The road to the village of Bygrave to the northeast of Baldock is said to be haunted by the ghost of a pedlar who appears without a head. In 1739 a pedlar returning from Baldock Fair sought shelter from the appalling weather at Bygrave Farm. He had had a successful day at the fair and his purse was bulging which was probably why the farm owner, Thomas Fossey, allowed him to stay. Fossey was heavily in debt due to a poor harvest and his own mismanagement. To him the pedlar must have seemed like a Godsend. The following morning the pedlar's horse was found wandering the lanes around Ashwell but there was no sign of the pedlar himself. Coincidentally at the same time farmer Fossey's debts seemed to have suddenly vanished.

A number of years later a labourer met with a pale headless ghost who was wandering along an area called ‘The Warren' in front of the farm. The spectre was seen to be carrying its head under its arm. Sightings continued and were still reported in 1870 though the ghost was sometimes accompanied by a woman and child.

Eventually the farm came into the possession of John Smyth who started major rebuilding work on the property. It was during this rebuilding that a headless skeleton was discovered beneath the lawn. The skull was also found but not at the farm, instead it was found near the churchyard at Wallington. Oddly enough farmer Fossey had moved to Wallington after he had sold the farm.

The headless skeleton was not the only find. Underneath the drawing room floor were found the remains of a woman and child. These must have been the other spirits sometimes seen with the pedlar's ghost but no one knows who they were or how they met their end.

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The Chequers

When the Chequers still existed in Whitehorse Street in the centre of the town the landlord had woken up one night to discover a woman leaning over him. At first, is his half asleep state, he thought it had been his wife but then he noticed she was still fast asleep beside him. He turned back to look at the figure but she had gone. The next second he felt a pain in his arm which slowly subsided. He eventually fell back asleep only to wake in the morning with an aching arm. When he checked it he found that the area was covered in teeth marks.

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Church Street

Residents of Church Street in Baldock report having seen an old man walk past their windows dressed in clothes from a different era.

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Clothall Road

On the Clothall Road motorists were rather surprised to see a Roman soldier crossing the road. About twenty-five years ago the nearby Barratts housing estate was being built on Clothall Common to the northeast and it was here that a Roman burial ground was found. Hundreds of bodies were found some of which had been unusually buried face down.

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The Cock

The Cock Inn sits on the High Street in Baldock and has been subjected to poltergeist activity for quite a while. Bottles on shelves would move overnight and a picture was seen to leap off a wall to the ground where it smashed. It even affected the owner's dogs who would bark inexplicably at an upstairs cupboard.

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Costcutters

In Costcutters shop in the High Street the ghosts of a young boy and girl have been seen who were dressed in what looked like Victorian clothes. The boy and girl aren't the only ghosts to haunt the premises as another has been encountered, but is probably best avoided, as it has a tendency to throw people against the wall.

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The Eagle

The Eagle stood in Icknield Way for many years until it was demolished to make way for a new housing estate. When the public house was still standing it was said to be haunted by the ghost of a pot boy. In a public house the pot boy was an elderly man employed to collect up all the glasses and keep the bar tidy. Around forty years ago the landlady of the Eagle was very house-proud and would not let the pot boy into her sitting room that is until he died. Whilst working in the public house the pot boy collapsed and was taken into the sitting room where he passed away. Shortly after loud banging was heard coming from the cellar which has been blamed on the pot boy who was angry that the only time the snobbish landlady would allow him in the sitting room was when he was dying.

The name of the road in which the Eagle stood is also interesting. Now it is just called the Icknield Way but at the start of the twentieth century it was called Bygrave Lane for a short time. Ten years prior to that was its most interesting name, Deadman's Lane, but why?

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The Gates

The Gates guest house in the High Street was at one time flats where unusual things happened. In one of the flats a young mother was preparing food for her child and had left a pan on the stove ready to heat up the spaghetti it contained. Before she heated it she went to make a phone call and on returning was very surprised to find the spaghetti hot and bubbling away yet the hob was still off. The microwave would also turn itself on and off.

In another flat an elderly resident claimed to have seen a ghostly figure dressed as a cavalier and a hair dryer would turn on and off of its own accord.

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The George and Dragon

For a time the George was closed and the premises were occupied by an employee of Greene King to look after it. Whilst there alone he would regularly hear noises coming from the upstairs rooms but could never find any natural cause and it was unlikely to have been due to any human agency as the building was securely locked up.

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High Street 1

A couple were living in a flat in the High Street when they had a very unusual experience. As they sat in their living room they both watched fascinated as two coasters moved by themselves across a level table from one end to the other. The flat itself was not the only haunted place as the shop below, The Mayflower, was also haunted.

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High Street 2

For a while an apartment at 14b in the High Street was rented by woman who had a number of paranormal experiences while she was there. Whatever was haunting site seemed to be quite useful as cups which had been dirty when she left home would be clean by the time she got back. Other incidences included the sound of footsteps when she was alone.

As the apartment only had one bedroom, guests who stayed there would have to sleep in the living room. One friend who stayed refused to stay again after seeing a man wearing a purple dressing gown standing in one corner of the room. In October 1999 the woman’s mother paid a visit along with her younger daughter and grandson. At 1 o’clock in the morning the mother was woken by a male voice saying ‘Twenty years ago my wife went out shopping and never came back’. This could just have been a dream but a few minutes later she went into the kitchen to get a drink and found her daughter there who had been woken at around 1am by the telephone ringing but she couldn’t have been as the phone was in the living room and it hadn’t woken her mother.

One day when the resident was packing to go on holiday the atmosphere of the flat turned heavy and depressive. This also happened when she was packing her belongings when she was about to vacate the flat. It seems that whatever was there didn’t want her to go.

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Howard's

When Howard's – Clock and Watch Repairs in Whitehorse Street was still trading people claimed to occasionally see a ghostly old woman sitting in a chair through the window.

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Il Fiorno

The site now occupied by Il Fiorno has had a long history dating back to the seventeenth century and has a reputation for being haunted that is almost as long. It is said that a figure dressed as a Cavalier has been seen dressed in a black hat, large cape and boots.

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The Mayflower

A shop in the High Street in Baldock has changed its use over the years being at one time The Mayflower and later a sweet and gift shop called Truly Scrumptious. When the shop was still the Mayflower there were various odd occurrences there. These included boxes on the shelves that would rearrange themselves or the contents would be removed and scattered on the floor. At one time the owner of the shop heard someone enter but there was no one there. A short time later a woman entered the shop and a box of chocolates flew off a shelf and nearly hit her.

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The Orange Tree

The Orange Tree Inn is plagued by a ghost that likes to play tricks including throwing glasses off a shelf and turning the ice-making machine off at the mains.

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The Orchard

A couple house-hunting in Baldock went to view a bungalow known as Granny Smith's in The Orchard just off Pinnocks Lane. They were shown round the property by the current owner who told then that the bungalow was haunted. It seems that every now and again a Roman soldier appears at the top of the stairs. For some reason the couple decided not to buy the bungalow.

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Pembroke Road 1

In a house in Pembroke Road can be smelt tobacco smoke but none of the people living there smoke and the house is isolated from its neighbours. At one time a friend of their son was staying at the house and they thought they heard him go upstairs. The owners thought this was odd as they knew he was out and they hadn't heard him enter the house but they distinctly heard footfalls on the stairs. The couple were also surprised that he hadn't stuck his head around the door to say hello so they decided to go upstairs and check everything was ok. They searched upstairs but there was no sign of him. The footsteps on the stairs have subsequently been heard several times.

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Pembroke Road 2

In a house in Pembroke Road the owners were rather shocked to see a Roman soldier walk across the bedroom and through a wall. What was most surprising was that he wasn't walking on the floor but half a metre below it as the floor was level with his knees.

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Pembroke Road 3

A Victorian terraced house in Pembroke Road has been subjected to repeated poltergeist activity. At one time the owners were surprised to see a teddy bear, who was sitting in a chair, fall over as something seemed to sit on the cushion leaving a distinct dent. One of the occupants, George, was rather shocked when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pair of jodhpurs he had left on the settee rise up into the air and move half a metre along the settee. The other occupant, Wendy, was in the kitchen when she heard George walk in but when she looked round there was no one there. At night the couple have had the distinct feeling that someone is sitting at the end of the bed.

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Raban Court

A resident of Raban Court was suffering with very bad pains in her arms which nothing would seem to alleviate. At night the pain kept her awake so that she was getting very little sleep. One night she was lying awake and in pain and had left her arms outside the covers hoping that the pain would subside enough for her to fall asleep. Suddenly she felt as if there was someone in the room with her. The presence seemed to walk around the bed and stop beside the woman then it seemed as if invisible covers were being pulled over her arms. After this she quickly fell asleep and had the best night's rest she had had for a long time. There has also been noticed the smell of tobacco which does not seem to have been created by any human agency.

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The Rose and Crown

In the Rose and Crown hotel one of the bedrooms is haunted by the spirit of a housemaid who committed suicide about a hundred years ago. It is said that she made the decision after discovering she was pregnant by the butcher's boy. In that particular bedroom clocks are said to stop inexplicably. This ghost has been given the name Elizabeth and it is said that she haunts room 10.

Another ghost has been seen by a young couple who were staying at the hotel. This ghost was that of an old white-haired woman wearing a long cardigan who the couple saw at the end of a corridor.

Landlord Roger Nicholls reported that he has heard inexplicable footsteps and the sound of objects being moved. He even heard his name being called when the building was empty.

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Rye Gardens

About twenty-five years ago the Barratts housing estate was being built on Clothall Common to the northeast and it was here that a Roman burial ground was found. Hundreds of bodies were found some of which had been unusually buried face down. Later a resident of Rye Gardens, on the estate, was rather surprised when she looked up from her ironing to see a Roman soldier staring at her.

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St Mary's Church

John Smith was a Rector of the church, dedicated to St Mary, in Baldock over one hundred and thirty years ago but his ghost still haunts the church. John became famous when he translated the coded shorthand used by Samuel Pepys in his diaries. For nearly one hundred years the diaries had remained in Pepys' library untranslated until John Smith, at the time a student at St John's College in Cambridge, succeeded in finding the key.

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St Mary's House

St Mary's house lies next to the graveyard of St Mary's church and is said to be haunted by the ghost of a boy who was allegedly killed when scaffolding fell on him. He has been seen in the kitchen of the building.

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