Chester: England's Most Haunted City

The Icy Room

At the top of what is reputedly the steepest city street in England – Chester's charming St Mary's Hill – is the strange and haunted Old Rectory.

Not far from Chester Castle, where criminals were executed until as late as 1883, sits the former vicarage of nearby St Mary's Church. (In a corner of its churchyard are the unmarked graves of three witches found guilty at Chester Assizes of ‘magick and conjury' - and summarily hung by the neck until dead.)

According to two separate accounts from people who have worked at the Old Rectory, there is a small room at the top of the house that is always icy cold. Its door bangs shut when there's no one near, and there's not a breath of wind. Why? Nobody knows.

Whatever the cause, it's not something to dwell on as you walk down spooky, cobbled St Mary's Hill on a dark and moonlit night.