On the way from Thetford to Brandon, along the B1107, an ancient monument sign points the way to Warren Lodge. Some confusion surrounds the nature of the spirit said to haunt this area, and indeed the exact location. Whatever the source, two separate hauntings appear to co-exist in the general areas of The Warren and Redcastle to the south of the Brandon road.

The 15th century ruin of Thetford Warren Lodge.

In his book "Adventures with Phantoms," R Thurston Hopkins tells of how he dreamed of Warren House, or Warren Lodge, before he knew it even existed. The story says that it was a lepers' house in mediaeval times, and even in this century the tower still contained the wooden platters, begging bowls and the lepers' bells.

One of the former inmates is reputed to haunt the area, with burning eyes and a white, almost two-dimensional face, gibbering as it moves.

But the building that stands on the site is under Department of the Environment protection as a house used by the Prior of Thetford's gamekeeper, who had the right of free warren. A white rabbit was said once to haunt The Warren.

Curator of the Ancient House Museum at Thetford, Mr Chad Goodwin, backs up Warren Lodge as being the semi-fortified house for the warrener. But he said that there was also a lepers' graveyard behind nearby Redcastle, so perhaps that is how the stories became confused and muddled over the years.

Add to these a ghostly choir of monks singing at The Canons, or the restless spirit of a murdered landlady of the Bell Hotel at Thetford, Betty Radcliff…

With the mixture of mystery and horror, the recipe is there - a collection of spine-tingling tales, lingering in familiar surroundings and calling out to be told.

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