Ghost
Wild Darrell
The fire remembers what the court forgot.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Tudor brick mansion (hotel)
- Legend from
- Midwife's deposition; Aubrey; local tradition
- Tone
- Dark
She counted every stair on the way down, and kept a scrap of curtain.
In 1575, the story goes, a midwife from Shefford was brought blindfold at night to a great house to deliver a lady's child. A fierce man seized the newborn and thrust it into the fire. She cut a piece from the bed curtain and counted the stairs. Suspicion fell on William 'Wild' Darrell of Littlecote, a man with many enemies. He was never convicted. Tradition says he broke his neck when his horse shied at a phantom burning child near Darrell's Stile. A grey lady is said to mourn there still.