A house in Ampthill Road is haunted by the ghost of a little girl named Sarah. ‘Luton News' once interviewed Mrs ‘Mabs' Manby in 1987 when she had been living at the house for twenty five years with her husband Dave. “I do often see it cross the hall, it's a small white figure.” One of her friends had also seen the ghost and is reported to have said “Something has just flitted across your hall”. Mrs Manby said that she sees the ghost two or three times a year and that she is unconcerned about her little ‘guest'.

The house in question, Silsoe House, is believed to have once been lived in by the estate agent to the de Grey family, the owners of Wrest Park.

Over a hundred years ago the house was lived in by Mrs Hallam and, at the time, Bill Turner was lodging with her while he was working on her garden. One night he heard a faint tapping on the door of the next bedroom; this was followed by silence then a creaking on the stairs. This happened six times then as Bill was settling down to sleep he felt something brush his bed. Leaping out of bed he lit a lamp and could hear the floorboards creaking outside his bedroom. When he investigated he was shocked to see a small, fair-haired girl wearing a pinafore and no shoes, or stockings. The child was obviously in distress as she ran past him and disappeared by the bed.

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See also - Bedfordshire - Ampthill - Main Street

See also - Bedfordshire - Milton Ernest - All Saints

The Old George

The ghost of Lady Elizabeth Grey is said to haunt the Old George in Silsoe. The landlord, John Bridge, reports that he has never seen or heard her but people staying at the inn say they have heard footsteps. John's only encounter was when he once went to his bedroom and felt a strange presence.

In 1959 the then landlady of the Old George had so many problems with the ghost that she called in an exorcist. A psychical research group duly arrived but there was no evidence of the ghost (until after they had left). At that time the ghost kept slamming doors in the early hours of the nights which began to tell on the landlady.

In 1960 a workman looked up to see the figure of a grey woman go past. He described her as a young woman with a large picture hat. The hat was obviously so remarkable that he completely neglected to note anything else about the apparition other than that she wore grey.

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Silsoe, The Old George _____________________________________________________________________
Wrest Park

It is said that one of the bailiffs at Wrest Park heard the sound of footsteps in the gardens. It seems he was not the only witness as his daughter heard the sounds as well. They were heard both by day and by night but no search of the area could find a satisfactory explanation.

The present house at Wrest Park was built between 1834 and 1839 and was designed by Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey who was an amateur architect and the first president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He had been inspired by buildings he had seen on trips to Paris. The gardens were originally thought to have been laid out by George London and Henry Wise for Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent. They were later modified by Capability Brown who retained some of the features like the parterres.

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