Headless Woman of Dalton

The following account appeared in ‘Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders’ by William Henderson (1879) “At Dalton, near Thirsk,” writes Mr. Baring-Gould, “is an old barn, which is haunted by a headless woman. One night a tramp went into it to sleep. At midnight he was awakened by a light, and sitting up he saw a woman coming towards him from the end of the barn, holding her head in her hands like a lantern, with light streaming out of the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. He sprang out of the barn in a fright, breaking a hole in the wall to escape. This hole I was shown six years ago. Whether the barn still stands I cannot say.”