When I stood in front of the Sandford Orcas Manor, which lies approximately 3 miles north of Sherborne in Dorset, the house seemed pretty scary even in daylight. What would it look like in a stormy winter night?
Sandford Orcas Manor was built in the 1530's and since that time only two families have ever lived within its walls: The Knoyles and the Medlycotts. Sandford Orcas took its name from the crossing point of the union of three streams that rise in the Parish. The streams were waded at “sandy bottom;“ a Saxon term, which over time was eventually corrupted to that of Sandford. "Orcas," is a derivation of the surname Orescuilz; the first family of landowners to acquire the site in the 12th century and construct a dwelling of sorts thereon. It is thought that Saxon folk found the name Orescuilz a bit of a mouthful, so to alleviate their pronunciation difficulties, the name was eventually shortened to that of Orcas.
A talk with today's owner
On my arrival I was shown around the Manor by Sir Mervyn Medlycott, the current owner. From the onset and without any prompting from me, he made reference to a previous leaseholder by the name of Colonel Claridge, who he casually referred to as “the ghost man.” He afforded me a little inside information in relation to the Claridge’s ghostly claims.
The Medlycott Family purchased the Manor from the Knoyles’ and have been in residence for several generations. The Medlycotts’ did not always live there, preferring to lease the property to a succession of farmers and businessmen. One such lease was granted by the hereditary owner Sir Christopher Medlycott between 1965 - 1975 to Colonel Geoffrey Francis Wilson Claridge, his family and their son-in-law. It was during their occupation that stories of ghostly goings on started to emerge.
A real haunted place?
At first, the disturbances seemed confined to the nursery wing, although harpsichord or spinet music was occasionally heard emanating from the vicinity of the 500-year-old Gateway. It was the Claridge’s daughter who spent a terrifying night in the nursery wing and would later acquaint her bewildered parents of the events that had transpired and roused her from her slumbers. She described how she had been woken by a frightful crashing and banging coming from immediately outside her bedroom door, to be followed by the muffled sound of something being dragged across the floor. It was not until the early hours, that she was able to muster enough courage to leave the nursery and dash back to her own bedroom where she remained till dawn. As the disturbances increased, several members of the household became too frightened to go upstairs lest they should encounter the ghost. Things got so bad that the Claridges’ found it increasingly difficult to keep hold of their staff.
As the Claridge’s stories grew in their audaciousness, their validity was brought into question and the Colonel and his family were suspected of erroneous fabrication of dates, people and events and one or two somewhat dubious photographs. So convinced was the Colonel that his claims were genuine, he invited a team of investigators from the Paraphysical Laboratory to examine the Manor. The team stayed for several days and concluded, that in their opinion, the house was most certainly haunted, although team leader - Mr. Benson Herbert, was not prepared to speculate by whom or what, but said later “five ghosts had been verified”. This declaration was a welcome tick in the box for the Colonel, and just the confirmation he needed to add credence to his claims. The Claridge’s staff and friends gamut of ghostly reports, if we are to believe them genuine, were to include:
A farmer who hung himself from a trapdoor inside the manor and has been seen by many people over the years. There also is a servant who harassed young maids to life times. Today his spirit still molests young girls. Other ghosts include a beautiful woman in a red silk dress, a little girl dressed in black that is often seen by the stairs, a wicked priest who awakens guests and gives the impression he is about to smother them with a black cape. and a sinister ghost who walks from the gate house to the staff quarters and leaving the stench of decaying flesh in his wake. One young cadet died at the age of 27 and he is said to have been buried in a secret passage located behind the Great Chamber. On quiet nights you may hear him banging on the door trying to get out of the room he was locked in.
Can we believe all this?
Sir Mervyn was quite adamant that on no occasion had he, or any member of his family past or present, encountered any ghosts and he even went as far as to apologise (we had not disclosed our interest in ghosts at this point) to us if we had come all this way under that misapprehension the place was haunted. However, with tongue firmly in cheek, he did admit to spinning one or two ghostly yarns to entertain the would-be “ghost hunters” who visit from time to time.
On reflection, Sir Mervyn could, if he had wished, made a killing at Sandford with tales of ghostly goings on, but he chose not to, and prefers to be upfront in his opinions and scepticism.