More on Charlotte White (nee Smyth)

Following on from yesterday's post, with a poem I wrote about Charlotte White (nee Smyth), I thought I would share some more aspects of her story. 

Back in August 2012, when I was in the process of researching Charlotte for the story I was writing for the WriteNight anthology, I began by using Google.  In that process, I came across references to Charlotte's pool in some of the historical documents online.  Please click this link for information on her lineage and her father (Sir George Henry Smyth)'s role as MP for Colchester and this link for a reference to her father building her pool, as well as details of the history of the Berechurch area.  

I discovered many references to her ghost.  One was on the paranormal database, where a sighting is listed in the 1930s.  There are numerous references to the 'Lady in White' at Berechurch Hall in books about local ghosts, available in Colchester Library.  I have read accounts of German Prisoners of War in World War II seeing her ghost, when interred at what is now the Military Corrective Training Centre in the grounds of Berechurch Hall. Another account describes a lady called Mrs Chilvers watching a white figure gliding up the drive to the door of Berechurch Hall, as she called in her cat.  She only realised what she was seeing, as Charlotte's apparition came much closer to her and rose into the sky.  I even heard accounts of a 'Lady in White' appearing in one of the modern flats, which are now occupying the space where the original Berechurch Hall once stood.

A link to a poem written by another poet, who describes an encounter with the ghost of Charlotte around 1980 is below. It is a beautiful poem, which is evocative of the remains of Charlotte's gardens, which still remained back then but which are now long gone.  To read the poem, click the link below.

Charlotte's Well (A ghost story) by Wayne Richard Baker

I really like this poem.  For me, it is mystical and beautiful and it shows clearly that there should be nothing to fear from any encounter with Charlotte's ghost.  It is no longer possible to see what is described, such as it was but this poem provides an intriguing snapshot of Berechurch Hall and Charlotte's Pool as it might have been.