The Haunted Village of Prestbury: A Mini-Essay

          The ghostly monk of Prestbury, often referred to as the Black Abbot, is notorious for haunting this little village in Gloucestershire. Appearing on All Souls’ Day, Christmas, and Easter, the hooded figure follows the same path: materializing inside the church, trekking across the churchyard, and disappearing into a cottage on High Street where his manifestation is crowned by the noisy movement of objects in the attic.[1] Supposedly photographed by Derek Stafford in November of 1990, the Black Abbott is one of roughly thirty specters which haunt Prestbury, making it the second most haunted village in England next to Pluckley in Kent.[2] Along with the ethereal friar, Prestbury’s bevy of spirits includes a horseman from the fifteenth century who returns to deliver his failed message and the horse of a Royalist killed during the English Civil War who searches for its former rider.[3]

Works Referenced

Brewster, Samuel. “The World’s Most Haunted Town Is Home to 30 Ghosts – Including the Infamous Black Abbott, Who Roams Its Graveyard!” Weekly World News, 23 April 1996, 21.

Jones, Richard. Haunted Britain and Ireland. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2001.

Pearse, Bowen. Ghost-Hunter’s Casebook: The Investigations of Andrew Green Revisited. Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2007.
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[1] Brewster, 21.
[2] Jones, 41.
[3] Pearse, 63-66.