The Talbot
New Street, Oundle
Northamptonshire, England
No one seems to know how old The Talbot Hotel actually is. It probably was standing in the ancient market town of Oundle for centuries before being partially rebuilt in 1626, and some of its medieval timbers are still plainly visible. Oundle itself dates from Saxon times and, with its evocative stone buildings and stone-slated roofs, still looks like a perfect movie-set version of the 16th Century.
The rebuilding of The Talbot in the 1600's, however, brought with it an infamous ghost - Mary Queen of Scots - who is still seen and heard to this day by guests staying at the Hotel. Mary is reportedly the "best-documented ghost" in all of Britain.
Why is she at The Talbot, often sobbing for hours in the middle of the night, or standing at the foot of some lucky guest's bed in a long black gown, or ethereally gazing out the mullioned windows over the beautiful wooden staircase?
It seems that poor Mary - well, let me back up to say that the historians among you may dimly recall that Mary ruled Scotland after her father James V kicked the bucket when she was a week old in 1542, and was in line for succession to the English throne if you discounted her cousin Elizabeth I as illegitimate (remember Liz's dad Henry VIII and all those wives?). Well, ultimately Mary was found guilty of treason when Queen Elizabeth decided she was just too much of a threat, and they threw this ill-fated, thrice-married woman into the Tower at the Castle at Fotheringhay, which, by the way, is the next town over from Oundle. And she was imprisoned for 18 years until the day of her execution in 1587, when she had to climb down the stairs and have her head chopped off.
What's that got to do with The Talbot? Well, they tore down Fotheringhay Castle and used the windows and stones and especially the oak staircase - the staircase Mary descended on her way to execution - in The Talbot's rebuilding. And it's on that great bewindowed staircase and in the two bedrooms at its head that Mary haunts and haunts and haunts…
So we thought we'd get married there. Besides, it's just down the street from our house.