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Earley

There was a particular room at Erleigh Court, long since pulled down, which was said to have been haunted. There are certainly tragic associations connected with the old house which would warrant ghostly visitations.

Easthampstead

The mill-pond between Wildridings and the Southern Industrial Estate is a well-known recreation place in Bracknell. An old story is told of the miserly miller who lived there in the 17th century. During a year a famine, the man refused to share his flour with the locals. One night, an starving man knocked on his door and asked for help. The miller quickly sent him away, but was shocked, next morning, to find him dead on his doorstep. After that, nothing went right for the miller and his family and they were eventually driven from the mill by the dead man’s ghost. Soon afterward, the mill burnt down and the hauntings ceased.

Two sisters, living in a house near Caesar’s Camp, once heard the sound of voices and marching steps outside at night. Looking out of the window, there was nothing to be seen, but the noises continued. Was this Caesar’s army marching on the native inhabitants of the camp? One of the ladies was also awoken one night by the apparition of a red-haired man with a very striking face; while her nephew saw a phantom with a much deformed face on the road outside.

Easthampstead Park is haunted by the ghost of Lady Downshire who lived there in the 19th century. She walks along the landing and down the main staircase and has been seen by many past pupils at the school to which the building is attached.

East Hanney

Dandridge's Mill Bridge is haunted by a little old lady. She wears a long white skirt and a white bonnet. She comes scurrying along the road carrying her rustling skirts to keep them from trailing in the ditch that ran along the road. She comes along the road on the opposite side from Hale Cottage. When she gets to the Mill Bridge, she climbs over the metal railing (at the side of the bridge) and jumps into the brook and is gone! She is possibly the old lady who lived in Hale Cottage and who committed suicide and may date from the late 18th or early 19th century (judging by her costume). A well‑attested sighting occurred during the Second World War when two villagers were on Home Guard duty.

East Hendred

Old Mrs. Chatterton, who died in 1946, saw in her house, ‘Barn End,’ a number of Roundheads without feet. Some of Cromwell’s men slept there after the battle of Newbury. She later found out that the floor had since been raised.

The ghost of a man who was murdered by his servants haunts a field near Ludbridge.

The ghost of a grey lady haunts ‘Snells’.

Enborne

The ghost of a sentry stood night after night at the lane junction hard by the cottage - Bigg’s Cottage - where the Earl of Essex slept before the First Battle of Newbury. He supposedly reappears on the anniversary of the battle and horses will not pass by the spot. Essex himself has been seen in the cottage. In 1965, the two Hesketh sisters who lived there were treated to his manifestation in one of the upstairs bedrooms. With a serious look on his face, he walked slowly about in a large broad-brimmed hat with a flat top, but the two were not alarmed.

The, now demolished, Cope Hall was well known as a haunted house where a clergyman had murdered his wife. The place had a spooky atmosphere and the site still does. Passers-by may suddenly feel very cold for no apparent reason. Not surprisingly, considering the lane outside is said to have been piled high with bodies during the First Battle of Newbury.

Enborne House is haunted by an often unseen ghost who clanks around and rattles chains. The spirit is that of an old man, bent almost double by age and with his hands and feet shackled. He was seen walking slowly down the dark corridors in eth 1930s. Another spirit, in a wide skirt, observed in the garden is thought to be a beautiful Newbury girl of the 18th century who was murdered in the house, by her lover, in a fit of jealousy.

A very deaf old lady who lived ‘near Newbury,’ presumably in the Enborne area (though possibly at Speen), once came running downstairs to exclaim her shock at the loud noises outside. Yet the rest of her family could hear nothing. There were apparently people shouting, horses neighing and even the sound of cannon fire. It was only afterward that they discovered that it was the anniversary of the Battle of Newbury

Englefield

The ghost of one of the past owners of Englefield House, Powlett Wright Esq., is reputed to haunt the building and the now blocked tunnel under the back region of the house, as well as walking from the house to his wife’s grave at the church. Horses will not enter the port cochère. Powlett had gone to sea, while his brother remained at home, trying to convince the locals that the Lord of the Manor was dead. Eventually, the lies became the truth though, and Powlett’s apparition was seen at the window of the house. Since then, many bygone villagers have reputedly given evidence to this effect and with a house so steeped in history, it is small wonder, perhaps, that it should still be visited in spiritual form by one or other of its colourful owners.