Bolling Hall is already one of Bradford’s spookiest venues – recognised as the city’s most haunted building – but around Halloween it gets even scarier.

The annual Dark Gatherings: Hauntings In The Hall night attracted hundreds of visitors of all ages on Halloween night last week, and the ghostly fun continues this weekend.

One of Bradford’s oldest buildings, dating back more than 500 years, the hall re-opened its doors earlier this year after a major revamp.

With walls repainted, electrics replaced, antiques restored and the grounds improved, the hall was returned to its historic splendour and is once again one of the city’s most important visitor attractions.

Already filled with atmospheric furniture – including the death mask of Oliver Cromwell – at Halloween, the hall is further decked out in skulls, crystal balls and cobwebs to create an even creepier feel.

Bolling Hall is the setting for one of Bradford’s most famous ghost stories. During the Civil War an apparition of a woman is alleged to have appeared before the Royalist commander, the Earl of Newcastle, who was staying there before a siege of the city. She told him to ‘pity poor Bradford’ and spare the lives of its inhabitants.

On Halloween night, the museum’s staff took this ghoulish story and cranked it up to 11, with barely a room in the building free from some kind of haunting.

The hall opened its doors for groups every hour between 6 and 10pm, and I attended the 8pm session. Along with dozens of other people, ranging from groups of teenagers and young families to history buffs looking to see the hall in a new light, I was happy when the doors opened as the night had turned into the classic Halloween night – cold, dark and rainy.

But the hall was not the sanctuary the wet Halloween revellers may have hoped, and almost as soon as entering you could hear screams from the bowels of the hall.

Each room had been elaborately decorated, making some almost unrecognisable from when the museum opens in the daytime.

The dimly-lit corridors meant there were plenty of shadows for some of the house’s long dead former residents to hide. While waiting for people to leave the first room, I heard screams, followed by a stream of young teenagers running out.

On entering, it was hard to see why they were so scared, but after a ghostly figure jumped out from behind the door, I could understand their terror. After asking me to sign away my soul with a quill pen, we headed to the next room, with the ringing of screams echoing through the hall as we moved room to room.

On the way, we encountered spectral servants, cadaverous cooks and terrifying undead brides, each one seemingly appearing out of the shadows and disappearing almost as soon as they appeared, leaving quivering visitors in their wake.

One bedroom was lit only by the light from the outside corridor. By the time your eyes had adjusted to the light a pale faced woman in a black mourning dress leapt at you, eyes glowing, and asking what we wanted. Despite the large crowds attending, there were very few people who went in that room.

Another bedroom, the one containing the death mask of Oliver Cromwell, also contained a nasty surprise that left me looking a bit more cowardly than I would have liked in a public place. When a death mask isn’t the most creepy thing in a room, you know the organisers are doing things right.

After all these scares it was no comfort to see a sign outside one of the final rooms on the tour – ghost room. A quick look into the room didn’t appear to reveal anything too scary, but that was before a woman in white came scurrying across the floor.

The trip round the hall was the perfect way to spend Halloween night, and with free entry there were plenty of families relieved to have had a cheap way to entertain the family.

As well as being home to some of Bradford’s most important families – the Bollings and the Tempests – the building’s use as a museum also has an impressive history. It has been run as a museum since 1915, and celebrates its 100th year in 2015. A library was added earlier this year.

Even when Halloween is over, there are regular ghost tours at the hall, much less frantic and more historically accurate, and overnight ghost hunting events.

Some people would undoubtedly question one of Bradford’s most important Grade I-listed buildings being turned into a theme park-like spookhouse, but I thought it was a great way to get a whole different crowd of people interested in the hall.

The hundreds of children who passed through its historic doors may have never considered visiting the hall, or really care about its rich past. But now they will never forget the night they had the life scared out of them by the woman in white.

FACTFILE:

  • Bolling Hall, is on Bolling Hall Road, East Bowling, is open from Wednesday to Friday from 11am to 4pm, on Saturdays from 10am to 5pm and noon to 5pm on Sundays.
     
  • For more information on future events, ring (01274) 431814 or 431826.