Friar Lane, Leicester

‘A house at the end of Friar Lane was haunted by an invisible ghost that used to be heard walking about the building and rattling door-handles, and an old man told me that, when he was a boy, he was often followed at night by footsteps that usually began about the middle of the lane and always ended in front of St. Mary’s church. Only on one occasion did he see anything ghostly, and that was one Midsummer Eve. He was going along the lane when he suddenly saw, moving along by his side and clearly outlined on the ground, the shadow of a headless man with something like a hump on his back. The shadow kept pace with him till he came to St. Mary’s church, when it left him, and he watched it go right up to the main entrance of the church and there disappear.’ [HAUNTED CHURCHES by ELLIOTT O’DONNELL (1939)]

Friar Lane, leads off Southgate Street to the east within St. Mary’s parish. Friar Lane, which takes its name from the house of Franciscan friars that stood just outside the parish, is mentioned in 1391. [A History of the County of Leicester: Volume 4, the City of Leicester (1958)].