1934
11
YEARS
THE DERELICT MILL
“Another ghost story that came to my knowledge in those far-off days
concerned a haunted mill not far from Hitchin…”
“An Uncle who was staying with us
had taken me for a long walk, and we stopped
to look at the derelict mill one summer’s afternoon.”
“An elderly man who lived nearby
got into conversation with my uncle,
and we were told that the mill was haunted.”
“Curses and mutterings had been heard
on September nights,
when the wind was strong.”
“The old man told us that the figures
of a struggling man and a girl
had been seen at the upper window...”
“The story concerned a former owner of the mill,
who was known to have been a vile
and treacherous man.”
“One night
the mill owner ended up in a bitter struggle
with a woman he had wronged.”
“But as they fought,
some kind of explosion seemed to occur. Within moments the mill was a blazing furnace.”
“The next morning, in the ashes,
the bodies of the miller and the girl were found,
still locked together…”
“There were still people who said they
heard a girl’s scream and the sound of a man cursing
when they passed the ruined mill.”
“There were some who swore that they had seen
the struggling figures of a man and a girl
at the open window of the room that now had no floor…”
“I visited the mill several times
and tried to find witnesses of the strange event.”
“The possibility that tragic and violent happenings
might leave some traces that could be picked up by certain people, fascinated me…”
“...and spurred me to seek out true ghost stories, and eventually hunt seriously for ghosts.”
Underwood discusses the relationship between ghosts and violent pasts.
