It is believed that there has been a stately home on the site of Mains Hall in Singleton since medieval times, if not earlier, although the current building was actually built some time in the 16th century. It was always a “catholic” household and was owned by a devoutly Catholic family. The Hesketh family owned the property for more than 3 centuries.
During the time where protestant monarchs made practising Catholicism a crime, Cardinal Allen, who had links to the Heskeths, would hide out at Mains Hall to avoid law enforcement. Cardinal Allen was not the only religious man who would visit the property, but there were many priests who were welcomed to the hall.
Interestingly, knowing this information, this could be an explanation for the robed shadow figures that have been spotted on occasion in the grounds of Mains Hall. Could this be the Cardinal himself, hiding out in his favourite place?
For around 15 years, the Hall was used as a hotel and restaurant and many of the customers over those years had some extraordinary encounters. Several guests have described the figure of a lady standing at the top of the grand staircase. Most of the time, the lady seems to be staring sadly at an area of the wall. It is believed that she is waiting for her lover. During renovation work on the hall, behind some plasterboard, a window was found that had been boarded up. The window is in the exact location where the lady is said to be staring.
Where the bar used to be when the building was a hotel, there are often cavaliers spotted. In addition, there are often tales of ghostly shapes and cold spots on the stairs. It is known that during the Jacboite rebellion, marauders would take refuge at the house. There were swordfights on the stairs and one man was said to have lost his life there.
The Hall even has ghostly children. Children seem to make the scariest ghosts and it must be quite frightening for those who have heard the sounds of children laughing and singing haunting nursery rhymes. The children may be the ghosts of the children from the Hesketh family who died at a young age, as was common in those times.
Finally, there are a lot of stories of ghostly monks walking around the grounds. There were links with Cockersand Abbey and it is believed that some of the monks from the Abbey may have died from the plague at Mains Hall and were buried beneath the trees on the grounds.
