Today very little remains of Royal Air Force Metheringham in Lincolnshire. The hangars have gone and only a ruin marks the position of a once-busy operational tower that was the life blood of the station.

RAF Metheringham was one of the many airfields constructed for No. 5 Group, Bomber Command. It opened in October 1943 and it housed the Lancaster bombers of No. 106 Squadron for the duration of the war. The squadron took off nightly on their mission of death and destruction. No. 106 Squadron disbanded at Metheringham in February 1946. Its last mission of the war was on 25/26 April, 1945. During those 18 months of war, No. 106 Squadron won a total of 267 decorations, including the Victoria Cross by Sergeant Jackson, and had lost 187 aircraft. Many brave young men perished in the night skies over Nazi Germany.

This once busy wartime bomber airfield has reverted back to agriculture. One runway and all of the eastern section of the perimeter track have been converted into public roads. It is the scene, too, of hauntings by ghosts of those killed in action. It is not too hard to imagine them as one stands in the gathering dusk on the old perimeter track. With a gentle breeze one might even seem to hear that once familiar roar of Merlin engines.

The ghost of a beautiful young lady, in her late teens, has been seen many times near the old airfield site at Metheringham. It is always after dark and between 9.30 and 10 p.m. She is seen standing in the road that was once part of the airfield, wearing a pale green coat, with a grey or light blue chiffon headscarf tied over her russet coloured hair. Pinned to her lapel is a metal type Royal Air Force wings badge.

The phantom young lady with RAF wings has stopped cyclists, motorists and even pedestrians, asking for help, telling whoever she waylays, that her fiancé has skidded riding his motor cycle and is lying injured just a short way further down the road. The 'ghost' is said to waft the fragrance of lavender whoever is lucky (or unlucky) enough to be accosted by her. The apparition appears 'solid' not ethereal, when witnessed, also quite ordinary.

It appears that the phantom young lady was in fact riding pillion on her fiancé's Royal Ensfield motor cycle. On investigation of the area that the girl indicates, nothing is found whatsoever - moreover, the distressed girl is in the habit of vanishing, she just disappears into the night. But there is an evil, sinister side to this, as on her sudden disappearance, the 'live' witness to her materialization is very much stricken by inexplicable fear, panic, sense of unreality. The ghost also leaves behind a powerful odour of putrefaction. Mr. Charles Espin saw the phantom young lady and he said: "I could not see her eyes, or horribly, no eyes in the sockets at all,. the frontal orbits were empty!"

The story behind the phantom young lady is that just before the end of the Second World War a young RAF aircrew Flight Sergeant was giving his fiancee a lift home to Metheringham village on the pillion seat of his motor cycle after being to the local dance. The motor cycle skidded on wet surfacing and crashed close to the place where the young lady appears. The Flight Sergeant was only shaken and bruised, but the girl was thrown from the machine and killed instantly. She had a broken neck and terrible head injuries. The two were due to be married and she had already ordered her wedding gown.

The 'ghost' is said to be that of a young woman, named Catherine Bystock who lived in Horncastle and was 19 years old when she was killed. At the Metheringham RAF station the RAF personnel were very reluctant to go anywhere near that part of the airfield after dusk. It is still so today even with the airfield abandoned and in ruins.