Breckles Hall
George Hotel, Swaffham
Old Gaol House, King's Lynn
RAF Sculthorpe
Swaffham
 
Breckles Hall, Watton

The coach that haunts this hall is said to bring doom to anyone who sees it. Their fate is either to be carried away forever in the coach - or to be left lifeless on the driveway. Some say the coach is driven by Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne Boleyn, who is cursed with driving his coach over forty bridges. One of his passing points is Breckles Hall . . .

In the late 19th century, the leader of a gang of local poachers, George Mace from Watton, arranged a meeting on the Breckles estate. It was agreed that the men would go their separate ways to do their poaching and would then meet again at an outhouse to share their illicit game.

Poaching pheasants at a time when the house was empty, George Mace suddenly saw a lighted coach coming up the drive. At the same time, the hall came to life, with elegant ladies dancing and fiddlers playing.

Out of the coach stepped a woman with a beautiful face but "eyes of death." She fixed the poacher with her gaze, and the man dropped to the ground with a scream.

The poachers duly arrived with their sacks of birds and rabbits but, of course, their leader failed to turn up. They waited for some time, getting angry at being kept waiting, when they heard the sound of wheels crunching up the drive to the Hall. What startled them was that the coach appeared to glow, and as it pulled up at the main door, invisible hands opened the coach doors and pulled down the steps. Then the coach vanished.

The men were in rather a subdued mood when they returned home, for they knew that they had seen the spectral coach that always calls at Breckles Hall when somebody has just died.

Next day the body of George Mace was found by a footman at the spot where the coach had stopped, and there was no mark of violence to show how he had died. His lips were curved in a happy smile.

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