THE ENFIELD FLYER
On a cold and crisp December evening in 1961, young Robert Bird was cycling along Bell Lane on his way to a Boys Brigade meeting, when he sighted a pair of lights speeding towards him from the opposite direction.
As the lights got closer they suddenly swerved across the road and headed straight at him.
Convinced that an out of control vehicle was about to run him over, Robert attempted to get out of its path. But it was too late and he braced himself for the inevitable impact.
As is often the case at times of crisis, the whole scene suddenly went into slow motion and he was able to take in that the vehicle was in fact a black coach, being pulled by four horses that were being spurred on by two shadowy figures’.
Strangest of all, was the fact that the carriage was actually travelling four or five feet off the ground.
But, just as the coach was about to hit him, it passed straight through him and vanished.
THE PHANTOM COACH
What Robert had witnessed was the so-called "Phantom Coach of Enfield," a ghostly conveyance that races along Bell Lane, its wheels above the ground, although their noise and that of the horses’ hooves are clearly audible.
Tradition holds that its origins lie in the 18th century, when the countryside hereabouts was marshland, and the rutted road a good deal higher than it is today.
It was quite common for the speeding coaches to veer from the highway and plunge into the swamp, often with tragic results.
Is it possible that the spectral coach, which has been seen by many witnesses, is a vestige of one such long ago tragedy that has somehow left an imprint on the surrounding’s, and which is occasionally re-enacted before startled spectators?
