You won’t be surprised to know that beautiful historic places rich in history like Herefordshire are rife with hauntings. In fact Herefordshire is especially haunted. You’ll find reports of ghosts in historic buildings, pubs, hotels, villages, woods and on the county’s lanes too.
We’ll start in the gorgeous village of Eardisland. Have you ever heard of The White Lady of Eardisland? Apparently she is a mysterious figure unrecognisable to the locals. She has often been seen strolling along the village in a snobbish way, with a proud and almost arrogant look on her face. But the most haunted spot in the village is the pretty old bridge. It is reported that an entity of sorts with unworldly strength used to throw passersby, horses and even their carriages into the River Arrow below. The entity was apparently exorcised, captured in a silver box and laid under the bridge. However people still recall an eerie presence when passing over the bridge. Some say that horses are still wary of crossing it to this day and there’s even been a spate of cars suddenly breaking down as they drive over it. Spooky eh?
In the beautiful black and white village of Pembridge the New Inn which dates back to the early 14th century has apparently two ghosts. The one upstairs, a pretty young woman who looks sad and bereft dressed in a long gown only appears to women. Thought to have come from the period when the New Inn was still a farm, it is believed that she is the farmer’s daughter. The story goes that her boyfriend felt himself unworthy of her so left to seek his fortune promising to return to her once he was a man of wealth and means. Sadly he never returned and the woman died of a broken heart. Downstairs the ghost of a young man in a soldiers uniform has been seen on numerous occasions. The jury is out on whether he was a former customer or perhaps the beau of the farmer’s daughter, now separated only by one floor. Interesting indeed!
Over at St Weonards in the graveyard they have one of the strangest ghosts, it happens to be a pig with a saddle on his back. It’s been spotted on numerous occasions alongside the figure of a monk who walks the churchyard. Hearsay has it that the monk is guarding treasure that is thought to be hidden within a prominent mound adjacent to the church.
The Black Lion pub in Bridge Street is supposedly the most haunted building in Hereford and a regular stopping off point for ghost hunters particularly interested in the Painted Room. A room where sounds of footsteps and other eery noises have been heard and recorded. Two apparitions have been seen, a man wearing a green suit and hat, who has a habit of tapping people on the shoulder, the other is a small girl that everyone calls Alice. An unlikely combo you may think. It is believed that the Black Lion was once an orphanage and it is assumed the girl was one of its residents.
A very sad nun is thought to haunt the Orange Tree pub in King Street. The land on which the pub stands was once a graveyard for a nearby convent. The story has it that the nun had an affair with a monk and fell pregnant, outing their forbidden relationship. She was prevented from ever seeing the monk again and her baby was removed from her and placed in an orphanage. So heart broken was she that she spent the rest of her days grieving the loss of her baby and love and her spirit never rests.
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