Special Halloween Series: 900 years running, Moyse's Hall remains haunted icon

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Whether it's late at night when no one is around or smack in the middle of the busiest tourist hour, time seems to be irrelevant in the 900-year-old Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St. Edmunds - at least when it comes to the supernatural residents there.

Moyse's Hall is not the typical museum. It's a mixture of everyday Suffolk history highlighted by displays of the bizarre. Together, these elements portray Suffolk and its people during the last five centuries.

There are not many museums where tourists can view relics of murderers and witches. These displays alone set the tone for Moyse's Hall Museum, renowned by many as one of the most haunted buildings in Suffolk.

You've just entered the RAF Mildenhall Fright Zone, and the story you're about to hear are actual accounts of local residents and museum staff.

For years, Service members from RAFs Mildenhall and Lakenheath have filed among the ranks of tourists visiting Moyse's Hall. For those same years, these Airmen have stridden very near the remnants of murderers, mummified remains, and other elements of witchcraft, the supernatural and the bizarre.

When a visitor enters the museum, they'll quickly notice a peculiar object to their left. The cage-like object was actually a gibbet for John Nichols, who was executed alongside his son Nathan, for the murder of his daughter, Sarah, March 26, 1794.

"Following execution by hanging, the body could be prepared in a variety of ways to preserve it as a warning to others," said Ron Murrell, Moyse's Hall Museum staff member and a retired Royal Air Force senior non-commissioned officer. "The treated body then had the Gibbet cage, which would have been made by the local blacksmith (iron worker) bolted or riveted around the body. The body and cage was then suspended from the wooden frame which had been set up, in this case near to where the murder had taken place."

According to the Bury and Norwich Post, the local newspaper during that time, the Nichols' were executed for cruelly beating Sarah with a hedge stake. John was to be gibbeted in the manner described above, and Nathan to be dissected after death.

"Common Christian belief at the time was that if a body was dissected or placed in a gibbet, it could not rise again during the resurrection described in the Bible," said Murrell. "Gibbets were commonly placed near public highways, crossroads and other commonly traveled areas to serve as a warning to others."

Both the gibbet and dissection were seen by criminals as additional punishment to execution as they lost the opportunity of an afterlife, said Murrell.

Walking just beyond the gibbet and rounding a corner, chills begin to run down the spine as the figures of two mummified cats come into focus in a showcase nearby.
Surrounding the cat remains are a wide array of other witchcraft-related items.

"Many believed witches drew their powers from the devil through familiars, often small animals which were more susceptible to convey dark powers," said Murrell. "Locally here in Suffolk, it was very common to brick a living cat into a wall during construction, believing that when the cat died in those walls, its spirit would attach itself to the home and protect it.

"Knives, pins or other sharp objects, hair shavings and other items were also placed in bottles and bricked in under fireplaces," said Murrell. "People believed that witches had to be invited into their home. The only way to enter uninvited was through the chimney, so by placing certain items at the foot of the chimney would prevent a witch from coming into one's home."

As if that wasn't spooky enough, Murrell moved to the next exhibit, which featured the human scalp, ear and death mask of 23-year-old William Corder, who was convicted of the brutal murder of Maria Marten in 1827. The display also featured his trial book bound in his own skin and the pistols used to murder Marten, according to trial records.

Corder was dissected after his execution but his skeleton was kept intact, said Murrell. He explained that at the time nobody donated their remains to science but, doctors still had to practice on something, so human corpses of executed felons were the primary source of such training corpses.

"Corder's skeleton was later sent to a medical school and was used to train doctors and nurses on the human skeleton," said Murrell. "But, many believe the skull on that training skeleton was not Corder's, as it didn't resemble the shape of his death mask.

"One belief is that one of the doctors, John Kilner, had a weird hobby of collecting skulls, and polished Corder's skull, then kept it at home. For weeks, Doctor Kilner was haunted," continued Murrell. "He attempted to return it to the rest of Corder's bones but the skull having been polished and the skeleton not, it would stand out."

He passed the skull on to a friend, who was then subject to continuous bad luck. Finally the doctor confided in his friend and the skull was secretly buried in a local graveyard after which the haunting stopped, said Murrell.

An internet search of "Corder" and the "screaming skull" revealed variations of that story, but all were in some way tied to Moyse's Hall.

"These are all just stories," said Murrell. "Who really knows what's true and what's not. For many years and through the Victorian Times, the Corder's tale, dubbed the 'Murder in the Red Barn,' remained one of Britain's most popular murder stories."

Certainly the relics of the Red Barn Murderer, mummified cats and Nichols' gibbet add to the spookiness of the museum, but there's something more going on inside those walls.

Moyse's Hall is believed to have been built in 1180 and had many uses throughout history. It was once the town Bridewell, a petty offenders' prison. It still has barred windows, stocks, a cat-o'-nine-tails (whip used for punishment) and an old jail door on display.

The town of Bury St. Edmunds saw its fair share of death. In addition to John and Nathan Nichols, and Corder, witches were jailed in Bury St. Edmunds, and later executed. If John Stern, a 17th Century witch hunter, is to be believed, some 200 witches were awaiting trial in the town, said Alex McWhirter, a museum employee who wrote a dissertation on the differences between witch hunts in England and Continental Europe.

There's a record of 18 witches being hanged in one day, which is still a large statistic, but does not compete with continental figures of 400 in a day, said McWhirter.

Moyse's Hall was probably built by the Abbey of St. Edmunds and by medieval times the building was a tavern. In 1327, after long disputes between the abbey and townspeople, a violent riot erupted, said Murrell. That violence lasted several days and the abbey was attacked by the mob, parts of it being looted.

"Many of the abbey monks and servants were injured and it is confirmed at least one abbey servant was killed, a man named Roger Peasenhall," said Murrell. The rioters then came to Moyse's Hall for breakfast.

After many different roles over the hundreds of years of use, Moyse's Hall was changing again at the end of the nineteenth century.

"The police station moved from Moyse's Hall to St. John's Street in 1892, and the idea of turning the old building into a museum started circulating," said Murrell, who said it wasn't until 1899 that the idea came to fruition and the museum first opened.

As years passed and the building changed functions many times over, some people believed the old building may be haunted. So, is there any evidence to support supernatural events in the building?

Who would really know - murderers, witches, monks - the possibilities are numerous.

"Our policy is to not comment to the media on questions relating to this building being haunted," said Murrell. "But I will tell you this: This building has constantly been occupied for over 900 years. I've been here in all hours of the day and night on various occasions. I've been here with loads of people around me and, at times, by myself. I've never, ever, felt alone."

Editor's note: This was the final installment of the RAF Mildenhall Fright Zone. We hope you enjoyed this special Halloween series, which ran as an eight-part series throughout October 2011.