Many a strange thing has been reported along this stretch. Stacia Briggs investigates...
 

It’s one of Norfolk’s best-known roads – but is the Acle Straight also the county’s most haunted highway?

The road, a delight to drivers who aren’t in a hurry, is nine miles of Tarmac from Acle to Great Yarmouth. A journey over reclaimed land which was once under the sea.

Shortening the distance from Great Yarmouth to Norwich by three miles and five furlongs, the road opened in 1831. 

As its name suggests, the road is exceptionally straight – other than a curve where the Halvergate branch road joins it at a point which encompasses the new Hindu temple in the former home of the Stracey Arms.

It was close to this exact point where something very strange was spotted – the ghostly figure of a man.

A driver passing the Halvergate turn-off (a notoriously dangerous stretch) on their way to Acle watched in horror as a middle-aged man walked out into the centre of the road from the right-hand side and into the path of their car. 

With no time to stop, the figure turned to look at the driver and as he did so, the car passed straight through him.

And it’s not the first time ghosts have been spotted. Other drivers have reported seeing a phantom horse and cart crossing the road directly in the path of oncoming vehicles, while other drivers have spoken of having a sudden impulse to brake violently and for no apparent reason at certain points along the road, despite having seen nothing to lead them to the conclusion that an emergency stop was necessary.

In 1979, a mother and daughter were in a car travelling towards Great Yarmouth when they spotted something unusual in the fields close to the Acle Straight.

As Tina Clayton and her mother neared Great Yarmouth they saw something magical – a grand manor house, lit from within, the silhouettes of party-goers clear through the windows.

It was clear that a grand party was in full-swing at the house which was framed by tall Poplar trees and which glowed against the night sky.

Tina looked forward to seeing the house in daylight the next time she passed: but when they approached the precise spot, there was nothing there.

No house, no party, no trees. Just fields and a somewhat unnerving feeling that something very strange indeed had just happened: had Tina and her mother witnessed a time slip?

At the time of the sighting, Tina was 12-years-old and a keen dancer who would often spend weekends travelling to London with her mum to dance.

She said: “One early evening, my mother and I were travelling in the car and we saw a very large house on the left-hand side as we were going towards Yarmouth, very near to the corner near Vauxhall Holiday Park, but not really close to it.

“We both saw the same thing: a very large house, grand, Regency/Georgian-style but not quite a mansion. Three trees in front, tall like poplars, and all the lights were burning.

“It looked like they were having a party as we could see people dancing in couples through the windows. We commented on it as we had not seen the house before, and then carried on with the journey.”

The enchanting scene the pair had caught a glimpse of stayed with them, and the next time they were on the same stretch of road, they looked out for the house.

“It was not there – no sign of it, or the trees and no ruin,” wrote Tina.

“Nothing to indicated what we had seen before. There has been no sign of what we saw from that time on and I have looked every time I have driven on the Acle Straight.”