Whilst working in Suffolk in 1980 my friend's father told the following story that involved them. Like many kids in the small market town of Sudbury they spent a large part of their childhood and early teens wandering around and exploring the numerous small lanes o f the countryside that surrounds Sudbury. Their father noticed that, on several occasions, they had mentioned a "kindly old copper" who would chat to them and make sure they were okay and not up to some mischief. At first there seemed nothing untoward in this until their father realised that. As far as he was ware there was no local copper who answered to the description his sons gave and that, their description of the copper's uniform seemed rather antiquated. Concerned that this might be someone impersonating a police officer for possibly nefarious purposes, the father decided to check up and visited the local police station. After telling the local police the full story he was somewhat surprised when their reply was one of "Oh yes, that's old so and so ( I do not remember the name of the old copper), he's long dead, people have been seeing him for years. Interestingly, in the Essex/Suffolk area there is a phenomenon known as "The Phantom Cyclists" and one of those "Phantom Cyclists" is said to be an old fashioned copper on his bike who still patrols the country lanes of the 2 counties.