Walter Martin was a taxi driver who hailed from Braughing. One of his regular clients travelled from Cockhampstead Priory to the station and back every day. During the Christmas period in 1954 Mr. Martin had dropped off his client at the Priory and was driving back down the drive when his headlights revealed a woman walking in front of him. The woman was just less than two metres tall and dressed in a well fitted grey two-piece with her hair drawn into a bun. That night was a particularly cold and frosty one and her attire was not entirely appropriate. Mr. Martin noticed that her dress seemed somewhat dated but thought little of the fact at the time. As he approached the woman he decided to stop and give her a lift because of the bitterly cold weather. Suddenly he noticed that she was no longer there. Slamming on the brakes of his Landrover he looked around fearing that he had hit her but she was nowhere to be seen. The driveway was fenced on both sides so that there was nowhere she could have gone; nonetheless there was no sign of her. Mr. Martin returned to the Priory to enquire about the woman but nobody knew who she was and there was nobody there who fitted his description.

Mr. Martin later learned from a neighbour that she had often seen the lady in grey walking about in the area. She also said that the lady would just suddenly disappear into thin air. Mr. Martin continued to travel to and from the Priory but never saw the woman again.

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Dassels Road

It is said that ‘something nasty’ haunts the sewage farm off the Dassels road. It was there that a man with some ill-gotten money met his end in the days before the village had main sewers. This is likely to have been prior to 1897 when the parish council arranged for pipes to be laid to carry sewage to open ditches in Causeway Field for natural filtration. We do not know where Causeway Field was so the grid reference is for the present sewage works (which is likely to be in the same place).

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Friars Road

It is said that a ghostly figure has been seen walking along Friars Road. Appropriately enough the figure is that of a friar.

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Horse Cross

A monastic building belonging to the Manor of Cockenhatch used to exist in the village of Braughing. The building may also have been associated with Cockenhatch Priory of which nothing now remains except the moat two kilometres west of the village. The Priory existed for several hundred years until the Dissolution. Legend has it that five monks died in May due to eating poisoned trout that they had poached from a local stream. It seems that as a result of the deaths the whole village became cursed, cattle died, crops failed and harvests were lost. This continued for five years until the monks were seen walking at Horse Cross three kilometres south east of Braughing. Suddenly the curse seems to have been lifted and the village fortunes were restored. It is said that the ghostly procession now takes place every five years on 10th May (next due in 2011).

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To view a report about Horse Cross see: 10-05-2006

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Local Lane

The essayist John Aubrey (1626 – 1697) wrote in his ‘Miscellanies’ of 1696 about the events concerning a Mr. Brogrove of Hamels Park which lies about two kilometres to the southwest of Braughing. It seems that Mr. Brogrove was out riding his horse in a lane near Braughing when he was given a blow to his cheek or head. Looking around he could see no one but he was struck again and for a third time. Terrified by what was happening Mr. Brogrove turned his horse about without ever finding out who his assailant was.

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