The event:
The spectred road
The location:
Wilden, Bedfordshire – 1872-1873
The legend:
Mrs Goodhall and her daughter were driving in a pony cart between Wilden and Ravensden. They saw a woman walking towards them but noticed that she appeared to glide, not walk.
She turned her face towards them and they were shocked by what they described as her "fiendish" expression. Her features were masculine and coarse, and she was clothed top to toe in black garments that trailed on the ground. As she passed by, she turned to look back at them, and moments later had vanished.
The Goodhalls were interviewed on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research by Frank Podmore, who was satisfied that they had seen an apparition – the road is very wide, with grass margins on either side, and nowhere for a person to have hidden so quickly. That stretch of road has remained haunted ever since.
