St Osyth's Priory

St Osyth’s Priory is situated on an estuary formed by the junction of the rivers Stour and Blackwater, about ten or twelve miles south east from Colchester.

St Osyths is a nationally important property set within 20 acres of formal gardens. The property includes many fine buildings, seven being listed as Grade 1 and most of which are scheduled as ancient monuments.

The magnificent priory building, dating largely from the 12th century, is the most imposing monastic foundation to survive in Essex. St Osyth was a 7th century East Anglian Queen, beheaded in nearby “Nuns Wood” by Danish invaders, when she refused to renounce her faith. Her executioners were astonished when she picked up her head and, holding it at arms length, walked to the village church, where she knocked several times on the door before slumping to the ground. Legend holds that every October 7th her ghost repeats the miraculous feat, and can be seen in the churchyard at midnight, holding her severed head. Her ghost is only one of many that have been reported through the ages at the priory.In addition, a monk in white has been seen walking on the estate in the night, carrying a lighted candle.

From 1948 to the 1980?s the priory housed a convalescent home run by nurses. One of those nurses, Mrs Joyce Bennett, lived near the Priory in the late 1970?s and was called by a cleaning lady who was outside the office. The cleaner reported that ‘the carpet had been trying to throw her up against the wall’. Not thinking of poltergeist activity presumably, Mrs Bennett failed to understand what the cleaner was trying to tell her. The carpet was fixed down for one thing. But she was able to witness this for herself as the carpet suddenly moved and threw the cleaner against the wall. That cleaner left, never to return and Mrs Bennett discovered that this had happened twice before.

When Mrs Bennett went into the laundry room on another occasion she saw someone else there and challenged them, knowing no-one else should be present. She asked what permission they had to be there. Suddenly the person wasn’t there, only an icy patch indicating where the figure had been. She was later told that other people had seen the apparition of a monk there, walking through one of the wall of the room.

Where to find St Osyth's Priory

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