The Cathedral . . one of the most haunted places in Peterborough? 

The Cathedral as it stands today was  rebuilt as the Abbey  between 1118 and  1150 as  the original building was destroyed in the great fire of Peterborough in 1116. There has been an Abbey on the site since 655 A.D.  originally built by Peada the anglo-saxon prince who briefly became king of Mercia.  There were five abbeys (monastries) in our region, the others being at Ely, Ramsey, Crowland and Thorney  but it was the Abbey of St. Peter that was to form the name of the City.
The abbey was attacked in 1381 and then again during the war of the Roses in 1461 and so it had seen its fair share of  turbulent times even before Henry VIII dissolved the monastry  in 1538. In 1541 it became the Cathedral of St. Peter for the Diocese of Peterborough.
    It is no wonder then that many ghostly tales are associated with this building and it's surrounds.
Many famous fateful people have passed by, including Charles 1st who was held overnight in the safe rooms above the archway on his way being taken to London, and another Charles - Charles Dickens delivered one of his early public readings from within it's walls.  Add to all this that two Queens have also been buried there, Katherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scotts, not to mention it once being the home of the treasured relics of St. Oswald and Thomas O'Beckett, then you might begin to see why  the cathedral is at the centre of so many tales of hauntings from the past.

More Monks . .
. . Yes, there are plenty.
Two monks have been seen walking through the gateway on the west front that leads to the cemetery - still called 'monk's cemetery'. Another has been seen on the east side.
An inquisitive monk has been encountered in some of the outer buildings in fairly recent times. When the Tourist information offices were situated  under the west range of buildings that you come to through  the main gateway. Office workers and maintenace staff have seen and experienced some strange  encounters with a dark robed figure - often found looking or appearing to  be 'fiddling' One such account recalls the figure seeming to show an interest in the office photocopier . . could this be the original 'meddling monk'!

There are many documented ghostly accounts  from the  cathedral.
If the museum is the most haunted building the cathedral and its surrounding precincts, cloisters and gardens are surely the most spiritually affected area of the city.  

The Man who hadn't finished work 
Some do say that occasionally very late of an evening  when passing through the precincts one might see a light -  a candlelight glowing in a window that is no longer! 
In one of the slit window panels above the left arch so legend has it a chap in his later years was working away at the stonework midway through the twelfth century. He had worked on the building most of his life and was keen to see it finished in his remaining years as it was nearing completion. He would often stay very late into the night to work by candlelight. Unfortunately, he was never to see that day as a fateful accident occured and he fell to his death.  His candle apparently blew out at the critical moment as he tried to leave his precarious post and he lost his footing.  The light that is seen is said to be from his candle replaying perhaps those final anxious moments as he tried so desperately to finish his work.

The Death of a Young Monk?
It seems that many of the stories from in and around the building follow a typical pattern of replaying events. There is a classic tale of a ghost seen inside the Cathedral that appears seeming to break into a  run from the  entrance up the aisle towards the nave area. He always seems desperate if not terrified and appears to be looking back over his shoulder until he suddenly disappears. Like a lot of ghostly tales observers have said that his legs seem also to have disappeared into the floor . . ever wondered why?
Well, the Cathedral like many buildings has been built on top of something that was already there before. Foundations would have been dug around a base or floor that probably remained. Combined this with the general theory that as time passes the ground level constantly rises, then it's no great surprise that new floors are much higher than old ones! When we see an apparition in an apparent moment of their time we are seeing them moving over the land as it was then . . in this case  probably at least 600 years ago.  The same might apply when a ghost walks through a wall that may not have been there in their past.
In the case of our unfortunate monk, the abbey was raided on  more than one occasion and monks were slaughtered - probably this is the moment we are spared from seeing as he simply disappears!

The Girl at the window
One of the saddest and most  startling stories is that of the little girl that appears in the first floor window of  one of the houses in the west range of the minster precincts.
She appears sitting in the window above the left hand front door and has been seen by many people over the years. One former gardener claims to have seen her several times. Always seen from outside she has never been seen by any of the residents of the property at any time. Nobody knows who this girl with dark hair in Victorian dress is, but one recent piece of research has suggested that a man may have committed murder there in the 1860's!

Other Spiritual occurences relating to the Cathedral include . .
 . . A phantom choir, heard by a few people over the years, one such case in the late 1950's had the recipient believing that ancient monks must be there with him . . only to find there was no one.
Oxney Grange was a sort of 'Training camp' set up for young monks from around the time of the fourteenth century. Some were sent there to work as pennance or sent as punishment. There are several accounts of things going awry,- deaths, and even murder!  A pale lady, ghosts of young monks and even a headless coachman have all been seen it is claimed.

Find out all about Peterborugh's history  Here