He’s also been spotted sitting on a tombstone in the churchyard by the then vicar. The vicar approached the figure but the figure slowly vanished in front of the vicar’s eyes.The apparition has also been seen walking, in the early morning hours, past The Plough Inn on Mill Street.
Witnesses also attest that this figure glides across the road in the High Street, almost causing vehicles to crash. One witness was riding his motorbike through the village one night, and had to swerve quite violently as the figure was standing in the middle of the road. This spectral figure has also been seen to walk in the direction of the Bishop’s Palace, now a moated area by the racecourse, which once stood a hunting lodge belonging to the then Bishop of Hereford. Some witnesses have said the figure looks as real as you and I when they see him walking.
It’s not clear as to why he’s called an Abbott when this figure could easily have been a lowly monk or there’s more than one of these dark, ghostly figures. Interestingly, back in Medevial times, the land Prestbury is on was divided in two; one part belonging to the Bishop of Hereford, who held very lavish banquets and the the monks of Llanthony, who led a very simple and humble lives. It was known that the then Bishop of Hereford was rather resented for these lavish affairs by those who lived close by, including the monks.