Halloween chills, thrills and spooktacular events in and around Bury St Edmunds

From ghostly medieval monks to the infamous Grey Lady,  Bury St Edmunds is offering chills and thrills galore.

Could it be the most haunted place in Britain?

There’s a new witchcraft exhibition opening for Halloween, evening ghost tours, spooktacular events, mysterious hauntings, creepy plays and eerie churchyards to walk through.

New witchcraft exhibition opens on Halloween at Moyse’s Hall Museum

The town’s history took a very dark turn between 1599 and 1694 when the Great Witch Craze swept through Europe and the European colonies in America leading to one of the largest witch trials in England in Bury St Edmunds. 

The trials directly influenced the infamous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts which took place between February 1692 and May 1693.

Moyse’s Hall Museum will be opening a new witchcraft exhibition on Halloween, October 31, focusing on the Witch Trials of Bury St Edmunds and East Anglia.

This exhibition will share the victims’ stories, exploring the reasons why the murderous witch trials may have occurred as well as the practices witches were believed to have carried out. 

It will feature a poignant long-term display of the victims’ names ensuring they will not be lost in history.

On show will be the historic “Tryal of Witches” booklet from 1682 detailing the trial of two widows and information about the Salem trials and Witch Museum.

For prices and opening times visit www.moyseshall.org or call 01284 757160

New for 2026 at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, ‘Shadows of the Past’

Inspired by myths, legends, film and TV, West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village is offering a spooky new, 90-minute evening experience on October 30 and 31 entitled Shadows of the Past. Go along and engage with the “Ancient Ones”, complete a series of unnerving challenges and tasks as you find your way back to the Modern Age and normal life.  

Follow a designated route around the village with a number of activity/challenges to complete.

At each activity will be a character interaction to add entertainment, obstacles and difficulty to the challenge.

Tickets are priced at £13.31 per person – 1331 is considered the reversed mirror hour, symbolizing fears, doubts and challenges and a turning point in life, all of which is a key theme of “Shadows of the Past”. Timed entry every 10 minutes between 6pm and 8pm. To book tickets visit www.weststow.org 

Discover Bury St Edmunds spine-tingling secrets with a Ghostly and Macabre guided walking tour from Halloween to March 

Uncover spine-tingling tales about Bury St Edmunds eerie goings-on by joining the Ghostly and Macabre guided walking tour around the Suffolk town held on various dates on dark autumn and winter evenings between Halloween and the end of March.

Lasting 90 minutes, the Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides will take you on a haunted journey with ghostly stories of murder, riots, plague, witchcraft and a mummified cat, with chills and thrills galore. 

Starting with Moyse’s Hall, the tour winds around the darkened streets to tell stories of screaming skulls, mysterious “monk”-like figures appearing in cellars, burnings and hangings and more, finishing in the dark and deserted Great Churchyard.

The evening Ghostly and Macabre tours take place every Friday from Halloween to March.

More details about the tours and how to book are shown at www.burystedmundstourguides.org or call 01284 758000; tickets £10 per person, due to the content of the tour, participants must be aged 14 years or over and under 18s accompanied by an adult. 

Grisly interactive displays and sci-fi and action at Moyse’s Hall Museum

Moyse’s Hall Museum also offers a fascinating view into the past including the notorious Red Barn Murder, local superstitions and prison paraphernalia.

Step inside a gibbet cage, try on a ball and chain for size, experience the smells of history including the wretched tanner’s pits, handle thumbscrews, try on manacles and pick up a Norman sword. 

Displays from the Red Barn Murder include the murder weapon, killer William Corder’s scalp and a book bound in his skin.

There’s a disease box where visitors can smell a pus-ridden hand and gruesome interactive displays include a dissection table where you can delve inside “a body” to find intestines and the heart among other horrors. 

The annual Sci-fi and Action exhibition also opens at Moyse’s Hall on October 31 with theatrical displays from spooky films including Dracula. 

For prices and opening times visit www.moyseshall.org or call 01284 757160

Spooky experiences at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

On October 2 and 3 the stage is set for terror when ThickSkin present their chilling new play, It Walks Around the House at Night, by Tim Foley (former Bruntwood Prize-winner).

When an out-of-work actor takes a job playing a ghost at an old countryside manor, he expects nothing more than a few cheap scares. But as night after night unfolds, the role begins to blur with reality — and something far more sinister starts to emerge.

Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, the play draws audiences into a world of creeping dread, unexpected twists and dark humour.

Author Philippa Gregory will bring the glittering and treacherous court of Henry V to life when she talks about her new novel, Royal Witch, on Sunday afternoon, October 18.

She will take you on a journey through the history you thought you knew as the story explores the fascinating, and little known, life of Eleanor Cobham, who was England’s first and only convicted royal witch.

Philippa will delve into the characters that inspired “Royal Witch”, illuminating how ambition, sorcery and treason intertwined in one woman’s desperate bid for power. 

The theatre  is also offering special edition Ghost Tours on October 28 and 29.

When the curtain falls and the audience has gone home, another cast is said to emerge from the shadows.

Step behind the scenes of one of Britain’s oldest surviving Regency playhouses and uncover the spine-tingling stories, unexplained sightings and theatrical superstitions that have lingered within its walls for generations.

From mysterious footsteps echoing through empty corridors to the legendary ghost light, guided by torchlight, you’ll hear about the encounters with staff, audience members and productions as things don’t always seem what they are.

For more details and to book tickets visit www.theatreroyal.org or call 01284 769505.

Rougham Pumpkin Patch October  3 to 31 (selected dates) pay per pumpkin

Just in time for Halloween, Rougham Estate will be opening a vast field full of hundreds of thousands of pumpkins, squashes and gourds with over 20 different varieties in a huge array of sizes and colours, all waiting to be picked.

Positioned just south of junction 45 on the A14, the Rougham Pumpkin Patch is a sea of orange, where visitors can grab a wheelbarrow and choose as many of their perfect pumpkins as they want, just where they have been growing.

There is plenty more to enjoy too, with room for children to run and climb, space to picnic, sandpits, ice cream, pedal tractors and small pumpkin games for the family, as well as face painting by Face It Face Painting, lots of photo opportunities and a range of food trucks including a licensed bar. 

Free entry and parking, pay per pumpkin. Open 9am to 5pm (gates close 4.30pm) October 3 to 4, October 10 to 11, October 17 to 18, October 24 to 31. For more information visit the Rougham Estate website, www.roughamestate.com.

Pumpkins by torchlight and silent disco October 17 and 24

On two spooky Saturday evenings, October 17 and 24, the Rougham Pumpkin Patch will be open from 6pm to 9pm for a pumpkin festival at night, including a silent disco. Bring torches and wear wellies for a fun evening. More details soon on  www.roughamestate.com.

Pumpkin carving competition

Bury St Edmunds will be running a pumpkin carving competition with entries between October 20 and 30. It will be judged by the Salem Witch Museum between October 31 and November 3 with winners announced on November 4 to 5.