The ghost of a crying woman in a black cloak and hood, the Black Lady, is said to roam these woodlands. Her harrowing tale is as follows: during the Wars of the Roses (1455-87), a young woodsman was pressed into military service, leaving his wife and infant child behind. He never returned. Then, one day, she was set upon by three rampaging members of the enemy army, was raped, and had her child stolen. Thereafter, she took to wandering the woods forlornly, and her spirit continues to do so in death.

According to legend, she can be taunted into apparition by anyone who visits the woods on Christmas Eve and shouts ‘Black Lady, Black Lady, I’ve stolen your baby’. The origin of the story is possibly as a cautionary tale to keep children safe. Bradley and Dixon Woods – really one woodland – is now a nature reserve, and easy to visit.

More information is available here at Mysterious Britain. Lucy Wood recounts the tale in The Little Book of Lincolnshire (2016).

Words by RORY WATERMAN