King’s Lynn – The Exorcist’s House

Whilst having a little look around the churchyard of the Chapel of St. Nicholas (which is frankly nearer to the size of a Cathedral than the usual chapel you might expect) I noticed this quaint little building. It’s evidently charming, although I’d never dare live in it given how close it is to the graves. And, also its name, it’s the Exorcist’s House.

The house, also more delicately known as 8 Chapel Lane, was built in 1635 and other than the twentieth-century door, isn’t much changed. So, why the Exorcist’s House name? No-one is quite sure, but an exorcist used to have a more prosaic meaning to it than the modern horror linked word. It was simply a church official who would try to cast out a demon, which is not an unusual Christian theological tradition. It’s likely that the name is from a property that is older than the current one, so it probably relates to a different structure and the moniker just carried over.

One former owner noted in the book Ghost and Legends that “the house is haunted, but not very enthusiastically” which sounds a nuisance, an uninspired ghost lumbering about the property.

The house was placed on the market recently for £215,000, not a bad price for those who like their history. And ghosts.