New Place was built in 1906, commissioned from a design by Sir Edwin (Landseer) Lutyens who was fwell known for his country houses combining Tudor and Elizabethan periods. The commission was requested in 1904 by Mrs A.S. Franklin to incorporate the interior of an early 17th century mansion she inherited in Bristol (which was to be demolished) and also to perpetuate the name of Shakespeare's house in Stratford-upon-Avon (also called New Place). The Franklyns were connected through the Arden family branch of Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden. The Franklyn family lived in the home until 1956 when it was sold to Patrick Harley who turned it into a boys school. The school closed in July 1978 and New Place and the grounds were purchased by the Simpact Company and run as a conference centre and was also used for weddings and dinner parties. Today it is a world class conference centre run by the De Vere group. The paranormal phenomena is wide and varied. During the school years the Dressing Room was used as a sick room and the main room was used as a dormitory. The resident schoolboys often claimed to see ghosts and it is thought that there is secret passageway. One of the managers had a hair-raising experience cleaning up after a party in the Dining Room one evening when a man appeared to come out from the fireplace, walk straight through him and disappear. The manager refused to ever enter that room again. Other reports include an apparition of a housemaid working away in the Bristol room and that of an Edwardian gentleman walking down the main staircase.