York Dungeon welcomes The Grey Lady show for Halloween

The Grey Lady is the latest part of The York Dungeon’s tour of scares, frights and bursts of sensory deprivation running at the Clifford Street site.

The Press went along to a preview night to be immersed in the portrayal of paranormal events in the city spanning 1,000 years.

As a first-timer to The York Dungeon I was summoned, blissfully unaware of what to expect and surprised how each of the senses could be shocked by the over-the-top cast of characters and dynamics occupying some of York’s historic and hemmed-in rooms.

A last moment of orientation before winding our way through various streets, corners, gates and rooms littered with York's strange and mysterious past (Image: Kevin Glenton)

The Grey Lady comes towards the climactic end of the tour and comes after a mind-blowing display of witchcraft based on the story of Isabella Billington, hanged in the city in 1649.

Like most of the sections you move through dark corridors, without an overall awareness of where you are, in a building where light is at a premium.

To hear the story of The Grey Lady, we twist and turn through imagined snickelways to enter the Theatre Royal, built on the medieval site of The Old Hospital of St Leonard.

The real medieval site for the infirm had strong bonds with the church and did not treat physical illness until the sick confessed all of their sins and had their soul cleansed.

We hear of the opening night of York Theatre Royal (Image: The York Dungeon)

Taking a seat in the stalls we are at first regaled with the tale of how a nun’s forbidden love led to years of windowless imprisonment and a tortured soul which inhabits the theatre’s walls.

Our guide and cast get up close and personal to bring the history of her torment to life.

The performances are all-theatre and were delivered flawlessly, along with the frights which are packed into the show.

Hazel Allsopp, manager for Visit York, who supports York’s tourism business, said: “With over 2,000 years of history, spanning Romans, Vikings, medieval mayhem and Victorian phantasmagoria, it is little wonder that the darker stories of the city’s history – often glossed over in the historical text books – are so fascinating to visitors.

“In the city centre alone, paranormal experts reckon there have been over 500 individual ghosts or unearthly manifestations – a nexus of supernatural activity.”

The Grey Lady is a limited-time show within York Dungeon and runs from October 7 until November 5 at York Dungeon on Clifford Street in York.