A fairly widely reported story tells of a servant at Girsby Manor in 1784 who is threatened with being flayed alive by a band of robbers if he doesn’t help them to rob the home. Instead, he tells his master, and the robbers are captured and later executed and gibbeted. The story doesn’t end there, though – in some versions, he then goes missing after setting off to Horncastle one evening on a route that would have taken him past the swinging corpses of the would-be robbers.

We have found no evidence that this happened, but will update this page if that changes. A good version of the story is told in Michael Wray, 13 Traditional Ghost Stories from Lincolnshire (2003). Girsby Manor was demolished in the mid-twentieth century, and a new house built on the site. Only the gateway remains, visible from the location marked on the map (due West of Louth). The earthworks of one of Lincolnshire’s many deserted villages lie just to the west.

Words by RORY WATERMAN