Nomansland Common in Hertfordshire is a picture of peace in daylight. Walkers stroll past wild bluebells as sparrowhawks fly overhead while badgers go about their day beneath the ground.
When darkness falls however, it’s a different story. Shadows dart between ancient oak trees and fog crawls in over the hills. It would take a very brave – or perhaps very foolish – person to walk the Common at night.
Anyone who does, may just catch a glimpse of Hertfordshire’s most terrifying ghost: a black horse which bolts across the hills, carrying a mysterious rider dressed all in black. Thought to be Katherine Ferrers, she is the so-called ‘Wicked Lady’ who was an aristocrat by day, highwaywoman by night.
By the age of 26, Katherine was dead – with her death steeped in mystery, just as much as her troubled life. So what is the story behind the ghostly heiress?
A portrait of a young Katherine Ferrers can be found at Valence House Museum, the only surviving manor house in Dagenham. A silk blue dress and sparkling pearls are painted on the 13-year-old as she smiles softly.
It’s a far cry from the image of the untamed ‘Wicked Lady’ who terrorised grown men.
‘Katherine looks really innocent in the portrait; it’s fascinating,’ says Judy Leigh, author of The Wicked Lady, a fictional new book inspired by Katherine Ferrers’ story.
She tells : ‘You look at the young woman in the portrait and think, “what happened in the 12 years after this was taken? What would have made her want to get on a horse and hold people at gunpoint?”
‘There was incredible risk involved in what she did – and she’d have known that. A highwayman in England would typically have quit while they were ahead, been caught or be dead within three years.’
Katherine was born on May 4, 1634 and raised at the luxurious Markyate Cell mansion in Hertfordshire, ten miles from Luton. She became the sole heir to her family fortune after her father and grandfather died by the time she was six. But she was not destined to keep the money.
‘Although Katherine was born rich and privileged, she was not privileged at all in her life situation,’ explains Judy.
‘She was made to marry at not quite 14 to a man who was 16. He would go on to take all her money and sell her family’s property. Katherine was an heiress, yes, but she was an heiress robbed.’
According to legend, Katherine was desperate to find a way to make money and break free from the shackles in which 17th century society had placed her. The story goes that she befriended a local farmer called Ralph Chaplin who persuaded her to moonlight as a highwaywomen.
As night fell, Katherine would leave Markyate Cell via a secret staircase and replace her nightclothes with a dark cloak, black mask and tricorn hat. She would then leap upon her horse and head towards unsuspecting coach-drivers travelling on the ancient Roman Road of Watling Street [now the A5].
The highwaywoman would lie in wait for a cart to pass by and threaten its driver to hand his expensive wares. She would then gallop back to Markyate Cell and transform from the fearsome ‘Wicked Lady’ into a prim and proper aristocrat by morning.
Her adventures came to a swift end when she turned 26 in 1660.
Legend says, Katherine rode up to what seemed to be a lone carriage-driver passing through Nomansland Common.
As the highwaywoman brandished her gun, a group of men jumped out the back and wielded their own weapons. Katherine was shot as she fled the scene and her body was discovered near Markyate Cells.
That’s the legend, other theories suggest that she in fact died during childbirth – or perhaps never was a highwaywoman at all. But the folk tale has grown arms and legs as the years pass.
In 1840, a section of Markyate Cell was engulfed by a fire and later rebuilt. Locals said they felt a ‘ghostly presence’ as they rushed to the sceneand that it felt like they were being watched. In the years since, Katherine has been spotted ‘swinging from a large sycamore tree’ behind the stately home.
Fast forward to Nomansland Common in October 2024, and Philip and his spaniel Sam can be seen out walking in the rain. Philip, from nearby St Albans, doesn’t know much about the tale of Katherine Ferrers, but says it’s no wonder strange sights have been reported. ‘It can be a bit eerie here in winter,’ Philip tells Metro. ‘If the fog comes in you really can’t see much. There’s also bats in the forest.’
The closest pub to Nomansland Common is the aptly Wicked Lady near the village of Wheathampstead. In the seventeenth century, it was a humble inn popular with travellers heading to London. Today, it’s a trendy gastropub with an expansive wine list and the likes of roasted pork belly and seared scallops on the menu. Whenever strange things happen at the Wicked Lady pub; there’s one name on everyone’s lips.
‘Weirdly enough, we were talking about her ghost yesterday,’ one staff member tells Metro.
‘The other day, the tap-badge on our Neck Oil pump fell off and everyone was like “oh, it must be Katherine.” Then, last night we were standing by the bar, barely moving, and suddenly there was a huge noise of wine bottles falling over. Again, we joked “oh, that must be Kathy.”
Down the road from the Wicked Lady is West End Barns, a small coffee shop just off a working farm on Ferrers Lane. As the coffee machine whirs, one barista speaks of an old farmhouse nearby where people have claimed to see the ghost of Katherine.
The abundance of eerie tales about the heiress’ ghost encouraged Judy to embrace the supernatural in her novel The Wicked Lady. The plot follows Charlie Wolfe, a young man who – after a break-up and job loss – jumps at the chance to help his uncle renovate a tumbledown cottage overlooking Nomansland Common. He uncovers Katherine’s story and more about her past is uncovered as the book progresses.
‘It’s quite nice working with ghosts, because you can inject a different kind of atmosphere into your book which brings an old and new timeline together,’ adds Judy.
‘Katherine has two parallel stories in a way; one that she died in childbirth in London; another that she died in Nomansland Common after being shot. I incorporated both into my book as we don’t really know what happened to her – both are possible.’
The ‘Wicked Lady’ legend is embraced by the people of Hertfordshire. But in reality, it’s not too clear what happened to the young heiress.
A secret staircase was indeed discovered at Markyate Cell in 1820, but some historians suspect Katherine’s husband sold the stately home before she could have started her highwaywomen career. Nevertheless, it is thought the discovery of the staircase plus the release of the 1833 poem Maude of Allinghame – which describes the exploits of a highwaywomen – added fuel to the tale.
Katherine was buried at St Mary’s Church in Ware after her death on June 13, 1660.
Curiously, her remains were not placed in the family vault. Is this coincidence, or did her illegal exploits as a highwaywoman leave her family too ashamed to give her a proper send-off?
Judy also points to Ralph Chaplin, the rogue farmer who allegedly encouraged Katherine to become a highwaywoman. Did he even exist?
‘There’s no historical evidence for him, it’s like he was blotted out of history,’ Judy explains. ‘But that could have been because he was a “lowly” farmer not deemed “important” to be remembered.
‘The only things I could find about him in later stories was that he was a lot older than Katherine and a bad influence; that it was all his fault she went into robbery. I didn’t like the idea of Katherine being a posh puppet being told what to do. In my book, I had them as equals.’
The adventures of Katherine Ferrers have been brought to life in two films, both called The Wicked Lady – a 1945 flick starring Margaret Lockwood, and a 1983 remake with Faye Dunaway in the title role. Both were based on a novel by Magdalen King-Hall, which in turn was based upon the life of Katherine Ferrers.
If the stories about the young heiress are true, then she very much broke the law with her thievery and gun-slinging. Yet, Judy says, Katherine didn’t get the same treatment as the likes of Dick Turpin or the legendary Robin Hood who, despite their horrific crimes, became folk heroes in the eyes of society. Instead, she was simply branded ‘wicked.’
‘It raises questions,’ Judy, a former theater studies teacher, says.
‘Maybe, actions we describe as ‘heroism’ among some men are deemed “wicked” if carried out by a woman.’
Will we ever find the truth about Katherine Ferrers? Was she a brave and daring highwaywoman or has a rumour spiralled out of control and the aristocrat’s good name been defamed?
Judy isn’t sure, but points to an old rhyme long told in Hertfordshire. It’s said to be about a huge stash of money Katherine hid near Markyate Cell during her time as a highwaywoman.
The rhyme reads:
‘Near the Cell there is a well
‘Near the well there is a tree
‘And ‘neath the tree the treasure be.’
As is the case, it might not be a historian who solves the mystery of the Wicked Lady after all, but a metal detectorist.
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