Towards the end of the 1800s a traveller passing through Ashwell stopped at a cottage advertising teas. When he knocked at the door a small, thin boy appeared and told him to sit at one of the outside tables while he fetched the tea. The traveller noticed that the boy was very thin and haggard looking with a grey complexion and dark shadows beneath his eye. When the tea was brought the traveller found that it was cold and very sweet. He went off to find the boy but there was no sign of him.

Going back to the cottage he again knocked at the door but this time he was confronted by a middle-aged lady. He told her about the tea but she informed him that she didn’t do teas anymore. When the traveller showed her the cup she told him it was not one of hers and that a boy did not live there before closing the door in his face. The man was mystified especially when he found that the sign which had advertised teas had vanished. Making enquiries in the village he was told that the woman had sold teas twenty years ago but she had stopped and become a recluse when her son died.

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St Mary

In 1850 Georgiana Covington was on her way to St Mary’s church for choir practise one Friday evening. As she entered the churchyard she saw another figure walking towards the church door from the rectory. As she went to enter the church she saw the figure clearly in the moonlight and was horrified to see that it was dressed in black and headless. It glided up to the door without making a sound then vanished. Georgina was absolutely terrified and just managed to stumble through the chancel door before collapsing senseless on the floor in front of the assembled choir.

A local researcher discerned that the event occurred about five hundred years after the worst plague epidemic in the county when Ashwell became known as the counties Plague Village as it was affected the most. The north wall of the tower bears an inscription which dates from the fourteenth century and describes how the populace had suffered. If the apparition is a result of the plague then why is it headless?

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To view images see: Ashwell - St Mary Album

To view a report about St Mary's see: 18-07-2008

Ashwell, St Mary _____________________________________________________________________
Tower Cottage

Tower Cottage in Swan Street had numerous strange occurrences associated with it when it was occupied by a young mother and her one year old son. One night, just as the dawn was beginning to lighten the sky, she saw a number of fuzzy dots of light in her bedroom which slowly coalesced into the figure of a man. The man turned and she heard the floorboards creak which led to her diving for her phone to call her father. As she did so the figure disappeared. Another strange event was discovered when she returned home with a friend to find that all the doors had been opened, including the fridge door and all the drawers in all the rooms had been pulled out. Lights and sounds coming from overhead were also heard. Eventually it all became too much for the young woman and, after only being there 3 months, she moved out.

The 16th century cottage is said to be so named because a tunnel ran from it to the tower of St Mary's church.

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