Last year I was contacted by someone who worked as a prisoner officer at an institution near to Lichfield. Over the years, both staff and inmates have had experiences which they attributed to the Grey Lady. Some prisoners had such a strong feeling that there was something in their cell with them at night that they would press the emergency bell in a state of panic, asking to be moved elsewhere. On some occasions, staff watching CCTV witnessed a shadowy figure moving through the gaol, tracking its journey across several screens before it disappeared. In one wing, the unmistakable sound of gates and doors being unlocked was heard on a regular basis, followed by disembodied footsteps coming up the stairs.

The presence is not just felt inside the prison but also in the grounds. On patrol one night my correspondent was so convinced that someone was walking alongside him, he attempted to strike up a conversation. There was no reply, just the sound of footsteps. He told me that those who encounter the Grey Lady always have a sense that she is not so much as haunting the prison as passing through there on her way to somewhere else. Indeed, there have been reports by dog walkers that their animals pick up on the presence of something on the footpath around the prison. Some stop, seemingly almost frozen with fear whilst others bark at something their owners can’t see.

The backstory was believed to be that the Grey Lady had drowned in a nearby lake and so I searched the newspaper archive to see if there were any reports of such a tragedy. What I found was a story from the winter of 1959 which seems as though it might fit. A young Danish woman working at a farm in the area was reported missing after going for a walk. A search party found a set of footprints in the snow leading to a lake in the grounds of a country house where her body was recovered from the icy waters.  It was when I looked at a map that I felt a real shiver down my spine. Remember that people at the prison had the sense that the presence was ‘just passing through’? Well, the woman’s final journey from the farm to that frozen lake would have taken her straight through the site where HM Prison now stands.

The inquest into her death recorded a verdict of suicide with insufficient evidence. Foul play was ruled out on the basis only one set of footprints had been found and the Coroner could find no evidence to support it being an accident. It seems what really happened on that cold January day will forever be unknown and perhaps that is why the Grey Lady cannot escape from this immortal coil?

Edit: Since sharing this I have been contacted by another former prison officer who has said he too heard unexplained footsteps whilst working at this place.