Forty Green

Contents -- Click to go to item

General
Brindle Lane
Local Roads
The Royal Standard

A brief note about the area
The sound of phantom dogs
A ghostly rider who terrorised the area
A spectral hand and shadows
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General

Forty Green is a tiny little hamlet that consisted of just ten houses and the famous inn The Royal Standard of England in 1875, and there isn’t much more there today. The Royal Standard was once used as the Royalist Headquarters during the Civil War. It is said that the pub was used as a refuge by both Charles I and Charles II.

Forty Green is surrounded by woods including Corkers Wood, Roundhead Wood and Hogback Wood which is the largest. Within the woods can still be seen the saw pits used by bodgers (makers of chair legs). The woods were once used to supply timber for the furniture trade that was flourishing at nearby High Wycombe.

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Brindle Lane

It is said that if you listen carefully you can hear the howls of phantom dogs in Brindle lane. In the fifteenth century the Royal Standard of England’s stag hounds had their claws ripped out by the King’s Warreners for hunting in the royal forests. Their agony soon ended as they were then killed.

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Local Roads

In the eighteenth century a farm hand called Clark was killed when he fell from his horse. Since that time he has been seen riding his horse and terrorising all that see him in the area of Penn, Forty Green and Hogback Wood (to the south of Forty Green). In 1880 four farmers decided to rid the area of Clarke’s ghost so, fortified with strong ale, they set off to find him. Suddenly he appeared through a hedge and galloped off ahead of them. They set off in pursuit, all the time aware that no sound came from his horse’s hooves. When they reached Penn church the phantom turned and laughed at them then disappeared in a grey mist. This proved too much, not necessarily for the farmers but certainly for their horses, who bolted in absolute terror. The next day the farmers returned to the scene of the chase and found the hoof prints from only four horses, theirs.

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See also - Buckinghamshire - Penn - Local Roads

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Royal Standard of England

In the King’s Room of The Royal Standard of England public house there is said to be a spectral hand that tugs at your arm or sleeve as you are eating or drinking. This is but one of numerous hauntings at the pub which cover the entire building and even the car park.

The ladies lavatory may be a place to avoid as a shadow is seen to pass across the room but there is never a source for the shadow. If that is not enough then try the rooms upstairs as some feel suddenly, and unexpectedly, cold, beds shake and some unknown force pins people to their beds. In the car park can be heard the sound of a drum beating the alarm. The original boy player of the drum was beheaded by the Roundheads in 1643.

The pub was at one time used as a headquarters by the Royalist army and one of the ghosts is said to be that of an executed Cavalier who strides across the bar and disappears into a wall next to a fireplace in the Candle Room. This is only one of two ghosts in the bar as another is that of a traveller who was crushed by a coach and four. His body was brought into the pub and his spirit has haunted the downstairs area ever since. It is believed that the coach driver was the Earl of Barrymore who belonged to the Four Horse Club. Members would bribe coachmen to allow them to take the reins and drive at breakneck speed leading, in 1788, to the aforementioned fatality.

The pub itself has a history dating back over nine hundred years and is the oldest freehouse in the country.

To view a map of the area click on the button below



To view images see: Forty Green - Royal Standard Album

To view a report about The Royal Standard see: 28-02-2006

The Royal Standard of England
Forty Green, The Royal Standard of England