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General
Studham is the most southerly village in Bedfordshire and has a parish population of 1,125 (as given in the 2001 Census). In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is given as Estodham, which means 'a homestead where horses are kept'. The name actually comes from the Old English words stod ('stud') and ham ('homestead') or hamm ('hemmed-in land').
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The Bell Inn
In 1965 the licensee of the Bell Inn, Jim Kevan, and his wife started experiencing odd happenings at the public house. For some reason hand brushes and yellow dusters would keep going missing. It happened so often that they had to stop buying dusters as it was a waste of time owning one. Unlike normal hauntings this one stopped when the building was renovated, or so it seemed.
In October of 1975 Don Martin became the landlord and all seemed well for nearly a year. Then, in August of 1976 Don and his wife Joan were sitting in the kitchen when a noise made them turn and look at the back door. As they watched the top bolt slid back by itself. Investigation revealed that this could not have been due to any natural phenomena as the bolt was a heavy one. Other things then started to happen, these included a customer who was tapped on the shoulder but there was no one nearby who could have done it and the sound of footsteps overhead heard by Don and Joan while they were in the bar but there was no one upstairs.
A very odd occurrence involved customers who were leaving the pub late at night and had crossed the road to the car park. As they looked back at the pub they saw a figure standing in one of the windows so they waved goodnight but the figure did not respond. When they next visited the pub they said they had waved but Don and Joan denied it was them as they were busy tidying up in the lounge bar, so who was it?
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Studham Common Dell
One of the strangest tales that has come from Bedfordshire must be that of the Blue Man of Studham. Not necessarily a ghost story, but interesting nonetheless.
The events took place on 28th January 1967 in a small dell near to Studham Lower School. Seven boys from the school were returning there after lunch, at about 13:45, when they encountered the Blue Man.
Ten year old Alex Butler was the first to see him/her/it, as he was a little ahead of the others as they approached the dell. Climbing the surrounding bank he looked down into the dell and saw the Blue Man, not twenty metres away. The figure was described as a little blue man with a beard and wearing a tall hat. Alex called to his friends and they all rushed over and stared down into the dell. At first they were too amazed to move, but after a while they all ran down into the dell towards the figure. The man did not move, instead he seemed to emit a cloud of yellowish-blue mist, then he quite literally vanished.
The boys searched the dell but at first there was no sign of the Blue Man. Then he was spotted further along the bank, again about twenty metres away. As the boys moved towards him he once again vanished in a mist. They all reached the spot where he had been standing, but there was again no sign of him. To their surprise he was seen once more standing near to where he had first been spotted.
People are convinced that the boys were telling the truth, especially as the tale seemed too detailed to have been invented by them. So what was he, an alien or something preternatural?
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