Burton Agnes Hall is a beautiful Elizabethan manor house near Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was built between the years 1601 and 1610 by Sir Henry Griffith, as a grand replacement for the previous family home there, a manor house built in Norman times.
However according to legend whilst the house was been constructed, a terrible tragedy befell the Griffith family. Sir Henry had three daughters, and while they were walking in the park, they were waylaid by cut-throats. The youngest daughter, Anne, was gravely wounded in the attack. She did survived the assault, but unfortunately she fell into a fever. Fearing that she would never recover, Anne made her sisters promise that should she die, they would take her head to the new hall once it was completed. Anne did indeed die, however her wishes were not honoured....
Soon after the family moved into the new manor house, strange noises and eerie groans echoed around the place. This was just the beginning of a violent and noisy haunting. And eventually they could stand it no longer, and at last they decided to exhume Anne. When they opened the grave, they discovered her head was already separated from her body and the skull stripped of all flesh. And so they brought Anne's skull to the hall, and the strange sounds and disturbances ceased.
But whenever anyone attempted to remove the skull, 'Owd Nance' as Anne's restless spirit was known, would grow angry and the troubles would begin again. Peace would only be restored when her skull was returned to the hall. In the end to prevent any further troubles, Owd Nance's skull was bricked up into the walls of the hall so no one could disturb her rest again. And there it has remained to this very day. Although no one is entirely sure where in the house Anne's skull now resides...
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