Halloween at Oatlands Park Hotel

The fifth wife of Henry VIII is said to have been secretly betrothed to the King at Oatlands Palace in the weeks before their Windsor wedding. Soft perfumed scents and the faint rustle of silk have been reported in quiet corridors nearest the old chapel foundations near the Broadwater lawn.

A tall, pale figure in an Elizabethan grey silk gown has been recorded by visitors walking the upper corridors of the hotel for more than 150 years. She never speaks, but tradition says she curtsies before fading near the yew walk by the Duchess of York’s pet cemetery.

Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia, Duchess of York, lived out her final years at Oatlands and is remembered for her devotion to her dogs. Guests walking near the stone pet cemetery still in the gardens have reported glimpses of quiet hounds resting by the grave markers on autumn nights.

The ancient cedar of Lebanon by the main drive is thought to have been planted in 1640 to mark the birth of Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, third son of Charles I, born at Oatlands Palace on 8 July of that year. Tradition says a royal cavalier can be glimpsed beside it on the eve of battle anniversaries.

During the Great War, Oatlands Park Hotel was requisitioned as a casualty hospital for the New Zealand Division returning wounded from France. Gentle singing and the tap of a soldier’s cane have occasionally been heard in the York Suite on still November nights.