Joanna Cowell from Cotgrave, has recently released her book titled Travels with the Reluctant Ghost Hunter, featuring a collection of her own experiences travelling around Nottingham and the UK visiting various mysterious or haunted locations. Here she tells us about, “Nan Scott’s Chamber”:
Due to the current lockdown we now find ourselves in, I wanted to tell you the legend of another self-imposed lockdown which took place in 1666 during the Great Plague.
In the village of Holme near Newark stands St Giles Church, which dates from the 12th century.
It carries the legend of Ann “Nan” Scott, who was said to live in the village during the time the plague was raging through the country.
Nan was terrified, and in a desperate attempt to avoid infection she incarcerated herself in the Priest’s room of St Giles’ Church.
When she was finally forced to leave to get fresh supplies, she discovered there was only one person left in the village. The remaining villagers had either died or been forced to flee.
So, Nan decided to return to her “chamber” where she was said to have lived out the remainder of her days.
What I love is the fact that when we visited the church pre-lockdown, the room in which Nan was said to have exiled herself was carefully and beautifully laid out as if she were still there.
I find it incredibly heart-warming that St Giles’ Church preserves the room and the essence of Nan’s legend in this way.
I hope you will be able to visit here when the restrictions are eased, and I’m sure little ones would also love discovering the chamber just as I did!
And some say Nan’s footsteps can still be heard…