Black Vaughan of Hergest Court

Sir Thomas Vaughan of Hergest Court was killed at the Battle of Barnet fighting for the Lancastrian cause in 1469, and according to local tradition he did not stay dead. His ghost returned to the Red Marches in the form of a great black bull, rampaging through Kington and the surrounding farms, overturning carts, scattering livestock, and driving the county to distraction.

When the bull proved impossible to confront directly, he apparently shrank himself to a bluebottle fly and continued his mischief in that form. The eventual solution required twelve parsons, each holding a lighted candle, along with a baby — whose innocence was thought to weaken the spirit's power. Together they confined him to a snuff-box, which was thrown into the pond at Hergest Court, where he is said to lie still.

The legend may echo a real historical terror: Thomas Vaughan was by several accounts a violent and feared man in his lifetime, and his wife Ellen Gethin ('Ellen the Terrible') was said to have attended an archery competition in disguise and shot her brother's murderer dead. The family's reputation clearly outlasted them both.