'Haunted' Northumberland castle appeals for help to solve potential ghostly mix-up

However, having had a bit of time to check out the credentials of its sole guest, Langley Castle Hotel, near Hexham, is now appealing to genealogists to clarify exactly who she was.

For many years, both staff and some visitors have claimed to have seen an apparition which they have described as the ‘grey lady’.

All speak of a woman who is sobbing uncontrollably and heading towards a window. She is said to look back, with a tear-stained face, and then jump.

It has been said that this was Maud de Lucy, who was broken-hearted when her knight husband was killed in battle.

Some have claimed she was the wife of the knight who built Langley Castle in 1350, Sir Thomas De Lucy.

However, a study of the De Lucy family reveals Sir Thomas, born in Copeland in Cumbria, was the husband of Margaret de Multon and father to Maud de Lucy, born in 1350 at Egremont in Cumbria.

Records show that Maud de Lucy married twice – firstly to Gilbert de Umfraville and then to Henry Percy, First Earl of Northumberland

Gilbert died at the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1381 – but Maud remarried that same year. She died in 1398 and her second husband died in battle in 1408.

Digging deeper, Langley Castle has discovered that Sir Thomas de Lucy had two wives, marrying again following the death of Margaret in 1341.

Some records show that he married an Agnes de Beaumont, whose death is shrouded in mystery.

So, has the grey lady been wrongly named ‘Maud’, when she is, in fact, Agnes, stepmother to Maud?

Langley’s executive general manager, Margaret Livingstone-Evans said: “The story about Maud has been passed down through time and seems to have become a little confused.

“Having delved deeper into the past, we now have one burning question – who is the grey lady and has Agnes been living in the shadows for too long?”

Langley is now appealing for experts to help it determine whether its sole lockdown guest has indeed been checked in under the wrong name for centuries.

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