Southfleet, Kent

[Althalus]

The former rectory at Southfleet has a history of hauntingsgoing back for hundreds of years. An apparition appears, often and most frequently in the Monk's Room, which has in it a stained glass commemorating the fact that in 1874 the bishop of Rochester tried to exorcise the ghost.

Between 1891 and 1898 the ghost was frequently seen. Three visitors apologised over breakfast one morning for having been so inconsiderate as to stay in the house when there was someone so seriously ill. they were told to their amazement that nobody was sick and that the nurse, who they said had visited them during the night was not a mortal person. The figure was thought to be that of a nurse as it had several inches of white at the cuffs of it's sleeves. The same figure has been seen many times by various occupants, sometimes only partly visble but also as a complete outline. the sound of footsteps have been heard in a corridor and of rustling papers, the swish of a starched uniform, and the noise of opening and closing doors.

The figure was seen one night by a servant. it was 7.30 and the servant was going upstairs to prepare the housekeeper's bed. She was working in the housekeeper's room and heard the sound of rustling paper, opened the door and found nothing. She closed the door and the noise restarted. This time she went out into the corridor with a lamp andlater said, 'I stood at the top of a small stair just outside the room, and to my surprise saw a nurse dressed in a clean staff uniform, standing at the end of the passage. Feeling little nervous about seeing her there, I very timidly walked down the three stairs and along the passage towards her. As I did so, she began to walk forwards as if to meet me, then she seemed to drift gently backwards, facing me all the time, unitl she reached the door of a small room at the end of the passage. There, to my surprise she vanished backwards through the door.

[Althalus]

In 1920 four friends stayed at the rectory. they waited on an upstairs landing while keys were found to unlock the doors of their rooms and they saw a woman's figure leave the Monk's Room, walk down the corridor to where they stood, then turn the corner and go to a door at the end of a landing, entering the chamber beyond. When the keys arrived, they tried the door and found it locked. On another occasion the rector and his wife saw a 'shadowy shape' in the corridor outside the Monk's Room, an dit was later seen in the dining room during the daytime. It was described as looking like a nurse with a flowing veil and having a smile in her face, but perhaps the nurse was, in fact, a nun.

The rectory is built on the site of a former friary where it is said that a nurse was once found in the company of one of the monks and that she was bricked up into a cellar while still alive and left to die there. The west door of the church was once blocked by rubble, and when this was eventually cleared away by the church wardens, a lid of a tomb was found in the pathway. The lid is engraved with an inscription saying that the tomb is the burial place of an excommunicated monk.

[Halo_Jones]

Poor Nurse or Nun, I don't expect the monks got the same treatment!

[Starlyte]

Another little tidbit I found about the rectory.

The nun was often seen in The Monk's Room, which is where The Bishop of Rochester tried and failed to exorcise her spirit in 1874. This event was later commemorated by the making of a beautiful stained glass window, which still catches the early morning sun as it shines into this room. However, just a few years later, the hauntings suddenly stopped. No reason has ever been discovered as to why, but it's now more than a century since the last sighting of the nun who lived and died in Southfleet Rectory.

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