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General
Lilley lies between Hitchin and Luton on the highest ground and surrounded by some of the loveliest scenery in the area. Telegraph Hill stands just over one hundred and eighty metres above sea level. The church was rebuilt in the nineteenth century and contains some original features and a fine Elizabethan heraldic memorial.
The name means ‘flax wood/clearing’ and comes from the Old English words lin and leah. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the name is written as Linleia.
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The Lilley Arms
The Lilley Arms has more than its fair share of spirits and the landlady, Sylvia Brown, has put up with them for over twenty years. In the corner of the bar/restaurant is Tom’s Chair where a ghost has been seen and where candles have been found to be inexplicably alight. Tom was the landlord in the late 1700s and now goes around poking people in the back. A medium contacted Tom Connisbee and told him that he was in the wrong century; Tom replied through Sylvia that he wasn’t but they were.
The saloon bar has a constant and strange cold draught which is also felt in the upstairs living room. When Christmas decorations were put up in the dining room they remained for an hour then fell down as if pulled by an invisible hand. A six year old boy who recently visited the pub during the summer said that he had seen a shepherd standing in the yard with what he described as ‘a see-through dog’.
Sylvia was cleaning up the attic one day when she accidentally knocked over a bowl of walnuts. She picked them up and replaced them on the shelf before continuing her cleaning. As she worked she heard a series of clicks coming from behind her and when she turned round she found a neatly arranged line of walnuts on the attic floor.
Another ghost is believed to be that of Frances Mitchell who owned her own millinery business at Stotfold and who visited Tom Connisbee around 1780.
One paranormal investigation team, who were spending the night at the pub, went into the barn at the rear of the premises. Just as the team’s medium picked up on a possible suicide that had happened in the barn the cameraman suddenly felt as if his face was being stretched. The whole building went cold and the cameraman was unable to continue.
To view a map of the area click on the button below
To view images see:
Lilley Arms Album
To view reports about the Lilley Arms see:
28-11-2003 &
25-05-2007
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The Old Sweet Shop
In 1895 there stood a little sweet shop next to the Silver Lion public house. The shop was run by Fanny Ebbs (the Red Lion in Lilley in 1882 was managed by Charles James Ebbs) until she died. One night she was lying in bed when a man suddenly appeared through the wall. In the moonlight, coming through the window, she saw him turn and walk down the stairs. Unperturbed by what she had seen she followed the man down the stairs through the shop and into the kitchen. He knelt down in front of the brick fireplace and began lifting the bricks in the hearth. From a hole be dragged a large black kettle with a lid which he lifted to reveal a hoard of gold sovereigns. The ghost counted the coins out then returned them to the kettle before placing it back in the hole. He then proceeded to repeat the process with a second kettle before finally vanishing back through the wall.
Hardly believing what she had seen Fanny went over to the hearth and duly found two kettles filled with coins. She removed the coins then put the kettles back, restoring everything to the way it was (minus the coins). The next night the ghost turned up and repeated the events of the night before but this time, finding no coins, it vanished and was never seen again.
It is said that Fanny continued to run her shop but she became more and more eccentric as she grew older. When she died she left the remains of her fortune to the people of the parish.
To view a map of the area click on the button below
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