For a couple of years in my twenties I lived in Cambridgeshire <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Partially as I was a writing book with the support of the university <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But also as I absolutely adored the flatness of the landscape <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It fascinated me as one could see for miles without many obstructions <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was while I was living in the country that I met Mary Wragg <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had lived in the area for most of her life and we just connected <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When not working Mary and I explored the fields and lanes the rivers and streams<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We often swam together or just enjoyed the hot summer sun <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary knew so much about her home county and its myths and legends <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of these I took in my stride but there was one railway tale <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That I could not forget with any ease as it was somewhat fantastic <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was centred around the Tooth Breck Tunnel which is about twenty miles <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will stop there as one day Mary did not meet me at our usual place <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I made enquiries and found out that on a whim she had travelled to Spain <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This surprised me as she was such a level headed country girl <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tooth Breck Tunnel was situated just over twenty miles from Cambridge <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a short tunnel which closed with the rest of the Durrock Branch Line in 1964<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a while it stood unused before being sealed at both ends as rare bats had colonised it <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And apart from the local study groups little happened in or around the tunnel for many years<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was until a skeleton was found whilst the tunnel was being strengthened <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This caused a stir locally as it was not identified for nearly five years <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turned out that it belonged to an Italian POW who had escaped from a nearby camp <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And was hiding in the tunnel when he was hit by a train <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously stories of ghosts and unnatural noises were told but these soon faded<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was twenty years ago and I had forgotten about it until I was told by a friend that a second skeleton had been found in the tunnel <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was soon identified as twenty-two year old Mary Wragg who was reported missing in the summer of 2002 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the year before I first met her whilst researching my book <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My blood ran cold but I sensibly contacted the police as technically I was a person of interest <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The authorities did not really buy into my story that I had known Mary well during the hot summer of 2003 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The year after she had vanished<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were able to trace the record of my enquiry at the time <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that was as far as it got as no crime had been committed as it was concluded that Mary had been hit by a train like the Italian POW many years previously <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that really chilled me was that whilst it was very possible that the POW has been struck by the train whilst hiding in the tunnel <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was impossible that Mary could have suffered the same fate as the last train ran through the tunnel in 1964<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole thing was beginning to unnerve me so I decided the walk away from the whole mystery <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it did not let go of me so I decided to visit the tunnel which I soon found out had been demolished due to the line being reopened for freight traffic towards the Maxby Power Station <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It had been determined that the tunnel was structurally unsound after so many years of disuse <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it was demolished and an embankment created <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did visit the location and found the embankment <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No trace of the tunnel could be seen <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I experienced no unexplained noises or ghostly figures <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not that I expected to experience anything <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Mary Wragg bothered me and out of respect I visited her grave at Lower Barton Church <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again it was a little sad but very normal <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I began to doubt my own sanity and thought that somebody has been playing a cruel practical joke on me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As during the weeks that I knew Mary she was real very real <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was after my book had been published that I was invited to Lower Barton by the local vicar <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted in his letter that he had some information that might be of interest to me as he was a local historian<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was about Mary Wragg and the Wragg family in general <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told me that he did not doubt my story about meeting Mary and her sudden disappearance <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But had I met Mary Wragg as on consulting the church records the Wragg family were extinct by 1717<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last member of this farming family was Edward who was Mary’s older brother <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He died in 1717 and was buried in the churchyard <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We visited his grave which was much weathered <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ignoring the death of the Italian POW there were so many loose ends <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It might have been a practical joke but why as I only knew a few people in the district<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why did the remains of Mary indicate that she had been hit by a train when the trains had ceased many years previously <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have stopped following leads<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am beginning to doubt reality <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I close with the thought <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That there are things in this part of Cambridgeshire <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which are best left unexplained
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (2024) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a couple of years in my twenties I lived in Cambridgeshire Partially as I was a writing book with the support of the university But also as I absolutely adored the flatness of the landscape It fascinated me as one could see for miles without many obstructions It was while I was living in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19849"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19875,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19849\/revisions\/19875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}