The A127 carries one of Basildon’s most enduring ghost stories — the legend of the phantom hitchhiker. In the late 1950s and early 60s, motorcyclists travelling through the Rayleigh cutting often spoke of a young woman who would appear at the roadside, asking for a lift to an address in Basildon. Riders would oblige, feeling the weight of a passenger behind them as they set off. But before they reached the town, the girl would vanish from the back of the bike without a sound or a trace.

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One shaken rider even visited the address she had given him, desperate for an explanation. The family who answered the door told him their daughter had died in a motorcycle accident in the Rayleigh cutting only weeks earlier.

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Other drivers reported similar encounters. One man, travelling alone in his van, picked up a young woman who warned him not to drive too fast because his new tyres were unsafe. As he turned to speak to her, he lost control and veered onto the verge. When he stepped out to thank her, the passenger seat was empty. Only later did he learn of the ghostly hitchhiker of the A127 — and realise he had met her himself.

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Today the A127 is a busy arterial road, but the story of its phantom traveller still lingers, whispered by those who have heard it and remembered by those who believe they encountered her.