Haunted Britain and Ireland: Over 100 of the Scariest Places to Visit in the UK and Ireland - Derek Acorah

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spots are the energy of a grounded spirit, i.e. a spirit person who has chosen for whatever reason to remain close to our earthly atmosphere. These spirit people remain in the surroundings that were familiar to them in their earthly life. Unlike cold spots, which remain static, hot spots move from place to place with the movement of that spirit person. The heat is caused by the energy of the grounded spirit.

       ENGLAND

       Eastern England

      Blisworth Tunnel, Northamptonshire

      The Caxton Gibbet, Cambridgeshire

      Dunwich Heath, Suffolk

      Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk

      Hamilton Stud Lane and Newmarket Racecourse,

      Suffolk

      Happisburgh, Norfolk

      The Lantern Man at Thurlton, Norfolk

      The Battle of Naseby Battlefield, Northamptonshire

      The Norfolk Broads

      The Old Ferry Boat Inn, Cambridgeshire

      The Old Hall Inn, Norfolk

      Oliver Cromwell’s House at Ely, Cambridgeshire

      The St Anne’s Castle, Essex

      The Triangular Lodge at Rushton, Northamptonshire

      The White Hart Hotel, Lincoln

      Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

      The World’s End, Northamptonshire

      

      Eastern England may not have such dramatic scenery as some parts of Britain do, but it possesses its own distinctive beauty, captured by the Suffolk painter John Constable. The region includes the famous university town of Cambridge, the historic cathedral cities of Lincoln, Norwich and Ely, North Sea coastal resorts such as Skegness and Great Yarmouth, and the picturesque waterways of the Norfolk Broads.

      The eastern area known as East Anglia, which contains the reclaimed marshland of the Fens, is known for its flatness and ‘big skies’, and there is surely something particularly eerie about this largely featureless landscape where the horizon seems to stretch to infinity and sounds echo from miles away. This haunting atmosphere is captured perfectly by the Victorian ghost-story writer M. R. James (see page 24), a Suffolk man, who used his archaeological knowledge to evoke the region’s legends and myths – you may be surprised at how many supernatural secrets from the Dark Ages lurk beneath the bogs and quicksands of the Fenland.

      Blisworth Tunnel

      Blisworth Tunnel, on the Grand Union canal near Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire, is one of the longest in Britain – 3,076 yards (2.81 km) long and broad enough for two narrowboats to pass. When construction began on the Grand Junction canal, as it was then known, in 1793, the tunnel was a major feat of engineering. There were problems with alignment, but teams of navvies worked with picks and shovels for three years until they hit quicksand and the tunnel collapsed, killing 14 men.

      The rest of the canal opened in 1800 and a road and tramway were built over Blisworth Hill to ‘tranship’ cargo from boats at either end of the collapsed tunnel. A new route was found and the tunnel finally opened on 25 March 1805, the last part of the Grand Junction canal to be completed.

      The canal quickly became one of the main forms of transportation for goods from the Midlands to London, but nowadays is used mainly for pleasure cruises. However, its tragic past still lingers on. People travelling through Blisworth Tunnel have been confused by lights and a fork in the waterway, but in fact the tunnel runs straight through the hill. What people have seen is the flicker of candlelight at the spot where the first tunnel would have intersected with the main canal tunnel. The ghostly navvies are working there still…

      The Boat Inn is linked to another tragedy in Blisworth Tunnel. Following a fire in the tunnel at the end of the nineteenth century, bodies were carried to the Boat and laid in the tap room.

      Trips through the tunnel are available, starting from the Boat Inn, Bridge Road, Stoke Bruerne, Towcester, Northamptonshire NN12 7SB; Tel: (01604) 862428; Website: www.boatinn.co.uk

      The Caxton Gibbet

      The Caxton Gibbet stands on a small knoll a mile and a half from the village of Caxton, Cambridgeshire, on what was once common land near a crossroads. Here criminals were gibbeted – imprisoned in an iron cage hanging from a gibbet until they died from starvation or exposure. Their head would be clamped at the top and their body left to putrefy for several months as a warning to others.

      The gibbet at Caxton today is a replica which was probably built using the timbers of a nearby cottage. The original gibbet was blown down during a gale.

      Nearby there is a Chinese restaurant, formerly an inn called the Caxton Gibbet which catered for people who came to view the gibbeting. It was also the place where the bodies were laid out after they had been cut down.

      The story runs that in the eighteenth century the landlord of the inn – or possibly his son – decided to rob three wealthy travellers who were staying there. After the men had spent the night drinking and had reeled off to bed, he went into their room and started to go through their belongings. One man woke up and, in a panic, the landlord killed him. Then, to prevent the others from discovering the murder, he had to kill them too. He threw the bodies down the pub’s well. Nevertheless, the travellers were missed and the landlord eventually convicted of the murder. He was hung from the gibbet within sight of his own pub.

      Today the room in which the murder took place is said to be colder than the rest of the building. Footsteps have been heard walking from that room down to the foot of the stairs, which is the site of the old well.

      The Caxton Gibbet is situated near the junction of the A14 and the A45, on the road from Cambridge to St Neots.

      Yim Wah House Chinese Restaurant and Bar, Caxton Gibbet, Caxton, Cambridge CB3 8PE; Tel: (01954) 718330; Website: www.yimwahhouse.com

      Open seven days a week. Offers a menu from all regions of the Far East.

      Dunwich Heath

      Dunwich Heath is a lowland heath on the very edge of the fast-eroding Suffolk coast. Classified as a Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Site (RIGS), it is one of Suffolk’s most important and scenic conservation areas.

      In medieval times this lonely and windswept shoreline was a busy and prosperous area. Dunwich village was a large port, similar in size to London, and the capital of East Anglia. Its thriving trade in woollen goods brought wealth, and the town had many churches, two monasteries, a bishop’s palace and

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