CovSoc Vice Chair, Peter Walters, tells us that in the late 80s / early 90s there was a tradition at the Coventry Evening Telegraph of publishing local ghost stories over the Christmas period. Here is one of the ones that Peter wrote at that time.
The fog had lifted a little as the young couple turned their car out of Baginton into Rowley Road.
It was shortly before closing time on a chilly November night and they were driving home after a quiet drink.
As they drove slowly along the dark and deserted road, the car’s headlights picked out in the mist the figure of a woman standing on a raised grass verge.
She was wearing a long white gown which began at her throat with a high ruffed collar and reached to the ground. As the astonished couple drew nearer, they could see that the woman appeared to be middle-aged and was unusually tall.
She had black matted hair and her face, turned to the car, was an unearthly grey. She wasn’t moving, just staring straight at them. In the headlights her eyes were very green and piercing.
When the car was only yards away she suddenly turned and pointed into the darkness in the direction of Coventry airport, before swinging round and pointing in the other direction, towards The Lunt Roman fort. They turned to look as they drove past but the figure had disappeared.
It was as if, the couple felt, she was trying to tell them something. And in the weeks after the incident they tried to find some rational explanation for what they had seen.
They failed, but their story, recounted in local newspapers, drew a response from John Sheffield, a retired businessman and amateur musician who had lived at nearby Baginton Rectory in the 1950s.He revealed that his family had had many encounters with the so-called grey lady who was said to haunt the area.
Late one night, his father-in-law, who was alone in the house, glanced out of the window up the drive and saw somebody crossing the lawn. Thinking that it was one of the family returning, he switched on the outside light and opened the front door. He was amazed to find nothing there but a distinct musky perfume.
On another occasion a member of the family was in the kitchen when she felt the door open behind her and someone come in. There was nobody there – just the faint smell of perfume.
John Sheffield said he felt she was a friendly spirit who only showed herself to those in love.
Happy Christmas!