YOUNG GIRL'S SKELETON

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9922, 2 May 1925, Page 3

YOUNG GIRL'S SKELETON

IN A SECRET PASSAGE AFTER SEVERAL CENTURIES. Behind the Hudor panelling of a secret staircase in the ancient Red Lion Inn at Much Hadliam, i-.ear Bishops Ctortford, Hertfordshire, human bones have been found. Doctors who examined the remains believe them to be those of a frirl of about seventeen, who probabl> died 400 or 500 years ago. The fat t that ■the body had been so carefully concealed suggests that she was the victim of foul play. The discovery was made during continued investigations by the present proprietor, who last year found the secret staircase above the place in the dining-room. It was [thought that this staircase led to a secret room, but it has been found to be an entrance to a curious winding passage-way which stretches across the top of the cld house for a distance of £2ooft or 300 ft to the stables, where there is an exit. The proprietor of the Red Lion states that the discoveries made had enabled him to trace the house back to the. l fourteenth century. The pas-sage-way in the roof of the house, he thought, was probably used as a place of hiding, and also a means of escape by people in olden times. ]n addition to the two entrances from the dining-room fireplace and (the stables, there is another just over the ballroom. This conjures up visions of the dramatic, interruption of a mediaeval dance by the pursuers of a wanted man, the alarm of the gaily clad dancers, and the man’s escape through the secret overhead passage. The proprietor of the hotel is now hunting for another secret passage which he believes may exist under the cellars.