A Civil War battlefield is the latest entry in Uncanny UK editor Richard Holland’s suggested chart of the most haunted places in Britain.
21. NASEBY BATTLEFIELD: Naseby, Northamptonshire
On June 14, 1645, the Parliamentarian Roundheads defeated the Royalists under Charles I at Naseby. Ghostly re-enactments of the battle have been reported on its anniversaries down the years. In the century following, these phantom battles were of a visionary nature and took place in the sky. But they have been seen more recently than that.
For example, in 1949 a young couple taking a rest from cycling in hot weather saw a silent procession of exhausted, unkempt men in leather jerkins and high boots. They were pulling carts but they made no sound. The apparitions vanished before the couple’s astonished eyes. Only some time later did they learn their experience had taken place on the anniversary of the Battle of Naseby.
Most recently, ghost hunters gathered at the battle site on June 14, 2008, reported hearing dull thumping and ‘noises like cannonballs firing’ and one of them took a photograph which appeared to show a ghostly figure standing by a hedge – the latter made the national news and was soon whizzing round the internet.
[Source: Lore of the Land by Westwood and Simpson; Mysterious Northamptonshire by Daniel Codd; Janet Bord in Paranormal Magazine issue 38.]
