The village of Stanbridge is a small village and civil parish that lies 3 miles east of the town of Leighton Buzzard, and 2.75 miles NW. of Dunstable by rail. There is a parish council with seven members with most of the inhabitants involved in the employment of straw plaiting. It bears a small population and is known to have medieval churches as well as primitive Methodist and Weslesyan chapels. However, something had happened in this little village in October 1979 that gave it nationwide attention. The news reported in the Dunstable Gazette on the 18th of October 1979 was one which left the little village completely in shock. There was a phantom ghost, it seems, on the stretch of road that was Peddars Lane and that ghost was too real to ignore.
The story goes that when young Roy Fulton, a carpet fitter was driving home along the stretch of road that leads to Peddars Lane, he had just had a couple of pints and was involved in a game of darts when he left the pub. He never expected anything out of the blue to pop up in front of him. It was already getting late and he decided he had enough of his game of darts. He left Leighton Buzzard around 9.20 pm and was driving the stretch of road when he met a young man thumbing up for a lift at the T-junction to Peddars Lane. Unsure about whether it made sense to give anyone a lift this late, Roy Fulton stopped a little short of where the man stood so he could get the best view of him as he walked past the light cast by the head lamps of his van.
Roy Fulton could see that the man must be about 20 years of age with short dark curly hair. He was wearing dark pants and a jumper with a white shirt that was open-collared. He did not hesitate to open the door to the minivan himself but he never spoke a word. When Fulton asked him where he was planning to go, the man simply raised his hands and pointed up the road. He figured that perhaps he wanted to head for Dunstable or Totternhoe, and so he began driving but the man still refused to say anything. Fulton drove the van but about a mile down the road, he decided to offer the man a cigarette hoping that would get him to talk. To his surprise, the man was no longer there. He checked the back seat again and was shocked because if anything, the man had vanished while sitting behind him. Very soon, Roy Fulton decided that the best thing to do was to drive as quickly as he could and get away from the road. He knew something was really wrong. Quickly, he drove the van to The Gliber, a local pub in Dunstable where he grabbed a large Scotch and then made his way to the Dunstable Police Station. He decided to tell his story to the police.
The police responded by sending a car to the place where Roy Fulton claimed he had met the young man. The police constable reported nothing but Roy Fulton's report was taken down regardless but with no comments notated on the report. There was nothing to report because the police saw nothing that they could report on…
Much later, Roy Fulton expressed that he had no reason to believe that it was a ghost because the man looked really solid almost in flesh and blood. One thing he did notice was the man was unusually pale but other than that, Roy Fulton thought he was picking someone who needed a ride to the nearest station. He could not remember how long the man was sitting in the back seat and decided that he had vanished within the few minutes he got into the van. The fact was if the man had opened his minivan door, the lights would have come on and besides, it did not make sense anyone would open the door when he was driving close to 40 miles per hour. Everything seemed so strange and pointed to the obvious possibility that he had just picked up a ghost!
The story never stopped there though. There was some speculation that a young Scottish man may have been run down and killed by a drunk driver on the very spot where Roy Fulton picked up his young companion. The information could never be verified though but assuming this to be true, could this then be the young man who had hitched a ride with Roy Fulton that day? Whatever it be, Roy Fulton decided it was best to avoid the road. He couldn't take another ghostly hitch hiker into his van after what had happened and never more did he want to travel on the same stretch during the late hours of the night again!