London Colney
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General
London Colney is a large village which lies on the old coaching route between London and St Albans. To the west of the village are a nature reserve and the Roman Catholic All Saints Pastoral Centre. This was previously an Anglican convent which had been built on the site of the old mansion house. Within the grounds lie the remains of a mediaeval chapel on an island surrounded by a moat. This chapel may have been connected to a pilgrim route to St Albans.
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The Bull Inn
The Bull at London Colney is haunted by the ghost of a young girl called Abigail or Annie who used to work in the inn before the Second World War. It is said that she became pregnant by the landlord and hung herself in a room upstairs. The room is said to be a dark and gloomy one at the end of the corridor in what is the oldest part of the pub though there is no record of her death. The room has stood empty for many a long year because it has a ‘strange feel’.
One of the previous owners of the pub was woken up during the night to find a figure standing at the bottom of her bed. A later owner said that she always felt uneasy whilst in the room and in one particular incident she suddenly felt inexplicably frightened. She was standing at the mirror doing her hair when the feeling came over her and her dogs began scratching at the door to get out. She felt that there was s definite presence in the corner of the room.
One landlady called in an exorcist but it had little effect as glasses will fly off shelves and the bar when no one is standing near them. Even bottles have been known to fly off the optics. The current licensees, Ben and Loral Bennett, say that the activity happens when a new female member of staff starts work but that after a while it quietens down again.
Now the beer pumps will stop working for no reason and will just as mysteriously start working again, usually just after a technician has arrived. During a pool match a chalk board eraser flew across the floor but Loral thought nothing of it as she ascribed it to some boys standing nearby. After the match one of the boy’s fathers told Loral that he thought she had a ghost as ‘That rubber went flying across the room by itself.’ Ben has found himself locked in the cellar on many an occasion and has even been locked out but there is no key for the cellar.
The pub itself was previously known as The Black Bull and dates back to 1726 but the building is thought to be at least one hundred and fifty years older.
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The Colney Fox
The Colney Fox Hotel used to be called the Watersplash Hotel and is an old coaching inn. A woman who lived at the stables nearby was woken up on two separate occasions at 05:00 to hear the sounds of horses’ hooves. Thinking it was her horses that had escaped she rushed outside but there was no sign of any horses which would have been clearly visible in the moonlight. One time she had five people staying with her when the sounds were heard so they all rushed outside but again nothing was to be seen. When it happened again they decided to stop and listen and could clearly hear the sounds of jingling harnesses and wheels turning.
The inn used to lie on the main London to Holyhead road and though in a small hamlet it was still a vital point along the route. It was at the inn that the coach drivers would change their horses for a fresh team before they tackled the ascent of Ridge Hill.
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The Green Dragon
The Green Dragon in Waterside, London Colney, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a former landlord who died in debt.
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Napsbury Hospital
The ghost of an old woman haunted a cottage in the grounds of Napsbury Hospital. People who visited the house would see a door knob turning of its own accord which would cause them to flee the building and refuse to return. The owner’s pet cats and dogs would run up the stairs till they got half way then turn in panic and run down again. During the night the sound of footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. They would ascend so far then pause as if the perpetrator was catching their breath before continuing. They would then be heard crossing the landing to the bedroom door whereupon the door handle would start to turn. Eventually the door would open and a grey figure would slowly enter the room. The duvet would then be wrenched from the bed which was more than most occupants of the room could stand.
The woman who lived in the house became very distressed due to lack of sleep so she tried pleading with the ghost. She told it that she had nowhere to go and they both had to share the house but she needed some sleep. She then saw the figure appear at the foot of the bed then slowly vanish. From that point on her nights were more tranquil but the ghost was still around. The ghost was still heard or would sometimes be seen coming out of a wall and standing with its back to the fire.
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Salisbury Hall
Salisbury Hall has the reputation of being one of the most haunted sites in the country, a reputation that is fully justified.
For a while the building was occupied by the Goldsmith family and Mr. Goldsmith reported that he heard girlish laughter coming down an empty passageway. The same laughter was also heard by numerous people at a certain location in the garden.
Mrs. Goldsmith heard footsteps in the same passageway but when she checked it she found that there was no one there. Previous occupants have also reported the sounds of footsteps which made it appear as if something was passing up and down in what was the Tudor wing (later destroyed by fire in 1830). The footsteps were believed to be made by the ghost of a Cavalier who hid in the Hall whilst being pursued by Roundheads. It seems that he has carrying secret despatches when he met a party of the enemy, he fled with them in hot pursuit and managed to get as far as the upper floors of the Hall but could find no where to hide. Rather than be captured he chose to commit suicide. His ghost has been seen some say with a sword sticking through him, others say that he had shot himself. The passageway where the footsteps are heard and where the ghost walks used to link the main part of the house with the now demolished Tudor wing. In the 1930s the Cavalier’s ghost was said to have entered the room of Lady Gresley and terrified her so much that she never slept in the room again.
The passageway Cavalier is not the only one to have been seen at the Hall. Maria Goldsmith lived in the village near the Hall and had never heard of the tales about the Cavalier. One summer’s night at about half past ten Maria and her friend Robin, who lived in the Hall and was later to become Maria’s husband, were down by the moat when she noticed a man dressed in very old fashioned clothes. He appeared to be wearing dark knee breeches, a frilly shirt and buckled shoes. As she stared at the dark haired, pony tailed man he slowly faded away. Robin at the time was upstairs in the coach house when he heard Maria scream but by the time he had got downstairs the apparition had gone. Later residents of the cottage often felt a presence on the bridge over the moat and believed it to be that of a messenger during the Wars of the Roses whose horse had died beneath him whilst racing to the Hall. During the time the Hall was open to the public visitors reported hearing the sound of horse’s hooves. For a while the cottage was an antiques shop and was subjected to poltergeist activity.
The Cavalier was not Maria’s only encounter with the paranormal. When she and Robin were engaged she stayed in the small bedroom over the porch that Robin had occupied for seven years. During that time he hadn’t seen or heard anything but the room still had an eerie reputation. When Maria entered the room she felt as if she wanted to flee even though she had not heard about the room’s reputation. Reluctantly she settled down to sleep but not until Robin had stopped the clock as it chimed the hours and he thought that it might wake Maria up. At 02:00 she awoke to find the clock ticking. Suddenly the bed started rocking back and forth and continued to do so for about three minutes. Maria hid under the bedclothes and was relieved when the rocking stopped, she was even more relieved when the day dawned and she was able to get out of the room. According to Robin’s mother a governess had slept in the room around about the time of the First World War and had seen something come out of the wall and walk up to her bed. The governess never slept in the house again. Children have also reported feeling uneasy in the room over the entrance porch, a room once used by Winston Churchill as his bedroom.
Winston Churchill’s mother lived at the hall for a while with her second husband George Cornwallis-West. One time George saw a young woman wearing a blue shawl standing at the foot of the stairs and who appeared to be staring at him. After a while the woman turned and went through a doorway. George was puzzled as to whom she was and why she had stared at him but by the time he had got downstairs the woman was gone. At first he thought the woman was one of his mother’s maids but later he realised that the woman bore a striking resemblance to Nell Gwynne.
The present house was built on a site which has been occupied since Roman times. The Domesday Book records a Saxon manor on the site and it is from there that Warwick the Kingmaker rode out to his death at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 during the Wars of the Roses. In 1648 it was used as a headquarters and armoury by the Royalist army and then purchased by Charles II for his mistress Nell Gwynne. Later the hall was used as a secret base where the de Havilland Mosquito was designed and built during World War II. Now part of the site is occupied by the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre. The moat is the oldest part of the site dating from the time when Geoffrey de Mandeville was granted the land by William the Conqueror. The later Tudor building was largely replaced in 1819. The building stood empty after the war until it was purchased by the Goldsmith family who restored it and opened it to the public. Unfortunately the building is now used as offices and is no longer open to the public.
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Tyttenhanger House
The rustling of Sir Henry Blount’s dressing gown can be heard as his spirit walks a passageway on the second floor of Tyttenhanger House towards his former study. Henry undertook the rebuilding of Tyttenhanger in 1654 which was later refurbished and is now used as business premises. The original house was built between 1396 and 1411 and once belonged to the monks of St Albans. In 1620 parts of the property were pulled down and in 1652 the original building was completely demolished.
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