Category: Mancombe and Mancombe Down (in Warminster)

The Mancombe Ghost

Victor Strode Manley, in Volume 10 of his Regional Survey of the Warminster District, compiled in the 1920s and 1930s, includes the following note:

Narrator: Mr. Foreman, West Street, Warminster. April 1931.
Re-told by R. Davis.

He worked as a shepherd until lately on Mr. Stiles’ Farm on Warminster Down. No one could be got to remain in the farmhouse because it was said to be haunted. The crockery rattled and fell, doors shut of their own account and were only opened afterwards with difficulty, so it was demolished.

(Query – Was this the same place as mentioned in the tale of the haunted sheepskin?)

Some years ago he took a flock of sheep from there to Tilshead, and returned via Imber, where he had a pint at night. When he reached the foot of Sack Hill, a white form came from the direction of Battlesbury, but it had no definite form. It stood in the middle of the road in front of him and remained there until his near approach, when it glided into a copse at the side of the road. There was no wind but a rustling sound came from the copse.

The same thing happened to him on another occasion.

Annual Rifle Prize Meeting, 1867

From The Warminster Parish Magazine And Church Register, No.10, Vol.4., October 1867:

The annual Rifle Prize Meeting took place on Monday, the twenty-third, at Mancombe Hill. Mr. Wakeman, as usual, distinguished himself, carrying off Lord Bath’s prize, and also winning that of Mr. Bleeck, which he could not retain, as being the winner of the former prize. Corporal Luke and Private N. White were ties for the Challenge Cup, but Luke became the holder of it. Private Cross carried off the Cup given by the Officers of the Corps. Messrs. Luke and Haden were the winners of the prizes given by Mr. Wakeman. Our space forbids our giving the names of others who won laurels.

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