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General
The name Edlesborough is derived from Eadwulf’s beorg or berg, which was a hill or barrow (burial mound). In the Domesday Book the name is given as Edinberge.
The parish church of St Mary the Virgin is a handsome Gothic structure with a small spire. It is strategically placed on top of an isolated hill making it appear as an ancient fortress. In the parish register there is a record of the death of Michael Fenn who died on April 21st 1675 at the age of
124.
Edlesborough
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A4146 Crossroads
On a quiet Sunday morning in the spring of 1961 Mr. Stanley Prescott and his wife were travelling along the Dagnall Road (the A4146) towards the junction with the B489. Suddenly “I saw a black Morris saloon approaching me from the other direction, it came straight at me, and I knew if I did not take avoiding action I would be killed.” He swerved off the road through a hedge and ended up in the field at the side of the road. His shocked wife asked him what had happened but there was no other vehicle about and his wife hadn’t seen the Morris. Mr. Prescott feared that he had had an illusion but medically he checked out fine.
Four years later, again on a Sunday morning, a fatal accident happened on the same stretch of road. It appears that for no reason a car suddenly swerved across the road straight into the path of an oncoming coach. A coroner’s court was unable to establish why the driver had swerved but Mr. Prescott believes that the driver had seen the same Morris saloon that he had seen.
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Church Farm
The ghost of Jack the Leather (‘Old Leather Breeches’) is said to haunt the area around Church Farm. Jack was a highwayman who had been using the stables at Church Farm as a hiding place. Unfortunately for Jack he decided to get some exercise during the night by riding the farm horses around a moat at the farm. It transpires that the lathered up horses were spotted by a soldier who was part of a group sent out to find Jack. Jack was caught, dragged to a nearby hill, The Beacon, and hung and gibbeted for all to see.
The moat is fed by a spring and surrounds a dovecote. It may originally have surrounded a monastic building as there is a stew pond (a colloquial name for a fish pond) and fish trap (a fence or enclosure of stakes used to trap fish) in the grounds of the school next door.
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St Mary
The ghost of Dick Turpin is believed haunt the village of Edlesborough (and dozens of other places in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire) specifically on the narrow road from the church to the Tring Road (B489).
Turpin had a hide out at Butler’s Farm (SP954190) near Northall where a window allowed him to see coaches travelling along the road to Dunstable as they passed Ivinghoe Beacon. Once he had spotted a coach he had time to ride across country and waylay it before it reached Dunstable. The window in the farm is now blocked up. Now his ghost is said to haunt the narrow road that runs between the church of St Mary the Virgin and the Tring Road on dark nights.
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Edlesborough, Haunted Footpath
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Swallowfields
A house in Edlesborough called Swallowfields is haunted by a man wearing a smock. He would appear two or three times a week especially on bright days during the summer and usually between 12:00 and 14:00 and sometimes in the evening. He definitely liked the light, as he wouldn’t appear on dark days, or in the winter. When he was seen he would walk soundlessly past the sitting room window and always in the same direction. At first only the owner, Mrs. Plantan saw him, then, when her mother did, she rushed to the back door to answer it before the dogs got there but there was no sign of anyone. After this had occurred a few times they happened to mention it to each other, so the next time he appeared they took more notice. It was then that they discovered that he was wearing old fashioned clothes, including a beige or mustard coloured smock and loose trousers. The smock was plain and tied up with a belt and his hair was blond and of shoulder length. When he is seen he is only seen from the waist up as if he was walking on the original level of the farm as the house is a barn conversion. He also seems to be in a hurry and walking as if into a strong wind.
Mrs. Plantan also saw him walk past her and into the house through the back door. He was also seen by the lodger who saw a figure at the foot of the stairs as he leant over the banister. When Mrs. Plantan spoke to him he said that the figure had been wearing mustard coloured clothes. One time Mrs Plantan went into the kitchen and saw someone standing in the room. It was dark so she thought it was the lodger. It was only when she turned to look at the figure that she realised it was the farm-worker and that he was hovering off the ground with his head just below the ceiling. In fact he would have been standing on the old threshing floor. He looked down at her, smiled then vanished. No one knows who he is, though he may be an itinerant worker brought in during the summer, as he is only seen during that season.
The original farmhouse was built around 1580. It stood at the head of the square farmyard with barns forming the other three sides. The barn where the haunting took place would have been to the left as you faced the farmhouse. Originally the farm was named Charity Farm and later Swallowfields, now this is the name of the barn conversion. Before it was converted the barn was used as an implement store, but it had a raised section in the middle which was the old threshing floor and at either end straw was stored. The outside surface level used to be a lot higher and the front door is now where the barn door used to be.
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Vicarage
It is said that the ghost of a gardener can be seen in the grounds of the old vicarage at Edlesborough. It seems that the gardener was murdered during a brawl between rival households in the village.
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