Across the other side of the village, two young boys taking a forbidden short cut through St Mary's churchyard at Egbu one dark night, had the fright of their lives when they saw an elderly woman gliding towards them across the grassy mounds of the graves. She was short, dumpy old lady dressed all in black, and wearing a shapeless black straw bonnet which hid her face.

Hall D. of St Mary's Road, who is now retired, still recalls that long-ago night during the last war with startling clarity... and a shiver. As the boys watched open-mouthed, the ghost, for that is what she was, knelt down behind a grey and weathered tombstone. Two shapes rose from the grave and moved towards them. "I was absolutely petrified. We didn't wait around to see what would happen next. We took to our heels and ran," he said.

The sight haunted my mind for years before I could finally get over it.