Hertfordshire Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana
Drowned Man
Location: Ware - Jennings (or Jenningsbury) Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This farm is said to be haunted by a man who committed suicide by drowning.
Monk
Location: Ware - Bates Walk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth / early twenty-first century
Further Comments: A ghostly monk is said to move along this walk. A FOAF story says the monk chases anyone it encounters...
Old Car
Location: Ware - Ware High Street at the roundabout in front of 'The Waterfront' public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: A very old fashioned car driven by a determined looking man materialised along the road here, causing a female motorist to perform an emergency stop. The vehicle then vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving one very puzzled witness.
Scarred Figure
Location: Ware - Presdlaes School woods
Type: Other
Date / Time: Seen 2003?
Further Comments: A locally told story is that of a hooded character wearing a black cape that runs around this wooded area. The ghost's skin is covered with scar marks, and its bright yellow-green eyes have black slit pupils. The entity chases after anyone it meets.
Backblast
Location: Watford - Tunnel near Watford Junction railway station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: At a certain point in the tunnel, the firemen of steam driven engines reported their boilers would spit coal back at them. It was later said a pile of bodies were disturbed during the tunnel's construction, and the spirits were restless.
Mr Cooke
Location: Watford - St Mary's Church, and the nearby shopping centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This 1840's schoolteacher died in a fire that ravished the educational establishment, and his ghost is blamed for disrupting local shops (moving pictures, flicking lights on and off, etc).
Whistling
Location: Watford - Oxhey Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: Reputedly built on the site of a gallows, the empty corridors are said to be home to disembodied whistling after dark.
Little Old Lady
Location: Watford - Green End Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The phantom petite old lady who would be seen wandering around the grounds of the farm was also blamed for pulling the sheets off the bed at night. During the 1940s both the owners and local villagers reported hearing footsteps crossing cobblestones, even though the cobbles had all been removed during the 1920s.
Victorian Girl
Location: Watford - Gade Bank footbridge
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 19 August 2012
Further Comments: An Infrared Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera was said to have caught a young girl dressed in Victorian clothing. Police officers could not see anyone when they looked for the girl.
Fred
Location: Watford - Former Watford Observer building, Rickmansworth Road (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Disembodied wailing and sneezing were said to have been heard late at night in the print room. Lights were also said to be turned on and off unaided.
Tudor Man
Location: Watford - Copperfields restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s-1980
Further Comments: A local newspaper carried this story after the restaurant owner reported encountering a grey misty old man in Tudor clothing over a period of four years. The ghost would only be encountered in the older part of the building.
White Lady
Location: Watford - Church Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom white woman is said to occasionally cross the road here.
Jumping Jack
Location: Watford - Cassiobury Park, canal lock named Ironbridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The lock is haunted by a figure that was once paid to create havoc at the point to prevent shipments from reaching their destination. Jack was finally caught, knocked unconscious, and left to drown. The ghost of Lord Capel also walks the park, beheaded in 1649 for his royalist beliefs, while another story says a mill which once stood in the park was haunted by either a murderer or his female victim.
Alsatian-Sized Cat
Location: Welham Green - Station Road, woodland near
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2007
Further Comments: Andrew Hollings, out walking his dog in the evening, encountered a cat 'the size of a Labrador or Alsatian with a long tail'. The creature slowly emerged form woodland.
Headless Horse
Location: Welwyn - White Horse Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The headless horse which runs along this road was said to have been a casualty during the civil war.
Young Boy
Location: Welwyn - Tewin Bury Farm
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: A photograph taken by designer Neil Sandbach of the farm appears to show a pale, blurred figure peering around a corner. A couple who were marrying at the site also reported seeing a phantom young boy dressed in white, who manifested near the barn.
Girl in Red
Location: Welwyn - Non pedestrianised bank between the two Welwyn tunnels
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2000s and late 1990s
Further Comments: In the mid-2000s, a train guard reported looking out the window of a slow moving train and spotting a young girl in an old fashioned red dress. The guard looked away for a second, during which the girl vanished. When the story was shared, it emerged a driver had seen the figure several years previous.
Beast of Brookmans Park
Location: Welwyn - General area
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 2005
Further Comments: Named the 'Beast of Brookmans Park' by the local press, this panther was spotted by several people during 2005.
Hovering Triangle
Location: Welwyn Garden City - Sky over city
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: Two friends spotted a triangular shaped ufo hovering over a lake. The craft tilted upwards before simply vanishing, resulting in the friends running home without looking back.
Quick Jab
Location: Welwyn Garden City - Cottage public house (now known as Doctors Tonic)
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: A former worker said that as he was leaving one night, he felt someone jab him in the ribs. He swung round to see if it was another member of staff, but there was no one there.
Young Woman
Location: Weston - Road near Lannock Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1972, around 23:30h
Further Comments: The phantom figure of a woman in white was seen by a husband and wife as they drove out of Weston. It is thought that the phantom is a girl who drowned on her wedding day.
Jack o'Legs
Location: Weston - Churchyard
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: Jack o'Legs was said to be a very tall man (perhaps fourteen foot tall!) who, armed with bow and arrow, robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. It is also said that a cave somewhere near here may still contain some of his ill-gotten gains.
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