Ghostly goings on in county

One of these stories was widely reported in a number of newspapers in 2008. Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia was living in a house on the site of the former Leavesden Asylum, where the ghost of a monk holding a candle was seen on several occasions. Almunia’s wife was so frightened by the apparition that the footballer obtained special permission to go home from training at lunch so she did not have to be alone in the house for too long.

Churches are often the site of creepy goings-on, and St Laurence’s Church in Abbot’s Langley is said to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Ann Trebble, a housekeeper at the vicarage before World War I. She died in mysterious circumstances. Some say she caught pneumonia, others that she was murdered by the vicar’s wife. Trebble has been seen several times walking from the vicarage to her grave. After she was seen by a vicar during a service, the Bishop of St Albans was called in to perform a service of exorcism.

It is not only claustrophobic spaces like churches where supernatural happenings occur. In Bovingdon there is a large airfield that was once occupied by American servicemen. People walking their dogs in the area report sensing a presence. Their pets howl and will sometimes try to run away, but no one knows why. There are also numerous phenomena that have occurred at the airfield, including a mysterious mist that suddenly appears, causing anyone in the vicinity to lose their way.

The Mill End Community Centre was once the Shepherd’s Infant School. One night, the caretaker had switched off all the lights, locked up and was walking away from the school. But behind him, all the lights came back on again. Another time he found that one of the classroom doors would not lock, so he had to leave it open. The next day, the door was found to be locked.

At Green End Farm in Sarratt, a little old woman was said to wake people during the night by pulling the bedclothes off the bed. The woman, who wore a black gown trimmed with white lace, would eventually drive away the tenants at the farm. People have also reported hearing the jingling of horses’ harnesses at the farm and the sound of footsteps on cobblestones outside. This has been attributed to events that took place during the Civil War, when some of Cromwell’s soldiers stayed in the attic at the farm.

The Grand Union Canal, which passes through Cassiobury Park, is the source of many ghost stories. A bargeman travelling along the canal one night got the fright of his life when, upon passing the old watermill, he saw a ghost standing on the lock gates wearing long white robes that fluttered in the breeze. However, this ‘ghost’ was actually the footman from a nearby house dressed in a white sheet, playing a joke on the unfortunate bargeman.

There is another ghost story concerning the canal which does not end so well. Iron Bridge Lock is said to be haunted by the ghost of Jack O’Cassiobury. Jack was a black slave in the eighteenth century whose job it was to harass the bargees as they passed through the lock. Jack would leap onto the barges and cause chaos. One day, one of the men on a barge took a swing at Jack, who fell in the canal and was left to drown. Jack’s ghost stalked the canal ever after.

The Watford Palace Theatre is also said to be frequented by ghosts. One dressing room is particularly active, with the strong feeling of a presence accompanied by an icy chill to the air and the sound of footsteps. In the past, two people fell from the gallery in the theatre to their deaths, and it is this that is believed to cause the disturbances.

In Watford Central Library, there is an area known as ‘the stack’, a storage area for the reference library. Several ghostly goings-on have been witnessed here, including when two members of staff went to the stack in response to the panic alarm going off. When they arrived, there was no one there, though there are no windows and the stack can only be reached by a single walkway.

Information courtesy of lutonparanormal.com