Ghost Maid of Ascot House: Toowoomba: QLD

[KANACKI]

Greetings once again. Many thanks to Headless of reminding me of this following story.So grab you favorite brew and let the journey begin around the campfire of lost ghost stories.Today's yarn is from Toowoomba in  which there is a story of a Ghostly Maid Servant haunting Ascot House.

In the following pictures below is of the house to today and it unique folly. For those guests who cannot see ant pictures? I suggest you sign up to this wonderful forum to get a unique insight into haunted locations in Australia. You will be surprised how many locations have stories of supernatural about them perhaps even a place near you?

Ascot House is a heritage-listed villa at 15 Newmarket Street, Newtown, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1870s to 1890s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

Ascot House, a single-storey timber residence with an attached two-storeyed timber extension, referred to as a folly, has been called the largest and most extensive of the grand Toowoomba residences. While the exact construction date is unknown, Ascot was possibly built in the 1870s as a private residence for Frederick Hurrell Holberton, a Toowoomba storekeeper and later Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. The architect of Ascot house remains unknown.

When built, the house stood on about 32 acres (13 ha) of land near the Toowoomba racecourse. The grounds of Ascot contained a glasshouse, stables, croquet greens, tennis courts and extensive gardens, which included trees and shrubs bought from overseas.

To be continued.....


Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Holberton sold the property to William Beit Jnr in 1894. William Beit Snr died suddenly in July 1872 before the birth of his son. The Register of the Queensland Parliament, 1860-1927 states that Francis Gregory, the owner of Harlaxton House, resigned as Mining Commissioner for Stanthorpe in November 1872 to take over the administration of the estate of his late friend William Beit, and the family moved to Westbrook. Gregory appears in the Post Office Directories as Station Manager, Westbrook, Toowoomba by 1874. By 1876, however, he is not listed as such. The Toowoomba Chronicle, on 30 November 1875, reported a court case between Sarah Beit, as plaintiff and a number of defendants including, Henry Beit (William Beit's brother) and Francis Thomas Gregory (as Trustees) as the defendants.

It is thought that William Beit named the house Ascot, reputedly because of his interest in horse racing. In the 1890s, Beit added a two-storeyed extension with a large billiard room, designed by Harry Marks to the original U-shaped house. The extension was a very elaborate design, suggestive of the superstructure of a ship, and was known as Beit's Folly. Beit was reputed to have had a distinctly artistic temperament which was reflected in the buildings he owned. The folly has become the distinctive architectural characteristic associated with Ascot House.

To be continued......

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Ownership passed to Frederick Ernest Bennett, a local Land, Estate, Stock and Station Agent, who bought it as a wedding gift in 1915 for his second wife Nancie Isabel Christoe Horwood. It remained a family residence for the Bennett family until it was requisitioned to station American troops during the Second World War.

The property was subsequently used for flats and has been progressively subdivided from the original 32 acres (13 ha) and it now stands on just over 2 acres (0.81 ha) of land. The house also suffered from the effects of vandalism during the 1970s. The current owner purchased Ascot House in 1984. Following extensive renovations, the two-storeyed extension of Ascot House, Beits' Folly, was opened as a tea room and house museum in 1994.

Stories over the years persisted that Ascot house was haunted by a ghostly maid?

To be continued......


Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Ascot House is one of the more chilling haunted houses in Toowoomba.

It’s another heritage building that was built in the 1870s for Frederick Hurrell Holberton, who was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council.

The mansion was bought in 1984 by renovator Lois Jackman and not long after moving in, Ms Jackman noticed the walls felt like ice and heard bellowing footsteps through the empty home.

She later discovered a ghost name Maggie Hume was still very much alive in the historic building. Maggie was a lonely servant who drank a lethal dose of strychnine, a toxic chemical used as pesticide, in July 1891.

According to John Pinkney’s book Haunted: The Book of Australia’s Ghosts, Maggie had a scandalous secret for the era in which she lived. She was unmarried and pregnant.

The book claims Ms Jackman tired to find the identity of the ghost for 20 years and only learnt the truth in 2004, after trawling through historic documents and police records. Here is picture of Maggie below.

To be continued......


Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Before discovering the truth, Ms Jackman spoke to a neighbour who lived on the street for 70 years. The neighbour used to play with the children of previous Ascot House owners, who told her there was a ghost inside, and they had seen it.

One night Ms Jackman was in her home, and entered a room which needed new wiring and light fittings. A stream of light was peeking into the room from the hallway, allowing Ms Jackman to see what was only in front of her.

“When I was about halfway, I got a shock. Someone dragged their finger across my left shoulder. I swung around to confront whoever it was. No one was there. Immediately I started to rationalise. I was tired. It was nerves. I’d imagined it. Or perhaps I brushed up against a potplant,” she told Pinkney.

To be continued.....

Kanacki

[KANACKI]

“But there were no plants in that room. My desperate attempts at denial didn’t work. I had to admit to myself that something — a finger — had definitely touched me.”

Years after Ms Jackman began to trawl through newspaper clippings to find more out about what happened at Ascot House, she received a call from somebody who heard of her research.That person was related to Maggie, the 23-year-old housemaid for Frederick Holberton. According to Pinkney, Maggie has been spotted in the house for decades.

Here is picture of the alleged ghost of Maggie Hume in the kitchen you can see two women sitting at the table and part image of the lower half of person under the window.

Amazing picture.

To be continued.


Kanacki

[KANACKI]

No sooner had the new owner moved into Ascot House, that she would hear footsteps walking down the hallway at night but seeing no-one. Once, during the early hours of the morning she felt fingertips brush her shoulders. One warm evening, she leaned against a wall where the surface was icy cold. The cold patch lasted for months and defied explanation.

There have been numerous eye-witness accounts, including one man who saw the apparition of a young woman that looked as if her neck was broken. It had been rumoured that a young servant girl had hung herself within the house.

After many years of searching, the owner identified the young woman as Maggie Hume, who had worked at Ascot House as a housemaid under the employ of the original owner, Frederick Holberton. At 23 years of age, she committed suicide, not by hanging, but by taking strychnine. According to the police reports, it was believed she suicided after learning she was pregnant. At the inquest, a couple of male staff members confessed to having ‘connections’ with her. Here is hand written statements about suicide.

As a single woman committing suicide, Maggie was buried in an unmarked grave. Now, a headstone has been placed at the site, giving her the sympathy she never received in life. Perhaps it has put the restless spirit to rest?

To be continued......


Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Here is picture below of Frederick Holberton. Did he have an illicit affair with Maggie Hume the maid?

Frederick Hurrell Holberton (28 October 1821 – 9 September 1907) was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council.Holberton was born in Totnes, Devon, England in 1821 to William Holberton and his wife Elizabeth (née Harris) and was educated in Totnes.

He was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council in July 1885, serving until his death in July 1907.
In 1869, Holberton married Sophie Hope Best and there are no records of them having had children. He died in 1907 and was buried in Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.

Given he was 70 years of age we can most likely rule him out as the father of maggies unborn child? But of jack nights statement that she locked herself in the room and looked in the window as pete tried to open the door of her room.

I have a question How did Jack night know Maggie Humes was dead just by looking through the window?

To be continued.....


Kanacki

[KANACKI]

Here is a picture of Frederick Holberton below for those who cannot see the picture below i suggest signing up to the forum to get a marvelous inside into haunted Australia.

The question remains who was the father of Maggie Hume unborn child. Was it suicide or some thing else?

Perhaps we are dealing with an historical who done it? A reason why her ghost seems so restless.

Hurrell Holberton married Sophia Hope Best and had 1 child. He passed away on 9 SEP 1907 in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.

To be continued......


Kanacki

[KANACKI]

The question remains who was the secret father of Maggie's unborn child?

Kanacki