Ghost of Lady Georgiana is playing on.
There’s something baffling about the after-dinner piano music rendered by Lady Georgiana Codrington at stately Dodington House, near Bristol. For Lady Georgiana, gifted pianist though she was, died in 1881. I am told her ghost often leaves her dusty coffin deep in the vaults beneath the family’s late 18th-century ancestral home, to give a recital on the grand piano in the elegant drawing room. Major Simon Codrington, Lady Georgiana’s great grandson, says he has heard lyrical notes drifting from the room. “When I went in there was no one there. Another time my wife Pamela and I heard music and thought there was a function on. It was Lady Georgiana.”
The phantom playing, sometimes Chopin-style, began two years ago when the family vault in adjoining St. Mary’s Church was disturbed because of rising damp.
The playing has also been confirmed by 80 unsusceptible members of the International Police Federation who dined at the house. After their meal, candles flickered, and the ghost of Lady Georgiana put in a bit more practice.
Western Daily Press, 7th February 1976.
Medium to stalk stately home’s ghost.
By Tony Huckle.
The ghostly goings on at Sir Simon Codrington’s Dodington House, are to be exorcised by Bath carpark attendant Philip Steff. Mr Staff [sic], president of Bath Psychic Club said last night he would go into a trance, to make contact with a mysterious spirit who has been upsetting the staff. Apparently things have been going bump in the night, including cash registers ringing, doors opening and closing, taps turning on, and lights flashing.
None of the Codringtons have seen the poltergeist, but one member of the staff was so frightened she left. Mr Steff, aged 46, said: “When I went to Dodington I could sense a presence of someone with a mental condition”. He said he would hold a seance with two other mediums “to allow the person to communicate and let us know what is wrong.”
Dodington House manager, Derek Boddy, said last night: “A lot of staff have described weird happenings. I am strictly a non-believer, but it is difficult to understand. Sir Simon has never seen the poltergeist – but he says weirder things have happened in the past.” He believes the poltergeist could be connected with the infamous Lady Georgiana, a Codrington ancester, supposed to haunt the house.
Western Daily Press, 8th July 1980.