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Milton Ernest
Contents -- Click Site Name to view details |
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General
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A brief note about the area
A ghostly mourner A phantom coach A ghostly Green Lady |
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Milton Ernest lies on the main A6 to the north of Bedford. It is a pleasant village on the banks of the River Ouse with a parish population of 754 (as given in the 2001 Census). The name derives from the Old English words middel and tun meaning 'middle farm/settlement'. In the Domesday Book the village appears as Middletone and Mildentone. The Ernest part of the name comes from Robert, son of Erneis, who was associated with the area in 1227.
On a hot summer's day Bill Turner, Bedfordshire's first real paranormal investigator, decided to go into All Saints' church at Milton Ernest to get out of the heat. He had also decided that it would be a good time to see the church's beautiful stained-glass windows. He was in the church alone, sitting in one of the back pews, when the church doors opened. He heard footsteps walking down the aisle but there was no one there. Bill decided to leave the church and turned round for one last look at the windows when he noticed a man in old-fashioned clothes and a silk top hat sitting in a front pew. As Bill walked through the churchyard he spotted the sexton and went over to ask him about the man in the top hat. The sexton told him that there had once been a vicar in the parish whose wife died suddenly. Now, on the anniversary of her death, he returns to the church in ghost form. “And that”, said the sexton, “would be today!”
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It is said that once a year a phantom coach can be seen in Milton Ernest. Legend has it that the coach is driven through the gates of Milton Ernest Hall by a headless coachman then it turns into Bedford Road.
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In the 1940s and 1950s residents of Milton Ernest used to tell about the ghost of a 'Green Lady' who was seen several times in a window of West Manor Farm. The building, which dates back to the seventeenth century, has now been converted into three properties and the haunted window has, unfortunately, been blocked up.
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