Most Haunted Location - The Edward Jenner Museum

History of the Chantry

The Chantry in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, is the house that Edward Jenner owned from 1785 until his death in 1823, was sold by his descendants in 1876. In 1885 it was sold again, to the Church of England. It then became the vicarage for Berkeley, to replace the old vicarage where Edward Jenner had been born in 1749. When the Diocese of Gloucester decided to sell The Chantry in the early 1980s it was realised that it would be the ideal home for a museum to honour Jenner.

An appeal was launched to raise the money necessary for its purchase. The encouragement and support of the British Society for Immunology and the World Health Organisation played a significant role in obtaining donations from companies in the pharmaceutical and other branches of industry. Success came largely because of a substantial donation from Mr Ryoichi Sasakawa of Japan.

Ghosts In The Attic

After a BBC photographer, Chris Sandys captured what appeared to be a ghost on film in The Chantry’s attic (see picture right, in the doorway), the picture quickly achieved worldwide coverage within a few hours of publication, eventually being discussed on TV shows as far apart as America and to Australia generating hundreds of blog entries, Tweets and discussions on the internet!

The Chantry, will be featured in the new series of Most Haunted: although broadcast dates are yet to be finalised it will probably be early in the new year of 2010. Staff at the museum do not yet know the results of the investigation and are as eager as anyone to find out if the paranormal investigators headed by Yvette Fielding found any spooky activity during their nocturnal visit!

There have been several spectral goings on over the 300 year history of the building, with figures seen (one possibly Edward Jenner himself heading into his study), footsteps on the stairs an even the spirit of a dog has been heard running up the stairs, it's claws clattering on the wood - the only thing is that the stairs are all carpeted.....

Outside there is a Civil War battlefield in the garden and the graves of Anglo Saxon nuns too. Plenty of possibilities for restless souls.

But the Attics retain an air of separation and mystery. Currently showing the "Ghosts in the Attic: from smallpox to MMR" exhibition (ironically not supposd to have anything to do with ghosts!) the rooms hark back to a past age when the terror of smallpox stalked the land. Perhaps the exhibition itself triggered the ghost in the picture. Why not visit and make up your own mind?

Back to location list