Ghosts of Tamworth Castle

Tamworth Castle stands on a mound above the meeting of the rivers Tame and Anker, on a site that was a residence of the kings of Mercia long before the Normans arrived. After the Conquest, William the Conqueror's steward, Robert Despenser, built a wooden motte-and-bailey castle here in the 1080s. By about 1100 it was held by the Marmion family, who served as hereditary champions to the dukes of Normandy and then to the kings of England.

Later owners added ranges of rooms to the old walls. Parliamentary forces took the castle in 1643 after a two-day siege, and because it stayed in use, it escaped the slighting that ruined so many others. In 1897 Tamworth Corporation, now Tamworth Borough Council, bought it from the Marquess Townshend for £3,000 as a public memorial to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and it opened to the public as a museum in 1899, which it remains today.

The castle now has a reputation as one of the most haunted in the Midlands. Staff and visitors have reported footsteps, furniture dragging across empty rooms, and strange noises, including the sound of horses, and the television series Most Haunted has investigated it. In February 2025 a live-streamed investigation by Ghost Trip Investigations, watched by more than 120,000 people on TikTok, reported footsteps running toward an investigator who was alone, a ball rolled back by an unseen force, whispers, and shadowy figures.

Two ghosts are best known. The White Lady is said to roam the battlements, weeping for a lost lover. In one version of her story, she was held by a figure named Sir Tarquin, sometimes linked with the Arthurian legend of Lancelot, and she threw herself from the walls after his death. The Black Lady is said to be the spirit of a nun named Editha, a 9th- or 10th-century figure linked to Polesworth Abbey, and her story is tied to the Baron Robert de Marmion, who is said to have driven the nuns out around 1139. She is associated with the staircase and with the room in the keep known as the Lady's Chamber, or the Haunted Room.

It is the Black Lady's story that Richard Jones tells.

As Richard tells the story ...

The keep's windows and battlements.

Tamworth Castle was begun just after the Norman Conquest, and later became the property of royal champion Robert de Marmion, who is said to have expelled the nuns from the nearby convent at Polesworth. This act had incurred the spectral displeasure of St. Editha, its long-dead founder. She appeared one night at his bedside and threatened him with a violent and untimely death if he didn't allow the nuns to return to their rightful home. To emphasize the point, she smote him across the head with her crozier, causing blood to flow from the resultant wound. The admonishing apparition so terrified de Marmion that he quickly restored the confiscated lands to the nuns. The middle room of the Norman tower is where the Baron de Marmion reputedly met with the fearful sister of little mercy, and, in commemoration of the ghastly occurrence, it is today known as the "ghost room." The spectral nun has appeared to several startled witnesses here and, on account of the color of her habit, is known as the Black Lady of Tamworth.

Whether it is she who is behind the strange phenomenon that plagues other parts of the castle is uncertain. A custodian who was one morning opening the former bedrooms that have now been converted into an exhibition called the "Tamworth Story" was temporarily blinded when what felt like sand was flung into her face. Recovering, she looked down expecting to see her clothes covered in grit but found nothing. Looking up she saw a mass of smoke, about 6 feet (2 meters) high, moving toward the window, where it suddenly vanished.

At around 11:30 p.m. on February 24, 1999, the police contacted a castle key holder to tell her that the building's alarms had gone off, but a thorough search of the premises revealed no sign of a break-in. The lady phoned the alarm company who promised to send an engineer round. As she awaited his arrival, she heard footsteps in the room above, followed by the sound of a heavy table being dragged across the floor. This went on for the best part of an hour. When the engineer arrived, the custodian went to let him in, and he expressed surprise at how quickly she had reached him. Asked to elaborate, he explained that he had seen a lady waving to him from the window of the upstairs room, from which the mysterious sounds had been emanating.

- Richard Jones