Kavisht
- Mar 9, 2020
- 5 min read

Hastings House: Not One But Spirits of Three Ghosts Roam Here at Night. India's Most Haunted Place!

The cold, shivering wind blows over the bamboo thickets. The tamarind groves start to whisper and talk among themselves in the dark night while a herd of villagers were found sitting around a dying fire.

Suddenly, something barely started to glisten in the gloom outside the comforting circle of light, creating an eerie in the surrounding area. Bengal, India is rich with ghosts lurking behind every rural grove and thickets and everywhere where a person would like to look for them. But, perhaps the best-documented ones are the city ghosts, a series of spectres into lurking in their frocks, coats and crinolines in the lost nooks and corners of the British Raj.

History:

Built-in the late 1700s, The Hastings House is located on the 20B Judges Court Road, Kolkata, India. It was built for serving as the residence of Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India. Presently, the house serves as a college campus for women. Although Hastings had long gone, many people reported seeing his ghost revisiting the heritage building.

In the mid-1930s, George Williams who was a race maniac used to stay in Hastings House. He had five horses in total which were more beloved to him than his own family. Among the five horses, Pride was one of them.

Pride was a pure pearly white horse. He was considered as one of the best and also profitable horses at that time. It bought lots of money and fame to Williams.

As time went by, Pride became old and due to which he no longer won races compared to the younger horses. once again Pride lost another race at some Saturday's race. The same night Pride was shot and killed, but that's not strange as at those time people used to kill horses which were no longer profitable. But several years after that Saturday, a pearl white horse is still racing on the course every Saturday.

Ghost stories of Hasting House:

According to the locals living around the house, Hastings house is considered horrible due to many other incidents. Many people have seen a shadowy horse-drawn coach enter the premises of the house. Apart from this, it is said that during every new year's eve the former Governor-General Warren Hastings comes back to his house.

We have heard many stories where haunted places are mainly connected with memories of sorrow, pain, or grief due to which the spirit is not able to leave that place until there sorrow or pain is no longer there.

It is said that for the fulfilment of this desires the spirit performs that action again and again till the fulfil the desire they had while they were alive. Hastings House is also connected to such a story.

Warren Hastings was impeached in 1887 for crime and corruption and took him approximately seven years to prove himself innocent. But he was defamed. It is said that Warren Hastings has proof against the crime on him hidden somewhere in the Hastings House.

Maybe to this day, the spirit returns to the house to bathed the documents to prove his innocence and is always hurried.

While sitting back from the Judges Road in Alipore, Kolkata is the Women’s College of Kolkata University. This frantic heritage which is more than 230 years old building has many odd stories. People have seen many spectres, ghosts and spirits both inside as well as on the grounds, however, the phantom carriage is the most famous amongst all.

During the dead night, people occasionally hear the sounds of horses coming and going up the driveway leading to the college. The sight that is seen afterwards is enough to baffle and frighten the observer. An outline of 1700s era styles carriage is seen to be pulled by four horses, which stops or suddenly disappears.

Also Read: Dumas Beach: Haunted Beach, If You Dare To Spend The Night, Then You Will Never Come Back Home!

Haunted Experiences of Locals:

People who lived in the past and have seen the carriage describes the next experiences. They narrate to have heard quick footsteps into the entrance hall, which then disappear up the steps.

Suddenly they saw an image of a man moving quickly from one room to the next in order to find something. Although the scenario is a little unusual and curious for a college, but not quite while looking deep into the past of the building.

It is said that one evening in 1884 when Paul Bird was riding his horse he felt something was going to collide with something and to avoid the collision he checked his horse and bent ahead. He saw in reflection in one of the lamps, a panel of carriage running in the direction of the

Hastings House not away from it but towards it. After that, the coach turned left and entered and went under the portico. He thought that someone was enduring his house and went to check under the portico but found nothing.

There was horse or carriage anywhere in the portico, which was weird because he was sure that he saw someone enter the portico. He left the portico and went home thinking about it. What astonished him even further was when his wife asked him about the coach and where it went. According to her, she was watching from the window of the house.

There gave a written statement of what they saw. Mrs Bird also added what she saw from a different angle. She said she saw a buggy right in front of her husband's horse and she added that the sound she got was only of her husband's horse and not the buggy.

There are more witnesses to the paranormal activities in the house. Former Reserve Band India's Governor Sir Taylor is one of them. He stayed in the Hastings House for a really long time and the ghostly presence seems to have disturbed him and his family many times.

In 1947, Lady Taylor gave an interview to 'Life' magazine and said that she had experienced many eerie things in the Hastings House and saw a ghostly figure in the house. Apart from this, she was also able to hear hyena-like laughter in the house.

The scariest experience for her was when they returned from a vacation in the UK. It was the midnight of the Boxing day and her two and a half-year-old son started crying from the bedroom. She rushed to the bedroom to calm her baby down. When she reached her son, he started asking her to ask the man to leave the room.

She thought maybe the boy was still half asleep and talking nonsense and tried to calm him but the boy started crying louder and louder. She asked him in a calming voice what was wrong. And what the boy answered both shocked and scared her.

He said that the man is standing in front of the wardrobe wearing a red and black soldier like clothing with a tailcoat and he asked her to tell the man to leave the room. The boy described none other than Warren Hastings himself.

Another haunted story is of a boy waiting there year after year to play football. It is said that the young boy died from hitting of football on the chest. Due to all these reasons, people are not willing to go to the Hastings House in the evening.

Conclusion:

The ghost of a prize-winning racehorse, the spirit of a lonely boy, and the phantom of a horse-driven carriage guarded by spectral soldiers have honoured the Hastings House as one of the most haunted places in India.

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