Haunted Hertfordshire

Halloween always brings out the spookiness in people, and along with the fun element of Trick or Treat for the children, adults enjoy the fancy dress parties, scary movies, and more increasingly the fright nights and spooky tours that are available to scare yourself silly!

Here in Hertfordshire there are more than enough tall tales to put the frighteners on you, and rather than pay the extortionate prices some of these events charge, why not organise your own? First, gather together a group of friends. Then choose your very own ‘Mystery Machine’ vehicle from St. Albans Car and Van Hire. There’s the nine seater Ford Tourneo, or one of our Ford Transit Minibuses – with 15 or 17 seat options.

Next, take your pick of spooky tales you’re going to investigate. The Returning Maid at Abbots Langley churchyard might be a good start. This young girl, thought to be either the former vicar’s daughter or a maid mistreated by a vicar’s wife, died suddenly, and as the story goes, rises from the grave once a year and returns to the vicarage.

In Anstey, in the fields around the village, Blind George is said to have ventured into the Devil’s Hole Cave with his trusted dog, and although the dog escaped, found with its hair burnt away, George was never seen again. It’s said he is still heard playing his fiddle in tunnels under the village.

If it’s a headless figure you’d like to see, then a visit to Ashwell might be the place to be! A headless shadow reportedly stalks the churchyard here.

On stormy autumn nights in Hinxworth Place, Baldock, a crying child can be heard. Thought to relate to an incident when a maid accidentally killed a child who had dressed up as a ghost to scare her, the infant's screams can now be heard echoing down through the ages.

If these stories have put you in need of a stiff drink, then why not head on over to the Brocket Arms pub in Ayot St. Lawrence. Although on second thoughts, the appearance of a fourteenth century hanged monk, seen several times by staff and visitors, might not make it the best place to put your mind at ease…