RBH Home
  Maps & Travels
  Articles
  Legends
  Towns & Villages
  Castles & Houses
  Churches
  Biographies
  Gentry
  Family History
  Odds & Ends
  Mail David

Charlton

There used to be a ghost which haunted the Hell Pits.  

Childrey

Rampanes Manor, the ancient home of the Fettiplace family, once had a ghost who often used to frighten the serving maids. He was a cavalier on horseback, who appeared to be looking for something, but he has not been seen since a hoard of Jacobean coins was dug up in the 1930s while alterations were being made to the drive. Perhaps the man was part of King Charles I's entourage, for he spent the night of 16th April here in 1644.

Cholsey

At the beginning of the 20th century, a Miss Walters lived in an old cottage between the Elms and Bloom's Cottage. The house has since been demolished, though some associated barns survive. She lived alone and was troubled by the noise of stones being thrown at her door. Later, her kitchen furniture was thrown about the room. She thought an intruder had come down the chimney to disturb her, so a farm labourer was called in one night to watch for the culprit. He saw no one, but heard stones being thrown and Miss Walters' screams. Investigation revealed the kitchen in turmoil again though no-one had gone in or out. This poltergeist visited again at odd times for several years until Miss Walters' death.

The house ‘Broadlands’ in West End, one of the oldest in Cholsey, was haunted by the ghost of a young woman. The Rev Philip Pare, when the Vicar of Cholsey, exorcised the ghost and it has not been seen since, though visitors have reported feeling a presence.

There is also a ghost in Station Road. This one is a man, with prominent buckles on his shoes, who has been sighted on several occasions.

Nearby, in one of a row of thatched cottages demolished in the 1930s, there was an active, noisy poltergeist in the attic. When the attic was investigated a pair of glasses and some documents were found. The family in residence could not read so the papers were never properly looked at, but once they were removed the noises stopped.

Clewer

The Swan Inn is reputedly haunted, perhaps by publican who was a part time Coroner’s assistant and mortician.

Clewer Hill House, now demolished, had a spare-bedroom which was never used because of its oppressive atmosphere. The maid used to hurry through her work in the room in order to spend as little time as possible there. It has been suggested that some unknown tragedy occurred there.

The Church of England’s Children’s Society ran a children’s home in another large house since demolished. One of the bedrooms there had to be turned into an office because of the bad atmosphere. Strange mists appeared without explanation and the temperature would drop dramatically. These manifestations were supposed to be those of a nun of the Anglican Sisterhood of St. John the Baptist who had previously owned the building. She had apparently hanged herself there.

Cockpole Green

Putter’s Farm is haunted by a horse with clanking chains on its harness which walks up to the nearby ridge at midnight. A certain room in the house is also reputedly atmospheric in the worst sense of the word.

Compton

Compton Railway Bidge is haunted by the ghost of a man who met an unfortunate death there. During the 1920s, a train travelling to Compton pulled to a halt with one of the carriages straddling the bridge. A passenger stepped from the train, thinking it had stopped at the platform and fell to his death onto the road below. There are rumours of a brick in the structure commemorating the event.

Compton Beauchamp

There is said to be the ghost of a woman who spins incessantly which haunts the village.

Cookham

A ghostly coach or hay cart haunts the village where it slipped into a ditch down by the river and killed all the occupants.

More than one person has seen another coach, drawn by six headless horses, pull off the upper Maidenhead Road and drive uphill towards the gasworks.

In the same area, on several occasions, a headless lady in a white dress has appeared, riding a white horse up Whyteladyes Lane. At Halloween, she is said to dismount and walk up Winter Hill.

A white hare also haunts Cookham.

Cookham Dean

A coachman haunts the Cookham Dean area, driving a carriage with a pair of white horses and with his head in his lap.

In 1800, a Maidenhead man claimed that, walking one day from Pinkneys Green to Cookham Dean, he saw, in the sky above the Common for several minutes, the shape of great mountains and a pass up which troops, mules, baggage and artillery were toiling. At the same time, he discovered later, Napoleon's Army had been crossing the Alps.

The Common is also a place favoured by the ghost of Herne the Hunter. He was seen there wearing his ritual antlers by a lady and her terrified dogs in the 1920s. Read the full story.

Cox Green

The Lillibrooke Manor area is haunted by the ghost of spectral lady on a white horse.

Cranbourne

The sound of unshod galloping phantom horses was heard outside the ‘Herne’s Oak’ in the 1940s, but has not been heard since.

Crazies Hill

A phantom lady on horseback rides between two large trees across Hyghams at Gibstoude Farm.

Cumnor

At Cumnor Place there was the ghost of poor Amy Robsart, mysteriously murdered wife of Robert Dudley, later Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth I’s favourite and rumoured lover. The story goes that, running to greet her husband, in 1560, she fell down the stairs and broke her neck. There were no witnesses of this, for all the servants had conveniently been sent off to Abingdon Fair. Rumour has it that Leicester had created a concealed pit at the bottom of the staircase, hoping that Amy’s death would leave him free to marry the Queen; but the appearance of her ghost on the stairs was taken as a sign that the fall was no accident and the monarch dropped him like a hot brick. It seems that nine parsons from Oxford attempted to lay the unquiet spirit in a nearby pond but were unable to do so and it has been said that the water in the pond, thence called ‘Lady Dudley’s Pond,’ never froze again. The terrible noises which used to be heard at night kept the house untenanted until, decayed and deserted, it more or less fell to bits and was finally taken down in 1810. The ghost of the beautiful Amy may have since found rest, though occasionally she is said to still be seen on the site of the old house.