Category: folk tale

  • Ghost Child

    In Scandals and Legends of Barton-upon-Humber, Book 2: Ghosts, Money and Love (1999), Karen Maitland and Jeannie Bishop tell the story, well known locally, of the ghost of a little boy at Providence House (until quite recently used as the town library). ‘The supernatural activity always increases each year’, they write, ‘in the few days…

  • Forget Me Not

    Forget Me Not

    The story of as young woman who lived near the ruins of Monks Abbey, and of the knight she was courting.

  • Maidenwell: coach and horses

    One (spurious) explanation for the etymology Maidenwell, recorded in a reader’s letter in the magazine Lincolnshire Life (1975), is that a young woman was thrown down a well by Cromwell’s soldiers. Ethel Rudkin (1936) includes this brief entry: ‘In Ostler’s Lane there is a haunting – a coach and horses goes by, and the coachman…

  • The Soldier and the Dog

    After his death in his nineties, the soldier has been rumoured to walk to Hubbards Hills with a small dog at his side. Other dog walkers have reported their pets becoming agitated and refusing to go near the spot where the soldier met his paramour.

  • Gunby Hall Ghost

    A path running past the pond on the grounds is known as the Ghost Walk, on account of a gruesome murder the allegedly took place in the 18th century and the unquiet spirit it produced.

  • Lincolnshire’s Own Mary Celeste

    Lincolnshire’s Own Mary Celeste

    Waters around the British Isles teem with stories of ghost ships, and Lincolnshire is no exception. Two reports of ghost ships driven ashore with no one to be found on board are associated with Cleethorpes Beach.