| Sir Edmund Verney was the Standard Bearer to King Charles I at the disastrous Battle of Edgehill. He refused to relinquish the standard, despite being captured by Cromwell's men, so the Roundheads cut off his hand and murdered him. During the battle, the King's forces regained the standard still clutched in Sir Edmund's severed hand. His body was never recovered, but the hand was placed in the crypt of Claydon Church. Over the centuries there have been numerous reported sightings of his ghost wandering the first floor corridors of his family home at Claydon in Buckinghamshire, and there is a tradition that Sir Edmund's disembodied hand knocks on closed bedroom doors at night. |
