Reputed to be one of the most haunted forests in the world, this ancient woodland has seen thousands of years of violence, tragedy and turmoil.

So it’s no wonder that the ghosts from its past continue to terrify the living to this day…

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This is a particularly dark episode, covering themes including murder, suicide, and child abuse which some people may find distressing. ⚠️

This extra special episode was made possible through a collaboration with the lovely Eulogy Media, who you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/@eulogymedia

We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to the following people:

Issy Baker, George Bateman, and Jug the Horse: Black Bess

SOURCES

📚 Haunted England by Westwood & Simpson

📚 Paranormal Essex by Jason Day

📚 Lays And Legends Of The Forest Of Essex by Edward Hardingham: https://archive.org/details/laysandlegendsf00hardgoog

*CAST / CREW*
– Writer, Presenter – Claire Glover
– Director / Cinematographer / Editor – Hal Sinden ( @halsinden / https://www.instagram.com/halsinden / https://www.imdb.me/HalSinden)
– 1st Assistant Director / Key Grip / Unit Driver / Drone Operator / Crossbow Assassin / Male Car Park Victim – Dan Newcomb (https://www.instagram.com/dansthegrip / https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11460584/)
– Dick Turpin – Eduard Banik
– Black Bess – Jug the Horse
– Jilted Lover – Phoebe Alice Ritchie (https://www.instagram.com/phoebealiceritchie/ / https://www.spotlight.com/profile/5217-8972-4075)
– Car Assassin – Naomi Bowman (https://www.instagram.com/naomibowman_05 / https://www.spotlight.com/profile/8217-1205-7893)
– Female Car Park Victim – Beth Ryan (https://www.instagram.com/bethryanmusic)
– Wardrobe provided by Andrea & Larger Than Life Stagewear (http://www.largerthanlifestagewear.co.uk)

With thanks to David Glover, Agnes the Baby, Wendy Shaffer, Issy Baker, George Bateman & Jug the Horse.

Original music by Hal Sinden for Eulogy Media Ltd.

Created in partnership with Eulogy Media Ltd.
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COME SAY HI!

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THE LEGAL STUFF

I don’t claim ownership of all the extracts, including images, videos and audio, featured in this video. I will include material according to the Creative Commons CC0 licensing, or according to fair usage on the basis that I’m reporting, educating, or providing commentary or critique.

My whole aim for this channel is to educate and entertain you lovely people, using accurate factual information and personal experiences to the best of my knowledge. I spend hours and hours on the research for each one of my videos, using sources that I like to think are trustworthy. But let’s face it, no one’s perfect, and when you’re dealing with anything in history, especially the paranormal, mistakes will happen. If you’re interested, I’d highly recommend you do your own research, and if I have made a mistake, please tell me about it!

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46 Comments

  1. ⚠ CONTENT WARNING: This is a particularly dark episode, covering themes including murder, suicide, and child abuse which some people may find distressing. ⚠

  2. Fascinating history about Epping forest, I’d love to visit there one day being a metal detectorist. I’ve been fascinated by English history because part of my ancestry is British

  3. Heard reports that Dick Turpin has been seen riding his horse on Heathrow Airport's runways too… Mr Turpin seems to get around in his ghostly form…

  4. Try Mad Bess Woods in Ruislip, they say that Mad Bess walks those woods, don't know the full story though… Ruislip is not far from Harefield Hospital which is known for heart surgery. Would be nice to see a video about Mad Bess naturally

  5. The Dick Turpin you describe is the one in literature. The real one was a drunken, brutish, slobbering fool! If you see a gentleman in fine clothes riding a proud horse, then it is most defiantly not him!

  6. Hi There, this was recommended to me on my home page and I'm impressed! a fascinating story, beautifully filmed, and had me drawn in from the beginning. Keen to see more!

  7. First time watching your channel, and I gotta say this is episode is great. The warrior queen faught the 9th Legion, and the 9th Legion also has some mystery surrounding them as well. The whole 9th Legion apparently went missing

  8. Spent years as a kid in Epping forest, remember finding someone hanging from a tree who took their own life. And the devil worship spots with the burning ground is 100% true. We used to find the animals they used. burired around them grounds. We used to catch these worshipers having sex, but as kids we used to do stupid things so we would throw sticks and rocks at them and chase them off lol. But ya defo was shady goings on up there in the 80/90s thats for sure.

  9. Amazing work, can see this channel going from ‘don’t scare Claire’ to ‘don’t scare Claire on location’
    Amazing growth in over a year as well! Newly subbed

  10. I spend most days wandering in Epping Forest and sometimes at night.I have on occasion seen and heard things i can`t logically explain. My dedication to the forest is obvious when watching Claire`s wanderings cos i keep on saying"Hey,i know rhat tree!"😃

  11. Hay I am loving you content I thought you may like to hear my ghost encounter.

    When I was in school I was staying late to rehearse for a drama evening anyway we were in the cloakroom now opposite this area was one of the music practice rooms as we were changing I noticed the door moving gently ford and back this got harder and harder until it was like someone was shaking and banging the door it was crazy the windows were closed the room was empty and it was a still night I can’t explain it we teacher included were really freaked out I can’t explain it it was possibly a ghost.

  12. The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.

    The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.

    The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

    And the highwayman came riding—

    Riding—riding—

    The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

    He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,

    A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin.

    They fitted with never a wrinkle. His boots were up to the thigh.

    And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,

    His pistol butts a-twinkle,

    His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

    Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.

    He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.

    He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there

    But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

    Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

    Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

    And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked

    Where Tim the ostler listened. His face was white and peaked.

    His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,

    But he loved the landlord’s daughter,

    The landlord’s red-lipped daughter.

    Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

    “One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night,

    But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;

    Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,

    Then look for me by moonlight,

    Watch for me by moonlight,

    I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”

    He rose upright in the stirrups. He scarce could reach her hand,

    But she loosened her hair in the casement. His face burnt like a brand

    As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;

    And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,

    (O, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)

    Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

    PART TWO

    He did not come in the dawning. He did not come at noon;

    And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,

    When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon, looping the purple moor,

    A red-coat troop came marching—

    Marching—marching—

    King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

    They said no word to the landlord. They drank his ale instead.

    But they gagged his daughter, and bound her, to the foot of her narrow bed.

    Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!

    There was death at every window;

    And hell at one dark window;

    For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

    They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest.

    They had bound a musket beside her, with the muzzle beneath her breast!

    “Now, keep good watch!” and they kissed her. She heard the doomed man say—

    Look for me by moonlight;

    Watch for me by moonlight;

    I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

    She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!

    She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!

    They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years

    Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,

    Cold, on the stroke of midnight,

    The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

    The tip of one finger touched it. She strove no more for the rest.

    Up, she stood up to attention, with the muzzle beneath her breast.

    She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;

    For the road lay bare in the moonlight;

    Blank and bare in the moonlight;

    And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love’s refrain.

    Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horsehoofs ringing clear;

    Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?

    Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,

    The highwayman came riding—

    Riding—riding—

    The red coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still.

    Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!

    Nearer he came and nearer. Her face was like a light.

    Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,

    Then her finger moved in the moonlight,

    Her musket shattered the moonlight,

    Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

    He turned. He spurred to the west; he did not know who stood

    Bowed, with her head o’er the musket, drenched with her own blood!

    Not till the dawn he heard it, and his face grew grey to hear

    How Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

    The landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

    Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

    Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,

    With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high.

    Blood red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat;

    When they shot him down on the highway,

    Down like a dog on the highway,

    And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.

    . . .

    And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,

    When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,

    When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

    A highwayman comes riding—

    Riding—riding—

    A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

    Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard.

    He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred.

    He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there

    But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

    Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

    Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

    n/a

  13. I spent much of my youth in epping forest, still do, it holds many wonderful memories for me, me an my buddies used to drink an listen to black metal back in the old days and camp and get up to all sorts, I used to drink in a pub called the owl near High beech and walk back after closing time through the forest, a very haunting yet soothing experience, I always loved the idea of it being haunted, it's the only thing I like about living where I live, it still serves as my favourite place to escape to. I really enjoyed your video, thank you for creating it 🖤

  14. That was a great episode, it's cool seeing you really be at the location you are telling us about. Epping Forest seems like a creepy place at night, but the most creepy things are, as always, done by humans and not ghosts. It was a quite distressing voyage, but thanks so much, Claire, you should do these outdoor episodes more often. And such nice dogs!! 😊

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