Uncanny UK editor Richard Holland marches on with another entry in his chart of the most haunted places in Britain.
25. BATTLE SITE, Sedgemoor, Somerset
Many British battlefields are haunted, and several of them make it to this top 50 of the most haunted places in Britain. The Battle of Sedgemoor was the decisive battle between the forces of James II and the rebel forces of James Scott, the 1st Duke of Monmouth, who was attempting to seize the throne.
On July 3, 1685, the army commanded by the Duke of Monmouth was defeated here and on the anniversary of the battle Monmouth’s ghost can be seen escaping. A small group of soldiers have also been seen near where the River Carey becomes the Sedgemoor Drain, and a voice was heard calling ‘Come on over!’
Another manifestation recalls a cruel trick that was played on a famous local runner by the triumphant Roundheads. He was told that if he could outrun a horse his life would be spared. To their surprise he did outrun it, but they shot him anyway. His girlfriend drowned herself in despair. It is her ghost that is seen but the sounds of the runner’s desperate footfalls and the beating of hooves have also been heard, commemorating the event.
Another uncanny aspect of the Monmouth Rebellion is the number of ghosts attributed to its aftermath, in particular to the activities of the notorious Judge Jeffries, who hanged hundreds of supposed rebels on the scantiest of evidence. We have already encountered Jeffries at the Skirrid Inn in Monmouthshire.
[SOURCE: Phantom Britain by Marc Alexander; Haunted Britain by A. Hippisley Coxe; ‘Soldiering On’ by Janet Bord in Paranormal Magazine]
