Black Tom's grave

You're near the Black Tom junction in Bedford, where a hanged highwayman was buried with a stake through his heart.

Black Tom was a highwayman, named for his dark complexion and coal-black hair, who worked the roads around Bedford. After he was hanged he was buried at a crossroads, the junction of Tavistock Street, Union Street and Clapham Road, with a stake through his heart to stop him walking. It didn't work. In the 1840s sightings of Tom and another phantom kept people indoors after dark, and in the 1960s witnesses in broad daylight saw a man with a blackened face staggering along Union Street, his head lolling as if from the noose, before he vanished. The surrounding district is still known as Black Tom.