The Cock-Stride Ghost
It is unsurprising that a land as old as England is reputedly haunted by innumerable phantoms, ranging from headless horsemen to Roman Legions. Many ghosts were looked upon fondly as benign figures adding color to the locales they haunted. Not all spirits were so welcome, however, and caused widespread terror and accidents, and so they were required to be banished. This was usually carried out by a ‘ghost-layer’, either a priest or a parson whose most potent weapon was the reading, or rather shouting, of Scripture accompanied by lit candles, to wear down the ghost’s willpower.
The obstreperous phantoms would try to blow the candles out, but the priest whose faith was strong enough could keep their candle lit throughout. After their resistance was broken down, some ghosts could then be bargained with, or required the ghost-layer to carry out a request, such as relocating their physical remains. Still, others required trickery. Many foolish ghosts were beguiled into accepting an impossible task before they were allowed to return to their old haunt, such as removing every blade of grass on a hill one blade a night or emptying a lake with a small perforated shell.
Whilst locals could be sure that the tricked ghosts would never return, other specters would only accept a more-feasible task. These were often ‘Cock-Stride Ghosts’, permitted to return to their intended destination by the distance of one chicken’s step on one night each year. For instance, at the appropriately-named Coffinswell in Devon, a woman is said to have been furious at being buried at a well rather than the Church’s sanctified graveyard. A ghost-layer allowed her to move to the churchyard one cock-stride every New Year’s Eve at precisely midnight, a feat calculated to take her until Judgement Day.
Sometimes, when a particularly loathsome individual passed away, efforts would be made to lay the ghost before it became a problem, usually with little success. In 1612, the wealthy Joan Carne of Sandhill Manor, Somerset, long-suspected of murdering her three husbands and witchcraft, was buried in a coffin with thick iron nails. The locals went to celebrate at Sandhill Manor, only to be greeted by Joan herself, smiling and casually frying eggs and bacon in the kitchen. A famous ghost-layer sent her spirit into a pond a mile distant, from whence she returns to the Manor one cock-stride a night.
Sir John Popham (1669-96) overcame his degenerate youth to become Chief Justice of England, but was widely reputed to be corrupt and cruel and greatly unpopular in his native Wellington. He died while hunting when his horse flung him into a nearby allegedly-bottomless pit leading to hell. A (still-extant) memorial was erected to him in the local church, but his ghost remained with his body in the pit until his wife prayed for its release. He must reach the tomb, taking one cock-stride a year, before Judgement Day to save his soul. Ghost-layers have sent his troublesome spirit back several times.