When Queen Camilla Was ‘Pinned’ Down by a Ghost at Night Before She ‘Told It to Where to Go'

Queen Camilla's eldest child, Thomas Parker Bowles, shared a chilling ghost story recently that concerned his mum. The culinary critic claimed that when they were living in Bolehyde Manor, an Allington, Wiltshire 'haunted house' from the 17th century, his mother was 'pinned down' by a 'vicious spirit.' "My mother says she woke up one night, in the middle of the night, and there was a presence sort of pinning her down in her bed. This was many, many years ago, but she's made of pretty strong stuff so probably told the ghost where to go," Bowles narrated during an episode of Gyles Brandreth's Rosebud podcast. 

According to the Daily Record, he also remembered how terrifying some parts of their previous Tudor manor were, to the point where not even the family dog dared to venture inside. Bowles shared, "There were lots of people who were very rational people, who in the middle of the night would jump in their car and drive back to London because something had got in their bed, and it was a spirit." He continued, "We would hear stories of banquets going on downstairs that people would hear, but there was nothing there, there were rooms the dogs wouldn't go into, it was quite a big old manor house, and rooms that we ran past." 

Bowles added that even though it was July, the mood in the house frequently felt uncomfortably 'cold.' "As a child, you would build up a fear of these rooms. It was always cold, even in the middle of summer. It was an old house, it was a Tudor manor, there's folklore and tales and there's you know lots of mad monks and grey ladies. We never actually saw a ghost but we felt them." The 700-year-old manor is said to have got its name from a landowner named Thomas de Bolehyde in the fourteenth century, who was accused of embezzling money from monks.

According to Page Six, royal biographer Penny Junor previously shared, "[Camilla] would become aware of its presence when she was watching television, and the ghost would sit beside her and change the channels". Junor continued, "She never saw it, but she could feel it next to her and she would laugh about how she and the ghost always wanted to watch different programs.” Constructed during Edward I's reign, the Tudor mansion boasts eight bedrooms, a tennis court, a swimming pool, a treehouse, guest quarters, staff cottages, a stable, and eighty acres of farmland. It recently went for sale at £3.75million through Savills London. 

"Camilla didn’t have the gardening bug when she was growing up but, when they moved to Bolehyde, it became her therapy," Junor wrote in her 2017 book, The Duchess. As per the Daily Mail, interestingly, King Charles III proposed to Lady Diana Spencer in the vegetable garden of the famous haunted manor. While Charles and Diana were courting, the future Princess of Wales was a regular guest of Bolehyde. She was excellent with the Parker-Bowles kids and would lend a hand around the house.