Hi my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad.
Now today's video is about my time at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. It's a request
from some of my subscribers. I worked there for a few years and had a wonderful time
dressed in my red coat uniform as a British soldier from the Battle of Blenheim 1704.
It was great I used to fire my musket, I would tell the stories of
how the British fought the French yeah, that kind of thing, but one day I was just
totally involved in what I was doing and one of the chaps who worked there in the maintenance
crew says "You do know that John Churchill, who was the original Duke of Marlborough he's
actually buried under the Palace". Really? "Yeah" he says "I’ve never been down but I’ve just found
out where the trap door is to go down into the crypt and we can look at his coffin if you like?"
Wow, what an opportunity! I was going to go and pay my respects to one of my heroes, John
Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough. Wow. So off we went one lunch time. I’ve finished for an hour
and uh we found the trapdoor in the carpenters workshop. The carpenters had gone for lunch,
we cleared a bit of dust and debris away, there is the trapdoor. The maintenance man
lifts up this great big trapdoor in the wooden floor and we look down. Now I had a flashlight
from my car, uh I had it for years, never changed the battery, see what's gonna happen?
We go down the steps it's pitch black we close the trapdoor , clunk turn on the light, a pale
yellow light and we're in a brick chamber nothing in there we're looking around there are no coffins
there are no bodies but then we see just at shin level knee level there is the entrance
to a passageway, a little tunnel it's not too big we shine the torch down have a look. Now I put my
musket and me hat in the corner and we have to get down on all fours. What I didn't realize is the
whole place was covered in dust it's a crypt, it's full of dead people. So I’m going to go first,
I’m shuffling in with my torch and halfway through this little tunnel my torch goes out, it's dead.
Oh my torch is gone. He says "Don't worry I’ve got a box of matches" and he slides under me this
box of matches. So I strike one, there's the exit it's not very long it's just a short tunnel so I
get out and stand up and I light another match and out comes the other chap, and then another match,
and I realize I’m in the family tomb and I feel as if I’m intruding. Row upon row
of these coffins I suppose you'd call it but there is the Duke of. Oh another match.
There is the Duke himself. Wow, and I pay homage because he's one of my great English heroes
and all of a sudden there is a mighty aaargh! I burnt my finger on the match. I dropped the
match on the floor and then a hand comes swinging round ice cold and hits me right
in the middle of the face. I scream, the maintenance man screams, we both jump for
the hole. It's pitch black. By the time we get through into the chamber I am covered in dust.
I didn't realize it. I find my hat we can just see a chink of light through the trap door.
I put on my hat and hold on to my musket and as I ascend the steps and open the trap door
the carpenters have returned from their lunch break. All they saw was the entrance
to the tomb open and from out of the ground a red-coated soldier from 1704 suddenly appeared.
So another story from Blenheim Palace uh it was out of my redcoat, no redcoats or
muskets involved. Straightforward they asked could I do something special for Halloween.
Never ask me to do something special for Halloween because uh I will. What I did was I made a coffin
and I put one of my model dead bodies in it with staring eyes and the glass panel where
the head is and a light just here that I could uh switch on by remote. And then dressing myself and
Joshua my son up as Victorian undertakers we carried the coffin around just in the shadows,
just slightly out of view, making people a little bit nervous. What's going on for
Halloween? What is in the coffin? And then we put the coffin on display in a room to the side
and hid behind the door. Oh yeah I put a notice on the door 'private do not enter'.
We didn't have to wait long before a group of ladies took the bait and they tiptoed into the
room not seeing Joshua and I in our top hats and makeup just behind the door. They walked up to the
coffin and as they're leaning over I pressed the button and the light came on revealing the body.
Just as I began to scream I slammed the door and I simply said "Can I help you ladies?"
Well I had to open the door to let the screaming ladies out but hey,
Halloween it's all about scaring people right?
well I hope you enjoyed my stories if you did like share and subscribe and don't forget to
turn on the notifications so you know what's coming down the line later on but before I go
a quick shout out to a couple of my Patreon members Dave Dempsey and Modest Banana,
thanks guys. Well I’ll see you soon so, bye for now.