Wonky house ‘haunted by girl who choked to death after eating her family’

Augustine Steward House was the scene of a horrific event when a young girl was trapped inside it after mistakenly thought to be dead during an outbreak of bubonic plague

A historic alleyway in Norfolk is home to a building that not only looks like it is about to fall down but has a dark past steeped in macabre tales of cannibalism and plague victims.

The Augustine Steward House in Norwich is found down the appropriately named Tombland Alley and was constructed in the early 16th century.

It was initially used as headquarters for the Earl of Warwick’s army in 1549 during a revolt in the Norfolk, the Kett Rebellion.

In the summer of 1578, Queen Elizabeth I visited the merchant Tudor house during a visit to the England’s then second city after London.

The authorities removed the heads and body parts of executed criminals from city walls in a bid to impress her.

However, not long after the monarch’s brief tour in 1579 an outbreak of bubonic plague in Norwich caused mayhem and killed nearly 5,000 people.

The residents of Augustine Steward House were overwhelmed by the deadly disease and the local bailiffs ordered the house to be boarded up temporarily, with the deceased bodies of a family inside, to help stop the plague spread.

This, it turned out, was a big mistake.

Many weeks later the house was opened up to take out the bodies and a scene akin to a horror film, if they had existed back then, was presented to the bailiffs.

Strange bite marks were found on the adult bodies, much bigger than rats’ bites, including chunks of flesh also missing from some of their limbs.

Further investigation found that the young daughter had human remains stuffed inside her mouth and throat.

Clearly, it now seemed to the shocked men, the girl had been alive when she was barricaded inside the house and was forced to resort to cannibalising her own mother and father.

One theory is that she eventually starved to death but that fact that bits of flesh were found in her throat cannot rule out the idea that she choked to a lonely and unfortunate death.

Since then, she has become known as the ‘ Lady in Grey ‘ and is thought to haunt the property as well as the outside alleyway.

While over the centuries the timbre of Augustine Steward House became warped and twisted, giving it a misshapen look and adding to its eerie appearance.

Subsequent residents believe they have felt or even seen her presence, dressed in shabby grey clothing with legs that disappear beneath the knees.

A DJ working at a nearby club on Tombland called Ritzys, which was popular during the 1980s, said he once saw an unkempt woman exit a toilet cubicle who had no feet and was ‘floating’ down the corridor.

In absolute fear, he told the manager what he had witnessed – but he was warned to just keep quiet if he wanted to keep his job as ghosts were bad for business.

Today, the building is home to an escape room where visitors can explore the girl’s tortured final moments and decide for themselves what really happened there.