Listen. The wind has dropped. Evening’s soft shroud unfolds. All is held in wintry stillness. Midnight. Is that the sound of distant music? A mournful tune is coming from deep underground, an aching melody of loss and regret. For in this place only the dead are unquiet.
You’re at Binham Priory, one of Norfolk’s most magnificent ruins. Founded in 1091 by Peter des Valoines, William the Conqueror’s nephew, for 400 years it was home to a small community of Benedictine monks, led by a succession of scandalous priors. In the early 1300s, Prior William de Somerton’s obsession with alchemy plunged Binham into debt, church treasures sold off to fund occult experiments. In 1539 Henry VIII gave the monastery to Sir Thomas Paston, who pulled it apart to build a house. Demolition continued under Paston’s grandson, Edward, until falling masonry killed a workman, surely an ill omen. And so the rest fell into ruin, left to weather, time and ghosts.
A black-hooded monk has been seen emerging from a tunnel thought to join these ruins to the Walsingham shrine. And what of the haunting music? You’d hope having a dog named Trap would’ve made Jimmy Griggs think twice about striding down a crumbling old tunnel. But no! The foolhardy fellow marched in, showing off, playing his fiddle. Suddenly the music ceased. That night a great storm roared in from the sea and the tunnel caved in. Jimmy was never seen again. But you’ve heard his music, haven’t you?
