The chances of an encounter with this headless man over the weekend are remote because his appearances are said to be restricted to March, but his story illustrates how far back in history the town’s spooky tales stretch.

The Watford Observer has again teamed up with its friends at Watford Museum to look back on ghostly goings-on and scary stories based on events in the town’s past in the build-up to Halloween.

Royalist Arthur Capel was an important figure in the Civil War. He was captured by the Parliamentarians, charged with treason and rebellion and sentenced to beheading at the Tower of London.

As he stood on the scaffold, his last request was that his heart should be taken from his body and placed in a silver box at the feet of Charles I in his grave.

It was found this wish had never come true with the grisly discovery of the box more than 60 years later.

His heart was placed in the family vault, but his headless ghost is still said to walk the park around March 9 each year.