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General
Tempsford has a long history stretching back over a thousand years. The Romans were there due to the road which passed through the village (the busy A1), then later the Danes. It was at Tempsford that they built one of their most formidable fortifications. It was also here that a Danish chieftain was defeated in the tenth century.
In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was known as Tamiseforde. The origin of the name is not very obvious. The second part, ford, is self-explanatory as ford is an Old English name and means ‘ford’. It is the first part which is strange as it is an Old English name for one of the rivers that meet at Tempsford. One river is the Ouse and the other is the Ivel but it seems that at one time one of them was called the Thames.
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Tempsford Hall
In 1844 the new owner of Tempsford Hall and his wife had just moved in when strange things started to happen. The wife, Mrs. Elliott, was the first to experience the haunting when she heard the sounds of footsteps crossing the hall from the dining room to the study. This was followed by the sounds of bolts being drawn then closed. The owners searched the house but they could find no one. The household servant, Johnson Butler, swore an oath about his odd experiences at the hall. He heard numerous, varied and inexplicable noises which included the sound of scratching coming from the bedroom wall panels and a loud bang as if his door post had been hit by a mallet. He also reported that his bedroom door would fly open then slam shut. The hall burned down in 1898.
Voices were sometimes heard saying ‘that will do it is alright’ and furniture could be heard moving around. In 1846 the noises got louder, so much so that the chandelier in the sitting room started vibrating. One Sunday Mrs. Elliott was ill; she looked out of her window and saw a tall man dressed in mourning clothes. He was standing with his back to Mrs. Elliot and appeared to be looking at a bed of roses, the next instant he disappeared.
Things got worse with the constant sound of footsteps pacing up and down the hall, beds were shaken at night and caskets would roll around in the cellar. When one family member went to the library to get a book they heard a noise as if the wall was falling down and the sound of clanking chains. In another room sounds were heard as if the servants were bringing in dinner and setting the table, complete with the sounds of rattling covers. Screams were also heard followed by a voice saying ‘hush’. Stones were heard being thrown at the windows as well as groans, the sound of someone running back and forth, door handles turning and boxes being opened and closed. Numerous people heard the sounds including a policeman who heard someone rush behind a door. Several servants left and, eventually, so did the Elliot’s. Shortly after this much of the building was destroyed by fire.
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