According to Winifred Beaumont in The Wormingford Story (1958), local tradition says that during the Danish incursions an English nun, who was a chieftain’s daughter, was cruelly slain by the invaders. In response, the local men threw them, alive or dead, into the Mere, a deep pool in the Lower Pastures draining into the River Stour. Since that time, the nun’s white spirit supposedly walks the Mere whenever an invader threatens the valley. Winifred Beaumont writes, ‘This story is as frail as a man’s breath on a frosty morning. No-one has seen her or knows anyone who has, but the tradition persists.’ She gives no clue, however, as to how long this story has been current in Wormingford.
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SOURCE:
Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008