Dykes Hill

In his ‘The History and Antiquities of Masham and Mashamshire (1865), John Fisher refers to an old local belief in several local ghosts.  Among these is a headless woman at Dykes Hill.  He himself did not share this belief which he states it had died away by the time of writing.

‘Neither  does  it  say  much  for the  intelligence  of  the  parish  at  this  period.  We  know, however,  from  other  sources,  that,  not  only  at  this  time, but  long  afterwards,  great  ignorance,  not  unmixed  with an  incredible  amount  of  superstition,  very  much  prevailed throughout  the  parish,  and  that  ghosts  and  hob-goblins were  as  plentiful in  it  as  blackberries,  so  that there  was  scarcely  a  nook  or  corner  in  the  parish  which was  not  “haunted”  by  its  own  special ghost  or  boggle. The “Marfield Boggle,”  “Jinny  Greensleeves,”  of  High Burton,  “Sir  Roger  Beckwith’s”  ghost,  of  Aldborough Hall,  and  “The  Woman  without  a  head,”  at  the  Dykes-hill, have  indeed  only  taken  their  departure  from  the parish  within  the  period of  my  own  recollection.’