ACCORDING TO FOLKLORE...
A number of other woodland locations in England are supposedly haunted. However, the reports tend to be little more than vague folklore, since the supposed witnesses go largely unnamed. Here are some examples.
BRADLEY WOODS, NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE
A wood near the village of Bradley is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young woman wearing a black cloak and hood. However, the stories about her have a strong ‘folklore flavour’. Without testimony from named witnesses, one might doubt whether there’s much to them. 1
WOMBWELL WOOD, NEAR BARNSLEY, SOUTH YORKSHIRE
There’ve allegedly been many reports of ghostly manifestations in Wombwell Wood over the years, although there doesn’t seem to be much testimony from named witnesses. The commonest sighting has been that of a male apparition that supposedly resembles Guy Fawkes and allegedly jumps out on walkers in the woods. An unnamed couple reported that the figure leapt out at them as they drove past the woods – and covered its face with a cape as they passed through it. Bright balls of light have been reported, and many people have supposedly been attacked in the woods by a force that made them feel so ill that they passed out. We’re also told that ‘shadow figures’ have often been sighted in the area. A paranormal investigator called Phil Sinclair visited the locality and felt that something, claiming to be evil, was mocking him and playing around with his equipment.
HERMIT’S WOOD, NEAR ILKESTON, DERBYSHIRE Located south-west of Ilkeston, there’s a small area of ancient woodland known as Hermit’s Wood. People have supposedly heard strange banging noises here, often accompanied by their sensing a change from a normal atmosphere
to a very oppressive one. Witnesses have allegedly had an overwhelming sensation of being watched and followed. People have also reported the apparition of a monk or some other hooded form, the sightings mainly occurring at night. Legend has it that a monk, probably from a local abbey, hanged himself in the wood.
WYCHWOOD FOREST, OXFORDSHIRE
Wychwood Forest is a small area of broadleaf woodland to the south-west of Charlbury. Visitors to the forest have reported feelings of being watched and followed, and sometimes even touched by an unseen presence. Many people are said to have experienced a feeling of nausea, or have heard whispers, shouts and the sounds of horses in the forest. A horse-drawn cart, driven by a man and containing two weeping children, has allegedly been seen there on occasion. A tree in the forest, thought to have been used for hanging criminals, is supposedly a hot spot for paranormal activity and produces feelings of oppression and dread. A report by Jan Williams in the July 1994 issue of Animals & Men refers to people seeing unusual animals in the area, including a bear or bear-like creature.
EPPING FOREST, LONDON/ ESSEX
Epping Forest straddles the boundary between north-east London and Essex. Sadly, the present-day forest is much smaller than it used to be. The area has supposedly been the setting for ghostly phenomena, but the reports tend to be of the anonymous folklore type. For example, a newspaper item, available on the Internet, refers to Loughton Camp and states that it’s thought to have been used as a base by Boudicca (the Celtic warrior queen who led an uprising against the Romans in about AD 60), “and [that] this has led a number of people to think that the spirits and memories of dead soldiers have been left in the area.” Again, rather vaguely, the article states that a number of accounts mention muffled sounds of drums and marching coming from the forest, which some people have attributed to the spirits of dead soldiers
‘SALLY IN THE WOOD’, NEAR BATH
A stretch of the A363 road to the east of Bath is known as ‘Sally in the Wood’, the ‘Sally’ apparently being the name of a female ghost that has reputedly appeared to motorists driving on the road through this wooded area, a few miles north-west of Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.
It’s supposedly renowned for road traffic collisions, some of which have been fatal. In April 2008, a number of paranormal investigators visited the area and had some odd subjective experiences, which may have been due to suggestion and imagination rather than anything paranormal. Some of the investigators also heard odd sounds. 7 The website item reporting their visit includes an appended account from ‘Luke from Bristol’, who mentioned a three-day camping trip to the area that he and two elder brothers had made when they were in their early teens. It had been “amazing” during the daytime, but “tense and uncomfortable at night”: what looked like hands pressed into the tent lining, pegs and guy lines were pulled out, and sounds of children (both laughing and crying) were heard coming from outside.