The Steeple Morden cottages ‘haunted’ by a ghost for 150 years

Two families reportedly moved out after being spooked

A ghost is rumoured to have spooked two families away from living in a Cambridgeshire home. The home, which was the site of a historic murder, has long been claimed to be haunted.

Maidservant Elizabeth Pateman was murdered in Febuary 1734 aged only 19 at the cottages of Moco in Steeple Morden. She was believed to have knowledge about the occupants of the cottages, rumoured to have been involved in the disappearance of a packman.

Elizabeth was murdered with crude farming utensils: a coulter, peak hook, and a penknife and her ghost was said to have haunted the cottages for more than 150 years. In January 1901, the Cambridge Daily News reported a sighting of her ghost.

Mr and Mrs Steggles had lived in one of the cottages at Moco for about nine months before they heard blood curdling cries of agony. When the couple heard a loud thud and the firing of a gunshot in one corner of the room they had had enough, and moved in with the shepherd next door, refusing to re-enter their home.

The Rule family moved in shortly before WW1. After their son, Frederick, went off to fight, they heard footsteps in the cottage, and believed it was Frederick returning home.

But every time they checked, nobody was there. The footsteps seemed to always stop at the same point.

One day, Charles Rule, the father, and his friend decided to inspect where the footsteps stopped. He said he discovered a black void hidden behind a hollow wall.

That night he said he felt an aggressive pressure around his throat, like he was being strangled. But nobody was there. The next morning his friend reported the same.

The footsteps stopped, but the family were spooked and left the home after the war.

The original Moco area next to Cheyney water is now a field area with plants growing over it, rather than the haunted historic cottage and farmland.