{"id":283,"date":"2019-06-15T21:33:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T21:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/?page_id=283"},"modified":"2019-06-16T16:31:35","modified_gmt":"2019-06-16T16:31:35","slug":"strange-happenings-on-suffolk-and-essex-borders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/?page_id=283","title":{"rendered":"Strange Happenings on Suffolk and Essex borders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Borley Village and Lodge<\/strong>, 6 miles from Lavenham<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Borley is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the most haunted village in the world with both more ghosts and more sightings than anywhere else.  Borley Rectory was once the centre of this ghastly feste on Hallowe’en with the Grey Lady, Ann Boleyn, the headless Lady, the howling Child and the sobbing Mother all making guest appearances.           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Borley Rectory burnt down.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The village of Borley is still haunted but the Grey Lady, Boleyn,\nthe Headless Lady, howling Child and sobbing Mother have all found a new\nhome.  Only the Giant remains in\nresidence and stalks Railway Walk where it meets the bridge on Bridge Street,\nwhilst haunting the ruins of the Lodge, the medieval Hall in Lavenham Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borley Rectory<\/strong>, 6 miles from Lavenham                  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rectory was a Victorian house that gained fame as “the\nmost haunted house in England” after being described as such by Harry\nPrice.  Built in 1862 to house the rector\nof the parish of Borley and his family, it was badly damaged by fire in 1939\nand demolished in 1944.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large Gothic-style rectory in the village of Borley had been\nalleged to be haunted ever since it was built. These reports multiplied\nsuddenly in 1929, after the Daily Mirror published an account of a visit by\nparanormal researcher Harry Price, who wrote two books supporting claims of\nparanormal activity.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most if not all of the following has been discredited: traced to\neither natural phenomenon, architectural features or fraud by Price assisted by\nMarianne Foyster.  Reports in 1956 placed\ndoubt on almost all of the sightings.                <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borley\nRectory. Hauntings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first paranormal events occurred in about 1863, since a few\nlocals later remembered having heard unexplained footsteps within the house at\nabout that time. On 28 July 1900, four daughters of the rector, Henry Dawson\nEllis Bull, saw what they thought was the ghost of a nun at twilight, about 40\nyards (37 m) from the house; they tried to talk to it, but it disappeared as\nthey got closer.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local organist, Ernest Ambrose later said that the family at\nthe Rectory were “very convinced that they had seen an apparition on\nseveral occasions”.   Various people\nclaimed to have witnessed a variety of puzzling incidents, such as a phantom\ncoach driven by two headless horsemen, during the next four decades.  Bull died in 1892 and his son, the Reverend\nHenry (“Harry”) Foyster Bull, took over the living.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 9 June 1928, Harry Bull died and the Rectory again became\nvacant. In the following year, on 2 October, the Reverend Guy Eric Smith and\nhis wife moved into the house. Soon after moving in, Smith’s wife, while\ncleaning out a cupboard, came across a brown paper package containing the skull\nof a young woman.          <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after, the family reported a variety of incidents\nincluding the sounds of servant bells ringing despite their being disconnected,\nlights appearing in windows and unexplained footsteps. In addition, Smith’s\nwife believed she saw a horse-drawn carriage at night. The Smiths contacted the\nDaily Mirror asking to be put in touch with the Society for Psychical Research\n(SPR).     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 10 June 1929 the newspaper sent a reporter, who promptly wrote\nthe first in a series of articles detailing the mysteries of Borley.  The paper also arranged for Harry Price, a\nparanormal researcher, to make his first visit to the house. He arrived on 12\nJune and immediately phenomena of a new kind appeared, such as the throwing of\nstones, a vase and other objects. “Spirit messages” were tapped out\nfrom the frame of a mirror.  As soon as\nPrice left, these ceased.  Smith’s wife\nlater maintained that she already suspected Price, an expert conjurer, of\nfalsifying the phenomena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Smiths left Borley on 14 July 1929 and the parish had some\ndifficulty in finding a replacement. The following year the Reverend Lionel\nAlgernon Foyster (1878\u20131945), a first cousin of the Bulls, and his wife\nMarianne (n\u00e9e Marianne Emily Rebecca Shaw) (1899\u20131992) moved into the Rectory\nwith their adopted daughter Adelaide, on 16 October 1930.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lionel Foyster wrote an account of various strange incidents that\noccurred between the time the Foysters moved in and October 1935, which was\nsent to Harry Price.  These included\nbell-ringing, windows shattering, the throwing of stones and bottles,\nwall-writing and the locking of their daughter in a room with no key.  Marianne Foyster reported to her husband a\nwhole range of poltergeist phenomena that included her being thrown from her\nbed.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one occasion, Adelaide was attacked by “something\nhorrible”.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foyster tried twice to conduct an exorcism, but his efforts were\nfruitless; in the middle of the first exorcism, he was struck in the shoulder\nby a fist-size stone. Because of the publicity in the Daily Mirror, these\nincidents attracted the attention of several psychic researchers, who after\ninvestigation were unanimous in suspecting that they were caused, consciously\nor unconsciously, by Marianne Foyster. She later said that she felt that some\nof the incidents were caused by her husband in concert with one of the psychic\nresearchers, but other events appeared to her to be genuine paranormal\nphenomena.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However Marianne later admitted that she was having a sexual\nrelationship with the lodger, Frank Pearless, and that she had used paranormal\nexplanations to cover up their liaisons. \nThe Foysters left Borley in October 1935 \u201cas a result of Lionel\nFoyster’s ill health\u201d.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Price\nInvestigation<\/strong>                  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borley remained vacant for some time after the Foysters’\ndeparture. In May 1937, Price took out a year-long rental agreement with Queen\nAnne’s Bounty, the owners of the property.      \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through an advertisement in The Times on 25 May 1937 and\nsubsequent personal interviews, Price recruited a corps of 48 “official\nobservers”, mostly students, who spent periods, mainly during weekends, at\nthe Rectory with instructions to report any phenomena that occurred.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 1938 Helen Glanville (the daughter of S. J. Glanville,\none of Price’s helpers) conducted a planchette s\u00e9ance in Streatham in south\nLondon.  Price reported that she made\ncontact with two spirits, the first of which was that of a young nun who\nidentified herself as Marie Lairre.  \nAccording to the planchette story Marie was a French nun who left her\nreligious order and travelled to England to marry a member of the Waldegrave\nfamily, the owners of Borley’s 17th-century manor house, Borley Hall. She was\nsaid to have been murdered in an older building on the site of the Rectory, and\nher body either buried in the cellar or thrown into a disused well.  The wall writings were alleged to be her\npleas for help; one read “Marianne, please help me get out”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second spirit to be contacted identified himself as Sunex\nAmures, and claimed that he would set fire to the Rectory at nine o’clock that\nnight, 27 March 1938.  He also said that,\nat that time, the bones of a murdered person would be revealed.           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 27 February 1939 the new owner of the rectory, Captain W. H.\nGregson, was unpacking boxes and accidentally knocked over an oil lamp in the\nhallway.  The fire quickly spread and the\nhouse was severely damaged.  After\ninvestigating the cause of the blaze the insurance company concluded that the\nfire had been started deliberately.       \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Miss Williams from nearby Borley Lodge said she saw the figure\nof the ghostly nun in the upstairs\u2019 window and, according to Harry Price,\ndemanded a fee of one guinea for her story. \nIn August 1943, Price conducted a brief dig in the cellars of the ruined\nhouse and discovered two bones thought to be of a young woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bildeston, <\/strong>6 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Crown, Bildeston<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Room 4 at the Crown in Bildeston has a famous ghost that has remained attached to the Crown even after its refurbishment.  There was the infamous election campaign of 1855, when the Crown was being used as a political headquarters by one of the candidates and rival supporters attacked the Inn. They shattered the windows, smashed crockery and broke many of the drinking vessels until, their frustrations vented, they proceeded with a noble attempt to drink the pub dry!  An event that occasionally the ghosts of the village will re-enact for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then a mysterious Grey Lady has been seen at a window that\nlooks out onto the car park waving a ghostly farewell to departing customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two children dressed in Victorian outfits have also appeared before\nstartled guests at various points around the Inn, whilst an old man in a\ntri-cornered hat is frequently seen sitting in a favoured corner of the main\nbar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who enjoy a smattering of haunted hospitality, Room four is the\nbedroom where guests often experience things going bump in the dead of night.  They may be treated to an appearance of the\ngrey lady, or of the “genial missionary” whose presence several\nvisiting mediums have detected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if none of this is sufficient to aid a decent night\u2019s\nunrest, there is always the touch of ice-cold fingers that have been known to\nstroke the necks of sleeping guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sudbury<\/strong>, 7 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mill Hotel<\/strong> is a beautiful hotel on the\nRiver Stour overlooking Sudbury\u2019s water meadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hotel has a rather grisly permanent resident: a mummified\ncat! Its removal was said to be the cause of bad luck when it was moved in\n1971. After a series of bizarre incidents, it was replaced and all seems to\nhave returned to normal.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they tried to move it again in 1999, it is no surprise that the same happened. Needless to say that the mummified cat has been reinterred!\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mummified cats and rats are found in a number of houses in Lavenham and its surrounds and these together with ward marks or witches marks are placed in walls, near doors windows and in fire hearths to ward off witches and demons.\u00a0 De Vere House<\/strong> has many ward marks for example whilst in Lavenham Priory<\/strong> was found a mummified rat buried in its fire hearth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Gregory\u2019s Church<\/strong> is haunted by the ghost of\nArchbishop Simon Sudbury (born circa 1316; killed in the Peasants’ Revolt on 14\nJune 1381).  He was Bishop of London from\n1361 to 1375 then Archbishop of Canterbury from 1375 until his death, and in\nthe last year of his life Lord Chancellor of England. He was dragged to Tower\nHill and was beheaded by the mob. His body was buried in Canterbury Cathedral,\nalthough his head (after being taken down from London Bridge) was sent to St.\nGregory\u2019s Church and remains there to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kersey<\/strong>, 9 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kersey has one of only three\nrecords of a time slip in England.  A\ntime slip is a paranormal phenomenon in which a person, or group of people,\nseem to either travel through time or appear to briefly enter an alternate\nversion of present reality via unknown means. \nFor the best fictional account of time slipping read the work Orlando by\nVirginia Woolf and House on the Strand by du Maurier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such experience in 1957\ninvolved three naval cadets from Shotley and the\nRoyal School there whom travelled back in time to Kersey but during the time of\nthe Black Death.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nreally strange thing was the silence: the way the church bells stopped ringing\nas we neared the village. Even the ducks stood quiet and motionless by the\nshallow stream that ran across the road where the main street begins, whilst\nall the birdsong had been chilled.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They cannot recall seeing any shadows from the buildings or the trees although it was bright sunshine.  No cars, no traffic, no pedestrians, no yellow or white hazard lines on the streets.

One of the cadets recalls that they looked through one of the windows and saw what they took to be a butchers or slaughterers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were no tables or counters, just two or three whole oxen carcasses which had been skinned and in places were quite green with age. There was a green-painted door and windows with smallish glass panes, one at the front and one at the side, rather dirty-looking. I remember that we looked through that window in disbelief at the green and mouldy green carcasses.\u201d

They were frightened and so left the village and climbed the nearest hill, only as they reached the top, did they suddenly hear noise for the first time (as if someone had turned the volume switch back on): bells ringing, birdsong, cars, people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their story appears in Mackenzie’s 1997 book, Adventures in Time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nimpressed Mackenzie the most is that the house the cadets identified as a\nbutchers had been in private residential use for centuries but had once been a butchers.  <\/em>None\nof the cadets were locals so it is doubtful they could have known this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bury St Edmunds<\/strong>, 11 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1645, Bury saw 18 local people hanged in one day under the supervision of The Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, 16 women and two men from neighbouring villages. Two women, Anne Leech and Anne Wright, were never traced to a particular village and are believed to still haunt the centre of Bury around its new cattle market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grey Lady<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bury\u2019s principle resident ghost is the Grey Lady and has\nbeen sighted at the Abbey Ruins, St Saviour\u2019s Hospital ruins, the\nPriory Hotel, the Theatre Royal, in shops on Abbeygate Street, in\nbuildings on Angel Hill, and in the cellars of the 16th century Cupola House on\nThe Traverse, now The Bourgee restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grey Lady is also said to appear in St\nEdmundsbury Cathedral churchyard annually on 24 February at 11pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some believe the ghost is a nun linked to the death of\nthe Duke of Gloucester, who was allegedly murdered in St Saviours Hospital in\n1447.  According to local tales, it was\nthis nun, named Maude Carew, who killed Gloucester (and not the Duke of\nSuffolk, as portrayed in Shakespeare\u2019s Henry VI, Part II). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saint Saviours Hospital, Bury St Edmunds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other tales suggest she is a medieval nun who was punished with execution for a liaison with a monk at the Abbey. Whoever our Grey Lady is, she is the town\u2019s most frequently spotted ghost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abbeygate,  Angel lane and Churchgate Street.  Medieval monks<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparitions of\nthe Abbey\u2019s Benedictine monks are also said to be frequently seen. Individuals\nand groups have been sighted walking around the Abbey\u2019s grounds and through\nsurrounding buildings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1961, two men\nclaim to have seen a monk drift down Angel Lane before disappearing through a\nwall. A year later, a monk was reportedly seen \u2018hovering\u2019 in Churchgate Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enid Crossley, a\nresident of the Cathedral Cottages, claimed a monk appeared in her bedroom\nseveral times.  Staff in the shops along\nAbbeygate Street have also made claims about the sighting of ghostly\nmonks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eastgate Street.  A doomed love affair<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visitors to the\ntown in October should keep their eyes peeled for a soldier and a nurse in\nVictorian dress. The first reports of these ghosts were made in 1935 by two\ngirls and their mother, who felt a chill as a man and a woman rushed past them\non Eastgate Street.  A gunshot and a\nscream were then heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legend has it\nthe woman was a 19th century nurse called Mary Treese, returning from the\nCrimean War with a wounded soldier she had tended and fallen in love with. Her\nfather, however, disapproved of their relationship and shot the man dead.  Their fateful end is said to be played out\nevery year on 20th October on Eastgate Street.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghosts in the\nNutshell <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as being\none of Britain\u2019s smallest pubs, The Nutshell, built in 1844, may also be\none of its most haunted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1975, the\nlandlord returned downstairs from the room above the bar, telling patrons he\nhad just seen a small boy sitting by himself and then disappear. It is thought\na boy did die there in suspicious circumstances \u2013 some say by drowning in a\nbathtub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locals of the\nNutshell also claim to have experienced poltergeist activity in the pub, with\nmany blaming glasses shattered and batteries drained on a young ghost. Others,\nhowever, point the finger at a mummified cat, which hangs over the bar. This\ncat is said to be cursed, bringing misfortune to anyone who touches it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan Murdie, Chair\nof the Ghost Club and author of Haunted Bury St Edmunds tells us that bad luck\nbefell a landlady who tried to clean the cat as well as a group of servicemen\nfrom RAF Honington who kidnapped it as a prank. The landlady lost her job\nshortly after her cleaning attempt, and the servicemen say they were plagued by\nfires and accidents until the cat was returned.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moyse\u2019s Hall\nMuseum<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a workhouse\nand gaol, Moyse\u2019s Hall Museum has been the focus of ghost tales for\ncenturies.  The oldest of these stories\ndates back to 1328, when a woman is recorded as saying she saw \u2018a most horrible\ndevil\u2019 in the building\u2019s cellar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1828, shrieks\nand apparitions were reported after the hanging of the infamous Red Barn\nmurderer William Corder. These only stopped when Corder\u2019s skull was\nburied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Angel Hotel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only can you\nhear footsteps down deserted corridors in the middle of the night but also the\nGrey Lady will stand outside the hotel and look up at the bedroom windows then\npoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolpit<\/strong>, 12 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum<\/em> and Ralph\nof Coggeshall’s Chronicum Anglicanum<\/em> (written in about 1189 and 1220 respectively) we learn\nof the Green Children of Woolpit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day at harvest time,\naccording to William of Newburgh during the reign of King Stephen, the\nvillagers of Woolpit discovered two children, a brother and sister, beside one\nof the wolf pits that give the village its name.Their skin was\ngreen, they spoke an unknown language, and their clothing was strange.  They were taken to the home of Richard de\nCalne where they refused all food for several days until they came across some\nraw broad beans, which they consumed eagerly (leading to the suggestion\nthat this is the first example of a five green veg. a day campaign by public\nhealth).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The children gradually adapted to normal food and in time lost their green colour.  The boy, however, the younger of the two, became sickly and died shortly after he and his sister had been baptised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surviving girl explained\nthat she came from a land where the sun never shone and the light was like\ntwilight.  She called her home St\nMartin’s Land where everything was green. She had been herding her father’s green\ncattle when she heard a loud noise (the bells of Bury St Edmunds) , and\ndisorientated, fled into a cave to emerge by the wolf pit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The girl was employed for many years as a\nservant in Richard de Calne’s household, where she was considered to be\n“very wanton and impudent”.  She eventually married a man from King’s\nLynn, Richard Barre, a royal official, and took the name Agnes de Barre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clare<\/strong>, 17 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Clare\nLegend<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is found in Mrs Barnardiston’s book on Clare Priory,\nand is depicted in the 20th century carving on the mantelpiece in the Priory\u2019s library.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh of Bury, the sacristan, had pawned some of the church treasures and was desperate to find money to repay his moneylenders, not only because the Prior might find out, but also because a papal legate and nuncio was visiting the Abbey of St Edmund and might visit Clare to do an audit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One night a figure in the dress of a monk wearing a cowl and with\nhis feet covered by his habit, approached Hugh.   He chatted pleasantly, revealing that he\ncould see that the sacristan had problems, and reminisced about his own\nfeelings when he had held the same office and felt the wish to borrow money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stranger went on to suggest an answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh should hide his stock of candles, say they had been eaten by mice, and ask for a new supply. When they were replaced he could raise money for himself by selling the surplus ones. \u00a0Also, when money had been paid for votive-offering candles, he should recover the partly used candles and their wax (after the worshiper had finished) and re-sell them several times over, keeping the proceeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only condition was that Hugh should always keep the very first\ncandle: if that ever burned down, the stranger would return and claim a fee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh agreed to the scheme! \nThere would be no story if he had not but \u2026 really? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a time the plan worked and Hugh’s financial position improved.\nThen some of Hugh’s other misdemeanours and mismanagement of Priory affairs was\nuncovered, and he was put on bread and water and confined to his and the day rooms.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late one day, as it began to get dark but the other monks were still away hunting, Hugh suddenly remembered he still needed to get salt for their evening meal. \u00a0He grabbed a candle without thinking (alas it was the one he had been told never to allow to burn away) and headed down to the Cellarers’ Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst looking for salt Hugh saw a cooked fowl, and was tempted so ate it. Then he heard the other monks returning from the hunt and fled, leaving the candle burning. When the Prior was served with the bare bones of the carcass of the fowl instead of a satisfying dish, he guessed who was the culprit and committed Hugh’s soul to the devil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that moment the candle before him gutted out. The other friars\nheard a ghastly scream, and ran to find Hugh at the foot of the stairs to the\ndormitory with a look of horror on his face, his flesh seared as if it had been\ntouched by a great fire.  There was a\nsmell of sulphur in the air, and a glimpse of a dark shadow departing with the\nmetallic clink of a shod cloven hoof. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The friars could never scrub away the bloodstain on the stairs,\nnot even with holy water and it can be seen to this day when visiting the\nPriory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nMysterious Burial Alive of the witch Joan of Arc<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The de Vere and the de Clare family were closely connected (the latter better known as the Clarence family, one duke of whom was drowned in a Butt of Malmsley if Shakespeare is to be believed.)\u00a0 The de Clare’s were also supposedly descended from Mary Magdalen and were one of the 12 most powerful families in England, along with the de Veres they were signatories to the Magna Carta.\u00a0 Their stronghold was Clare Castle with its 13th C Augustinian Priory below.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So well-connected were they that the wife of Edward III of England\nwas a Clarence and was buried at the ancient Augustinian Priory Church in Clare\n… which caused a bit of a stir in Victorian times.             <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regrettably when it came to tidying up the masonry work on some of\nthe tomb stones at Clare, a mason accidentally inserted a date that had Joan\nd’Acre appear to have been buried in 1305 but dying in 1307.  An expensive misprint never corrected and\nthus rumours began that Joan had risen from the dead and needed to be reburied\nor that she had been buried alive.  Her\nname (an honorary title reflecting the recapture of Acre in the Crusades) was\ntoo similar to that of Joan of Arc for the Victorians (never ones to miss an\nopportunity to rewrite history) to miss. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly Clare was the burial place of Joan of Arc whom\nmysteriously survived her trial and execution and lived a further 2 years\nbefore her burial in 1307 (ignoring that she was actually tried over one hundred\nyears later).            <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before we move on from the unlikely tale of a Joan d’Acre who\nrose zombie-like from her grave, let us just reflect on the witch trial of Joan\nof Arc herself.  This incredible and\ncharismatic lady successfully saw off the best legal minds in France and\nEngland during her trial and thus was in danger of being found innocent of\nwitchcraft … and so she was found guilty of pretending to be a man. Imposture\nof another was deemed witchcraft by the Church and State so on that basis poor\nJoan was burnt.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is this relevant? \u00a0Read about our own witches in Lavenham (see section on Witches), one of whom, like Joan of Arc, was condemned at a young age as a witch for wearing a disguise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Icklingham<\/strong>, 18 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Icklingham is\njust outside Bury and is an ancient place which stands at a junction on\nIcknield Way, which was used as a transportation route by the Iron Age Iceni\ntribe before the Romans came to Britain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1871, the\nremains of a Roman cemetery were found close to All Saints and its\npathway.  Close to the village are\nancient barrows, one of which is said to contain Oliver Cromwell\u2019s treasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children scurry past the gap in the hedge to the east of All Saints\nChurch in Icklingham.  Through the gap is\na pathway which, according to local legend, belonged to a witch and her ghostly\nwhite rabbit – and if you catch sight of her, she can claim your soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was believed that the gap in the\nhedge would never close and that after dark, shadowy figures and a witch with\nher white rabbit familiar could be seen walking through it.  Sometimes, the rabbit appears alone at dusk\nand rumour has it that horses will bolt from the path while two men died after\nspotting the hag and her companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wixoe<\/strong>, 21 miles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wixoe Hall has a very rare sighting of a doppelganger with many reported incidents of people going to Wixoe and coming away \u201ca changed person\u201d. This became the subject of a ghost story to be found in Tales of the Burning Bush<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Borley Village and Lodge, 6 miles from Lavenham Borley is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the most haunted village in the world with both more ghosts and more sightings than anywhere else.  Borley Rectory was once the centre of this ghastly feste on Hallowe’en with the Grey Lady, Ann Boleyn, the headless … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Strange Happenings on Suffolk and Essex borders”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-283","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/283\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deverehouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}