Yeah, playing daylight and
Speaker 2: just fired or didn't.
Speaker 3: Hear the drum, because the drum would have called.
Speaker 1: For a truce, and someone ignored it, and.
Speaker 2: Someone totally ignored it and just fired. But the guy
Speaker 2: was shot with probably the worst weapon ever invented, which
Speaker 2: was the muskit, so inaccurate, and he was felled by
Speaker 2: that at that distance.
Speaker 1: So we're walking past the reptiles, past our little friends
Speaker 1: to make cats, and again you kind of get a
Speaker 1: sense when you do come here to visit, you kind
Speaker 1: of get a centers you're walking up this section and
Speaker 1: just how imposing all of this would have been. You've
Speaker 1: got the cannons sat at the top.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the cannons are actually Russian right from the Sebastival
Speaker 2: siege during the Crimean War.
Speaker 3: The then Earl of.
Speaker 2: Dudley was actually a great supporter of that war. Sent
Speaker 2: it sent ships out with food and clothing for the troops,
Speaker 2: and then of course he as a reward, Queen Victoria
Speaker 2: was like eager mate, have two cannons, because there was
Speaker 2: four hundred cannons. Of those the naval cannons that were
Speaker 2: taken during that battle, to most of them, some of
Speaker 2: them are giving out the places like Dudley Castle, Ludlow
Speaker 2: as a sort of thank you for your support of
Speaker 2: the war, and the rest were melted down and made
Speaker 2: the Victoria Cross.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay. What's the history of this pos.
Speaker 2: The cottage where a lot of people claim it's Victorian,
Speaker 2: it isn't. Actually it goes back way after before. Because
Speaker 2: we have got the first print of Dudley Castle from
Speaker 2: the sixteen nineties and the cottage is actually on it.
Speaker 2: But it's not a cottage at the time. It's a
Speaker 2: barn and it's actually part of two. It was in
Speaker 2: an L shape and if you look the world, so
Speaker 2: the second cottage would have run straight down. The cottage
Speaker 2: became home to the castle groundskeepers after the castle was
Speaker 2: left in seventeen fifty and a family came to Dudley.
Speaker 3: This is local legend.
Speaker 2: I suppose a family came to Dudley with two daughters,
Speaker 2: and the daughter the one daughter got married, got pregnant
Speaker 2: out of wedlock. Now even in the eighteen hundred reiving
Speaker 2: Dudley did they do that. When her father found out,
Speaker 2: he didn't like throw her out or anything. He simply
Speaker 2: dragged her into the brick bath house to the side
Speaker 2: and slit her throat and she was murdered. People often
Speaker 2: report quite a negative feeling in there, and she has
Speaker 2: been seen in the bathroom area rocking backwards and forwards.
Speaker 2: The guy apparently, again this is local legend, went and
Speaker 2: hung yourself up in the foot top room, and people
Speaker 2: have seen the image of a bald man in that area,
Speaker 2: guising out quite an angry looking man. The image apparently
Speaker 2: has been photographed. I've never ever found the photograph. Now
Speaker 2: you can said to me, well, come off it. That's
Speaker 2: you could be staff in there. The actual cottage was
Speaker 2: only restored in twenty thirteen. Top floor actually collapsed in
Speaker 2: the mid eighteen hundreds. In the mid nineteen eighties, sorry,
Speaker 2: and for thirty years it was just a derelict builded.
Speaker 1: I mean, you would not guess that that kind of
Speaker 1: trauma has took place in this, I will take a
Speaker 1: photo of this. It just looks like an absolutely lovely
Speaker 1: little country cottage.
Speaker 2: But that image of that man who was seen also
Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties, nineteen nineties.
Speaker 3: And early two thousands, right, so.
Speaker 2: There was no way that because like side, the floor
Speaker 2: collapsed and it was only readone in twenty thirty. This
Speaker 2: is now home to our curators and bosses of the Zero.
Speaker 2: So if you do come to the zoo and see
Speaker 2: an angry looking bold man, that's probably in.
Speaker 3: Boss to be fair.
Speaker 2: But like I said, the cottages, I mean the cottage
Speaker 2: is mentioned in Eli.
Speaker 3: Blew It's book.
Speaker 2: He was the first to describe the Black Country as
Speaker 2: the Black Country. Eli Blue wrote the book in the
Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds. He was an American travel writer basically very
Speaker 2: well known in America, and he visited Dudley Castle and
Speaker 2: he mentions the cottage and to our people living in
Speaker 2: the cottage with their daughter who were the grains keepers,
Speaker 2: they made him tea before taking him up to the castle.
Speaker 2: And to have that sort of that it's mentioned is
Speaker 2: amazing when you're doing We call Thiset's cottage because this
Speaker 2: is where Harry Hatch lived the first yeah, the first yeah,
Speaker 2: and the cheeta would have been buried over the area. Yes,
Speaker 2: so we we call it hatchet this corner because it's
Speaker 2: quite a steep corner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we call it Hatchets corner.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. So this is where that cheeta would have a.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he exercised it all through.
Speaker 2: He used to bring it over dignitaries to stroke and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. But he raised many animals. You can
Speaker 2: see all the buildings, but he would have raised many
Speaker 2: animals in this.
Speaker 1: Stunning, absolutely fantastic right where we are to.
Speaker 2: Next we'll get to the wardens unlest do you want
Speaker 2: to see the entrance to a tunnel?
Speaker 1: Oh, that would be fantastic.
Speaker 2: So not many people get to see this, so it
Speaker 2: is one of the off rock area.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a beautiful cottage.
Speaker 3: I love it. I won't want to live there, definitely
Speaker 3: wouldn't want to leave.
Speaker 1: In it. But yeah, again it just looks like your
Speaker 1: little typical, beautiful English country cottage, the nice pumpkins outside.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're getting ready for Halloween obviously, But just up
Speaker 2: here one of the secret areas, I suppose it's is
Speaker 2: the entrance to the tunnel.
Speaker 1: And is this where is this where Richard, which so roughly,
Speaker 1: how far are you thinking that this was would stretch?
Speaker 2: It's originally would have stretched right over to the little round.
Speaker 3: East Watch.
Speaker 2: Was a calas about halfway through when they put the
Speaker 2: steps in fantasy and local legend say is that.
Speaker 3: Worker was killed underneath?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Okay, So whether that was true, I don't know, but
Speaker 2: that was the local legend.
Speaker 1: That's brilliant. Thank you so much for showing me that
Speaker 1: that is right. We're sat on a bench now, and
Speaker 1: where are.
Speaker 2: We We're outside the Warden's arch, or some people might
Speaker 2: have hearded this as the drummer boy arch. Try right,
Speaker 2: As they explained earlier, drummer boys didn't really exist.
Speaker 3: They were trusted soldiers. They were men.
Speaker 2: They were giving a message and beating the drums should
Speaker 2: have come for a seasfire between two posing sides.
Speaker 3: So his or their story, because there was two.
Speaker 2: Their story connects with the Gray Lady story because they
Speaker 2: were bringing the message up about her funeral. I'll just
Speaker 2: explain about the arch itself. This arch was only put
Speaker 2: on because of Queen Elizabeth. The first it was to
Speaker 2: make her entry into the castle look a little bit grander.
Speaker 1: Okay, So they built all of this for.
Speaker 2: That, yeah, just for that, just to make her the
Speaker 2: thing was the Earl of Dudley, the Baron of Dudley
Speaker 2: at the time, got winded. She was staying here, coming here, right,
Speaker 2: and the castle was in at that time a bit
Speaker 2: of a state of disrepair. So just to make it
Speaker 2: look a little bit nicer, if put on this new archway, right, okay.
Speaker 2: And when she came she was look at the archway,
Speaker 2: built it off for you, and she was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: look at your castle on off. And she literally stayed
Speaker 2: one night and theft. But she probably was diverted here
Speaker 2: because there was an outbreak. She was on her progress
Speaker 2: and there was an outbreak of small pox. So she
Speaker 2: was probably diverted here because of this outbreak.
Speaker 3: Of small pox.
Speaker 2: But the arch where it has so many legends attached
Speaker 2: to it, people have often seen woody figures coming through.
Speaker 2: This would have been the main entry into the castle.
Speaker 2: So as I said to you, the monks from the priory,
Speaker 2: which were clooney at monks and black robed months, would
Speaker 2: have been here daily.
Speaker 3: They had come to take the church services.
Speaker 2: They have also come up here as well to teach
Speaker 2: the children of the baron.
Speaker 1: So again there was a close, close relationship.
Speaker 3: Very close, and I mean the stone.
Speaker 2: You can see how much Sterney's here, So that stone
Speaker 2: type theory of them coming dially.
Speaker 3: You know, but the main gat story around the art
Speaker 3: is that of the DRUMA.
Speaker 1: You also mentioned that the stone that built the cottage
Speaker 1: would come from.
Speaker 3: The two from the two parts of it would have
Speaker 3: come from the two ruined terrors of the key.
Speaker 1: So again they've wasted nothing, no a even back then,
Speaker 1: should we move on?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll go to the little east what it's
Speaker 2: called the East watch Tower. And this is a little
Speaker 2: watch tower, and this is where the tramp because that
Speaker 2: tunnel you've just seen, the tunnel you used to it's
Speaker 2: actually this as well. Should point out was possibly the
Speaker 2: plague burial.
Speaker 1: Pits right here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because places like Dudley Castle relied on bringing things in.
Speaker 3: We're not although we're look close to the canals.
Speaker 2: People would have come and brought their wares and things.
Speaker 2: They didn't want to stop that so when the plague happened,
Speaker 2: you don't want people knowing that you've got the plague, right, Okay,
Speaker 2: So this was probably where they're buried. A bitter lame
Speaker 2: with Chalcolme on them bodies of God.
Speaker 1: So again you dig down, yeah deep here you are.
Speaker 3: Well we've been when they did the archaeology digs. They
Speaker 3: were told not to dig.
Speaker 1: Too right okay, And again you've got some amazing views
Speaker 1: from here.
Speaker 2: Well, from the top of the keep and that's the
Speaker 2: top of there, you can see thirty miles in all directions. Now,
Speaker 2: when you get to the top of Dudley Castle, keep
Speaker 2: your next highest point to land if your head west
Speaker 2: is in Rush.
Speaker 3: Out of the Urals.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So you're at one of the highest points, not only
Speaker 2: in England but in Europe.
Speaker 1: Again, that answers my question when I was saying about
Speaker 1: driving up, Yeah, how far you can? I mean I'm
Speaker 1: looking out here.
Speaker 2: And Dudley Castle was close to the Welsh Marshes. That
Speaker 2: was what John Dudley really wanted the castle for, even
Speaker 2: though it was the fact ancestral barony. Hope, it's close
Speaker 2: to the Welsh Marshes. If Edward the Six had beencome
Speaker 2: and have lived, yeah, took over a pairis on all
Speaker 2: on his own. He's plan was to retire here constable
Speaker 2: at the Welsh Marshes, right, okay, because it's I mean
Speaker 2: that's why Dudley Castle was built. He was part of
Speaker 2: that chain to sort of protect from the Welsh invasions.
Speaker 2: And I said to you earlier, if one of those
Speaker 2: invasions by Glynn Williams had have worked, Dudley Castle would
Speaker 2: have been a Welsh castle.
Speaker 1: Wow. Again we spoke about that little twist and turn
Speaker 1: of fact, yes, that would have put an entire difference picture.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is the little watchtower, so he would
Speaker 2: he would have literally set.
Speaker 1: Up little business.
Speaker 2: He's in there, a little cobbling business, and he would
Speaker 2: come and go through the tunnel, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: And he would have traveled down into the town.
Speaker 2: Yeah, picked up his shoes, mended and brought him back.
Speaker 3: That's mended.
Speaker 2: But whether he was part of this coin foraging gang
Speaker 2: of the discussion. So we were proutching the keep and
Speaker 2: the cobbles that were walking on they were putting.
Speaker 3: In the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 2: We did have a wet moat, so the wet moat
Speaker 2: would have come in and surrendered the keep, so the
Speaker 2: keep looked like an island. And the best example can
Speaker 2: give you is to look at Nunning Castle in Somerset.
Speaker 2: That castle used our castle as a sort of print.
Speaker 2: So the keep is the third one, as I said earlier,
Speaker 2: to be on site, possibly the third one.
Speaker 1: It's a formidable building, yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean the walls are about eight nine meters thick. Wow,
Speaker 3: you can see.
Speaker 2: I mean anyone who's visited here, the keep is iconic.
Speaker 2: It's what you think of Dudley, you think of that building.
Speaker 2: And it would of host originally in the modern bailey,
Speaker 2: the Wooden Castle. Quite possibly a score of Leaver would
Speaker 2: have lived here. We know there was a manor house,
Speaker 2: so the majority of the family would have lived. The
Speaker 2: baron and his main family would have lived in the
Speaker 2: manor house, and the constable of the castle, who was
Speaker 2: in charge when the baron wasn't here, would have lived
Speaker 2: in the.
Speaker 1: It's the engineering as well. It's where you quarry this
Speaker 1: amount of stone salmon here.
Speaker 2: The stone is from your local baggage stone would have
Speaker 2: been used as.
Speaker 1: Well, baggage Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: Most of the zone is like I say, the much
Speaker 2: Lane Wenlock series, and he's from Silurian period, so before
Speaker 2: even before the castle, thousands and millions of years ago,
Speaker 2: Dudley was wall. This has been filmed over thousands millions
Speaker 2: of years.
Speaker 1: Again, fascinating and you do.
Speaker 2: Have around If you look at some of the stone,
Speaker 2: there is fossils in the stones.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, they say a lot of the limestone
Speaker 1: that a lot of the banks and stuff were built from.
Speaker 1: If you look closer, you can.
Speaker 2: See you can see fossils in the stones. And Dudley
Speaker 2: Castle is well known for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's well known.
Speaker 2: We have the Dudley Book of you say, the Trial
Speaker 2: of Ice, all right, and there is some fossils that
Speaker 2: are here on side, especially in the cabin behind the
Speaker 2: chair lift, that you don't find anywhere else in the world.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, So as you can probably hear, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of wind. It's very windy. You might hear the
Speaker 1: there's a clanging noise. We're over the a little bit
Speaker 1: over the other side from that, and that is the
Speaker 1: flag that's flapping like an absolute lunatic at the moment.
Speaker 1: So we're up at the top of the keep. It's
Speaker 1: really windy. Oh yeah, iconic.
Speaker 3: Icony and like that.
Speaker 2: You can see thirty miles in all directions from the
Speaker 2: top and the next highest point to land in Europe
Speaker 2: is the Ural Mountains in Russia.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. So this is the scene of one of
Speaker 1: the most famous ghost sightings, isn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah the top of the Keepe the law people have
Speaker 2: often seen and these people in the town as well,
Speaker 2: And in nineteen ninety eight or eighty seven it was
Speaker 2: reported in a newspart in the Expression Star that people
Speaker 2: at the event saw a hooded figure walking across the
Speaker 2: top of the law the top of the walk where
Speaker 2: I should say, yeah, and who who this is?
Speaker 3: We don't We don't really know. We've got an idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, megay.
Speaker 2: In the in the thirteen fourteen hundreds as a woman
Speaker 2: apparently living in one.
Speaker 3: Of the houses on site.
Speaker 2: Now Dudley Castle has got lots of little round houses.
Speaker 2: You'll see one next to the gift shop where you
Speaker 2: came in and living in there, and people believe she
Speaker 2: was a witch and it said there's some teenagers Kate
Speaker 2: broke in on site, took her to the top of
Speaker 2: the keep and threw her off or hunger over it
Speaker 2: as because she was a witch. The other story is
Speaker 2: they broke in, went to the top of the keep
Speaker 2: and found her about to fly off to the sabbath
Speaker 2: or whatever, and they hunger from the top. So this
Speaker 2: is who this sudden figure is supposed to be.
Speaker 1: We're looking down from the top of the keeper onto
Speaker 1: the cannons, the iconic cannons that you can see from.
Speaker 2: Miles miles And recently we've discovered these guys are naval cannons.
Speaker 3: And they would have been used on a Russian.
Speaker 2: Naval a naval ship, and they were taken during the
Speaker 2: Battle of Sebastable. Each one has got a number. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: the one on my left hand side, Yeah, that one
Speaker 2: we can't meet because of the weather and the disintegrated
Speaker 2: we can't make out the number, but we can on
Speaker 2: the right one.
Speaker 3: And he proved that they were They were forged just
Speaker 3: south of peters and Petersburg. Wow, so all the way
Speaker 3: from Russia to Dudley to.
Speaker 1: Beg windy up here. We better get back down. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: we're down from the castle keep. And where are we
Speaker 1: going to to finish Well, we're.
Speaker 2: Going to finish off in the Gray Lady tavern or
Speaker 2: courtyard cafe today now, no, but as we're walking down
Speaker 2: the pathway here is one of the most famous sightings
Speaker 2: of the Gray Line.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Okay, so back in the nineteen nineties early two thousands,
Speaker 2: there used to be the Dudley ghost talk that went
Speaker 2: round Dudley and people had jumped out.
Speaker 3: At you telling you.
Speaker 2: Different ghost stories, and there be people dressed up dumping
Speaker 2: out and they used to come up here. We had
Speaker 2: someone dressed as the Gray Lady. He up here and
Speaker 2: as they walk up, gray Lady appears and one of
Speaker 2: the members on this particular walk, Oh, that's very interesting.
Speaker 3: But who's the lady behind?
Speaker 2: And there was a lady up here, so we think
Speaker 2: there might be a sighting of the Gray Lady.
Speaker 1: And it was from here as well that I'm looking over.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that one of the this was maybe where
Speaker 1: the photo was taken around.
Speaker 2: You see the big gray window, it's the doorway next
Speaker 2: to it on the left, and that's where, Yeah, she
Speaker 2: was taking photos from the top of the key, just
Speaker 2: you do.
Speaker 3: Got home, went to a husband.
Speaker 2: There's a lighting in one of them rooms and he goes, Dubby, daft,
Speaker 2: there's no roof, there can there be a light on?
Speaker 2: And then they decided to prove it up on the computer,
Speaker 2: drew it in.
Speaker 3: Dropped it down to the doorway and the figure was
Speaker 3: in the doorway.
Speaker 1: I mean, I find that even more fascinating that they've
Speaker 1: got no idea what their photographed at the time.
Speaker 2: We always say on ghost nights, a good ghost group
Speaker 2: will say, I never took one photo. Always take a
Speaker 2: burst of photographs because what you pick up in one,
Speaker 2: you may not pick up in the others. And that's
Speaker 2: interesting then. So they're just approaching the Gray Lady what
Speaker 2: they used to call the Gray Lady Tavern. It was
Speaker 2: named after the Gray Lady because most of us sightings.
Speaker 3: Were in this area.
Speaker 2: Okay, so the Gray Lady Tavern or now caught your
Speaker 2: calf is actually the last building built on site. It
Speaker 2: was built in sixteen ninety and it was actually a
Speaker 2: stabling block.
Speaker 3: For horses. Guess what's been heard in there?
Speaker 1: Horses and people have actually heard them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I heard the feet, the hoofs, and also heard
Speaker 2: the name sounding there. But it's it was basically this
Speaker 2: building was built just to fill a gap because it
Speaker 2: would have been the original war walk up to the castle.
Speaker 3: So obviously where we're standing we be drowned in now
Speaker 3: because we're in the moat.
Speaker 2: So, like I say, it was put in just to
Speaker 2: fill the gap left by the slighting in around sixteen ninety,
Speaker 2: Earl of the Baron of Dudley then did fill in
Speaker 2: bits here and there, possibly rebuilding parts and walls and
Speaker 2: things like that. The stoney is from the terrors and
Speaker 2: the two towers that were ruined. But there's been a
Speaker 2: lot of hauntings in here that people have and I
Speaker 2: mean staff, I mean one of my favorites is one
Speaker 2: of the members of staff was actually working in here
Speaker 2: cleaning up, put all the tables, all the chairs on
Speaker 2: top of the tables to mop the floor.
Speaker 3: Went to get the mop bucket come.
Speaker 2: Out on all the chairs were back on the floor.
Speaker 2: So yeah, So this area has a history of sightings
Speaker 2: and things like the paranormal things happening if you do
Speaker 2: a ghost night and up here this is one of
Speaker 2: the areas. It's very good for your things like weiboards,
Speaker 2: right okay, and it is intelligent. I'm not a big
Speaker 2: fan of reagibles, I'll be honest, because I think you've
Speaker 2: got unconscious movements.
Speaker 1: Motor response.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got.
Speaker 2: Like I said, you've got unconscious movements, but things that
Speaker 2: have been up in here of intelligent things and things
Speaker 2: that maybe your Ordrey ghost hunting visitor I won't actually know.
Speaker 2: So why would that pushing yeah to there.
Speaker 1: Well, I've got to say thank you so much, not
Speaker 1: a problem for taking up literally all of your day,
Speaker 1: and I've just got to say that this was supposed
Speaker 1: to be Amy's day off as well, so we have
Speaker 1: dragged hiing to do this. Thank you so much, Amy.
Speaker 3: Anytime you want to come back in welcome.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Please come and visit Dudley Castle
Speaker 1: and we look forward to you listening to this episode.
Speaker 1: Thank you again, Amy, not a problem. And that brings
Speaker 1: us to the end of Part three and the conclusion
Speaker 1: of my visit to Dudley Castle. A huge thank you
Speaker 1: to Amy for all of her time, knowledge and generosity
Speaker 1: throughout this series. I'd also like to thank all of
Speaker 1: the staff and management to Dudley Castle and Zoological Gardens
Speaker 1: for a com a dating me last September and for
Speaker 1: making me feel so welcome during my visit. If you've
Speaker 1: never been, I'd highly recommend paying a visit, whether it's
Speaker 1: for the history, the wildlife, the atmosphere, or the stories
Speaker 1: that still echo throughout the grounds. Thank you once again
Speaker 1: for tuning in, and until next time, stay safe and
Speaker 1: take care.
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