Haunted Britain and Ireland: Over 100 of the Scariest Places to Visit in the UK and Ireland. Derek Acorah
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Thurlton, a village to the south of the river Yare, a gravestone to the north of All Saints’ church tells of the death of wherryman Joseph Bexfield at the hands of the Lantern Man in the nineteenth century. He would take his wherry up and down the Yare between Norwich and Great Yarmouth and would often tie up for the night at Thurlton Staithe, halfway between the two, and stay at the White Horse Inn. On 11 August 1809 he was at the inn when he remembered he had left a parcel for his wife on the wherry. It was pitch dark and another of the wherrymen warned him that the Lantern Man would be out and about, but he said he knew the marsh too well to be led astray by any Jack O’Lantern. Days later his corpse was washed up between Reedham and Breydon. People say that on misty nights his ghost wanders the marshes still.
The Battle of Naseby Battlefield
The Battle of Naseby, fought in the open fields between the villages of Naseby, Sibbertoft and Clipston in Northamptonshire, was the decisive battle of the English Civil War. It started at about 9 o’clock in the morning on 14 June 1645 and lasted about 3 hours. The Royalist army numbered about 12,000 men, the Parliamentarians 15,000. The Royalists were routed and only about 4,000 escaped the field, most of whom were either cavalry or senior officers.
On the anniversary of the battle, two ghostly reenactments take place: a convoy of grim-faced soldiers has been seen pushing carts down an old drovers’ road and the entire battle has been seen taking place in the sky above the site, complete with the sounds of men screaming and cannon firing. For the first century or so after the battle villagers would come out and sit on the nearby hills to watch it.
Grid Reference: SP684799 (468490, 279990); OS Landranger map:141; OS Explorer map: 223. The battlefield is easily accessible via minor roads, though there are few rights of way.
The Norfolk Broads
The shallow waters of the Norfolk Broads are the result of medieval digging for peat. Nowadays they are a popular venue for boating and fishing. Reed-fringed Oulton Broad in Suffolk, the southern gateway to the Broads, is one of the finest yachting lakes in Britain.
Hickling Broad
Hickling is the largest of the Broads. It is a very popular spot for sailing and for fishing from boats, especially for rudd, tench and bream. The three Hickling villages – Hickling village, Hickling Green and Hickling Heath – lie to the north of the broad.
One winter during the Napoleonic Wars a poor drummer boy from Hickling home on furlough fell in love with the daughter of a rich man in Potter Heigham. Her father disapproved of the match, so the lovers met secretly in a small hut at Swim Coots in the marsh on the Heigham side of Hickling Broad. Each night the drummer boy would skate out across the frozen broad, beating on his kettledrum to let his lover know he was coming. Then one night the drum fell silent – the boy had fallen through the ice and drowned. Since then, however, he has often been seen on February evenings, skating along and beating his drum.
Ranworth Broad
Ranworth Broad is haunted by the ghost of Brother Pacificus, who was a monk at the nearby St Benet’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery built in 816. In the 1530s he was restoring the rood-screen in Ranworth church and would row across from the abbey every day with his dog. One summer’s evening when he arrived back at the abbey he found that it had been pillaged by Henry VIII’s troopers and that many of the monks were dead. For many years afterwards he lived as a hermit in the abbey ruins. He is buried in Ranworth churchyard, but occasionally at dawn a monk in a black habit can still be seen rowing across the broad in a small boat with a dog sitting in the bow.
The ruins of the abbey are also haunted by a monk. At the time of the Norman Conquest, he betrayed his brethren and handed the abbey over to William the Conqueror’s soldiers in exchange for the promise that he would be made abbot. He was indeed made abbot – and then nailed to the bell tower door and skinned alive by the Normans. Every 25 May he can be seen hanging there and it is said that his screaming can still be heard at other times. Very little remains of the abbey today, but it can be visited either by river or by walking across the fields from Ludham. It lies close to the confluence of the Ant and the Bure and the remains of a windmill can be seen in the ruins of the gatehouse.
According to legend, the marshes near Ranworth Broad also see the reappearance of the Devil himself. In the eighteenth century the Old Hall, Ranworth, was the home of Colonel Thomas Sidley. He was a huntsman notorious for his hard drinking and debauchery. On New Year’s Eve 1770, at the biggest meet of the season, he challenged a neighbour to a race. Unfortunately he fell behind and it was soon obvious that he was going to lose. Undeterred, he calmly shot his opponent’s horse. The rider fell and broke his neck.
Later that night the colonel was celebrating his win over dinner at the Old Hall when he was interrupted by the arrival of a stranger, who threw him across his saddle and rode off into the stormy night. He was never seen again and it was claimed that it was the Devil himself who had carried him away. Every New Year’s Eve it is said that he can be seen riding across the marshes with the colonel still slung across his saddle. The Old Hall has since been demolished.
The Old Ferry Boat Inn
The Old Ferry Boat Inn at Holywell, on the River Ouse, is one of the oldest in England, having originally been built in Anglo-Saxon times. The ‘holy’ well in the village is said to have provided Boadicea with fresh drinking water and is supposed to cure blindness.
The Old Ferry Boat is haunted by the ghost of Juliet Tewsley, who was born in the eleventh century. She fell in love with a local woodcutter, Tom Zoul, who did return her love but preferred to play ninepins with the other village lads than spend time with her. Juliet became more and more miserable as a result and one day, while Tom was drinking with his friends, she hanged herself from a willow tree beside the river. As a suicide she was not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground, so instead she was buried at a crossroads near the river with a stake through her heart and a slab of grey stone over her grave.
When the Old Ferry Boat was rebuilt, the new building was constructed on top of the grave and the stone slab became part of the flooring of the new pub. Since that time Juliet has often been seen rising from her grave and floating towards the river on 17 March, the anniversary of her death, which is known locally as Juliet’s Eve. Mysterious music has been heard coming from the bar on that date, but it can only be heard by women.
The Old Ferry Boat Inn, Back Lane, Holywell, St Ives, Cambridgeshire PE27 4TG; Tel: (01480) 463227; Website: www.oldferryboat.com
There are seven rooms, all with en-suite facilities, and a restaurant serving both traditional and more exotic food.
The Old Hall Inn
The seventeenth-century Old Hall Inn stands a short way away from the shore at Sea Palling, Norfolk. It was formerly a farmhouse; today it is a traditional public house with two bars, an à la carte restaurant, a lounge, family dining area, beer garden and several guest bedrooms.
On several occasions the figure of a woman in grey clothing has been seen sitting on a window ledge in the television lounge and a drop in temperature has been recorded.
From time to time an inexplicable bluish shadow has also appeared and there has been the smell of strong tobacco. A manager’s wife once saw a ‘column of grey smoke’ move across the dining room towards the kitchen. This was observed on two later occasions by other witnesses.
Another of the