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General
Old Warden is a small village with a population of 170 and consists of a single street. The look of the village was due to Lord Ongley who prettified it early in the nineteenth century. Other, complementary houses were added by the Shuttleworth family who acquired the estate in 1872. The Shuttleworths and Lord Ongley were also responsible for the laying out of the Swiss Garden which lies to the north.
St. Leonard’s church contains a remarkable collection of carved woodwork brought from the continent in the early Victorian period. The church also contains some fine stained glass believed to have come from Warden Abbey.
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The Hare and Hounds
In 2002 the barmaid, Michelle, was tidying up after all the customers had left. She looked up to see a woman standing by the bar, when she next looked around the woman had gone. Two years prior to this, renovations were being undertaken at the Hare and Hounds and a Spanish barman was staying overnight. It was s stormy night and he was alone when he saw the ghost of a woman in an upstairs room. A room at the far end of the pub called ‘The Chapel’ seems to be the most affected area. Tobias, a medium, sensed a ‘happy presence’ in the room.
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Old Warden, The Hare and Hounds
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Swiss Garden
Gardeners were working in the Swiss Garden when they began to hear voices and sense presences that they could not see. During the restoration of the garden they had moved a stone cross. They quickly returned it to its former location and the whispering stopped.
The garden was originally laid out in the 1820’s to 1830’s by Lord Ongley and took its name from a summerhouse called the ‘Swiss Cottage’ that he had built there. The tale has it that his lordship had a Swiss mistress who bore him a son who died at the age of nine. The grave in the garden was marked by a cross with no inscription. An alternative version says that Lord Ongley’s Swiss fiancée was caught in a heavy shower of rain in the garden. She sheltered under a tree but caught cold and died. The Swiss Cottage was built in her memory.
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Old Warden, Swiss Garden
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