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Button House

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Button House Hotel (formerly Button House, Bone House and Higham House) is the mansion that Alison and Mike inherit from Alison's "great-step-aunt" Heather Button.[2] It is haunted by various ghosts which have died in the house or its grounds over the centuries.

History[]

Before the house was built, the grounds had originally belonged to a tribe during the Stone age. In 10,000 BC Robin went hunting with some friends where they would get attacked by a bear. Robin hid in a tree but when he got down, he got struck by lightning. Then a new tribe arrived but the tribe died. Then there was an early farmer that chopped down a tree and made a field. They also had a pig. But the crop failed, the pig died, and the man died. Then some more farmers arrived and made it bigger. They made early farming equipment. In 43-410 AD the Roman conquest invaded the farm and took it. After a while the Romans left. In 800-1066 during The Norman Conquest, Vikings took the land.[3] Then there was a village during the Middle Ages. The village was a small community. One of the villagers, Mick, was well known in the community and also went traveling. He claimed to have met the King in London and had several items that were rare at the time when he returned to the village, including salt and pelts. Unfortunately, the salt and pelts were infected with plague. Though Mick eventually realized the salt and pelts were infected when it made him sneeze blood, he had already shared the salt with his friends and didn't tell them. His friends developed the plague, which passed around the whole village. Everyone in the village died of the plague, with their bodies being tossed in a plague pit and the villagers becoming the plague ghosts that currently reside in the Mansion.

In 1455-1487 a battle for the War of the Roses was fought on the land.[4] In 1501 the house was built by Sir Alexander Bone (presumably Humphrey's grandfather). It was originally called Bone Hall, as it was owned by the Bone family. It had 24 rooms and sat on 400 acres. In 1518 the house was burnt down after a disagreement with tenant farmers. In 1521 the house was rebuilt to a larger size and to the original design (with additional funding from the estate's tenant farmers).[5] After some time, the mansion was abandoned until 1545 when Humphrey's father gifted the house to him and Sophie after they got married. When Humphrey was 16 in 1547 he met Henry VIII, who dined with him and his family. In 1575 Humphrey's wife, Sophie Bone, held meetings with assassins, discussing a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. However, the plot was uncovered, and the assassins were killed by guards of Elizabeth. Humphrey allowed Sophie to escape, and he hid from the guards. However, he was beheaded by two swords above the chimney that fell on him. One of the guards claimed he executed Humphrey. It can be presumed that Sophie was either executed by Elizabeth I, or she ran off towards France. We know that Humphrey and Sophie had at least one child as the house was still called Bone Hall during the time Mary was alive.[6] In the mid 16th century, a brick facade was added to the house. In 1584 an estate sale was held at the house where the swords that killed Humphrey was sold and would later be held on auction at Sotheby's on September 20, 1972.[7]

During the 1600s, Mary appears to have been a servant at Button House. Mary was accused of witchcraft by two men in her village and burned at the stake in 1612. In 1642-1651 a battle for the English Civil War was fought on the land. In 1665 the plague spread to the house.[8]

Around 50 years later (assuming Mary can count), the house seems to have been owned by Puritans, including Annie and her husband. Annie died in 1711, either choking on a piece of bread or of an allergic reaction.

During the 1700s, the house belonged to Kitty and Eleanor’s family. At this point the house was known as Higham House. In 1780 Kitty would be a bitten by a spider and would die later on.

During the 1820s Higham House was owned by Lord Higham. Thomas would get shot in a duel in 1824. Lord Higham's daughter, Isabelle Higham would go on to marry Francis Button. Their son would come to live at the house, as would his grandson George Button along with his wife, Lady Stephanie Button. George was a closeted homosexual, having a threesome affair with the Grounds man and Butler. Fanny caught them, and George subsequently murdered her by pushing her out of their bedroom window in 1912.

In 1920 Heather Button would be born. The house was evidently commandeered for use by the army during the Second World War and given that the Captain's medals imply he survived the war, only to die at Button House later of a heart attack in uniform in 1945. After the war ended the house was decommissioned when Heather was 25. In 1968 when Heather was 48 the house briefly became an artists' retreat home to "The Button Collective" of "right-leaning free-thinkers". Their work included a semi-naked bed-in to promote tax relief for small-to-medium-sized corporate entities.[9] Its grounds were sometimes used by adventure scouts in the 1980s where Pat would die after getting shot in the neck with an arrow in 1984. In 1987 the Great Storm of 1987 would hit the house. Causing the tree that Pat hit when he died to fall over and Kitty's bedroom roof being torn off.[10]Julian used the house for a secret tryst in the early 1990s; he was apparently a regular visitor as he got to know Barclay Beg-Chetwynde who lives nearby, and Heather Button who was in residence of the house at that time.[11] Julian would die of a heart attack in the house in 1993.

Eventually, having come into the possession of Alison and Mike Cooper when Heather passed away in 2019 at the age of 99, the couple failed to restore the house to its former glory and, with the permission of the Ghosts living within, they sold the house to a hotel company, who transformed it into the Button House Hotel. Alison and Mike returned at least once a year so that Alison could reunite with the ghosts.

House[]

The property was in disrepair from neglect over the years in various places around the mansion. The basement houses the hot water heater which gets repaired.

Property[]

There is a lake mentioned in the episode Who Do You Think You Are?.

Inhabitants[]

Livings[]

Ghosts[]

Staff[]

  • Groundsman and Butler whom George Button had an affair with

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. ↑ The Grey Lady
  2. ↑ "Step-great-aunt" is the phrase Alison uses to make sense of her relationship to Heather Button, though it's actually a more distant relationship which her solicitor says "there isn't really a term for" (Who Do You Think You Are?), though later episodes do state that Alison is biologically related to the Buttons.
  3. ↑ Page 118-119 of Button House Archives.
  4. ↑ Page 119 of Button House Archives.
  5. ↑ Page 43 of Button House Archives.
  6. ↑ Page 82-83 of Button House Archives.
  7. ↑ Page 190-191 of Button House Archives.
  8. ↑ Page 118-119 of Button House Archives.
  9. ↑ Page 45 of Button House Archives.
  10. ↑ Page 185 of Button House Archive.
  11. ↑ A Lot to Take In
  12. ↑ Mentioned by Robin (Gone Gone)
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