THERE IS a fashionable scepticism towards the supernatural with the result that many will not admit to their beliefs while others are reluctant for fear of being thought superstitious yet most of us enjoy a good tale about ghouls and phantoms.

Bourne has had its share of ghosts which are to come under scrutiny by a paranormal group from Peterborough that plans to investigate eerie and unexplained happenings over the next few months. An organisation called Two Worlds headed by a spiritualist medium has been in touch asking where their researches should best be centred and which locations might have a reputation for haunting.

The most popular is the grey lady who reputedly flits through the 17th century Red Hall. Her existence has undoubtedly grown up because of the combination of light and shade that we get on moonlit nights and those who tell of their experiences over the years invariably exaggerate. If there is an apparition walking the corridors, then it must be one of the two ladies associated with it, Catherine Fisher, wife of Gilbert Fisher, the London grocer who built the Red Hall in 1605 and who lost a son in infancy, never recovering from the tragedy and dying in August 1612. She might well be the grey lady of the Red Hall, appearing night after night and mourning the loss of her baby while the other possibility is another Catherine, wife of Mr James Digby who owned the Red Hall and when he died in 1811, she spent the rest of her life there, insisting on being known as Lady Catherine, having gathered around her the title and prestige of Lady of the Manor but died childless in 1836.

Other famous ghosts reputed to be seen in Bourne are the marching monks of Church Walk. This is the narrow alleyway between Abbey Road and the Abbey Church, once the main highway between London and Lincoln until the road was diverted to avoid damaging the stonework of the church. In recent times, a patrolling policeman claims to have seen three monks striding down the pathway and although such a presence might have been familiar during the 12th century when there was an Augustinian monastery in the vicinity, it did appear rather strange to him which is why he reported the incident to his superiors.

There is also evidence of a haunting at the former Bourne Institute in West Street, now the Pyramid Club. The building dates back to the 18th century when it was used as a maltings, becoming the Bourne Institute in 1896 and the first caretaker was Joseph Pool who lived on the premises with his family. His two sons, John and Joe, used to sleep in what was called the long room and one night they thought they heard a ghost, having been woken by the sound of footsteps, and they followed them out of the long room, into the snooker room and down the servants' back stairs to the cellar, but never did get an explanation.

However, when I visited the building in December 2004, the treasurer Mrs Jan Bowers, a member of the Pyramid Club who had lived in the flat below for the previous ten years, related a similar story of footsteps down the corridor on the first floor during the night and then continuing through the wall at the end. These were two independent accounts and there is no way that Mrs Bowers could have known of the experience of John Pool which had been told to me by his son Trevor Pool, of Halifax, West Yorkshire, in July 2003.

Ghostly black dogs are almost as numerous as grey ladies, haunting lonely spots throughout England and legend has it that there is one in a small hamlet of a few houses off King Street, the old Roman way, four miles south of Bourne. The black dog of Stowe is reputed to be a huge animal frequently seen by travellers on their way to Greatford but no sooner had it appeared than it was gone although recent sightings have been few.

The most persistent ghost story that we have from the Bourne area is centred on Elsea Wood alongside the A15 south of the town where a young servant girl, Nancy Rutter, took refuge after being shunned by family and friends when she was made pregnant by the farmer at Northorpe village nearby who employed her. The child died but Nancy was not forgiven and so remained in the wood, living like a hermit for the rest of her life, forced to exist on what she could find around her, the roots, seeds and fruits and producing various remedies from herbs and plants which she traded for food with the villagers. She became known as Nanny Rut, the subject of myth and legend, and soon inquisitive people were calling there for advice about their ailments and to buy her potions while her wild and unkempt appearance earned her a reputation as a witch, dying alone, spurned and unloved by villagers and even those she had helped with her medications.

Another ghost on the A15 is that of a stagecoach that once ran between London and the north. The Lincoln Flyer, which operated from 1786-1871, was a familiar sight with its dark blue painted bodywork and canary yellow top section, the drivers wearing long yellow waistcoats to distinguish them from other coachmen. The coach crashed one day at Dolby's Pond, a deep stretch of water on a sharp bend near Baston and there were several dead and injured who were taken to Vine Farm nearby. Since then, the ghost of the coach is said to run the road the night before an accident occurs.

The most recent haunting in Bourne is reported from the courtyard behind the Angel Hotel where the Airborne Regiment was billeted during the Second World War prior to the Battle of Arnhem in 1944, some using the converted stables for accommodation. It was here that a young soldier hanged himself after hearing of the tragic death of his parents in the blitz in a town or city unknown, and for many months afterwards, his ghost was reputed to appear on dark nights and is heard to be challenged by a sentry on duty: “Halt, who goes there?”

These tales from our history have been passed on to Two Worlds and members are now making arrangements for nightly outings or ghost hunts at some of the locations in an attempt to establish whether there is any truth in them although my experience of similar engagements around the country in years past suggests that these nocturnal expeditions may be futile but the compensation is that they are always good fun.

NOTE: This article was published by The Local newspaper on Friday 6th October 2006.