Scrap Faggott Green, Great Leighs, Essex

Pilgrims used the village inn en route to Canterbury, but the hauntings only began in the 1940s. In the 16th of 17th century, a local woman was executed for witchcraft and was buried, with a stake through the heart, at Scrap Faggott Green. THe US Army removed a boulder which had been placed over the grave in order to improve road access to a nearby base. Immediately afterwards, the parish church clock started chiming backwards, the bells rang by themselves, hens stopped laying, milk cows dried up and geese disappeared. After a while the haunting seemed to settle on the pub, which experienced great poltergeist activity over a period of time, during which clothes were strewn around rooms and footsteps were heard walking along the upstairs corridors, door handles rattled and curtains were pulled off their rails. A black shape was seen in one of the bedrooms and a figure was encountered standing by an old fireplace. If the haunting is not related to the spirit of the witch, then it is possible that it is associated with the murder of a small child, perpetrated in front of her screaming mother. This was said to have happened many years ago.