The Manor of Breamore has a very ancient history.

Breamore Priory, the foundations of which are in the field known as Priory Mead, was one of the earliest Augustinian foundations.

Two of the stone coffins of the monks are in Breamore Churchyard, and one, which was found in Breamore Wood, is in the garden of Breamore House.

The Manor of Breamore was settled by Henry VIII on Queen Katherine Parr, and after her death was sold by her second husband, Lord Seymour.

Breamore House was built in 1583 by Mr and Mrs Dodington.

Mrs Dodington was sister to Sir Francis Walsingham.

Mr Dodington became involved in some financial difficulties, and was summoned to account for his misdeeds before the Star Chamber.

The night before his appearance there, he threw himself down from the tower of St Sepulchre’s Church in London.

His son, Sir William Dodington, had seven sons and one daughter.

Henry Dodington, the seventh son, murdered his mother in the passage outside the dining room door at Breamore House late one night when she refused to give him any money.

He was hanged, possibly at Gallows Hill on the downs above Breamore, in 1630.

The direct line ended with Anne Dodington and although her marriage to the Earl of Warwick took her away from the area, one Dodington remains in situ.

The portrait of Christian Dodington, wife of the first William, hangs in the Great Hall, not to be moved on pain of death.

Legend has it that she must remain at Breamore House - the sole condition of sale when the Hulse family took up the property - and few have tempted fate.

l Frogg and Ruby Moody will be relating strange tales for Halloween upstairs at the Ox Row on Sunday, October 29 (7.30pm) and entry is free.