Myths & Legends
The Haunting at Potter Heigham Bridge
In the 18th century Sir Godfrey Haslitt, of Bastwick, Norfolk, owned a fortune and a large estate but had himself no wife.
So the King of that time, King George, decided to rectify this situation by
introducing him to one, Lady Evelyn Montefiore-Carew of Kings Lynn.
She was in the market not only for a husband but also a fortune.
Lady Evelyn’s mother, determined that her daughter should have Sir Godfrey, sought the help of a local witch in making a love potion, which she herself administered to Sir Godfrey during his attendance at a hunting party at Kings Lynn. The local witch had refused any form of monetary payment for the potion but had made Lady Evelyn’s mother swear that, if the potion worked, then whatever payment the witch asked for would be given. To this Lady Carew had foolishly agreed.
Sir Godrey duly proposed to Lady Evelyn and the date of the wedding was set for the 31st May 1741 and took place with a great deal of pomp and ceremony in Norwich. The bridal party then returned to Bastwick for the reception. However, at the reception as the clock struck midnight, the gates of the hall burst open and there, framed in its doorway, stood a skeleton. Ignoring the screaming guests the skeleton rushed over to where the young bride stood clasped in her new husband's arms and grabbed her up in its bony limbs.
The skeleton then rushed out of the hall, still holding its victim, into a waiting coach which was drawn by four coal black horses. As Sir Godfrey and his astounded guests rallied themselves and raced out in pursuit, the coach set off in the direction of Potter Heigham. Sir Godfrey’s last view of his virginal bride was her young pale face pressed against the glass mouthing entreaties whilst the skeleton sat behind her, its bony arms wrapped around Lady Evelyn and her bridal gown.
It is assumed that a pursuit was made by some of the guests and Sir Godfrey, as the account goes that upon reaching the bridge at Potter Heigham, the coach collided with the wall. It then burst into flames and tumbled into the River Thurne its ill-fated passenger still inside.
This then was the payment that the witch had demanded for her potion. Now it is said that on the anniversary of that fateful day any locals, foolish enough to be in the vicinity of Potter Heigham Bridge at midnight, will hear the sound of horse’s hooves and the scrunch of wheels on the road. As the skins on their scalps tighten and rivers of ice course down their spine, a fiery coach comes into view careering at a great speed. It then hits the bridge and plunges into the water of the river below before vanishing.
Blickling Hall
It is 8am on the 19th of May in the Year of our Lord 1536. The setting is Tudor England in the grounds of the Tower of London, kneeling on the ground is a young woman aged somewhere between twenty-nine and thirty-five. Her small neck, on which there is a large mole the size of a walnut, rests on a block. On her left hand there is a very small extra finger.
She is, of course, Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, second wife to Henry 8th, mother of Elizabeth I, who will eventually become Queen of England. But at this time she has yet to attain her 3rd birthday. Anne has been found guilty of treason and for this the penalty is death.
Behind the supplicant, Anne, stands the executioner, an expert swordsman, specially brought over from Calais, France. In his hands he holds a French sword. A fair distance away the King, Anne’s husband, is mounted on his horse awaiting the signal gun that will declare him to be a free man.
It takes only one stroke of the Frenchman's sword to sever Anne’s slender neck and to detach her head from her body. As the executioner holds her head up high for the large crowd who have gathered to witness the first public execution of an English queen, Anne’s eyes continue to move and her mouth continues to utter her dying prayer “To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul.
"Upon hearing the signal gun that announces that his second wife is dead, Henry the 8th shouts to his men around him "Loose the hounds and away!" and sets off immediately to Wiltshire and to Wolf Hall. Here preparations have been made over the last few days, whilst Anne awaited her execution in the tower, for a celebration of Henry’s betrothal to Jane Seymour of Wolf Hall. Ten days later, they are married in Whitehall.
But back to Henry’s second wife. It is unclear in which year Anne Boleyn was born but history puts the dates somewhere between 1501 and 1507. Her ancestral home is said to have been that of Blickling Hall in Norfolk. Here Anne was born and spent her childhood though not in the current house but an earlier house that was on the same site. It was her father, the ambitious Thomas Boleyn, who had engineered his second daughter Anne’s marriage to the monarch, after Henry 8th had discarded his
first daughter, Mary. Although the affair with Anne’s sister was brief ending sometime in 1525, it is said that she gave birth to a son who she called Henry and it was widely believed that he was the king’s son having a strong physical resemblance to the king.
Further proof of Henry’s illicit affair with Anne’s sister Mary was the fact that he sought and received a papal dispensation ‘to marry the sister of a woman with whom he had engaged in unlawful intercourse’.
In 1528 a Member of Parliament insulted the king’s morals by accusing Henry of sleeping with Anne’s mother and also her sister, to which the king replied “Never with her mother”. It is widely believed that Anne not only having eleven fingers also had three breasts.
She is described as no great beauty, as was her sister Mary, with a sallow complexion, black hair and black-eyed. Yet she had both wit and style, which commended her to the King. To hide her defects Anne took to wearing necklaces like dog-collars and long sleeves that dangled over her hands. The other ladies at court also adopted this style.
Henry was married to Katherine of Aragon, who described her rival Anne as ‘‘a woman who is the scandal of Christendom". Although married, this did not stop the King pursuing and bedding other women. Though with Anne he met his match as she said "she would either be his wife and Queen or nothing at all". Henry, being deeply infatuated with her, set about trying to get a divorce from Katherine from the Pope on the grounds that Katharine had been his dead brother's wife. The Pope, however, refused so in the end Henry declared that England should be free of all Papal rule and that he himself would be head of the church. Thus allowing him to marry Anne, who having seen her goal in sight had yielded to the King and was pregnant with Elizabeth.
After the birth of a daughter, Henry’s affections began to cool and his eyes to stray. His attentions turned to one of his wife’s maids of honour: a young girl called Jane Seymour, a quiet and timid girl. Finally tired of Anne’s nagging and there being no sign of a son and heir, Henry charged Cromwell and the Duke of Norfolk to carry out a secret investigation, in order to find grounds on which Henry could justifiably discard his second wife Anne. Cromwell and Norfolk, keen to curry favour with the King, took less than one week to compile a lengthy list of his wife’s "shameful adulteries" with men that included her own brother Lord Rochford! It was a clear case of treason, which of course brought with it the death penalty for both Anne and her so called lovers, thus freeing Henry.
After her execution it is said that her body was stuck in an old arrow chest with her head tucked beneath her arm and that she was buried in the Chapel in the Tower. Other accounts say that she was taken by friends and family and buried at a Norfolk church. There have even been reports that her heart was cut out and stolen and was found in the south wall of a church in Elvedon Park, Thetford in 1836. And that this heart was subsequently reburied in Salle church Norfolk.
Given this account of her life and of her death is it any wonder then that Anne’s spirit might be restless and that on the anniversary of the fateful days she appears at her childhood home of Blickling Hall. Dressed all in white and carrying her dripping, severed head, she arrives in a coach
driven by a headless coachman and four headless horses.
The coach slowly travels up the drive of Blickling Hall and upon reaching the front door of the Hall coach and driver vanish, leaving just the spectre of Anne. This ghostly apparition then glides into the Hall, where it roams the corridors until daybreak.
Not satisfied with one haunting, Blickling also lays claim to the ghost of Anne’s father, Thomas Boleyn who as a result of his strivings, lost not only a daughter but also a son. This is given as the reason for his penance that he is required to perform every year for a thousand years after his death in 1539.Once a year, for a thousand years, he has to attempt to cross 12 bridges before cockcrow. His route takes him from Blicking to Aylsham, Burg, Buxton Coltishall, Meyton, Oxnead and Wroxham.
Acle Bridge Haunting
If you find yourself on the bridge that spans the river Bure in the village of Acle on the 7th of April, it is said that you will discover a pool of blood, which would not have been there the night before.
This pool of blood has two possible contenders for its origin, both of whom met their end on the bridge. The first was a brute of a man, who according to legend was both a swindler and a murderer, the other, a man who killed the first for reasons of revenge.
John Burge was a corn chandler who lived hereabouts in times past; a corn chandler was a person who dealt in corn and meal. Burge lived with his wife and children in a house close to the bridge in Acle. He was known as a man who cheated his customers, beat his wife and starved his children. So it will come as no surprise that he eventually went too far and killed his long suffering wife. He was brought to trial in Norwich for her murder but was acquitted, as he had bribed the local doctor to say that his wife had died of a heart attack.
Though I have never heard of a heart attack causing sever bruising and
contusions to the body. Discolorations as would have been made by a
length of pipe, like the one hidden behind the cabinet in Joshia Burges
kitchen. But whatever the state of the body Joshia Burge was declared
innocent of the murder of his wife and released. But the story does not
end there. Joshia’s wife had a brother who hearing that Burge had been
acquitted decided to meet out justice for his poor dead sister himself.
On the 7th of April he lay in wait for Burge on the bridge at Acle. Burge
who had been in Great Yarmouth on business did not get back to the
village until late in the evening. As Burge walked across the bridge the
brother of his dead wife leapt up and wrestled him to the ground. He then took out a huge butcher’s knife from his pocket and cut Burges throat from ear to ear.
Burges blood gushed out spraying the brother and the stonework of the
bridge, before finally coming to rest in a pool around Burges dead body.
Realising that the police would probably suspect him of the deed the brother decided to make his way to Great Yarmouth and take ship, leaving England's shores. Unfortunately after the body was discovered the police accused another man for Burge's murder. This man had been cheated by Burge in a business deal and had threatened to get even. This poor unfortunate was tried, convicted and sentenced to hang for Burges murder.
Some years later the brother returned to England and pretended surprise
upon hearing of his brother-in-laws death. As the anniversary of Joshia Burges death approached the brother had an irresistible urge to visit the bridge in Acle where he had done the dastardly deed. So it was that he found himself on the bridge on the very night where years earlier he had sliced through the sinews of Burges throat. As he peered over the side of the bridge into the murky waters below a shadowy figure materialized out of nowhere, a figure made more of mist and marsh fog than flesh and bones, which crept towards him.
The next morning the townsfolk found the brothers body dangling over the side of the bridge with a rope around what remained of his neck which had been severed as if by a large butchers knife. Some say the shadowy spectre was that of Joshia Burge others that it belonged to the innocent man who had been hung for Burges murder. Either way on the anniversary of the original murder a pool of blood appears on the bridge and some even report seeing a shadowy figure. Though whose blood it is, Joshia Burge or the murdered wife’s dead brother who can say.
So if you find yourself on the bridge on or around the 7th of April have a care where you tread. And for those of you passing underneath the bridge on your way to the Broads, the drip drip drip you hear may not contain rainwater. The bridge can be found just outside Acle town centre on the Acle to Caister road, though it is not the original bridge, but a replacement, which however does not appear to deter the haunting.