Thringstone - Grace Dieu Priory

Grace Dieu Priory

The ruins of Grace Dieu Priory stand on the outskirts of Thringstone in a valley bounded by a small brook (Grace Dieu Brook) at the edge of Cademan Wood, part of Charnwood Forest, and situated on the A512 road from Loughborough to Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire.

The ruins are known as one of the most haunted locations in Leicestershire due to the site's association with a 'White Lady' apparition, most commonly seen drifting across the A512. The most famous sighting is said to have occurred in 1954, when a 'bus driver is said to have stopped to pick up a woman waiting by the shelter opposite the ruins, only to find on drawing up his vehicle that she had vanished. Sightings of unexplained phenomena in this area are well documented and are also referred to in Paul Devereux's book, 'Earth Lights' (1982)

Following its dissolution as a religious house, the priory came into the possession of the Beaumont family, who converted it into a residence, so that the few remaining ruins are partly medieval, but chiefly domestic Tudor (e.g. fireplaces and chimney-stacks). Francis Beaumont, the great Elizabethan dramatist, was born here in circa 1584. In the 1690s, the priory was acquired by Sir Ambrose Phillipps of Garendon Abbey, though by the 1790s the buildings were ruinous, with only two sections still roofed.