Like all old towns, Thetford has its share of phantoms and spectres, each with its own chilling tale to tell. One of the more grisly involves the young Lord Dacre, whose childish figure is said to haunt Nuns Bridges.

Nuns Bridges, Thetford .

According to legend, the boy was staying with his guardian, Sir Richard Fulmerston, when one day while playing, he fell from his rocking horse and shattered his head against a wall.

Bloodstains remained for 100 years, despite efforts to shift them, and questions remained too - did Sir Richard deliberately make the boy's rocking horse unsafe?

Whatever the answer, the ghost of little Lord Dacre was reputed to haunt Nuns Bridges, riding on a headless rocking horse. And the phantom became so troublesome around "Blue Bridges," as they were then known, that in an effort to calm it, local people threw a pound of new candles into the Little Ouse and ordered the spirit not to return until they were burned completely. Whether or not the strange recipe worked is not recorded.

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