Hemington house is a charming old Georgian rectory situated next to the beautiful and ancient Norman church of St Mary. The house is much younger – the oldest part dating back only to the late 17th century. But Hemington House does have a ghost! All the family claim to have heard or seen her.

The Church Commissioners sold the house at the turn of the twentieth century, since then the house has had several owners who have all made a contribution. It has been the Murray’s family home for the last thirty eight years, although for many of those years the family were  living in Hong Kong as that’s where Simon’s business lay. Their home has been filled with many beautiful artifacts both from home and abroad. Chinese Haan and Tang statues, a life size Burmese buddha and lovely antique English furniture. So many with a story behind them. Simon would constantly surprise Jennifer with gifts from his travels ranging from wonderfully ridiculous - an enormous drum complete with drummer’s uniform, to just plain wonderful  - an ancient vase from Ethiopia.

Simon and Jennifer’s travels have also included high adventure. Simon, aged nineteen, joined the French Foreign Legion seeing five years of active service fighting in Algeria. At the age of sixty one he became the oldest man to trek unsupported from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole.  Jennifer is the first and only woman to pilot a helicopter circumnavigate the globe flying east west. First with a co-pilot, then three years later she went solo. Then to do what no helicopter pilot has ever done - flown pole to pole with a co-pilot.

by Jennifer Murray