The Black Lady of Bradley Woods is a ghost which reportedly haunts the woods near the village of Bradley, in Lincolnshire. Eyewitnesses have described her as being young and pretty, around 5ft 6in (1.7 m) tall, and dressed in a black cloak and hood.[1]
The legend is that during either the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), or the Barons’ Wars (1264–1267), a young woodsman and his wife lived with their baby son in a cottage in Bradley Woods. The woodsman left his family to fight in the conflict, and every day afterwards his wife walked to the edge of the woods with their baby in the hope of seeing her husband returning.[2]
As she was leaving her cottage one day the woman was set upon by three horsemen from an army on their way to attack Lincoln. After raping her, the horsemen rode off with the baby. Heartbroken and humiliated, she is now said to wander the woods searching in vain for her child and her husband.[2]
The Black Lady was once used by parents as a nursery bogeyImaginary being invoked by adults to scare children away from dangerous places or frighten them into good behaviour., frightening children into good behaviour; children were warned that if they were not safely in bed by a certain time “the black lady will get you!”.[2]