This story has numerous versions going around which are radically different from each other. We will give you the two main versions and leave it up to you to decide which one is ‘true’.

The tale regards a haunting which takes place near Haddenham, the location of the haunting, and the site of the murder which initiated it, are one of the things which vary in the tales, but one thing is consistent, the ghost is a man who is seen staggering along the road with a hammer buried in his chest.

In one version of the tale the victim was a man named William ‘Noble’ Edden. In 1828 Noble saw two local men, Solomon Sewell and Benjamin Tylor, stealing a sheep from a neighbour’s farm. In the early nineteenth century the punishment for sheep stealing was death or at least transportation. Because of this Noble decided not to tell anyone about what he had seen, a decision he would ‘live’ to regret. That was not the only time that Noble saw the two men stealing sheep. The second time he saw them he decided to play a trick and baa-ed like a sheep which gave him great amusement when he saw their red faces. The next time he saw them he baa-ed again, by now the thieves were furious as they knew their very lives depended on Edden maintaining his silence.

From that point onwards Edden seemed to sense that his life was in danger. One night he was returning from Aylesbury market accompanied by a man he knew. He told his passenger about his fears and the man offered to travel the full journey with him to his home in Crendon. Noble simply laughed it off and dropped his passenger off at Hudnall Farm as usual. That was a bad decision because Tylor and Sewell were waiting for him at Anxey Bushes where they set upon and murdered him.

At that precise moment Noble’s wife was ironing in the farmhouse kitchen eagerly anticipating her husband’s return from the market. Suddenly she saw a vision. In the vision she saw her husband and, unbeknownst to him, another man coming up behind him. As she watched the man struck her husband with a stone hammer, it was at this point that she recognised his assailant, Tylor. Mrs. Edden screamed then ran to call for help. A search was started and her husband’s body was soon found but it was too late to save him, he had been bludgeoned to death, as she saw in her vision. At the inquest the decision was ‘murder by person or persons unknown’ as Mrs. Edden’s vision was inadmissible as evidence. In those days it was believed that if a murderer touched the victim’s body it would bleed, so Mrs. Edden demanded that Tylor come and touch the body but for some unknown reason he refused (a similar story exists in Leagrave).

Not long afterwards Nobel’s son was waylaid by two men who threatened to do to him what had been done to his father. He managed to beat them off and escape but not before he was convinced that the men were Sewell and Tylor.

Sewell was arrested a few months later for a minor crime and hinted that Tylor was implicated in the murder of Noble Edden. Tylor was arrested but had to be released for lack of evidence. Unfortunately for Tylor, Sewell did not learn his lesson and shortly after his release from prison for his previous offence he was arrested for stealing chickens. This time the sentence was fourteen years transportation. In an attempt to lessen his sentence Sewell gave fuller details about the murder of Noble Edden which led to the arrest and conviction of Tylor. Unfortunately for Sewell his plan backfired as he was also found guilty and they were both hung on 8th March 1830 outside Aylesbury prison. To the end Tylor swore his innocence.

In this version of the tale Noble Edden had been to the market in Aylesbury and he lived at Crendon. Crendon is most likely Long Crendon though there is a Crendon house (at Long Crendon). If that is the case then he would have been returning along the Aylesbury Road, what is now the A418. He dropped his passenger off at Hudnall Farm but there is no Hundnall Farm not even on the 1885 map of the area but there is a Budnall Farm north of Haddenham on the A418. Edden was waylaid at the crossroads between the Aylesbury Road and the road to Haddenham which would then be at King’s Cross as there are no other suitable roads or crossroads. The names and places also agree with museum records.

The second version of the tale is somewhat similar but it differs in the following respects:

• William ‘Noble’ Edden is given the name Powell.

• He lived in Haddenham and not Crendon.

• He had visited Thame market and not Aylesbury market.

• When the neighbours first searched for the victim nothing was found except his cart.

• His wife had her vision two days later when she saw him staggering in through the entrance to the farmyard and pointing back towards Thame.

• Whilst searching for her husband along the Thame road she saw him again, this time pointing to a narrow stream where his body was eventually found.

• The blow to his chest was from a blacksmith’s hammer.

• A petty thief called Taylor was spending money freely and he had bought a hammer to replace one he had ‘lost’.

• The murder was committed by Taylor and an accomplice called Smith.

• The trial took place a few weeks later and they were found guilty and hanged.

• The events took place in 1848 not 1828.

Based on this account the road Powell would have been using was the Thame Road which runs from Haddeneham to join the Aylesbury Road (A418) just before Thame. The only stream on the road (and which appears on the 1885 map) is located at SP724082 so this would be the site of the murder. The year is completely different so is this a different story, and, if it is, it is a great coincidence, farmer, hammer used as murder weapon, visit to market, a vision. This is too much of a coincidence so where did this version of the story come from and why does it differ so much from other versions?

As a footnote it is said that witnesses to the phantom will have to endure a run of bad luck.

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See also - Bedfordshire - Leagrave - The Horse Shoe