December 2009 Archives

An interesting and eerie place I've had the pleasure to visit is White Ladies Priory in the Shropshire countryside. This is a set of ruins of a medieval convent that dates from the twelfth century, although there is evidence to suggest that this was a religious place long before the Norman invasion of 1066.

I've always thought that the name White Ladies has a suitably ghostly feel. However, the most likely explanation for the name is quite simple. The nuns who lived here were well known for their white robes. They probably couldn't afford or didn't think it necessary to dye their habits black as in most other convents.

There is another couple of explanations for the name "White Ladies" which are much more interesting.