Could Indiana Jones Have Solved the True Northumberland Ghost Mystery?

Langley Castle – potentially England’s only true, fortified medieval hotel – is hoping filming for the latest film in the Indiana Jones franchise, at fellow Northumbrian castle, Bamburgh Castle, will reignite interest in something it is desperate to resolve – it’s rather confusing ghost story.

The Indiana Jones storyline is said to be based on the legend of Bamburgh Castle’s ghostly Pink Lady, but Langley Castle believes the grey lady presents a far greater mystery.

A year ago, whilst in lockdown and considering how its grey lady – thought to have possibly inspired the grey lady ghost in the Harry Potter stories – would have exclusive use of the castle, the Langley Castle hotel team dug deeper into the stories surrounding this ghostly figure. This was always thought to be Maud de Lucy, daughter of the man who commissioned the castle’s building in 1350, knight Sir Thomas de Lucy.

The grey lady, who various guests and staff claim to have seen, is said to weep uncontrollably as she walks around the castle, before heading to a window and throwing herself out. Legend has it that she is weeping for the death of her husband – a knight who is not returning. Distraught, she jumps to her own death.

Whilst checking the genealogy, however, Langley Castle concluded that this could not possibly be Maud. Whilst her first husband, Gilbert d’Umfraville did die, she married again, becoming the stepmother of Harry Hotspur, mentioned in Shakespeare’s Henry IV. She also passed away before her second husband, Henry First Earl of Northumberland.

What had not been known prior to last year, was that Maud’s father, Thomas de Lucy, had a second wife – Agnes de Beaumont. On discovering this, the castle found that Agnes was a cousin of King Edward III, of whom Thomas was a trusted knight. The king requested that Thomas marry Agnes, which he did, in 1343. However, the marriage was childless.

Thomas de Lucy died in 1365, but there is no information available at all, thus far, to say what happened to Agnes or where or how she might have died. What we do know is that following Maud’s death, the actions of her second husband and her stepson, in rebelling against Henry IV, led to great retribution. Langley Castle, which they then owned, was set alight in 1405 and was not inhabited again until the late 19th century. The window for the grey lady’s story is, therefore, just 55 years (between 1350 and 1405), as the castle was just a shell thereafter, its seven-foot-thick walls having survived, but with no structure within, until its restoration in the 1880s and 1890s.

Langley Castle issued an appeal for information about Agnes last year but has had no light cast on to her story so far. The grey lady continues to be a complete mystery, at a time when the pink lady is very much in focus thanks to the Harrison Ford movie.

Langley Castle’s executive general manager, Margaret Livingstone-Evans, says: “According to those who have claimed to see our grey lady, she appears to be dressed in medieval clothing, so we have to suspect that she might be Agnes and not Maud, as we can find details of no other possible women who might have been living at the castle. Amazingly, sightings of this ghostly figure are always consistent, even when people have had no prior knowledge of certain facts or even a clue that there was supposedly a grey lady.

“After all these years of calling her by what is almost undoubtedly the wrong name, we’d love to know how she should be addressed but we’re drawing a blank. What happened to Agnes is a mystery and we need someone with genealogical insight to help us solve it. This would have been a far greater challenge for Indiana Jones!”