On 1 November 1455, All Saints’ Day, betrothed couple Neville Randall and Rosamund Guy allegedly met in this beauty spot, and Rosamund was murdered by her fiancé. Both are said to have gone missing, in any case, and stories arose that he had murdered her and fled. Rosamund’s father supposedly claimed that unless he was found and brought to justice, his daughter would haunt the wood for the next five hundred years. According to legend, the skeleton of a woman was eventually discovered under a tree, into which their initials had both been carved, and many people have claimed in the past to have seen the ghost. What remains of the wood is a short walk along a public footpath from Irby upon Humber. Discussed in, for example, Daniel Codd’s Haunted Lincolnshire (2007).

Words by RORY WATERMAN