The church and church yard of St Lawrence in Abbots Langley are said to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Ann Treble. Mary Ann is believed to have been either the housekeeper or a servant at the vicarage before the First World War and died in mysterious circumstances. No one knows for certain how she died but theories vary from double pneumonia to an accident when she fell downstairs, suicide or murder by the then Vicar’s wife Mrs. Parnell. One story even says that she died from being shaken when she would not get out of bed one morning as she felt unwell.

She died in 1914 and is buried in the churchyard and her ghost has been seen several times walking from the vicarage to her grave or looking out of the window of her former bedroom. The fact it was Mary Ann was confirmed by villagers who lived in the cottages opposite the vicarage. The fireplace in her bedroom has been repaired several times but each time something causes the damage to reoccur.

Mary Ann is most active on All Souls Day and has been seen by a former curate who noticed her during mass, and then she vanished. When the man and the vicar went to the vicarage they found a fresh crack in the fireplace of Mary Ann’s bedroom. The tradition is that Mary Ann fell down the stairs and died later of pneumonia as a result of the accident with no evidence that she was pushed. At one point the Bishop of St Albans was called in to perform a service of exorcism and for a while things settled down but in the late 1970s noises could be heard coming from the room and electrical equipment would turn itself on.

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