Читать книгу Haunted Britain and Ireland: Over 100 of the Scariest Places to Visit in the UK and Ireland - Derek Acorah - Страница 12

Hamilton Stud Lane in Newmarket is haunted by the ghost of the famous jockey Fred Archer, who rode his first flat race as a 12-year-old in 1869. He won his first classic, the 2,000 Guineas, at the age of 17, and became champion jockey the same year. He went on to become champion jockey for 13 consecutive years, from 1874 to 1886, and to win 21 classics. But success had a price. At 5 ft 10 in., he was very tall for a jockey, and only very strict dieting and a disgustingly strong purgative, known as Archer’s mixture, kept him down to his racing weight of 8 st. Then misfortune struck: in 1884 his wife Nelly died in childbirth. Archer was desolate. Two years later he was 1lb overweight and lost the Cambridgeshire by a head. The effects of dieting and grief brought on a fever. Delirious, he shot himself on 8 November 1886. He was just 29 years old.

Soon after his death a local woman reported seeing Fred Archer riding down Hamilton Stud Lane towards her and her daughter and then disappearing into thin air. Since then, others have seen his ghost riding along at the same spot. It is also said that the ghost of Fred Archer haunts Newmarket Racecourse, the scene of some of his greatest triumphs. At a certain spot on the course, horses have swerved, stopped or fallen and their jockeys have reported seeing a strange white shape hanging in the air.

Newmarket Racecourse, Westfield House, The Links, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 0TG; Tel: (01638) 663482