Bedfordshire’s spookiest sites

If you’re planning on doing a little ghost hunting this Halloween, here are some of the spookiest sites in the county to get you started on your paranormal investigations.

Wardown Park

This museum and art gallery in Luton has everything you could need for a great day out, including, according to staff, a resident ghost. It is said that people have seen a woman walking around with a large set of keys on her belt and a ghostly staircase appears from time to time, perhaps showing a previous owner’s interior design skills. According to local legend, a housekeeper that worked at Wardown Park during the Victorian era drowned nearby and has haunted the home ever since, but the museum hasn’t verified this.

Ampthil Castle

The castle has been in a state of disrepair since Tudor times so you can imagine that there has been plenty of time for stories about the site to circulate. It is said that the ruins are haunted by a knight who is loyal to Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. Those that have spotted him say that he appears near the cross that commemorates Catherine, who spent her final years in Bedfordshire following the ending of her marriage.

Houghton House

Another set of ruins, this former 17^th century mansion has amazing views and was built for the Dowager Countess of Pembroke in 1615. It is thought that it was the inspiration for the house in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and its easy to see why. Visitors have reported seeing the ghost of a little girl standing in the doorway, while others have seen a horse drawn coach.

Chicksands Priory

It is believed that Chicksands Priory was founded in about 1152 by the Baron of Bedford and is a former Gilbertine monastic house. Over the years it has been used as a family home and was one of only ten religious houses in England that hosted both nuns and canons, it was at one time one of the largest and wealthiest Gilbertine houses of its kind, however it passed into the ownership of a prominent family after the dissolution of the monasteries who then lived there for almost 400 years before passing into usage by the armed forces. The US Airforce is said to have used it as a base to spy on the Soviet Union during the cold war and it still belongs to the Ministry of Defence and its secrets are closely guarded. However, as a former priory, you would be right in assuming that there was a cemetery here and that there were influential people buried there throughout history. The ghost that is most reported here however isn’t a former Lord or Lady but rather of a young girl who is known as Rosetta and is often seen around the 17^th of every month.

Fairfield park

At the heart of this neighbourhood is a grand looking Victorian building, now a block of flats, which housed the former Three Counties Asylum and was home to all manner of unfortunate souls who didn’t quite fit into Victorian society. It continued to work as a hospital for those deemed to be mentally unwell until the 1960s when it was renamed Fairfield Hospital and then finally closed in 1999. During WWI, many of the inmates were ex-soldiers who had returned with shell shock, many of which were treated with new and experimental treatments including electro-shock therapy and later on, in the 1950s, a nurse was murdered there.
Staff reported several ghostly goings on over the years including hearing screaming and witnessing things moving around.

Black Tom Junction

Did you know that the junction of Tavistock Street, Union Street and Clapham Road was once the location of an execution site? Highway man Black Tom was executed and buried where the junction is now and has been spotted with other spirits. While the fact that this stretch of road was once where ne'er-do-wells were put to death is bad enough, Black Tom ended up being buried with a stake driven through his heart to stop him returning from the dead!

Bedford Castle Mound

You might be forgiven for not realising the significance of Bedford Castle, these days it is just a mound after all but it was actually of huge strategic importance during the Anarchy (the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda) and the First Barons’ War in which the country’s barons revolted against the king. The castle also saw action during the English Civil War but today only part of the motte still stands, it was initially built by Henry I and managed by Simon de Beauchamp, who’s family was part of the conquering party who joined William 1^st when he invaded England. It changed hand during the various conflicts that broke out and during a long siege in 1224 by Henry III, eighty men were hung on the castle mound. To this day, visitors claim that they can hear the gallows creaking under the weight.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin

This church in Clophill has been abandoned for generations and eventually fell into disuse in the 1840s where it became the victim of vandals. The vandals can’t be blamed for all the weird goings on there though, mysterious hooded monks are the most popular sighting and it is believed that it was used for satanic rituals, possibly because unusually for a church, it faces the wrong way. Most churches are built to face east, which is said to be the direction of heaven, but this one is not, possibly indicating that it is open to darker entities.