All this week we are proud to present you our very own ‘Haunted Guildford’ series from in-house blogger Charli Aisha Harris where spine-chilling stories of haunted folk and places in Guildford are recounted for your displeasure! Learn a little bit more about Guildford’s darker past with spectres, royalty, celebrity and of course plenty of death to share with you. Thought that Guildford was a sleepy market town…? Well think again as we uncover some of the scarier stories from our town’s history.
This legend – so named due to the lack of records substantiating Lorna’s existence – has all the ingredients of a tragic and terrifying tale.
The story goes that at the end of the 1600’s, just after the purchase of the first Quaker property in Guildford, there lived a rich Quaker widower in a large house where Sainsbury’s car park now stands. The widower was lucky enough to be blessed with a sweet and beautiful nineteen year old daughter named Lorna. Lorna had been courting a young local man, of whom her father greatly disapproved. He disapproved strongly because this young man was Anglican. The man also refused to convert to the Quakers at the behest of Lorna. Lorna’s father decided to make one last attempt to convert his daughters’ suitor, and so invited him to a Christmas meal at their home.
During the meal Lorna’s father began to interrogate the poor boy on his prospects, his family and his religious beliefs. Understandably, the young man finally snapped and the discussion became a furious row. The young man stormed out and Lorna was distraught. After rowing with her father herself, Lorna charged from the house weeping hysterically and by the time that her father sought his bed she had not returned. He assumed that his traitorous daughter was seeking solace in the arms of her young man, perhaps they would run away together. Sadly this was not the case.
The next day, Lorna was found at the foot of the cliff in Rack’s Close. Many of her bones were broken and she had been lying in freezing conditions for hours. Did she throw herself off the cliff, insane with despair? Had something more sinister occurred? No one knew except for Lorna, but unfortunately Lorna died from her injuries several hours later after being moved to her fathers’ home. In one final act of spite, her father refused to allow her to be buried in the family plot, thus cementing his daughters’ fate as an uneasy spirit.
For centuries reports have flooded in, of a grey lady seen walking by Castle Arch and down what is now Sydenham Road and towards Rack’s Close. The figure enters the trees weeping softly and does not reappear, though her cries seem to fill the air. It is said that poor Lorna is doomed to relive the night of her death over and over, echoing the cold and bitter night upon which she died.
Do you dare venture back down to Rack’s Close? When the air is still and dark and the ground is frosty, are you brave enough to chance encountering one of Guildford’s most infamous spectral residents..?
Charli Aisha Harris
With special thanks to Philip Hutchinson, author of Haunted Guildford