Haunted House

Thorpe Hall

Location: Louth, Lincolnshire

Origin: 16th Century

Background: In 1596 Sir John Bolles, who owned Thorpe Hall, went on an expedition with Sir Walter Raleigh to Cadiz. He was captured by the Spaniards and imprisoned in a dungeon. A wealthy Spanish noblewoman, Donna Leonora Oviedo, passed by his cell which looked onto the street. She bought him food and eventually bribed his jailers to release him. This is her story.

Story: I loved him. I would have done anything for him. I risked my life to secure his freedom. He never promised me anything but I believed he loved me. When he was set free, I begged him to let me go to England with him. He refused and told me he was happily married; I was devastated. He was an honourable man, so I let him go.

I gave him a portrait of me in my favourite green dress and he promised to hang it in his home. Once he had gone there was nothing left for me and I took my own life. Some people think I killed myself after I watched him leave and some think I followed him to England and killed myself in his garden. It is my secret.

I know he hung my picture and laid a place at the dinner table in honour of what I did for him. I know he cared for me. I walk in his garden in the hope that I may, one day, see him again. I am the lady in the green dress.