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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Sam Truelove

The Queen 'held religious service at Sandringham after staff complained it was haunted'

The Queen once held a religious service at Sandringham after servants said it was haunted, a royal biographer's diary has claimed.

Kenneth Rose claims a "little service" was held in one of the downstairs bedrooms at the 18th Century mansion.

The room - where The Queen's dad George VI lived during the months before his death - was said to be so haunted staff didn't want to work in it.

The service in 2000 was held by a local parson and attended by the Queen, the Queen Mother and the Queen Mother’s lady-in-waiting Prue Penn.

"Some of the servants had complained that the room was haunted and did not want to work in it," wrote Kenneth in his diary, which has been printed in the Daily Mail .

(De Keerle/Getty Images)

"The parson walked from room to room and did indeed feel some sort of restlessness in one of them."

Kenneth claims the revelation was made to him on January 2, 2001, although the service took place in summer 2000.

"The congregation of three took Holy Communion and special prayers were said, I think for the repose of the King’s soul in the room in which he died," wrote Kenneth.

"The parson said that the oppressive or disturbing atmosphere may have been because of Princess Diana: he had known such things before when someone died a violent death."

Sandringham, which has more than 270 rooms, is where the Royal Family spend Christmas, with The Queen having spent every Christmas at the Norfolk mansion since her father's death in 1952.

The Queen and Prince Philip in Sandringham in 2017 (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)

It's not the first time it has been reported Sandringham is haunted.

In 2011, a courtier said: “Everyone believes there are ghosts because so many have ­experienced them, ­including Prince Charles. There are old parts of the house where nobody wants to go or be alone."

Apparently, in the mid-1980s, Prince Charles was looking for some old prints with his valet Ken Stronach when they both suddenly felt very cold. They were convinced someone was ­behind them... but no one was there.

Our shadowy source said: “After crying, ‘Oh heck!’, the Prince grabbed the first print and got out as quickly as he could. He was ­petrified.

“There have been lots of incidents in the library. There is an old clock in there and the hands move by ­themselves.

"There is a ­smaller part of the library where a servant once had a kip, only to be woken by books flying from the shelves.

In 1996, footman Shaun Croasdale fled the cellar screaming after believing he saw the ghost of the Queen’s ­favourite ­servant, Tony Jarred, who had died a year ­earlier.

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