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Ghost · Chicksands

Rosata, the walled-up nun of Chicksands

A nun falls for a canon at a medieval priory, and both are punished horribly for it. Airmen stationed there 800 years later say she still keeps a monthly appointment.

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Ghost

Rosata of Chicksands

On the 17th of every month, a walled-up nun walks the cloister.

Check opening times

What's there
A former priory inside a military base
Legend from
Medieval setting
Best time
Booked tours, April to October
Tone
Chilling
GhostsBuried alive

Before you go

The priory is inside RAF Chicksands, a military base, so you can only visit on a tour booked in advance (1st and 3rd Sunday afternoons, April to October).

  • Chicksands Priory
  • Near A507
  • The pin marks the spot.
  • DateSaid to walk on the 17th of every month

Inside the base ahead stands Chicksands Priory, where a nun walled up in the cloister is said to walk on the 17th of every month.

Chicksands Priory was founded around 1150 for a religious community of canons and nuns. Legend says a nun named Rosata fell in love with one of the canons and became pregnant. Her lover was executed, she was made to watch, and she was then walled up alive in the cloisters. Her ghost is said to walk the east cloister on the 17th of every month, still searching for him. The priory later became an officers' club on the RAF and US Air Force base at Chicksands, and airmen stationed there in the 1970s recorded their own night-time vigils. A plaque inside the house carries a verse about her.

Sources

  1. Bedfordshire Archives: The Priory of Chicksands
  2. Bedford Borough Council: Rosetta, the Chicksands Ghost (A. W. Sutcliffe)
  3. Friends of Chicksands Priory: Tours