From The Green Lady to Ruskington Horror: Haunted Stories of Lincolnshire

If you want to read about something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call?

There are a scary amount of ghost stories and haunted tales in our county and we have picked out a selection to get your spine tingling.

According to the website Haunted Rooms, the seven most haunted places in Lincoln are White Hart Hotel, Gainsborough Old Hall, Brown’s Pie Shop, The Strugglers Inn, Jew’s House, Doddington Hall and Lincoln Castle.

Among the tales, a highwayman was once allegedly killed in the former stables of the White Hart when a coachman thrust a lit torch into the man’s face.

The deceased highway man has been reported as striding through the dining area, hiding his burned face with his cloak.

Other spooky residents of the hotel are said to include ‘The Mobcap Girl’ – a maid who was murdered. Some guests said they have seen her cowering in a corner on the first-floor landing.

A more contemporary ghost is also said to haunt the hotel, who is believed to be the soul of a guest who died in one of the rooms in the 1960s. Those sleeping in that room have described an ‘overwhelming sadness washing over them’.

Thorpe Hall in Louth is also said to be haunted and 16th century landowner and adventurer Sir John Bolle is associated with one of England’s ‘oldest ghost stories’.

In 1596 he served alongside Sir Walter Raleigh in the capture of Cadiz. He was later knighted for his services at the Siege of Cadiz.

While in Spain, he was put in charge of a prisoner, a high-born Spanish woman called Donna Leonora Oviedo, according to Louth Museum.

She fell in love with him and gave him gifts including a portrait of herself in a green dress. But Sir John rejected the advances and told her he had a wife, so Donna is believed to have decided to spend the rest of her days in a nunnery.

Sir John died in 1606 aged 44, and his family continued to live in Thorpe Hall until the 18th century. It is said the ghost of the Green Lady, Donna Leonora Oviedo, appears at Thorpe Hall and on the road outside.

In Louth Museum, they have various items including the sequined silk velvet bedcover given by the Green Lady to Sir John, a copy of a painting of her, and a ballad written about the ‘romantic tale’.

A ghost was also seen in the old Gainsborough fire station on Lord Street back in 1947, according to a tale in ‘The A-Z of Curious Lincolnshire’ by Stephen Wade.

During social time when their kit was hung on the wall, one man was making a foot-long model galleon, which was “thrown inexplicably across the room, slamming into the opposite wall”.

Footsteps were heard outside and approaching the side door. The officers went to check it out to a locked store room which is said to have had dangerous substances in it.

In the book it says: “The officers were, naturally, shaking with fear. Their heads turned, and they felt the floor shake slightly to the sound of these ghostly footsteps across the room and slowly up the stairs. Then the handle on the door was rattled.

“Big strong men, fearless against the terrors of fire and smoke, shivered with fright that night, roused from a friendly game of dominoes and the homely sound of the radio to witness something uncanny.”

The Haunted Rooms website also details the ghost stories on what is said to be a haunted stretch of the A15. Various haunted sightings include a phantom cyclist, a little girl dressed in pink, a hitchhiker in a leather jacket and ghostly horse.

The majority of strange sightings are reported along the southern stretch of the road, with the most well-known probably being the ‘Ruskington Horror’ which also featured in a TV programme in 1998.

Reports are said to have been frequent since the 1960s, but appear to have tailed off over the last 10 years.

The reports are of ‘something’ running out in front of their vehicle as they approach the turn off for Ruskington, often described as a man with his arm raised who suddenly appears in front of the car.

Drivers then think they have struck a pedestrian and will stop to get out, but nobody ever finds any trace of the man.

Have you ever seen a ghost or experienced something haunted? Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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