From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in Leicester...... Good Lord deliver us.”

 

The location of the baker in Leicester may not be known, but it is said that he paved the flooring of his oven with used Swithland Slate gravestones. To his surprise, some of the loaves of bread that came out of his oven bore an inscription that read "I trust in him that made me and hope I shall rise again."

 

A lady in red was said to haunt a house in the Newarke. The house stood where magazine square and the coffee shop is now at DMU and the Newarke (near Hawthorne building).

The kitchen of the old house was paved with gravestones. On a particular day when the lady of the house was feeling unwell, the master happened to cross paths with a woman wearing a red cloak and inquired with one of the servants if this was a new assistant come to pay a visit to the mistress. The servant had seen no one. Another servant, who had been a resident for many years, had encountered the apparition on numerous occasions. However, the ghostly figure never uttered a word and would simply disappear into thin air.

The mid-Victorian historian William Napier Reeve is said to haunt the gateway to the castle. Despite his passing, Reeve's love for the area remained strong. Even after his death, an elderly woman who resided in the timbered gateway and knew Reeve during his lifetime claimed to have seen him walking around his cherished spot for years to come.

 

However, within the Newarke area, there are certain parts that have a darker history, particularly Fairfax Street, which was once known as Cutthroat Lane. It was during the mid-nineteenth century, specifically on the intersection of Richmond Street and Fairfax Street, that a man by the name of Hubbard committed a heinous act by slashing the throat of his own wife. Despite his eventual punishment, it is said that the malicious energy and dark aura lingered within the very walls of the house. And as if history was doomed to repeat itself, in the year 1886, another man known as Bloxham also fell victim to this same evil influence and committed a similar crime.

Bloxham, known as Tommy Rot, murdered his wife. In a horrific act of violence, Tommy deliberately shot his wife, Ann, and proceeded to slit her throat. Bloxham was executed on the 14 February 1887.

The Newarke area of Leicester seems to have an eerie and unsettling aura that invites all sorts of spooky and otherworldly entities, making it a hotspot for goolies, ghosties, and other forms of evil.

Reflecting on the words of William Napier Reeve, the author of the 'Chronicles of the Castle', it is said that a curse will befall any King of England who dares to dine at the Castle of Leicester. This was certainly true for Richard III.