The Ghosts of Sawston Hall
ALAN MURDIE goes in search of the stately ghosts of one of England’s premier haunted houses
Back in February, I attended the funeral of my cousin Stephen, held at St Mary’s Church, Sawston, near Cambridge. Sadly, it was the second funeral at this ancient church for me in the last year, having previously attended in August 2022 that of his younger brother Ian who predeceased him.
Stephen was a shade eccentric, keen on tweed suits and a devotee of smoking pipe tobacco. A gentleman possessing firm opinions perhaps best fitted for another age, he had long deplored the decline of the country and considered the 2008 smoking ban in public places the worst restriction of civil liberties ever imposed upon a free people. But he enjoyed other pleasures in life, one being a love of Tudor history and another in living near the magnificent Sawston Hall, which lies just south of the church where I and the other mourners gathered.
The ashes of Stephen will eventually rest in the grave of his parents in the tranquil tree-edged churchyard, a quintessential English location where snowdrops herald spring and the church clock faithfully chimes the hours. Sawston Hall itself is not visible from the churchyard, as the trees encircle it in a thick wooded band; yet it remains an important presence in the village, and one that has shaped the history of both the church and the nation. It also ranks as one of the premier haunted houses in England, nearly as well-known as Borley, but one which few ghost hunters have visited in recent years. Its reputation stems from a
