Mark, I know you know who PBA is talking about because I'm sure we've discussed this sad case.  The lady was running through the green with the ax man hacking after her.  It was a nightmarish scene.

 

sunday

I DON'T THINK IT WAS A GREEN SUNDAY BUT IN A TOWER COURT YARD. MAYBE IT WAS GREEN IN THEM DAYS. TODAY IT IS INTERLOCK.

 SHE WAS BEHEADED AT THE SAME SPOT I THINK THAT ANNE BOLEYN WAS. THE COURT IS RIGHT BELOW THE ROOM WHERE ANNE WAS KEEP. NICE TUDOR STYLE BEAM AND CLAY TYPE BUILDING WITH TWO FLOORS. I THINK ANNE ALSO STAYED IN THIS SUIT BEFORE SHE MARRIED HENRY.

 

I KEEP CALLING THE CHAPEL THERE CHAPEL ROYAL BUT I THINK IT MAY BE CALLED SOMETHING ELSE NOW THAT I READ THIS PART ON ANNE. THIS IS WERE ALL THE HEADNESS BODIES WERE HIDDEN UNDER THE FLOOR AND DISCOVERED WHEN THE PLACE WAS BEING DONE OVER.

 

Anne's body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula which adjoined the Tower Green. Her body was one that was identified in renovations of the chapel under the reign of Queen Victoria, so Anne's final resting place is now marked in the marble floor.

Anne Boleyn is supposed to be the inspiration behind "My last Duchess" by Browning, though he sets that poem in Renaissance Italy

 

Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive.

 

This poem propelled my to glory in my English Lit exams and moulded my attititudes to the squeaky voiced gender thereafter. 

There weren't that many women beheaded at the Tower, so perhaps the guide was giving a spiced up version of Lady Salisbury's death for the benefit of the tourists.

That must be what we're thinking of, Mark.

 

One of the most gruesome ghost stories connected with the Tower of London is the bungled execution of Lady Salisbury in 1541. At 70 she was given the death penalty following her alleged involvement in criminal activities (although it is now widely believed that she was probably innocent).

type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type=text/javascript> </SCRIPT>

After being sent struggling to the scaffold to be beheaded, she refused to place her neck on the block as all others did. She ran from the block in hysterics with her executioner chasing behind her. She was pursued by the axe man until she was hacked to death after finally being felled with a number of heavy blows from behind. The whole bloody scene is said to be re-enacted by spirits on Tower Green. Also the shadow of a great axe has been seen falling across the scene of her murder.

http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/stories/toweroflondon.html

THAT'S IT SUNDAY. THAT'S THE STORY THAT THE BEEFEATER TELLS.

WHAT WOULD WE DO WITH OUT YOU GIRL.

Sir Walter Raleigh WAS ONE OF THE BODIES BURIED UNDER THE CHAPEL FLOOR. HE WAS IDENTIFIED BECAUSE HIS HEAD WAS BURIED WITH HIS BODY. I THINK THEY SAID THAT THERE WAS 100+ BURIED UNDER THE FLOOR. ONLY ABOUT 13 HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED. THEY STOPPED USEING THE CHAPEL BECAUSE THE SMELL WAS SO BAD AND STRANGE GRONE NOISES KEEP BEING HEARD IN THE CHAPEL. THE STRANGE NOISES THEY NOW BELIEVE WERE BLOTTING BODIES BURSTING. THE CHAPEL WAS CLOSED FOR YEARS BEFORE QUEEN VICTORIA HAD IT DONE OVER. APPARENTLY THEY HAD PROBLEMS OPENING THE FRONT DOOR BECAUSE THE FLOOR STONE HAS RAISED UP BLOCKING THEM. WHEN THEY WERE FIXING THE FLOOR THEY DISCOVERED THE BODIES BURIED UNDER THE FLOOR. THEY THINK THEY GOT THERE BECAUSE THE GUY INCHARGE OF GETTING RID OF THE BODIES AFTER EXECUTION DIDN'T TAKE THEM AWAY BUT BURIED THEM THERE. THEY DID MENTION HIS NAME BUT I DON'T REMEMBER IT.

WHY WOULDN'T HE TAKE THE BODIES AWAY? WAS THE OUTSIDE SO CROWDED WITH BODIES ALREADY? WAS THERE ANY PLAGES AT THIS TIME THAT HE MAY BE SCARED TO LEAVE THE GROUNDS???

HE HAD BEEN PAID TO DISPOSE OF THE BODIES.

I THINK THE BEEFEATER SAID THAT HE WAS ALSO THE AXE-MAN. THAT'S WHY I ASKED MARK WOULD THE AXE-MAN BE INCHARGE OF GETTING RID OF THE BODIES.

YOU WOULD REALLY ENJOY A TRIP THERE SUNDAY OR TO ANYONE ELSE THAT NEEDS A HOLIDAY.

IF YOU DO GO, WATCH OUT FOR THE THIRTEEN STEP GOING UP THE TOWER.

 

Highest point for me was the Tower of London Armouries. Most have been moved out to Leeds now.

(To Arnie Jim and that's the Tower of London Arms-Kotes.)

Only thing worth seeing in Leeds. Even has a longbow demonstration.

Best of all it's free.

Jim

YES I AGREE FLASH, THE ARMOURY WAS IMPRESSIVE. THEY HAD THE CROWN JEWELS ON DISPLAY WHEN I WAS THERE ALSO.

PROBABLY FAKE ONES FOR THE TOURISTS.

THE SUITS OF ARMOUR CAME IN ALL SIZES THERE AND MOST HAD BEEN OWNED BY ROYALTY. THEY ALSO HAD A GOOD DISPLAY OF OLD WEAPONS. EVERYTHING FROM CROSSBOW TO TWO HANDED SWORDS.

THEY MUST HAVE HAD THE RAVENS DOPED UP THE DAY I WAS THERE BECAUSE THEY WERE WALKING AROUND BUT NOT SQUAWKING MUCH. AFTER THE TOWER WE WENT TO PETTICOAT LANES AND SOME DAM GYPSIE GIRL CALLED ME PRETTY BLUE EYES BEFORE SHE STUCK A BIT OF DRIED UP PIECE OF WEED IN MY HAND.

I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE PAPERS, FLASH.

 

Well well well Pretty Blue Eyes."AND SOME DAM GYPSIE GIRL CALLED ME PRETTY BLUE EYES "........

You use PBA as a callsign, shall we change it to PBE?

 

#Yes, if you'd left the Tower southbound to Tower Bridge, and then just before the Bridge turned East (left) you'd have found yourself in The Highway, which was the old Ratcliffe Highway.

 

This was the most criminal area in Europe, and in Dickens's times you'd have seen warehouses lining the south side of there road, and behind there a forest of masts which were the old Blackwall frigates (merchant ships actually) moored against wooden jetties, unloading 24 hours a day. 

 

Later, they built embankments which narrowed the Thames, to help speed up the flow so sewage went out to the estuary, and the South and West India docks and St Katherine's Docks were built., so the riverside wharfage ended. I shipped out from West India docks in 1966-7 in my merchant navy days.

 

 The skyline was solid cranes, and traffic on The Highway moved at walking pace with the dockers' handcarts. By 1975 it'd all closed, and by 1982 they were building Yuppy flats.

 

Your Petticoat lane would be and still is about 1 mile NE. Asian, mainly, now.

Ref # 30, that story is definately a tale for the tourists. The truth was gruesome enough, no need to embellish it like that.

HAY MARK, IF IT BRINGS THE TOURISTS IN, WHAT THE HECK.

I LIKE SUNDAY'S AND THE BEEFEATERS STORY BETTER.

GIVES YOU A BETTER FELL FOR TRUE HISTORY.

Ref # 31, Sir Walter Raleigh wasn't buried with his head, his widow went a little crazy after his death and carried it around with her in a bag until she died many years later. It was probably buried with her.

The renovations of the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula began in 1871 when a site was being sought for the grave of the recently deceased Constable of the Tower, but there was no space available. When they dug down they found loose bones and some still in coffins. A few were identified and reburied, but most remain anonymous. The chapel was the burial place not only of victims of execution but anyone of importance who died in the Tower, hence the large number of burials in such a small chapel.

 

I ALWAYS ENJOYED MY TRIPS TO ENGLAND FLASH. WHAT I LIKED ABOUT BRIGHTON WAS THAT A LOT OF BUS DAY TRIPS COULD BE HAD AT THE SEA FRONT THERE. LEWIS, ARUNDEL CASTLE ETC.

 

Further to # 38. I've just looked a few details about Sir Walter Raleigh and he wasn't buried in the Tower at all, but in St Margaret's Church near Westminster Abbey. His widow kept his head, either in a cabinet or in a bag for 29 years until she died, when it was buried in his son's grave alongside his own.