Herefordshire Beacon — Local services in Colwall

I've never been there,in fact, I've never been across the pond. However, this place caught my eye back in 1987 or '88 when I read Hans Holzer's fascinating book "The Great British Ghost Hunt". Holzer mistakenly mentions the Herefordshire beacon as the Hereford beacon in the chapter "The countryside is full of ghosts".

I'd like to quote Holzer here: But the most chilling episode in her unusual life happened while she was still a little girl, living at Gloucester House, Malvern Wells, about a mile from her aunt. Not far from there is an artificial hill called the British Camp, also known as the Hereford Beacon. It is situated on the main road from Malvern to Ledbury and is one of the higher hills in the area. The summit of it is terraced and is, in fact, part of the old Roman earthworks which were built in this area. “I had a very fiery French governess named Chevalier. One afternoon we were walking on the Hereford Beacon and sat down to rest. I remember clearly the sound of sheep cropping the grass and that wonderful scent of juniper. Suddenly I heard the tramping of feet that grew heavier, and over the Malvern Hills to the Beacon came a long line of men marching. We were on the east side of the hill, looking down over the reservoir toward Eastnor Park. There were hundreds of men, some mounted cavalry with a standard-bearer and the rest foot soldiers. I was only six at the time and had not yet started history. The men wore what to me looked like skirts, but there were helmets with plumes and a standard-bearer with a huge bronze-colored eagle. I called to Mademoiselle to hurry and get out of the way and dragged her to one side. She was naturally very shaken, but the men vanished as they reached a certain point of the Beacon. I was fascinated but not afraid, as they seemed quite real. I was sure that we would be walked into, since they marched without breaking line or seeming to give way. But Mademoiselle did not see them. She yanked me home to my aunt’s, and I was considered to be ill and was put to bed with aspirin.” Mrs. Warren-Browne’s family is Roman Catholic, and the entire area around Malvern is one of the strongholds of English Catholicism. Evidently the family had discussed her strange behavior with a friendly priest, Dom Rodger Huddleston, of a distinguished Roman Catholic family. The following morning, Father Huddleston came to see the little girl. “As we sat in the garden he talked to me quite casually about what I had seen,” Catherine recalls, “and he told me I must have seen ‘a picture in time,’ for the Roman legions fought a big battle against the Britons and Saxons in this area. He also told me that Cerdic, the Saxon leader, was often seen riding when war was about to break out, and that many people in the area had actually seen him.” (As told by Elizabeth Warren-Brown to...

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