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General
Hedgerley has a long and varied history as traces of many Romano-British pottery kilns have been found in the north of the parish. The name derives from the Old English personal name of Hycga and ley meaning ‘Hycga's clearing’. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it became famous as a centre for the manufacture of bricks which were very fire resistant. These were sold all over the country and abroad.
The village is small and picturesque and contains one of the best Gothic churches in the area. This was designed by Benjamin Ferry and built in 1852 on the site of two previous churches. Inside is a seventeenth century painting of the Ten Commandments and what will happen to you if you break them.
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Shell House
In the early 1950s Shell House (which dates from around 1680) was occupied by Hazel and Donald Vincent and their son Bob. A few times a year Donald would hear a bump come from the attic above the bedroom he was in, usually when he was lying down. The initial heavy bump would be followed by what sounded like a couple of bounces then it would stop. At that time the attic rooms were used as lumber rooms. Later when the rooms were occupied the sound did not occur. At one time the family went away on holiday for a while and the rooms were occupied by a South American family. The attic rooms were made up for the new family’s children but when the Vincent’s returned they found that the beds had been moved down a level as the children refused to sleep up there. In another incidence Donald and his wife had been in the bedroom talking. During a moments silence they both heard the sound of footsteps and the creaking of the stairs as if someone was coming down from the attic.
Donald and his wife regularly used a local woman as a babysitter. One evening, after they had gone out, the babysitter heard a lot of noise, as if the bed was being dragged back and forth, coming from Bob’s room. When she went up to investigate she found he was sound asleep.
About twenty years later their son, David, had to leave and the family decided it would be best if he left in the morning early, at 06:00. The discussion took place on the terrace at the side of the house one Sunday evening but later that night he decided to leave and not wait until the morning. Neither Donald nor his wife had set their alarm by that time yet at 06:00 the following day it went off, had something heard their conversation.
At the head of the stairs from the ground floor there was a cupboard which stood where the original spiral staircase to the next landing used to be. Donald’s mother felt, on several occasions, as if she had been pushed as she passed the cupboard. On one occasion she felt the same thing happen in the kitchen. One day Hazel was carrying a joint of meat as she walked past the cupboard (at that time they lived in a flat on the first floor). Suddenly she dropped the meat but could never work out how. A friend, who knew nothing of what had occurred, came to visit one day and as he climbed the stairs he stopped by the cupboard and declared that that was where the ghost was.
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