Off we go to quaint and sleepy Mildenhall, a village one and a half miles to the east of Marlborough in the north of Wiltshire, in search of one of the county’s many ominous black dogs. As I delved deep into my research the black dog was not the only spookiness I uncovered.
History of Mildenhall
Mildenhall was an important place for Roman settlers as the main roads from Bath to Newbury and Cirencester to Winchester ran through the centre. A Roman settlement, Cunieto, was built to the south of Black Field with a military camp on the site of what is now Folly Farm. This was connected by a fosse.
By the 5th century, the settlement had been abandoned and crumbled back into the land. It was many centuries later that it was rediscovered after aerial photos were taken of the area in the 1940s. Subsequent archaeological excavations revealed the town was a substantial urban area defended by large masonry walls. Many artefacts were found, including kitchenware, personal effects and two hordes of Roman coinage.
By the Anglo-Saxon age, the nearby land was reinhabited, and in the Doomsday Book of 1086, 20 dwellings were held by Glastonbury Abbey. There has been a habitation there ever since.
Fast forward to the mid-1970s and a great discovery was made. The largest coin hoard from Roman Britain, the Mildenhall Hoard, comprising over 55,000 coins, was found to the south of the town. They had been buried in the dirt since the late 3rd century AD.
The Black Dog on the Roman Road
It was in this locality that one of Wiltshire’s black dogs was spotted on many occasions and it was said to have a connection to the Roman camp. It was also seen in nearby villages, disappearing as soon as human eyes laid sight on it. Unfortunately, not much information exists about what was seen. Only one account talks of the Black Dog with a ‘rattling chain around its neck’. Sadly, I could find no first-hand accounts.
Somewhere off Elcot Road, which runs out of the East of Marlborough and on the southern boundary of Mildenhall, was a wonderfully named lane, Ghost Lane, now lost to the mists of time. As soon as I learnt of such a lane, I tried to look for it. I believe it is this footpath in the photo further down that heads off of the end of Elcot Road across the water meadows heading towards Cunieto Roman Town. It got me wondering why it was called Ghost Lane. What was once spotted on this ancient rural path? Could this be the lane where the Black Dog was seen? Looking at the map, Ghost Lane would have run up towards Black Field above the settlement. Again, is there a connection here with the Black Dog?
Interesting Road Names
It’s not the only road in Mildenhall with interestingly quirky names. What once was Ghost Lane, (now the footpath) runs alongside Chopping Knife Lane. According to Marlborough Town Council, Chopping Knife Lane was an area on the outskirts of town where people could cut pea and bean sticks from hazel coppices, so it likely originated from that.
Running into Chopping Knife Lane is Cock-A-Troop Lane. This name is taken from Crokerer-troupe or potter’s settlement. This indicates that there was probably a pottery industry in the area during the Saxon or medieval periods. Having said that, another historian points out that Cock-A-Troop could indicate a lookout or signal station was once there.
The name Mildenhall (also Minal to locals) comes from the herb ‘milder’, also known as ‘Fat Hen’. It was used with vegetables and to fatten birds for the pot.
Water Spirits In the Meadows
There once was a little hamlet of nine dwellings within what is now a larger Mildenhall with a strange name: Werg. There were many pools on the river back then and one that wove its way through the water meadows of Werg was known as Nicker Pool. This is where it is said the water spirits played. When the conditions were right, the water would swirl and whirl, creating wraiths in the waters, which you can still see in our modern times if you are lucky.
The term knucker is a modern spelling of the Old English words nicor or nicker. They were known as imaginary beings, water demons, that lived deep in the churning waters. Archaeological explorations in the 1950s suggested the old hamlet of Werg was the site of an Anglo-Saxon Execution Cemetery after skeletons were found buried there. Interestingly, in Old English, ‘wearg’ means villain, felon, or scoundrel. This could be the reason why the hamlet got this name.
Does the Black Dog Travel the Roman Road?
It seems if you were to leave Mildenhall in Roman times, you would have taken a road down towards what would, in time, become the parish of Grafton. Believe it or not, that was the location that I was originally planning to write this blog about. But, as is often the way, whilst researching ‘where’ the Roman road from Grafton ended up, I came across Mildenhall, so we are really reading this story from back to front. There are more Black Dog sightings in Grafton, on the Roman road. I suspect it is the same dog sighted a few miles away, as they are ‘known’ to travel. Grafton also has a Black Lady ghost who looks almost humanlike. She scuttles along the Roman road, shrouded in black. Don’t bother to try and stop her for a chat as she will just hurry on by.
Alack, we haven’t time to visit Grafton properly today, but we will come back another time. It’s very near Savernake Forest and that’s an area I intend to explore soon, on bike I may add!
What we do have time to hear about it the final ghostly occurrence from Mildenhall. Well, the final one that I know of anyway. There are probably more, this being such a long-inhabited location, so if any of you Weirdos know of any, please drop me an email.
A Roman Timeslip
Miss Muriel Cobern had an experience at Mildenhall, interestingly on the edge of Black Field near to Ghost Lane, which is the location of the Roman settlement. Here, in her own words, is the account told to Kathleen Wiltshire. It happened sometime between the 1940s and 60s.
‘One summer afternoon I was walking along the narrow lane which runs to the south of Black Field at Mildenhall when it began to rain. There was a thick, wide hedgerow between the lane and field and as the rain was fairly heavy, I took shelter beneath an ash tree facing the rather steep hillside and with my back to Black Field. As I stood there, the grassy slopes with their gnarled old hawthorns and sprinklings of flowers faded from view. In their place, I saw a high wall with a man spread-eagled against it. He was standing with his legs apart and arms outspread, palms touching the wall he was facing.
He seemed youngish, though of course I could not see his face and he was dressed in a short tunic of Roman style and shod in open sandals fastened by thongs wound round the calves of his legs. Then two women came by, talking to one another and seemingly oblivious of the man, each bearing on her head a pitcher which she steadied with one arm. They likewise were clad in Roman fashion with their hair carefully arranged and gathered at the back in a loose knot; they were young and attractive and very graceful. There were no colours in my vision, which I saw in monochrome of white and pale grey, and yet I knew all three figures were bathed in brilliant sunshine. In the distance I could hear hoof beats, steady and rhythmical, sounding as if a whole company of horsemen were on the move; their sound grew gradually louder, and my vision vanished.
The hillside came back into focus and the only sound was the dripping of the raindrops from the leaves. I have walked this way many times since but have never seen that scene again. On my last visit, I discovered, to my horror, that sometime during the winter, the whole hedgerow had been ruthlessly destroyed and even the ash tree had been felled.’
Goodbye Mildenhall
That’s all the ghost stories I know of for the lovely village of Mildenhall. For such a little place it certainly has a few tales and I have no doubt there are others out there. Maybe we will hear of more soon? Until then, stay spooky!
Update August 2024
This blog had only been published for a couple of days when I received an email from the aptly named Joanne Mildenhall, and yes, she is named after the village! Joanne has done some deep delving into her family history and has recorded some really cool bits of information, passed to her from her grandfather, passed to him by his grandfather. So, these are tales, told by John Mildenhall, told to him by John Mildenhall (his Grandfather), who was born in 1849!
She has been able to clear up the mystery of why Ghost Lane was called so (very exciting) and add some more ghostly tales to those we have already heard of. On top of that, Joanne has a suggestion where the Black Dog stories come from. All good food for thought! Here’s what Joanne had to say:
So my great-great-grandfather, John Mildenhall, told my grandad stories about growing up in Wiltshire, which my grandad, who was born in 1909, passed on to me. Grandad was quite the yarn spinner, but I spoke to my aunt and she remembers the same few stories he told- we have put them together as below.
Grandad used to tell us about 17th-century plague victims who were buried at Werg in Mildenhall. He said that people were shut up in their houses, to prevent the spread of the plague. The story goes that the ghosts of the dead victims would walk back down the road (locally called Ghost Lane) from the burial ground to the village, and knock on their doors.
He referred to that area as a place where people were always buried, as if it was a really historied spot, which makes me think that it was maybe an even older burial ground there, but I don’t know any more than that.
We also heard stories of the Black Dog. In my memory from those stories it was again associated with the plague. Grandad said dogs were chained up outside houses to indicate the inhabitants had plague and to keep people away. But he also told me there had always been wolves in Savernake forest up to the 19th-century, and there were rumours that they were still in there, hiding, and people saw them and said they had seen the Black Dog. I wonder whether the plague itself wasn’t nicknamed the Black Dog?
That side of my family are documented as living in same small area between Ramsbury, Great and Little Bedwyn, and Mildenhall, since the 1500s. I have been told by other researchers that they were there in the 1200s, but I can’t corroborate that through evidence. Obviously we acquired the surname through association with the place. So, it’s possible stories were passed down from even longer ago.
It’s been great to hear from Joanne and build on this story. Maybe there are other elements to add out there? If you know of any tales, please get in touch!
References
Marlborough History Society
erenow.org
https://erenow.org/ancient/the-secret-history-of-the-roman-roads-of-britain/4.php
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunetio
mildenhallwiltshire.org.uk
Mildenhall Parish Council
Legends and Ghost of the Wiltshire Countryside by Kathleen Wiltshire
Main image credit: Reach PLC
——————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Don’t forget; I’m always on the lookout for spooky and weird stories from Wiltshire and beyond. If you have a tale you would like to share I’d love to hear from you. Contact me via Twitter (or X as we are supposed to call it now) or here.
I’m also now to be found on Bluesky. Hurrah! If you enjoy my weird tales from Wiltshire and beyond and can spare a few pennies, please head over to Ko-fi and buy me a cuppa. Every bit is used to help bring you more stories. I sure would appreciate it.
