Aston Hall in Birmingham, England is a Grade I listed Jacobean prodigy house designed by, John Thorpe. Construction commenced in April 1618 by Sir Thomas Holte, who finally moved into the hall in 1631. The building was finally completed in April 1635.
Located in Aston, just two miles north of the inner city of Birmingham. It sits in a large park, part of which became ‘Villa Park’, the home ground of Aston Villa Football Club.
The house was severely damaged after an attack by Parliamentary troops in 1643. Some of the damage is still evident today, there is a hole in the staircase where a cannonball went through a window and an open door, and into the banister.
The palatial mansion and property was sold by his descendants in 1868, to the Corporation of Birmingham, as it was too expensive to maintain. It is now under the administration of the Birmingham Museum Trust, and is open to the public during summer and autumn months following extensive renovation from 2006 to 2009. Visible from the House less than 200 yards to the north is Aston Villa Football club. The hall received 28,804 visitors in 2019.
In October 2019, the mansion was named as the UK’s top haunted site, according to the Spectrum Paranormal Investigations and National Lottery.
With many reported ghostly sightings around the hall; one of the most commonly sighted spirits is of Mary Holte, the daughter of Sir Thomas Holte, who was an arrogant and heartless man. He was known to have disinherited his first son Edward because he married a girl of lower social status.
Mary was held in solitary confinement for sixteen long years, because she fell in love with a servant and tried to elope with him. She was kept in a dark windowless, boxed-off room just off the staircase leading up to the servants quarters. Some say she died of malnutrition; others thought she escaped from her prison, ran down the narrow treacherous steps and broke her neck. Ever since, Aston Hall is supposedly haunted by the grey ghost of Mary Holte and her apparition is seen daily by guests and employees, roaming around the hall and grounds.
TikTok user sabcarl8890 was exploring the hall with their family and were live streaming their experiences to their TikTok audience. As they’re on their way up the staircase leading to the servants quarters, they were calling out for the ghost of Mary Holte to appear. As they reach the top of the staircase there is another set of stairs that lead up to the servants quarters; which is roped off to the public.
They stand back pointing the camera towards the entryway to the servants quarters and to their amazement they were able to catch something on camera…
As they’re calling out a dark shadow figure is seen moving on multiple occassions between the gap in the entryway, which no living person was in at the time, as the area is sectioned off to the public by a wooden banister and you can see this at the end of the video.
Shocked by what they saw, the family finished their live stream to go and show a member of staff what they captured. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Staff had told them all that was in the room was a projector but had since been removed.
Since the experience, the family posted the clip on TikTok only a couple of days ago and has already racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
Whatever/whoever that shadow figure was; it definitely has us scratching our heads.