Remember, Remember: Ghosts Of The Gunpowder Plot

Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire

This historic walled manor has a long history as a stronghold of the Catholic faith. It is packed with Priest Holes, the secret compartments where priests would be rushed when the Tudor secret police came calling.

Thomas Percy once held the lease of Baddesley Clinton. Percy was the fifth man to sign up to the plot and played a major role. He leased the undercroft beneath Parliament where Fawkes, posing as John Johnson, Percy’s servant, was found with a suspiciously large pile of gunpowder on November 4th.

Percy was killed in fighting at Holbeche House in Staffordshire and so spared the public torture and deaths of his co-conspirators. His body was beheaded and his head stuck on a spike just to be sure, though.

Ghosts in the garden at Baddesley Clinton may be related to the plot some believe. Plotters often met outside to avoid prying ears, and these arguing male voices may have been disputing the fine details of the doomed plot.