Painswick

A remarkable number of ghostly traditions have been collected in and around this town in the mid twentieth century. A typescript in the Gloucestershire Record Office, compiled in 1962 by Kenneth Cooke, lists thirty-four in the parish itself, and twenty-five in nearby lanes and woods. Standard motifs are well represented: there are Civil War soldiers, grey and white ladies, a ghost searching for its own buried treasure in a cellar, ghostly highwaymen, phantom coaches, black dogs, headless women. A ‘goblin-like figure’ dances round a milestone on the road to Gloucester.

SEE ALSO:

• Haunted England
• Haunted Europe
• Haunted Places of the World

SOURCE:

Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008