There are many old haunting stories told about Merton, one is of the headless horseman seen riding around the village and through Merton Park. Another of the horse and carriage travelling to the church, carriage doors opening and shutting, and then footsteps, all this is said to be heard but not seen, and of the time a friend of mine heard a young someone crying in the basement of a broken down old house at Home Farm. Some of the older generation telling me of the Grey lady seen around the Hall. Romans left there tracks in the little village, for to the right of Pedders Way an old Roman pavement, 10 yds square, was discovered about 3ft below the surface; and again bordering on the way in the Park, in trenching for a plantation, there were found bones of sheep and oxen, horns of deer, much broken Roman pottery, coin's and a knife blade, also a human skeleton without a head. The skeleton without a head is a mystery ,the park is of a locality where ghosts and goblins, black and white witches,and such like, were very dear to the native heart. But one thing that history tells is that the Witch Finder General ( Matthew Hopkins) found himself in this area many times. WELL!.. I WONDER.. Its also interesting to talk to people who have had more modern day experiences. Recently told while a couple were walking at dusk along pedders way along Merton Park. There they experienced a sighting of a house in the distance with a small light in the window, The couple did not take much notice at the time, they returned home. Feeling very curious about the event, a few days later they approached and asked a local gentlemen, who had much local knowledge. " What and whose house stood in the area mentioned they asked the gentleman, as they had never seen it before on there journeys". The gentlemen replyed that there was no house there and never had been, however according to old handed down stories, there had been sightings of this building before, only for those who hd seen it,at a later date returned to find nothing there. I have also been told of the sighting in the same area, Of the Black Shuck. A large spectral death omen demon dog in British folklore, especially in Norfolk and other parts of East Anglia regions steeped in supernatural lore. Black Shuck, also called Old Shuck, derives its name from the Anglo-Saxon term scucca or sceocca, old Anglo-Saxon terms for "demon" or "satan." The spectral dog descended from Norse mythology , for he is said to be the black hound of Odin(Woden) brought by early Viking invaders. Black Shuck is all black and is huge, about the size of a calf. he has large eyes that glow yellow, red, or green as if on fire. Often, he is headless, yet his eyes -where eyes should be- glow in the dark. Black Shuck haunts graveyards, lonely country roads, misty marshes, or the hills around villages. In certain areas, he frequents old straight roads; it has been theorized that these "old straight tracks" may be leys, thought to be ancient lines of invisible earth energy known to ancient peoples, and used to site villages and sacred places. Is that some one standing & looking at me in the picture below?.

Meet my friend, Tracey Brooks
A true story, by Brenda Scalf Burchfield

One of my best friends lives in England. I live in the USA. Nevertheless, we are fantastic friends. Tracey is a well-known psychic in Norfolk, England. She has helped countless people, but this story is about how she helped me..

This is an introduction to Tracey and how I first met her.

I visited my father's grave for the first time... ever.... while visiting The Netherlands on European Tour in June of 1998. My father was killed in WWII and was buried there in 1945. After that first visit and walking to his grave, things were never the same. I had to learn more. And in my quest, I met many people who have aided me immensely in finding about my father. Tracey Brooks is someone who helped me find the exact spot where my father was killed. Here, I would like for you to know how she did that.

In another article, I will write how this all came about, however, in this page I would like you to meet someone who was responsible for my finding a spot somewhere in Germany that I have thought about every day for as long as I can remember.

After that first trip to Margraten, as I said...things were never the same. I began to search here in the states for memories of people who knew my father. I went to places, interviewed people, and was directed in my jourrney  back to Watton, England and to where my father was stationed during WWII while with the 455th Anti-Aircraft Artillery. It was during my trips to England that Tom Feise  introduced me to Tony and Tracey Brooks and their children Curtislee and Cherese.I well remember meeting them in their English cottage on a rainy autumn night of 1999. The whole thing seemed like stepping into a storybook.... the lane leading to their house, their cozy cottage, and the Brooks themselves. That night, I found out that Tracey was a psychic. She did a reading for me before I left their cottage that night. I was so amazed by that reading that I couldn't even sleep that night. It was so spot on. While in England, we continued to meet and dine together and these new English friends seemed like brother and sister to me.I felt I'd known them all my life.


In June of 2000, I had taken several 455th veterans and their families back to Watton England to dedicate a memorial to the 455th on the very spot where they were stationed in 1943-44. Tom Feise was our tour director for the trip and he and I invited Tony and Tracey to accompany us on our tours while there. After the tour was over, I stayed on in England. I had convinced the Brooks to travel to Germany to help me find the spot where Andrew Scalf had been killed. We drove to Harwich and then ferried over to Holland. From there we visited Andrew's grave and then went over to Gerderath, Germany. I noticed that when we started our trip on that day. Tracey became much quieter and none responsive to my chatter. She was concentrating on the task that lay ahead for her. Parking in the village of Gerderath, we walked on foot and followed Tracey as she walked through the village and to the outer skirts of the village. And there to our left, we saw a scattering of woods and the road in front was a mere trail. Tracey said these words, "I'm being told that "X "marks the spot. I don't know what that means though." She continued to go into the woods and out again. Tony, Tom, and I became very quiet and just followed her. Ahead of us in the woods there, was a sudden  rise(elevation). She walked up it and there right in front of her and us........lay two trees that had fallen to the ground. They had fallen in a huge X pattern..                 .

We looked at each other in disbelief and then looked in front of the X and there it was... a large ( approximately 20x20 feet) crater in the soil in those woods . The crater had been hollowed out by a shell that had hit there and Andrew Scalf had been killed by it on Feb. 27, 1945. Tracey had found the spot. The place where I had wondered about every day since I can remember as to what it looked like and what it must have felt like to be in those woods.

Earlier, I had Colonel Jack Forgy  from Virginia, a war orphan himself, to research my dad's military history. He had sent me a thick file with maps, etc. I had a map that showed where my dad's body was picked up. Under special direction, Tracey asked to not see that file or map until after she had done her work. Tom had bought a current German map that after Tracey found the "spot" we placed over the old map and found the spot to be one and the same. We had been standing on the spot...the very spot where Andrew was killed so long ago. Roy Clark, who was my dad's sergeant verified that the spot along with area was the one  place and the same that he remembered. There is much more to this fasinating  journey, some of which, Where Tracey had taken us through a nr by wooded area, only to discover a hidden cottage. The night before my father died, he and his fellow men stayed in an old cottage, This was written in my fathers diary,  Andrew had told his friend, " This is as far as I go, I am not going to make it". Tracey had also discovered the place he had  stayed the night before his death.


Without the help of my friend Tracey, the psychic, I never would have been able to find where my father was killed and be able to continue to trace the footsteps of Andrew. Thank you Tracey sounds so small and insignificant compared to what she did...but anyway, it is all that I can offer.

Dearest friend, Tracey, thank you for everything....Andrew thanks you too.

Andrew Scalf

In June of 2000, the memorial at Watton to the 455th AAA (RABBS), based at both Snetterton & Watton was dedicated, which some of the original men who served with the group attended, known as the Rabbs.

Tony was our choice to make our video recording of the event.. Later that week ,after playing the recording, he was to discover a ghostly voice in the back ground, shrugging this off as a cross wind, Tony went on to edit a recording for us.
However things were to change when Tony was sent a recording of the same day & event from America, recorded by one of the American veterans nephew. On playing the recording he quickly noticed the same ghostly voice, in the exact place as the first, to this day has never been able to discorver the answer.