_____________________________________________________________________
General
Stanbridge is a small village between Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard with a parish population of 747 (as given in the 2001 Census). There is a green in the centre of the village with an inn at one end and the parish church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, at the other. The church is mediæval but was largely restored in the late nineteenth century. It contains a pertly Elizabethan octagonal pulpit and an Early English font.
Stanbridge
_____________________________________________________________________
Orchard Way
In Orchard Way in Stanbridge there stands a dormer bungalow which at one time was said to be haunted by a ghost in a dressing gown and slippers. The ghost was not seen but it was heard by Mary Hall who once lived there. During Christmas of 1976 Mary's mother had come to stay with her. One night Mary was having a small family party and some of the guests were dancing in the lounge when Mary, who had been watching the dancers, saw the lounge door close. The door handle had turned so Mary thought it must have been her mother, who had gone to bed earlier because she was feeling tired, who had done it. When she went to check she found her mother in bed and she categorically denied getting up and closing the door.
The only visual sighting was made by Mrs Hall's eight year old daughter back in 1963. She had told her mother that she had seen a man walking down the drive but he had vanished before he reached the house.
To view a map of the area click on the button below
_____________________________________________________________________
Station Road
On the 12th October 1979, about 21:30, twenty six year old carpet fitter Roy Fulton was returning home after playing in a darts match in Leighton Buzzard. He was driving along Station Road in Stanbridge and had reached the junction with Peddars Lane when he saw a young man, about twenty years of age, wearing dark trousers, a jumper and white open necked shirt, thumbing a lift. Mr Fulton stopped short of the man and watched as he walked towards his Mini van. The man opened the passenger door and got in without saying a word, he didn't even speak when Mr Fulton asked where he was going. The man simply raised his arm and indicated the general direction of Totternhoe and Dunstable.
After a mile the car was doing forty miles per hour and the man had still not uttered a word. Mr Fulton decided to offer him a cigarette and turned round to look at the man but there was no one there. Shocked Mr Fulton rapidly stopped the car and checked the back seat; there was no sign of his passenger. According to Mr Fulton there was no way that the man could have got out of the car as they were doing forty miles per hour. When the man first got into the car the interior light had come on, between then and when he disappeared the light remained off so the passenger door was never opened. All of the events happened in a span of a few minutes from when Mr Fulton picked the young man up until he discovered the man had gone.
To view a map of the area click on the button below
Stanbridge, Station Road
|