4 British Haunted Tales

The Shadows of the Pace Egg Play-The Return of the Flying Serpent-The Wraith of Harlow Wood-The Phantom Riders of Goodrich

The Shadows of the Pace Egg Play (Midgley Yorks)
Every Good Friday, the schoolboys of Midgley, Yorkshire, breathe life into the Pace Egg Play, a tradition stretching back to 1800, rooted in the 16th-century legend of The History of the Seven Champions of Christendom. In 1994, as dusk falls over the village green, young Elliot Grayson takes up the role of St. George, wielding a wooden sword against a burlap dragon—until the air shifts, and the playful mumming awakens something ancient. From the shadows of the churchyard, the Seven Champions emerge, their spectral forms summoned by the boys’ words, dragging Elliot into a battle against a darkness that has slumbered beneath Midgley’s hills for centuries, waiting for a new hero to rise.

The Return of the Flying Serpent (Henham Essex)
In the sleepy village of Henham, Essex, a 1669 pamphlet tells of a winged dragon—nine feet long, with sharp teeth and sheep-sized eyes—that once basked in a summer field before vanishing into legend. Commemorated with model dragons and Snakebite beer until 1939, the tale faded, but its echo persists in the July air of the Henham Fair. When folklorist Maeve Carter arrives in 2024, clutching that ancient text, her curiosity rekindles the beast’s slumber, summoning the Flying Serpent back to the sunlit grass. As villagers marvel and tremble, Maeve faces a creature tied to her own quest, its return a shimmering bridge between a forgotten past and a present that can’t look away.

The Wraith of Harlow Wood (Harlow Wood Nottinghamshire)
Harlow Wood, Nottinghamshire, holds a grim secret along the lonely stretch where the A60 meets the B6020—a memorial stone marking the brutal murder of Elizabeth Sheppard in 1817. A 17-year-old seeking work in Mansfield, she fell to the rage of Charles Rotherham, a scissors-grinder who staked her life for imagined riches, only to hang for his crime. Locals say her spirit clings to the spot, stirring whenever her stone is disturbed, her hollow eyes a warning to those who trespass on her rest. In 2014, road worker Daniel Carter learns this too late, as a routine job unearths her wrath, pulling him into a night where the past demands its place be honoured.

The Phantom Riders of Goodrich (Goodrich Herefordshire)
The crumbling walls of Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire whisper of a love cut short by war. In 1646, during the English Civil War, Alice Birch and Charles Clifford sought refuge within its Royalist stronghold, only to flee into the night as Roundhead cannons roared—led by Alice’s own uncle. Their escape ended in the icy grip of the River Wye, and since then, their ghosts have haunted the banks, astride a phantom horse that never reaches the other side. When historian Clara Henshaw visits in 2017, drawn by their tragic tale, she uncovers a token that could free them, stepping into a spectral chase where love and loss defy the bounds of time.