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The Cheltenham Ghost
Also known as ‘The Morton Case’, this classic ‘Woman in Black’ haunting was the first major study undertaken by the Society of Paranormal Research in 1886. It concerned a persistent apparition seen in ‘Donore House’ (now renamed St. Anne’s) on Pittville Circus Road. The house was owned at the time by the Despards, a typical large middle-class Victorian family, affluent enough to run a good-sized house with several live-in servants. The haunting involved hearing footsteps and the appearance of a woman dressed in black mourning attire with her face partly concealed by a handkerchief. The main witness to the haunting was Rosina Clara Despard, 19 years of age when the phenomena began (and who later qualified as a doctor of medicine). She wrote that “I saw the figure of a tall lady, dressed in black, standing at the head of the stairs. After a few moments she descended the stairs, and I followed for a short distance, feeling curious what it could be. I had only a small piece of candle, and it suddenly burnt itself out; and being unable to see more, I went back to my room.” The sightings began in 1882 and stopped around 1889 and were not always inside the house.
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