Page 17 - Oundle Life December 2023

HAUNTED OUNDLE
Ghostly tales...
Oundle has some of the oldest buildings in Northants, so it’s no surprise that some of them are reputed to be haunted...
The Drumming Well
Drumming Well Lane now lies within the grounds of the Talbot Hotel, and it was so named after a well (now covered) which was said to have made strange ‘drumming’ noises before events of national importance played out.
The well was said to have foretold the execution of Charles I, the Great Fire of London, and the deaths of Oliver Cromwell and Charles II, amongst other significant national events.
The earliest written account of the well appeared in 1668 when a missive from one Ralph Hope reached Joseph Williamson in Whitehall. Hope wrote ‘Here is much discourse of a strange well at Oundle in Northamptonshire, wherein has been heard by many a kind of drumming - in the manner of a march, for the most part - and
is said to be very ominous, and always precedes some great accident.’
Hope also reported that the well ‘drummed’ for about two weeks preceding the execution of Charles I.
The well stood in what is now the inner courtyard of the Talbot Hotel and is now only marked by a sign and in the name of the ‘Drumming Well Room’ at the hotel. It’s now covered over, but who’s to say it might not yet drum again if the country faces darker days?
17