The ghost of Mary Blandy is said to walk the steep road which runs down to Dolesden Farm. One witness was pushing his bicycle along the road when he saw someone approaching. It was a bright, moonlit night and he could clearly see that she was wearing old-fashioned clothes. As she approached he could hear the rustle of her skirt. Not wanting to frighten her, as it was late at night, he walked past her without acknowledging that she was there. As they passed he thought that it might have been reassuring for her if he had raised his cap and wished her goodnight. He turned round but there was no one there, yet he could still hear the rustling of her skirt.

She was also seen by two other residents of Turville on a dark night. A man and his wife were walking down the lane when they saw ‘something’ pass them by and they could hear the rustling of a silk dress. They turned to see what it was but there was nothing there.

Mary is also said to haunt Churchfield Wood in Turville and the village roads around Hambleden.

Mary Blandy was born in 1720 and lived in Henley where her father, Francis, was a solicitor and Town Clerk. A busy and prosperous man he wanted his daughter to have a successful marriage and made no attempt to dispel rumours that his daughter was worth £30,000 if he died. In the summer of 1746 Mary and her parents were invited to dinner at Paradise House, the home of General Mark Kerr. There they met Captain William Henry Cranstuon and Mary was instantly attracted to him. To the Blandy’s he was highly eligible despite the fact that he had a roving eye, he was short, had freckled and pitted skin and ‘clumsy legs’. What did that matter, seeing as he was the fifth son of a Scots peer, Lord Cranstoun.

In the summer of 1747 Cranstoun openly declared his love for Mary and her parents welcomed him with open arms. Soon after a letter arrived telling Mr. Blandy that Cranstoun was already married and had been since 1744. Attempts to get the marriage annulled failed and Cranstoun was forced to pay his wife an annuity, a secret he kept to himself. Mr. Blandy was furious but Mary and her mother believed Cranstoun when he said there would soon be an annulment. In September 1749 Mrs. Blandy died and Mr. Blandy became increasingly hostile towards Cranstoun.

At that time Cranstoun told Mary that there was a wise woman he knew in Scotland who could supply ‘love powders’ that would make her father more amenable. At first Mary had her doubts until Cranstoun put some powder in her father’s tea and he turned from his previous angry state to one of good cheer.

In 1754 Cranstoun returned to Scotland and sent Mary some powders to give to her father. This she did and he soon became very ill with pain and sickness. Their maid happened to taste a cup of tea intended for Mr. Blandy and was ill for a week afterwards. On 5th August 1751 Mary gave her father some gruel and he became so ill that they had to call out the apothecary. The next day she gave him more gruel and the same thing happened again. A charwoman who ate some of it became violently sick.

By now the cook and maid were suspicious of what was going and when they examined the gruel pan they found it contained a gritty substance. Mary’s uncle was informed of their suspicions and they also told Mr. Blandy that they thought he was being poisoned, never-the-less he still drank the tea Mary gave him complaining it had a gritty taste. Mary became suspicious that she was being watched and tried to burn Cranstoun’s letters and the packets she had received on the fire, but the quick-witted maid rescued a paper packet containing a white substance.

Mr. Blandy died on 14th August 1751. Mary was arrested and on 29th February 1752 she was tried for murder. She was found guilty and hung on 6th April 1752 protesting her innocence to the end. Was Mary guilty and if not how could she not have realised that she was killing her father? Cranstoun did not escape as he contracted an illness that caused his body to swell to enormous size and he died in Furness on 2nd December 1752 in agony.

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See also - Buckinghamshire - Turville - Churchfield Wood

See also - Buckinghamshire - Hambleden - Local Roads

To view a report about Dolesden Lane see: 22-07-2005

Local Cottage

Near to the church stand a row of cottages one of which was haunted. The cottage was occupied by two young girls and their mother and, as they later realised, something else. The first thing that happened was a vase was thrown to the floor and smashed for which the younger sister was punished as it “dunned itself” was not an acceptable excuse, at the time. But as time went by more things happened until even the mother believed the house was haunted. When the sisters were young it was very common for things to disappear and turn up somewhere else. Even the dog behaved strangely staring at the corner where the television stood. The television was moved but the dog continued to react towards the same spot. The mother would complain that her bedroom was abnormally cold and the grandmother hated the place saying it smelt of death.

Another grandmother, who lived nearby, would pop over to feed the pets when the family were away and was often met by the sounds of banging doors in the empty house. At first she would try to find the cause but later she just ignored the noises.

Eventually the older sister grew up and moved away and her parents parted leaving just her father and younger sister in the house. Sometimes, as the remaining sister lay in bed waiting for her father to come home, she would hear him arrive and she would call out, but she received no reply. Went she went to look for him she would find that she was alone in the house. Sometimes she would be woken up by someone knocking on her bedroom door, but there was never anyone there. Occasionally her wardrobe would rattle or a packet of biscuits on her bedside table would rustle but when she turned the light on there was nothing there.

One night the sister slept downstairs as a friend was using her room. She awoke to see a group of tiny, dancing lights pass across the room. Later she was to notice that the dog would seem to be following something with its eyes that followed the same route as the lights.

The first sighting of the ghost was made by a friend of the younger sister. They were both in her room when he opened the door and went onto the landing. He returned a second later to ask who the girl was he had just seen walking down the stairs. When he was told there was no other girl in the cottage the colour drained from his face.

Some years later the family heard of a tragedy that had happened at the cottage around the turn of the century (1900). It seems a young girl called Daisy Sewell was living at the cottage and one day she had an epileptic fit which caused her to fall on an open fire. She was badly burned and died soon afterwards. Her ghost has been seen walking along Churchyard Path outside the house. From then on everything was blamed on Daisy.

Other things happened including a free-standing electric fire that was thrown to the floor, the smell of violets or lavender and a strange perfume. By now the father had remarried and it was his new wife who was to be a victim of the worst aspect of the haunting. She had just made up a fire and had gone upstairs when she smelt the acrid smell of burning. She rushed downstairs fearing that a log had fallen from the fire but everything was all right. She searched everywhere for the source of the burning smell but could find nothing. Eventually she called out to Daisy saying that they had had enough and for her to go away. She did.

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See also - Buckinghamshire - Turville - Churchyard Path