Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Apparitions / Hauntings

Nuns’ Bridges, Thetford

The Nuns’ Bridges took their name from the nearby nunnery (the Priory of St. George) and they carry the ancient trackway known as the Icknield Way over the Little Ouse River and the River Thet in Thetford. Once the site of the towns ducking stool during the middle ages, Nun’s Bridges has a story attached to it concerning the death of a young child and his ghost.

Folklore / Folktales / Legends / Native American Legends / Squamish Legends

The Lions

The two peaks known as The Lions are one of Vancouver’s most recognizable landmarks measuring 5400ft (West Lion) and 5269ft (East Lion). Named Ch’ich’iyúy Elxwíkn (Twin Sisters) by the indigenous Squamish people, the peaks represent two Squamish sisters who marred Haida men and created a peace between the two nations.

Fairies / Folklore / Welsh Fairies

Llyn Ebyr

Edwin Sidney Hartland gives the following tale about how a mother retrieved her twin children after they had been replaced by fairy changelings in his ‘The Science of Fairy Tales’ (1891)’ ‘Water’s antagonism to witches is notorious; and ample use was made of it in the old witch trials.

Hauntings

Darrell’s Stile

Thought to be the site where the accused infanticide ‘Wild’ William Darrell of Littlecote House died in a hunting accident on 1 October 1589. He is said to haunt the stile.

Apparitions / Haunted Hotels / Hauntings

Littlecote House Hotel, Hungerford

Part of the Warner Leisure group, the Littlecote House Hotel is a large Elizabethan country house with a reputation for being haunted. John Ingram in his ‘The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain (1897) gives the following account.

Apparitions / Haunted Pubs / Hauntings

The Plough@Eathorpe

The Plough Inn (now The Plough@Eathorpe) is an 18th century coaching house situated on the Fosse Way, the Roman road that linked Exeter with Lincoln. There are stories associated with the pub being haunted. The outline of a figure is said to have been reported walking across the bar area and one member of staff is thought to have been poked in the shoulder whilst mopping the floor.

Apparitions / Haunted Pubs / Hauntings

King’s Arms, Thetford

The Haunted Heritage trail leaflet for Thetford refers to a haunting in the old King’s Arms public house, stating that ‘An old tenant still talks of when he lived in this pub as a child. One day he was sitting with his grandmother when a lady dressed in black appeared in the corner of the room.

Hauntings

Laying A “Ghost” At Loscoe

During road works on Denby Lane, Loscoe, described as having "the unenviable distinction of being one of the worst stretches of road in the country," a local character, Tom Allen, was given the job of night watchman.

Folklore / Vampire

Nancy Levi New England Vampire

The Foster town records dated 14 October 1892 give the following account of the case of Nancy Levi who was died of consumption on 6 April 1827 but was subsequently exhumed and burned in a belief that this could prevent further deaths of the disease in her family.