GhostFamous
The Red Barn Dream
A dream led a father to his daughter's grave.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Churchyard sign near Maria Marten's lost grave
- Legend from
- Georgian, 1827
- Tone
- Dark history
Polstead, 1828. A stepmother dreamed the missing girl lay buried in the Red Barn. Her father took a spade and went to look.
In May 1827 Maria Marten set out from her cottage in Polstead to meet her lover, William Corder, at the Red Barn, believing they would elope to Ipswich. She was never seen again. Corder wrote letters claiming they were married and living away. Almost a year later Maria's stepmother said she kept dreaming that Maria lay murdered in the barn. Her father dug there and found the body in a grain bin. Corder was traced to London, convicted, and hanged at Bury St Edmunds in 1828 before a vast crowd. Polstead became a tourist sight, and Maria's gravestone was chipped away by souvenir hunters.