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Ghosts from Berkshire Places
Beginning with 'B'
Bagley
In Bagley Wood there was a
highwayman’s ghost, astride a white horse.
Bagnor
The Watermill Theatre is haunted by
the ghost of a little girl who appears in one of the upstairs rooms. She
may have been employed at the old fulling mill and have been killed when
she got caught in the machinery.
Barkham
There are several ghosts which
frequent the area around the Barkham Road. The spectre of a white lady on
a white horse appears out of the mists around Rectory Marsh and heads
towards the parish church. A phantom headless soldier roams along the
Barkham Road. Possibly he was one of the injured ex-servicemen who bought
plots of land in the area from the Walter family after the Great War. A
large black animal, probably the ubiquitous ‘Black Dog,’ has been seen
lurking along the high brick wall on the same road by at least one pair of
motorists. It was not the creature that was so bizarre, rather the sense
of terror which came over both of them at the same instant.
Basildon
Lady
Fane, who lived in the splendid Basildon Grotto in the 1740s, was found
drowned in a well within the house and her unquiet spirit is alleged to
haunt the building. It used to appear before the fireplace in a certain
room in the 1890s. More recent sightings have been of a silvery form
moving up the staircase and brushing past observers at about four in the
afternoon; or drifting across the lawn towards the river. The original
story behind the haunting appears to have been lost. It has erroneously
been said that Lady Fane was both the infamous ‘mistletoe-bow bride,’
suffocated on her wedding day, and that she was murdered by her husband. A
member of the Women’s Land Army, stationed in the house in 1943, is
recorded to have seen a ghost in the house, though she is thought to be a
past serving girl rather than Lady Fane herself. A young woman with long
copper-coloured hair, wearing a long pale green filmy ragged dress
manifested herself at least twice and glid along a corridor towards the
‘blue bathroom’. Others have also seen her. The ghost always appears
between October and January between nine and eleven in the evening.
Nobes was an eccentric farmer who had a fear of being molested after death, so he built a stone cell with a semicircular top, leaded to keep out the weather. His coffin was shut in and the key to the door thrown in to join him. However, the tomb was broken into and the lead stripped from the roof and there is little if anything left to see. The date on the door was 1692. Nobes ghost, riding his white horse, still haunts the Basildon Lanes nearby.
Basildon Rectory is haunted by a
monk in a brown habit. Dogs are terrified of this restless spirit.
There is also the ghost of Nan Carey, the local witch. She is seen at midnight on the hill named after her.
Beenham
A ghost haunts Foddehouse Copse
where Roundheads tethered their horses. It is reputed to be a headless
lady with eyes like saucers.
Billingbear
Billingbear
House, now demolished,
claimed a ghost of a lady in white. She had at one time been the lady of
the house, but disappeared with it.
Bisham
There
is an old story that Lady Elizabeth Hoby beat her little son so severely
that he died and all because he had blotted his writing book. Certainly
Elizabethan parents were, by today’s standards, cruel to their children;
certainly the little Hoby son died at an early age. Local legend has it
that the Abbey is haunted by her repentant ghost. Bisham ‘Abbey’ was
the manor house in the past and has the reputation for being the most
haunted house in Berkshire, if not England. Read the full
story.
Blewbury
A previous landlord, who died in the
1950s, is thought to haunt the Blueberry Inn. Late in the evening, his
footsteps are heard exiting his old bedroom and descending to the bar,
perhaps to lock up for the night.
The artist and sculptor, Mr.
Langford Jones lodged in a cottage in this village while his own house was
being prepared for him. It was haunted by a mischievous poltergeist which
moved or threw things around. He saw a wash-basin fly across his room
right in front of his eyes.
The New Inn is haunted by the ghost
of a previous innkeeper called ‘Old Edwin’.
The old hillfort on Blewburton Hill
is haunted by the ghost of an old hunter.
Botley
A house in the village is said to
have been haunted by the ghost of a Cromwellian soldier.
Boxford
If you scramble up the lane opposite
‘Chequers’ you will come to Huntsgreen Farm which has rather a
charming ghost. The present owners have lived in this house for many years
and they have nicknamed him ‘Horace’. Horace clutches you gently by
the sleeve or skirt but does not attempt to detain you if you wish to go
on. Apart from this possible evidence of loneliness, he appears quite
harmless.
The barn at Lower Ownham Farm seems
to house the ghost of ‘Old Tom’. According to a descendant of the
Fisher family, once tenants of the farm, his name was Drewett and his
family occupied the house long ago. One story says he hid his money in the
barn and comes to search for it. Mrs Cook of Ownham has actually seen him.
Apparently she went out to the barn to collect the eggs at dusk one
evening and ‘Old Tom’ was sitting by a pile of timbers and junk. He
was a small hunchbacked man in a brown waistcoat with brown buttons. “So
clear I could have counted them” said Mrs. Cook. “I spoke to him,”
she continued, “but he didn’t answer or move so I came in with the
eggs. Then I went back, being curious, but he was gone.” Two other
tenants of the farm have passed ‘Old Tom’ at dusk on their way
indoors. Both spoke to him, but he made no reply and one home-comer
remembered that he had not heard the gate close behind the apparent
visitor, but it was locked in the morning as he had left it on coming in.
The cottage adjacent to Westbrook
House is said to be haunted by one of the ‘chill & smell’ ghosts.
A certain room begins to cool and grows rapidly colder whatever the size
of the fire in it, and a very bad charnel smell pervades the room. Then
the whole thing passes off leaving the room normal. Nothing is seen or
heard, or even felt, except the intense cold.
Bracknell
The Old Manor, now a pub, was once one of only two buildings which made up
Bracknell. They stood alone in the middle of Ascot Heath. In Tudor times,
it was the home of a Catholic family who hid many persecuted priests in
the secret ‘priest-hole’ now to be seen in the bar named after it. The
spirit of one of these cowled figures has been seen several times around
the building and has been nicknamed ‘Old Fred’. He seems to have been
confused with another character, a regular at the pub in the early 1970s
name Bert. He appeared soon after his death and was easily recognised by
his large portly frame, his red-face and handlebar moustache, always
wearing a chequered hat. Some say there is also a spirit of a young girl
in the building.
South Hill
Park is a beautiful red brick
mansion constructed at the end of the 19th century, but incorporating part
of an older house of 1760. It has an infamous reputation as a haunted house.
There are constant unexplained bangings, wailings, rattling of keys,
footsteps and cold rushes of air. Doors that always stick suddenly slam
shut, lights come on by themselves and visitors have a sense that they are
being watched. The main culprit is thought to be Major Rickman, the
building’s owner, who, having exhaustive debts, shot himself in the
gun-room (now the gents loo). However, some witnesses have had the feeling
their ghost was that of a playful child. Others of a middle-aged man on
the stairs, unsure of passing by the living. One explanation has it that
the child or children died in a terrible fire in their nursery in the
1890s, and that the man on the stairs is the butler or footman who tried
to save them. Others say that the phenomena are connected with a laundry maid
was boiled to death during an accident in the kitchen.
Quelm
Lane, where dogs will not walk, is said to be haunted by a phantom rider
on a huge black horse. He is looking for small children who he will scoop
up beside him, never to be seen again. The tale seem to indicate a Herne
the Hunter type character, but Quelm Lane means ‘Hangman’s Lane’ and
probably shows the ghost to be that of a criminal hanged on a local
gibbet.
Several
apparitions are said to have appeared to a family who lived at the ‘Old
Farm’. Two ghostly little girls were seen both in the garden and
elsewhere within the house. About eight years old, one had long hair done
up in pigtails and wore a pale three-quarter length dress. An old woman
also appeared on the stairs, leaning over the railing, as if looking for
the children.
On
the edge of Harmans Water, an old house called ‘Emblems’ once stood
between A332 and Elizabeth Close. Built in 1890 as the Callingham Nursery,
only a great Wellingtonia tree remains to remember its early horticultural
history. It later came into the hands of an avid stamp-collector and when
considerably extended, in 1928, it became named after a rare stamp
watermark which held pride of place in the owner’s collection. Its
symbolism even decorated the ornamental brickwork. In the 1960s and 70s
the building was troubled by a number of spectral noises and sudden drops
of temperature. The most notable manifestations were footsteps heard
clearly by several witnesses on the landing, descending the stairs, and
pausing before returning once more. This thought to be the mother-in-law
of the stamp collector. In her old age, she became quite absent minded and
would often begin to go downstairs, only to forget why she was doing so.
Thus she returned whence she came.
The
‘Horse & Groom’ nearby is haunted by an old lady who was often
seen upstairs in the 1960s. Her footsteps were also heard as she busied
herself with household chores. The spirits cabinet also used to
mysteriously unlock itself even after the lock was changed. This latter
phenomenon may be related to an infamous murder which occurred at the inn
in 1810.
Bradfield
During
the Commonwealth, the sensational John Pordage was Vicar of Bradfield. In
his time there were very queer goings-on at the Rectory, which became
troubled with hordes of spirits, among them a huge fiery dragon with a
tail eight yards long which engaged the rector in combat for several hours
on end! One of the houses now incorporated into the college also had the
reputation for being haunted.
Bray
Over
the almshouses there is a statue of a man in white. When the church bell
strikes midnight, he gets off his plinth and walks down to the river for a
drink.
The ghost of a white lady is seen at
the parish church. She was an eighteen-year-old servant-girl named Hetty
Slack who got herself into trouble and subsequently drowned herself in the
Thames at Bray Lock. Once two women were laughing and joking about the
legend, near the girl's grave. Their laughs did not last long, for a tile mysteriously
came crashing down from the church roof and smashed at their feet.
Braywick
Braywick
House is haunted by a white lady who walks in through the front door, up
the stairs and into the attic. From here, she opens the east window and
throws herself out! Her footsteps are often heard in the empty attic, but
the suicide itself only re-enacted every seven years. There is also the
ghost of an Elizabethan man there, dressed in a ruff with a pointed beard.
He wanders around the typing desks and has also appeared on the stairs.
A more modern haunted site is the now demolished
Shoppenhangers Manor Conference Centre at Maidenhead, built in 1915 though the
site has been a manor since the 13th century. In 1971, during preparations
for a dinner for a group of guests, a waiter was slightly perturbed at
seeing the ghostly figure of a tall man in grey clothes glide across the
landing on the first floor. On mentioning the incident to colleagues, he
learnt that others had seen the spectre but usually at two in the morning.
Some believe the figure is that of an elderly family retainer of Tudor
days who was killed in a fall down the stairs.
Brightwalton
The former 'The Marquis of Granby' pub at Holt in Brightwalton has
several ghosts. They include a headless man standing in a neighbouring
field; a man whose only clearly visible feature is his face; and a
Victorian lady who walks through a now bricked up door. The last ghost has
been seen by at least two separate customers. Mrs. White, granddaughter of
a former innkeeper there, has seen both the headless man and the ‘man
with a face’.
Brimpton
On stormy nights, a carriage taking
a party of young people to a hunt ball in Newbury were driving down
Brimpton Lane going via Abel Bridge. But the old wooden bridge had been
swept away in the storm. The carriage and horses plunged into the river
and all the occupants were drowned. A ghostly carriage and pair is said to
travel down Brimpton Lane on a certain night in January. Often only the
screams of the passangers and the whinnying of the horses being heard.
Buckland
The ghost of a white lady haunts the manor.
Bucklebury
The village acquired notoriety in
eth early 18th century when Frances Winchcombe, eldest daughter of Sir
Henry Winchcombe, married Henry St. John (later Lord Bolingbroke) in 1701.
Two years afterwards, she inherited the manor and the rising politician
and his beautiful wife entertained lavishly. Dean Swift, Alexander Pope,
John Gay, John Arbuthnot and, probably, Queen Anne were among their
guests. This happy period was short-lived. By 1713, Lord Bolingbroke had
deserted his wife and he fled to France in 1715 to escape impeachment. It
is said that she died of a broken heart. Lady Bolingbroke’s unhappy
ghost is said to drive through the village in a coach drawn by the four
black horses, often seen near the old fishponds, and on one night of the
year she sits in the drawing-room of the Old Vicarage.
An evil spirit is said to waylay
nocturnal travellers and chase them down the Devil’s Steps at Hawkridge.
What
is described as a ‘grisly apparition’ appears in broad daylight on the
isolated common called Bushnell’s Green.
A
lady in white flits along the Oak Avenue near the Beenham turning on the
Common.
Two
phantom monks have been seen near the medieval fishponds on the Common.
They were constructed for the Abbot of Reading who owned the manor.
Mad Kitty’s Pond is said to be
haunted, presumably by Mad Kitty!
Burchetts
Green
The story of ghostly druids at
Burchetts Green House garden was first revealed by the owner around 1960,
having heard it from the villagers. This is on the of St. Davids
pilgrimage route from London, where it went through Maidenhead (St.
Mark’s Road, Farm Road through to the Thicket, Burchetts Green, up
Ashley Hill, through Warren Row to Henley, Oxford and thence Wales). One
wonders if perhaps the ghosts of hooded pilgrims have been mistaken for
druids.
The farmers ploughing the field west
of Green Lane near Boundary Elm claim that the ghost of a headless Roman
Centurion rushes down from Ashley Hill. He disappears into the ground near
Boundry Elm.
Students at Hall Place claim to have
seen a coach and horse crossing the lawn at the back of the house. The
ghost of a coloured servant has also been seen at Black Horse Lodge.
A member of the local archaeological
society once saw the ghost of what appeared to be a Saxon man skulking
around the bushes in his garden at Burchetts Green. When the society
investigated, they found some Saxon pottery in a nearby field, along with
much early British material: pots and a low flint wall and a wheel.
Perhaps they had they found the dead man’s farm.
Burchetts Green Lane is haunted by a
tax collector, named, Bogey Todd, who was beaten to death by the
villagers.
Claude Duval is said to haunt the
area. He may be the same as the ‘phantom horseman’ who is seen on
Maidenhead Thicket.
Woodlands House is also said to be
haunted.