The Wheatsheaf Inn in St Thomas’s Square, Newport is said to be haunted by the tragic figure of a beautiful young widow, Anne Blundell.
It is claimed that the teenage ghost visits the hotel to mourn her husband, John, who died from his wounds on the 1st floor of the hotel on 11th July 1813, following a fatal duel at Carisbrooke Castle.
The duel apparently had trivial causes: it was alleged that Ensign McGuire had insulted Lieutenant Blundell by calling him a ruffian and a coward. Blundell’s friends urged him – as a matter of honour – to challenge McGuire to a duel.
However, a newspaper report suggests that McGuire was simply the tool of others and that jealousy had provoked a Lieut. Dillon to encourage McGuire to fight Blundell in a duel, as he had been jilted by Blundell’s new bride.
On the evening of 9th July 1813, after both parties had drunk freely, Blundell and his seconds met McGuire and his seconds in a moat outside Carisbrooke Castle.
At the second discharge of weapons, Blundell was fatally wounded, the ball entering his right shoulder, crossing his back and lodging near his armpit. McGuire promptly disappeared but before he had left, he shook hands with Blundell, who forgave him his injuries.
Blundell was carried dying to the Wheatsheaf. On his deathbed, he exclaimed:
“It was a bad business. I did not want to fight. My fellow officers made me do so.”
McGuire and his seconds were tried at Winchester Assizes, found guilty of wilful murder and sentenced to death. However, they were subsequently pardoned by the Prince Regent.
A military inquiry was held in which it was found no attempt had been made to reconcile the 2 brother officers but, on the contrary, great pains had been taken to instigate and promote the fatal meeting.
The Commander-in-Chief was inclined to think that:
“Of all the parties concerned, the unfortunate officer who lost his life and the yet more unfortunate one by whose hand his comrade fell were the least culpable.”
The jealous Lieut. Dillon – said to have been jilted by Anne – was declared incapable of ever after serving His Majesty in a military capacity.
But what of Blundell’s unfortunate widow, described in a newspaper report as ‘possessing singular beauty and attractiveness’?
She appears to have been something of a femme fatale. This was the second time she had been made a widow at the tender age of just 18. Her first husband had also been a military officer, who had been sent abroad immediately after their wedding and subsequently killed in action.
Anne had only been married to her second husband, John, for a few days before he too was killed.
In the years following John Blundell’s death, the initials JB were seen cut into the turf close to the spot near Carisbrooke Castle where John Blundell fell, and a posy of flowers was laid there on the anniversary of his death. Anne was believed to have made an annual pilgrimage to the castle until the couple were reunited in death.
Some say her spirit has never left the first floor room of The Wheatsheaf in which her husband expired. The ghostly figure of a young woman has apparently been encountered by guests there, sitting on the end of a bed. Some are reported to have refused to stay in that room, insisting that there was something there they did not want to encounter again…
The details of the fatal duel are not a tall tale – they can be accessed by anyone interested from contemporary newspaper articles, of which there are plenty. But of course, not all will believe the spirit of Anne Blundell still resides in The Wheatsheaf.
What do Island Echo readers think…?
Excellent story, so many ghosts on the island.
Or two many people of the simple persuasion who believe in leprechaun’s and things that go bump in the night.
Ive actually been sat in the pub waiting forcm my breakfast when part of an old record player and some old pottery when fkying 6/7ft across the room mate… that building is 1000% haunted mate
This haunting is true… i am a regular at breakfast, the pub has an old gramaphone record player, i was sat eating breakfast once and the giant solid brass speaker literally flew 7 ft across the room….. 10000% i swear on my life this happened…. freaked me right out
I wrote a comment yesterday which has clearly neen denied…… THIS STORY IS TRUE, i go to the wheatsheaf evedyday for breakfast, one morning i was sat waiting for my breakfast, whikst talking tl the owner grace, who was cleaning the area, in the pub they have an old gramaphone recors player wigh a massive brass speaker thing, next to it was some 15th century looking pottery, as i was talking to grace all of a sudden, the speaker from the old record player, and the little pottery bottle thing literally went flying from the shelf, across the room about 6/7ft and landed by the bar…. i promise you 1000% this story i have just told is true…. i have also had several conversations with people that have told me they have seen something odd or felt something in some or the rooms .. i am am islander, been here 10 yesrs and this is the best paranormal activity i have seen……..
By mr ASH VEEVERS please do not delete this comment like you have done my other comment, i would have thought a commemt from someone that has actually experienced paranormal activity in the actual building wouod be very relavent, why would you delete it …..