Oliver Cromwell's House, Ely

Staff, visitors, and paranormal investigators have reported experiences spanning decades, and the phenomena appear to have intensified since the building’s conversion to a museum.

The Dark-Haired Lady

The most frequently reported apparition is a woman with dark hair wearing a long dark dress, with keys jangling at her waist. She appears in what the museum designates “The Haunted Bedroom” and vanishes as witnesses watch. The keys at her waist suggest a housekeeper or woman of authority within the household. Whether she belongs to Cromwell’s time or to the building’s longer history as a vicarage remains unknown.

The April 1979 Incident

The most detailed and disturbing account comes from April 1979, when a couple were staying at the house as guests of the Reverend Neil Munt, then vicar of St Mary’s. During the night, the woman found herself standing in the corner of the bedroom, facing a doorway that should have been on her right. Her feet touched wooden floorboards, though she knew the room was carpeted. She could not see the figure in front of her, but felt a man’s hands gripping her arms with considerable force.

She felt no fear, but rather a powerful mental connection with the unseen presence. The words “It is not my way” repeated over and over in her mind. She did not know whether she was experiencing the present or had somehow slipped into another person’s time.

The experience faded and she returned to bed. In the morning, her arms ached, and both her husband and Reverend Munt witnessed the red finger marks clearly visible on her skin. Subsequent examination of the building revealed that an original doorway had been blocked up, plastered over, and was positioned in the exact place she had faced during her experience.

The phrase “It is not my way” has been interpreted by some as Cromwell himself, perhaps referring to his repeated reluctance to accept the crown, or to his tortured conscience over the execution of Charles I. Others suggest it may be an earlier presence, predating Cromwell’s residence by centuries.

The Shoelace Poltergeist

On 3 December 1998, the Ely Standard ran the headline: “Cromwell’s Ghost Untied My Shoes!” A guide working for East Cambridgeshire District Council reported that while sitting behind his desk in the office (located in the former kitchen larder), his shoelaces were untied by unseen hands. Not once, but three times.

The phenomenon has been reported by others since. Is this the work of ghostly children, their laughter occasionally heard echoing through the upper floors? Or is it the Lord Protector himself, his fondness for practical jokes persisting beyond the grave? Given Cromwell’s documented love of pranks, the theory has a certain appeal.

Other Phenomena

The house yields a catalogue of unexplained experiences:

Footsteps echo along corridors and down staircases when no one is present.

Heavy footsteps cross the landing, heard by staff who later confirm they were alone in the building.

Children’s laughter drifts from empty rooms
In 2002, staff member Liz Jordan opened the kitchen door and saw “the bottom half of a person in a long blue skirt disappearing into a mist by the wall near the fireplace”

In 2010, a five-year-old girl watching the introductory film in the parlour was approached by another girl wearing a pink bonnet, who asked if she liked it, then said: “Don’t worry, I’m dead, and when you go upstairs you will see my father who is also dead.” The living child only mentioned this when the family reached the haunted bedroom.

A grey figure has been seen in the bedroom by staff locking up at the end of the day.

In October 2022, a visitor photographed what appears to be a figure in the kitchen window, in an area that was inaccessible at the time.

The Haunted Ely book by Margaret Haynes and Vivienne Doughty documents many of these accounts, and the museum itself maintains a “Haunted Happenings” book containing photographs and visitor reports.

The Vicar’s Wife

One account, frequently repeated, concerns a vicar’s wife who refused to move into the building, finding the atmosphere oppressive and feeling deeply uncomfortable. Given the house served as a vicarage until 1986, the number of clerical families who lived here over the centuries makes this difficult to verify, but the story persists.

After Ely: The Lord Protector’s Fate

Cromwell died at Whitehall Palace in London on 3 September 1658, aged 59, probably from a combination of malaria and kidney infection. The death of his favourite daughter Elizabeth a month earlier may have hastened his decline. He was buried in Westminster Abbey with a state funeral rivalling that of any king.

The Restoration changed everything. On 30 January 1661, the twelfth anniversary of Charles I’s execution, Cromwell’s body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey. His corpse, along with those of fellow regicides John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton, was dragged through the streets of London to Tyburn, where all three were hanged until afternoon.

The executioner required eight blows to sever Cromwell’s head from his body. It was impaled on a 20-foot spike and raised above Westminster Hall, where it remained for at least two decades. Legend has it that during a storm, the head was blown down and retrieved by a sentry, who hid it in his chimney. For the next two centuries, it passed through various private hands as a macabre curiosity, occasionally being put on public display.

In 1960, Cromwell’s head was finally given a dignified burial at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he had briefly studied as a young man. The exact location was not disclosed. Only three people at any time know precisely where it lies.