Hazlebadge Hall

Standing at the head of Bradwell Dale in the Peak District, Hazlebadge Hall is the surviving portion of what was once a substantially larger manor house. The building visible today dates principally from 1549, although the history of the manor itself stretches back considerably further. The surviving Hall is protected as a Grade II* listed building and retains an impressive Tudor gable, mullioned windows and a carved coat of arms associated with the Vernon family. The manor was held by the Strelley family during the medieval period before passing to the Vernons of Haddon in the early fifteenth century. The earlier Strelley residence was eventually demolished, with the present surviving section constructed during the Vernon period. The date 1549 remains carved into the western gable alongside heraldic decoration. Historic records describe the present building as the remains of a formerly much larger house, subsequently reduced to use as a farmhouse and altered during the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Hazlebadge's paranormal reputation centres on a woman named Margaret Vernon. Her story is not a recent internet invention: a version of the legend appeared in J. Tilley's Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire in 1892, and it was repeated by local historian Seth Evans in his 1912 history of Bradwell. According to the traditional story, Margaret fell in love with a man who had promised himself to another woman. After discovering his intentions, Margaret nevertheless attended his wedding at Hope Church. Having watched the ceremony, she supposedly mounted her horse and rode desperately back towards Hazlebadge, becoming so distressed that she subsequently suffered a severe fever and temporarily lost her reason. The supernatural element of the story concerns that return journey. Local tradition maintained that during particularly wild and stormy nights, the apparition of a woman on horseback could be seen travelling through the gorge between Bradwell and Hazlebadge, her horse racing towards the old Hall. The rider was identified locally as Margaret Vernon, eternally repeating the frantic journey home. A later telling recorded in 1912 places the apparition travelling between Hope and Hazlebadge around midnight, describing both rider and horse as spectral. Modern versions sometimes specifically describe Margaret's mount as a white horse, although that detail does not appear consistently in the earliest published version and should therefore be regarded as part of the legend's later development. There is no evidence establishing that an apparition genuinely appears in Bradwell Dale, nor should every detail of Margaret's tragic romance necessarily be treated as documented biography. What can be established is that the ghost story itself has genuine age. It was being recorded in print more than 130 years ago and was already described at that time as an existing local tradition. Hazlebadge therefore represents something increasingly difficult to find among Britain's supposedly haunted locations: an obscure historic building with a supernatural tradition that can genuinely be traced back generations. Whether Margaret Vernon ever rides through Bradwell Dale is another question entirely, but the story of the phantom horsewoman of Hazlebadge is unquestionably part of the area's historic folklore. Type of Phenomena: Apparition / Phantom Horse and Rider / Folklore Haunting Classification: Historic Local Haunting Tradition Reported Phenomena: - Apparition of a woman riding a horse - Traditionally identified as Margaret Vernon - Rider reportedly seen travelling through Bradwell Dale towards Hazlebadge - Sightings traditionally associated with wild or stormy nights - Later accounts sometimes describe a spectral white horse - Tradition recorded in published accounts since at least 1892