IT was 200 years ago that 'Old Taylor' haunted Hereford's Whitecross Road and struck fear into the folk walking along that otherwise peaceful thoroughfare.

At the time that 'Old Taylor' wandered Whitecross way there was a long row of sally trees extending from where the Buckingham Inn now stands to a point level with the White Cross itself. There were no suburban streets and only a few houses dotted here and there.

This was a favourite walk not only for citizens and lovers but also for 'Old Taylor' who quickly had it all to himself for sweethearts and fresh air seekers were soon scared away.

Handed-down stories related that the ghost sometimes simply promenaded up and down, other times he rode on a phantom pony and on occasions he sat, leering from a stile.

It was, in fact, a reign of terror in that neighbourhood and only the hardiest ventured into Sally Walk after dark. It is said that no one ever answered a knock on the door.

The word spread that 'Old Taylor' had been an even bigger nuisance in the flesh than he was in the spirit. Apparently he had indulged in a lot of financial juggling and had been intent on 'getting rich quick' - and hang the consequences.

Eventually, the ghostly one disappeared and laying claim to the credit for ridding Whitecross of the pest was a regular from a Hereford watering hole, the Nag's Head. It was, perhaps, a trifle unfortunate that the intrepid spook-layer was known among his friends by the dubious appellation of 'Dennis the Liar'.

Whether or not he was a fibber in this instance we will never know, but his claims to have accosted the ghost and altered boundary markings on the spirit's favourite route could well have busted the ghost.

Sceptical

But for many years to come Whitecross was still a place to be wary, for doubting Thomases were sceptical about the way the wheeler dealer of long ago had been banished.

They warned: "His spook was not laid in orthodox fashion by bell, book and candle, confined within a bottle and cast into the depths of the sea or the Wye."

It was long thought he would re-appear, but in time there was a happy acceptance that 'Old Taylor' had, perhaps, been dismayed at the disappearance of Sally Walk and the onset of traffic - and had taken to wailing elsewhere faraway.