Morton Corbet Castle - Shropshire

This fine, striking Tudor ruin is said to be both haunted and cursed. In former times it belonged to the Corbet family who boast a raven in their coat of arms. Construction began on the house 1606 by Sir Robert Corbet but unfortunately he tragically died of the plague before work on the building had gone very far. Sir Vincent Corbett, his successor continued the work after his death will stop.

This was happening at a time when King James the first was persecuting the puritans and although not himself a puritan, Sir Vincent did not wish to see them treated so badly. One such puritan was a local man called Paul Homeyard and as he was a friend, Sir Vincent gave him refuge in his home. Soon however, as the puritan's ideals became more fanatical and unacceptable, he told Holmyard to leave as he felt he could no longer protect him.

Sir Vincent could no longer continue this arrangement and Homeyard had to flee into the surrounding countryside where he hid in caves and ate wild berries and hunted wild animals to survive. Eventually he came out of hiding and made his way to Morton Corbet where, upon his meeting Sir Vincent, he cursed the family as follows:

"Woe unto thee, hard hearted man, the lord has hardened thy heart as he hardened the heart of the Pharaoh, to thine own destruction.
"Rejoice not in thy riches, not in monuments of thy pride, for neither thou, nor thy children, nor thy children's children shall inhabit these halls.
"They shall be given up to desolation; snakes, vipers and unclean beasts shall make it their refuge, and thy home shall be full of doleful creatures.."

The curse was fulfilled inasmuch as as the mansion was never completed and Sir Vincent and his son, Andrew, never lived there. However the spooky remains of the mansion still stand commanding the countryside and it is said that on a moonlit night, the bedraggled ghost of the unhappy puritan can sometimes be seen wandering through the desolate halls of Morton Corbet Castle!

English Haunted Castles