The Woman in Black of Wilden - A Victorian Roadside Ghost

In the summer of 1873 or 1874, Charlotte Goodhall and her daughter May were travelling by pony carriage along a quiet road between Wilden and Ravensden in Bedfordshire when they saw a woman dressed entirely in black. She wasn't walking. She appeared to glide across the grass. As their carriage passed within only a few feet of her, the woman turned towards them, revealing what Charlotte later described as a terrifying “fiendish” face. May looked back and saw the mysterious figure staring after them. Seconds later, she had vanished. Nearly twenty years later, the extraordinary encounter was investigated by Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research and preserved among its studies of apparitions and collective hallucinations. But there was another disturbing detail. When Charlotte tried to discover who they had seen, she learned that the road was already said to be haunted. Over the following century, the mysterious Woman in Black became part of Bedfordshire folklore, eventually acquiring another identity, the Witch of Wilden. But was the witch story ever true? In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside: Dark Folklore, we return to the original Victorian testimony and follow the strange evolution of one of Bedfordshire's most intriguing roadside ghost stories. Ghost Tales by the Fireside Ghost stories, haunted places, British folklore, dark history and unexplained encounters from across the UK. Website: https://ghosttales.co.uk Support Ghost Tales by the Fireside: https://buymeacoffee.com/ghosttales See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.