# Event Details - **Event Name**: 'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives' IN PERSON - **Event Start and End Date**: Fri, 01 May, 2026 at 05:30 pm – Fri, 01 May, 2026 at 07:00 pm (+01:00) - **Event Description**: RHS Lecture with Prof Sasha Handley (Manchester) at the University of Warwick, 1 May 2026About this Event'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives in Early Modern England'RHS Lecture with Professor Sasha Handley (Manchester)Royal Historical Society Lecture5.30pm, Friday 1 May 2026Lecture Theatre, FAB0.08 (Ground Floor). University of Warwick, Faculty of Arts Building, Central Campus, University Road, CV4 7EQAbout this lectureIn the winter of 1716-17, a ghost tormented the residents of Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire for four long months. The rectory was the home of the Wesley family, a home that would become feted as the cradle of evangelical Methodism by the end of the eighteenth century.Reports of the rectory haunting, however, tell a very different story of this illustrious family residence. They reveal it as a place of longstanding family divisions, of deprivation and trauma, but also of resilience and strategic protest. This paper uncovers this alternative family history, whilst also reflecting on the role that ghost stories could play in the lives of early modern women more broadly. Finally, the talk examines the long-term legacies of women’s ghostly storytelling.About the speaker is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Manchester. She is the author of monographs Visions of an Unsen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth-Century England (2007), Sleep in Early Modern England (2016), and co-editor of New Directions in Social and Cultural History (2018).Sasha has co-curated two exhibitions: Magic, Witches & Devils in the Early Modern World (2016, John Rylands Research Institute and Library), and Albrecht Dürer's Material World (2023-24, The Whitworth). She currently leads the Wellcome Trust Investigator Award 'Sleeping Well in the Early Modern World: An Environmental Approach to the History of Sleep Care'.----Image CreditPlease note that the featured image for this event has been used with permission from the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester.AccessibilityThe Royal Historical Society strives to make our events as accessible as possible. 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Its membership options include , , and for MA and PhD students. - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/coventry/the-haunting-at-the-rectory-ghost-stories-and-women’s-lives-in-person/100001983439987395 - **Event Categories**: Art, Nonprofit, Exhibitions, Theatre, literary-art - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 1 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: GBP ## Event venue details - **city**: Coventry - **state**: EN - **country**: United Kingdom - **location**: University of Warwick - **lat**: 52.3858097 - **long**: -1.5648144 - **full address**: University of Warwick, TBC, Coventry, United Kingdom ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: 'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives' IN PERSON - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events3/banners/08b81b77e31cb26267ff09562150de4c4a51b8234dac781f4472eac79c41d58a-rimg-w1200-h600-dce9ddd3-gmir.jpg?v=1772836583 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is 'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives' IN PERSON being held? - **A:** 'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives' IN PERSON takes place on Fri, 01 May, 2026 at 05:30 pm to Fri, 01 May, 2026 at 07:00 pm at University of Warwick, TBC, Coventry, United Kingdom. - **Q**: Who is organizing 'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives' IN PERSON? - **A:** 'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives' IN PERSON is organized by The Royal Historical Society. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "'The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives' IN PERSON", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events3/banners/08b81b77e31cb26267ff09562150de4c4a51b8234dac781f4472eac79c41d58a-rimg-w1200-h600-dce9ddd3-gmir.jpg?v=1772836583", "startDate": "2026-05-01T17:30:00+01:00", "endDate": "2026-05-01T19:00:00+01:00", "url": "https://allevents.in/coventry/the-haunting-at-the-rectory-ghost-stories-and-women’s-lives-in-person/100001983439987395", "eventStatus": "https://schema.org/EventScheduled", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "University of Warwick", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "TBC", "postalCode": "CV4 7AL", "addressLocality": "Coventry", "addressRegion": "EN", "addressCountry": "GB" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "52.3858097", "longitude": "-1.5648144" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "RHS Lecture with Prof Sasha Handley (Manchester) at the University of Warwick, 1 May 2026", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "availabilityStarts": "2026-03-06", "availabilityEnds": "2026-05-01T19:00:00+01:00", "validFrom": "2026-03-06", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "0.00", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/coventry/the-haunting-at-the-rectory-ghost-stories-and-women’s-lives-in-person/100001983439987395" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "availabilityStarts": "2026-03-06", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-03-06", "url": "https://allevents.in/coventry/the-haunting-at-the-rectory-ghost-stories-and-women’s-lives-in-person/100001983439987395", "price": 0, "name": "General Admission" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "The Royal Historical Society", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/the-royal-historical-society/17801579" } ] } ] ```