In the late 19th century, Lord Salisbury was in his dressing room at Hatfield House when he heard a coach arrive outside.
Believing unexpected visitors had come, he dressed again and went downstairs to receive them. Despite what he had clearly heard from upstairs, there was nobody waiting and no coach had arrived.
The experience fitted an old Cecil family ghost story, and writer Augustus Hare recorded it during a visit to Hatfield in 1872.
The phantom coach of Hatfield House
Hare heard the story from Lady Salisbury, who associated the phantom coach with James Cecil, 6th Earl of Salisbury, who died in 1780.
James had suffered a harsh childhood and was reportedly severely flogged at Westminster School on his mother’s instructions. Hare was told that this treatment soured his character, and the Earl later developed a reputation for a dissolute life.
After his death, according to the family story, his coach continued to return to Hatfield House.
This was no ordinary phantom carriage rattling along a lonely country road. The Hatfield coach was said to arrive at the house, drive up the staircase and then disappear.
Lady Salisbury also told Hare about Lord Salisbury hearing the coach from his dressing room and going downstairs to investigate.
The story later reached the British press, where the same strange details were repeated. One newspaper described guests gathered around the fire at Hatfield telling ghost stories when Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, a former Prime Minister, spoke about hearing the mysterious coach himself.
Whatever Salisbury heard that night, it sounded real enough to make him get dressed and go downstairs.
The ghost of James Cecil
The 6th Earl apparently returned without his coach as well.
In 1902, Hare recorded another conversation about James Cecil, this time with the Earl’s great-grandson, Lord Eustace Cecil.
Eustace told him that his great-grandfather was often seen in the room then being used as the smoking room.
This gives Hatfield’s oldest ghost story two parts: the dead Earl seen inside his former family home and his impossible coach still arriving outside.
Does Elizabeth I haunt Hatfield House?
The most famous name attached to Hatfield’s ghosts is inevitably Queen Elizabeth I, whose connection with the place began long before the present house existed.
The surviving Old Palace was built around 1485 by John Morton, Bishop of Ely, before Henry VIII acquired it in 1538. Henry used Hatfield as a home for his children Edward, Mary and Elizabeth.
On 17 November 1558, Elizabeth was at Hatfield when she learned that Mary I had died and she was now Queen of England. She called her advisers together and held her first Council of State in the Old Palace before leaving for London.
Modern accounts claim Elizabeth’s ghost still appears around the Old Palace and grounds, sometimes accompanied by cold spots, rustling clothes or unexplained scents.
The story certainly fits the place, but finding an early source for Elizabeth’s ghost is much harder than finding one for the phantom coach.
The Victorian accounts we can trace concern the Cecils rather than the Tudor queen, so Elizabeth’s supposed haunting deserves a little more caution.
Other ghosts at Hatfield
An unidentified female apparition has also been reported at Hatfield, with later versions describing her as a veiled woman or Grey Lady.
Other accounts add unexplained footsteps, opening doors, strange music and moving shadows, although the origins of many of these stories are difficult to establish.
One particularly intriguing modern report dates from August 2017, when a visitor claimed to see a man dressed in Stuart clothing sitting beside a window and reading a book.
Thinking he was a historical interpreter, the visitor reached for a phone to take his photograph, only to find that the man had disappeared.
When the witness asked staff about him, they reportedly said that no costumed actors were working at Hatfield that day.
Can you visit Hatfield House?
Hatfield House remains the home of the Cecil family, but the house, park and gardens are open to visitors at certain times of the year.
The surviving Old Palace can also be visited on guided tours when it is not being used for private events. The medieval Banqueting Hall survives, complete with much of its original timber roof, and is where Elizabeth held her first Council of State.
