Enfield: 5 Haunted Places to Visit

JASON HOLLIS, author of Haunted Enfield, picks his top five haunted places to visit in the North London suburb

Forty Hall, Enfield

Built in 1632, Forty Hall was opened to the public as a museum in 1951.

Since then staff and visitors alike have often commented on the feeling of being watched whilst on the first floor landing.

On one occasion a cleaner thought that somebody was standing behind her while she worked and, through the corner of her eye could see an arm in a black sleeve, but when she turned to address the person there was nobody there.

At first, she thought it was just her imagination but after she experienced the same two weeks later she became convinced that she was being watched by a ghost.

Myddelton House Gardens, Enfield

Myddelton house is the headquarters of the Lea Valley Park Authority. It is the former home of E.A. Bowles, who created Myddelton’s magnificent garden, and it is believed to be his ghost that wanders around the garden, keeping a friendly eye on those who now maintain it.

The house is closed to the public but the gardens are open all year round. The sounds of horses’ hooves have been heard in the stable block, now a visitor centre, even though horses have not been stabled there since the 1930’s. Strange lights have also been seen in the courtyard, but as soon as anyone passes through the gate to investigate, they disappear. Inside the house, the office staff have occasionally heard and seen the ghosts of E.A. Bowles’ brother John and nineteen-year-old sister who both died of Tuberculosis in 1887.

The King & Tinker, Enfield

The King & Tinker, in Whitewebbs Lane, is the oldest pub in Enfield, dating back to the sixteenth century and it is thought that the entrance porch and fireplace were originally part of the old White Webbs House that stood on the opposite side of the round until its demolition in 1790.

There have been reported sightings here of a ghostly little girl in a white dress running through the kitchens. The King & Tinker was investigated in 2012 by North London Paranormal Investigations.

Watch ghost hunting in Enfield

The Rose & Crown, Enfield

The Rose & Crown was built around 1700 and sits in an area of Clay Hill called Beggar’s Hollow, which is thought to derive from ‘Bull Beggar’s Hole’. It seems this area may have had a haunted reputation for a long time as ‘bull beggar’ is an old term for a boggart or ghost. Legend has it that the pub is haunted by Dick Turpin, but this owes more to the fact that his grandfather owned the pub than it does to any spectral appearances of the notorious highwayman. However, there have been sightings of a friendly female ghost and also a cavalier.

Camlet Moat, Enfield

In the dense woodland at the northern tip of Trent Park, by Hadley Road is the site of a moated, medieval manor house called Camlet Moat.

The building was demolished in the fifteenth century but the water-filled moat survives and is freely accessible to the public.

Local legend states that the site is haunted by a dark shadowy figure that watches any visitor with intense suspicion. Some believe this to be the ghost of Geoffrey de Mandeville, the twelfth-century Earl of Essex who may have lived here, while others say it is Dick Turpin.

I’m not convinced and have put forward my own theory in Haunted Enfield.

Camlet Moat is held to be of religious significance to modern wiccans and the trees surrounding the ancient well have ribbons and trinkets attached to them as offerings to the spirits they believe dwell there.

JASON HOLLIS is a paranormal investigator and researcher with the North London Paranormal Investigations (NLPI) team. He was born in the London Borough of Enfield and lived there for over thirty years before moving to Hertfordshire where he now lives with his wife and children. His lifelong interest in the supernatural led him to research and write about Enfield’s ghosts. Haunted Enfield, his first book, brings together for the first time all of the stories, legends and documented evidence of the supernatural from around the Borough into one volume.