Button House

### Inhabitants

Lady Stephanie Button and Lord George Button (formerly), Lady Heather Button (formerly), Alison and Mike Cooper (formerly)

### Ghosts

Robin, Mary (formerly), Kitty, Annie (formerly), Thomas Thorne, Lady Fanny Button, The Captain, Pat, Julian, Humphrey, The Plague Ghosts, Jemima, and The Pigeon Ghost

**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. 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 were originally 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 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 out 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.

Sometime before the reign of Henry VIII, the house was built. It was originally called Bone House, as it was owned by the Bone family. When Humphrey was a child, he met Henry VIII, who dined with him and his family. 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 lost the house due to Humphrey being believed to have been the leader of the plot (as Sophie had escaped with Humphrey’s help and everyone assumed he had been the leader). Sophie and Humphrey were probably childless. As such, a new family were given the House.

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.

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

During the 1700s, the house belonged to Kitty and Eleanor’s family.

During the 1820s Button House was known as Higham House and was owned by Lord Higham. 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 Groundsman and Butler. Fanny caught them, and George subsequently murdered her by pushing her out of their bedroom window.

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, in uniform, it follows that the army must have continued to use the house for some time after the war. Its grounds were sometimes used by adventure scouts in the 1980s. Julian Fawcett 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.

Eventually, having come into the possession of Alison and Mike Cooper, 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?.

## Trivia

* The show is filmed at West Horsley Place, Surrey which offers tours.

## 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. ↑ A Lot to Take In