Minsden Chapel HISTORY AND HAUNTINGS

Situated in the County of Hertfordshire in England leads to the chapel. The chapel was built in the early fourteenth century to ease the passage of pilgrims passing to Saint Albans Abbey to whom it provided shelter and replenishments. However, by the later part of 17th century, the chapel due to disrepair and lack of proper maintenance reached a crumbling state.

In the later years, the quiet and serene environment had led to its popularity as one of the most sought after places for weddings and was regarded by many as one of the most romantic locations on the countryside. In due course, the chapel started becoming more popular up until the lack of maintenance caused a lump of masonry in the ceiling to fall off and hit the priests hand during the wedding ceremony of Mary Horn and Enoch West. This incident in seventeen hundred and thirty four caused the chapel’s shutdown and later an abandoned state.

In the twentieth century Reginald Hine, a historian who was deeply in love with the site gained its lifetime lease from the vicars of Hitchin. So possessive was he about the property concerned that to keep away bystanders and trespassers he put a sign which said, “trespassers and sacrilegious persons take warning, for I will proceed against them with the utmost rigour of the law, and, after my death and burial, I will endeavour, in all ghostly ways, to protect and haunt its hallowed walls”. There is a seeming confusion regarding where he was buried. Some say that his body belies beneath the thick wedge in the chapel ruins while others say that he was cremated in London.

Rumors of the place being haunted started sometime in 1907 when a friend of Hine’s took a picture of a ghostly monk who could be seen walking and climbing the stairs on Halloween nights around the North-east corner. In addition, the tinkling and tolling of chapel bells added to the paranormal happenings inside the chapel walls. It is said that the occurrence of the phantom monk is always accompanied by tolling of stolen bells with solemn sound of music being played. Furthermore, suspicions of a lady being murdered within the ruins also adds to the spookiness. A glowing cross is also seen at times on the church wall.

In an interview given in 1930 to Eugene O'Donnell, a well-known contemporary writer on occult matters, Latchmore finally admitted that his 'Minsden Ghost' photograph was a hoax. He explained that the picture was the deliberate result of an experiment in the techniques of double exposures, a subject that interested him greatly at the time. Although Latchmore refused to disclose the identity of the individual who had posed as the ghostly figure, it seems likely that it was a young man well known for practical jokes, Latchmore's good friend Reggie Hine. Hine re-published the photograph in 1929 in his History of Hitchin but never admitted it was a fake nor his own part in it.