GhostHidden
Old Mr Blagrave's warning
The old man wanted his house back, and said so.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Suburban streets where the manor once stood
- Legend from
- Annus Mirabilis tract (1662)
- Tone
- Eerie
A dead mathematician who would not let anyone else live in his house.
Southcote Manor House stood off the Bath Road near Reading, built, it is said, by the mathematician John Blagrave. A tract called Annus Mirabilis, quoted by Royal Berkshire History, reported that in January 1662 a spectre in the likeness of old Mr Blagrave was seen there several times. It warned the people living in the house to leave, so that his nephew Daniel Blagrave, the rightful heir and one of the judges of Charles I, could have it. The house was later demolished, so only the name Southcote remains.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.