Cock Lane in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, is reputed to be haunted by at least one specter, maybe even two of them. In the 1980s and 1990s, people reported seeing a woman dressed in gray either walking or floating along the road, only to have her vanish.
On another occasion (described in the podcast linked below), a man was walking along the road late one night, and encountered someone in a hooded sweatshirt. Figuring that it was better to walk with someone else than alone, the man walked up alongside the other int he sweatshirt, and asked to walk with him. The fellow in the sweatshirt crossed the road to get away from the man. Trying again, the man walked to the sweat-shirted individual and again asked if they could walk together, only to see the silent pedestrian again cross the road to get away. Finally, the original pedestrian demanded to know why the one int he sweatshirt was being so rude, and they turned to him, revealing only blackness under the hood of the sweatshirt.
Commentary: The story of the pedestrian encountering a phantom is in most respects a fairly standard "encountered a ghost on the road" tale, elements of which are common from both pedestrian stories and phantom hitch-hiker tales. The unwitting person going on about their normal business (walking/driving/working) encounters what they take to be a normal individual, normal individual does strange things/exhibits strange traits (avoiding the unwitting person/having very cold skin/speaking with a strange voice/etc.), and then the reveal, where the strange individual is revealed to be not human (they vanish/they turn and have no face/the unwitting person finds out that the person they encountered has been dead for decades).
The other phantom people have reported is also interesting in that it is a grey lady - a common type of ghost sighting. Women dressed in grey, usually in 19th/early 20th century garb, are reported throughout the English speaking world, and usually are part of a local tradition, being integrated into stories about warnings of disaster, lost loves, or unfinished business. Although there are places where you will read that grey lady ghosts always accompany prophecies of doom, the truth is that most grey lady stories are just like this one, stories of a particular ghost that has no connection with any particular future event, but may be associated with past events.
Sources: Paranormal Database, Anything Ghost Podcast
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Allegedly Haunted House Party, Hull, England
Neighbors of a rented house in Hull, England, have long complained of the noise of partiers and loud music cranked up late into the night. Worse, the garden of the house has been covered in trash (largely empty alcohol bottles) which had a tendency to end up in other people's yards as well.
When confronted by neighbors, Leanne Fennell, the 20-year old woman who rented the house and resided there with her young daughter, claimed that the loud noises were the result of a poltergeist. She claimed that she would be in bed at night, only to hear the stereo turned up loudly, and that her attempts to get the ghost under control resulted only in further mischief.
the young woman was cited, and ordered to pay 875 pounds to the council, which she failed to do. She has now been taken to court.
While I get the desire for a poltergeist to turn up the stereo - after all, the term poltergeist is a German word meaning "noisy ghost" - it's tendency to empty alcohol bottles and dump them in the yard is rather more confusing. Perhaps it is unclear on what the term "intoxicating spirit" is supposed to mean.
Commentary: History is full of examples of people concocting ghost stories to cover up for their own misdeeds. The Amityville Case is probably the most gruesome and notable, but more minor cases are not uncommon.
While this particular story seems especially silly (honestly, it wasn't me making the noise...it was..the...um...poltergeist! Yeah, it's a haunted house party, that's the ticket!), it's no more so than the Amityville case (it just seems sillier because of the relatively trivial nature of the infringement: loud parties vs. multiple murders), nor is it really all that different of the many non-newsworthy cases where people blame missing car keys or other items on impish spirits.
Although it is likely that this is just an example of Fennell being in a tight spot and coming up with the first excuse that came to mind (a very stupid excuse, really), there is always the possibility that she has managed to convince herself that it is true. Weird thing about human memory, we can convince ourselves of the truth of all manner of outlandish things, no matter how absurd.
Incidentally, I once lived next door to two kids attending the local community college who would have all-night, loud parties, and never seemed to grasp that their neighbors might object. I kind of wish they had claimed that ghosts were responsible - it wouldn't have kept me from calling the police, but it would have at least given me a better story to tell my friends.
Sources: IO9, This is Hull and Reading
When confronted by neighbors, Leanne Fennell, the 20-year old woman who rented the house and resided there with her young daughter, claimed that the loud noises were the result of a poltergeist. She claimed that she would be in bed at night, only to hear the stereo turned up loudly, and that her attempts to get the ghost under control resulted only in further mischief.
the young woman was cited, and ordered to pay 875 pounds to the council, which she failed to do. She has now been taken to court.
While I get the desire for a poltergeist to turn up the stereo - after all, the term poltergeist is a German word meaning "noisy ghost" - it's tendency to empty alcohol bottles and dump them in the yard is rather more confusing. Perhaps it is unclear on what the term "intoxicating spirit" is supposed to mean.
Commentary: History is full of examples of people concocting ghost stories to cover up for their own misdeeds. The Amityville Case is probably the most gruesome and notable, but more minor cases are not uncommon.
While this particular story seems especially silly (honestly, it wasn't me making the noise...it was..the...um...poltergeist! Yeah, it's a haunted house party, that's the ticket!), it's no more so than the Amityville case (it just seems sillier because of the relatively trivial nature of the infringement: loud parties vs. multiple murders), nor is it really all that different of the many non-newsworthy cases where people blame missing car keys or other items on impish spirits.
Although it is likely that this is just an example of Fennell being in a tight spot and coming up with the first excuse that came to mind (a very stupid excuse, really), there is always the possibility that she has managed to convince herself that it is true. Weird thing about human memory, we can convince ourselves of the truth of all manner of outlandish things, no matter how absurd.
Incidentally, I once lived next door to two kids attending the local community college who would have all-night, loud parties, and never seemed to grasp that their neighbors might object. I kind of wish they had claimed that ghosts were responsible - it wouldn't have kept me from calling the police, but it would have at least given me a better story to tell my friends.
Sources: IO9, This is Hull and Reading
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Holborn and British Museums Underground Stations
The London Underground station for the British Museum is abandoned, what is referred to as a "ghost station" and, appropriately, it is said to be haunted by a ghost of a long-dead Egyptian Princess. The station operated during the first three decades of the 20th century, opening in 1900 and closing in 1933, when other nearby stations made it redundant. As early as the 1930s, possibly even as early as 1900, stories began to spread about the station being haunted by a wailing spirit that appeared in a loin cloth and an Egyptian head dress. This spirit is said to be the ghost of an Egyptian Princess named Amen-Ra whose mummy is stored at the museum.
The spirit is said to appear late at night within the station, wailing and screaming in the now-dead language of ancient Egypt, possibly in anguish over the desecration of her grave. It has been stated that, prior to the station being closed, a newspaper offered a cash reward to anyone willing to spend the night in it, potentially facing a vengeful spirit. Nobody ever took the paper up on the offer.
The haunting didn't remain confined to the British Museum station. After the station closed, aspects of the haunting moved up the track to Holborn Station.
In 1935, two years after the station closed, a movie named Bulldog Jack, loosely based on the Bulldog Drummond stories, made use of the story, and had as a plot device a secret tunnel leading from the British Museum to "Bloomsbury Station" (a fictional station clearly intended to be the British Museum station). It is often said that, on the night that this movie opened, two women went missing from Holborn Station, and never-described marks were found in the British Museum Station during the investigation.
It has also been said that, late at night, one can still hear the Egyptian spirit screaming if one is standing down the tunnel in Holborn Station. In fact, this is used in Keith Lowe's novel Tunnel Vision as the main character uses the story to try to scare his girlfriend.
Holborn station is currently decorated with images of Egyptian artifacts, as a way of advertising its proximity to the Museum, but to someone who knows the ghost story, these decorations seem amusingly macabre.
Holborn Station also has another ghost story, though one with scant details. During World War II, disused parts of the station were converted into offices, a dormitory, and cantine for government workers who needed to be protected from the Germans' night-time bombing. In the 1950s these facilities were used to house migrants, and in the 1960s may have been used as part of a military emergency facility near Holborn Station (I have been able to find very little on this latter use). Over the years, these facilities fell into disrepair and decay, and became rather eerie (look here for photos). The abandoned offices began to earn a reputation for being haunted, though the descriptions of the alleged haunting seem to be unavailable.
The Platform at Holborn Station
Commentary: Okay, so first things first, let's deal with the mummy. There isn't one. Mind you, there are plenty of mummies at the British Museum, but none of them belong to a princess named Amen-Ra. In fact, Amen-Ra is an Egyptian god, not a princess. The assignation of the Amen-Ra name to the ghost in the station comes from an artifact called "the Unlucky Mummy" which is, in fact, not a mummy but a lid for a burial that indicates that the grave's occupant was a woman, but gives no other indication of her identity. It was suggested by museum workers in the late 19th century that the grave might have belonged to a priestess of Amen-Ra, and in the popular imagination the alleged priestess (who may not actually have been a priestess anyway) has been given the name Amen-Ra, even though her name in life was probably something more like the Egyptian equivalent of Theresa or Betty (maybe Akana or Ebio).
The object was purchased by the British Museum in 1889, and Akana or Ebio or Theresa or Betty has since been blamed for all manner of problems (including the sinking of the Titanic). This item is probably worthy of an entry by itself, and I suppose I should give it one, but back to the matter at hand...
The story of the tunnel between the museum and the British Museum Station is completely fictional, it comes directly from the movie as far as I can tell. However, as happens, many people have chosen to believe that the museum's denial of the story is an attempt to hush up the truth rather than a statement of the truth. This is, on the whole, odd given that, if such a tunnel did exist, then the British Museum Station would have been an ideal place to store artifacts during the Blitz, rather than routing them down to Aldwych Station, as was actually done.
At the Egyptian Room in the British Museum
The stories of the women vanishing and the newspaper offering a reward for anyone willing to stay in the tunnels appear everywhere that the ghost stories appear. However, few verifiable details are ever given (Which newspaper? What were the women's names?), and as such they can't be completely disproven - but the urban legend experts over at Snopes have noted on many occasions that unverifiable details in a story are often red flags that the story is more legend than truth. So, they are great for the creepy story (I intend to use them when telling the story), but may not be true. That being said, missing persons cases are not uncommon in large cities such as London, but that doesn't mean that they are connected to a ghost, and early-20th century newspaper publicity stunts were also not uncommon. So, perhaps these events occurred, but perhaps they did not.
The haunting of the dormitory areas of Holborn station are disappointingly mundane - there's just a general reputation, no details given, pretty much as you'd expect for a disused place that is run-down and creepy. This is really too bad, as it would be great to have more detailed stories about the place. Regardless, the area has now been renovated and no longer has its creepy atmosphere, mores the pity.
Sources: Internet, Underground History, Londonrailways.net, H2G2, Internet, Mysterious Britain, Wikipedia
The spirit is said to appear late at night within the station, wailing and screaming in the now-dead language of ancient Egypt, possibly in anguish over the desecration of her grave. It has been stated that, prior to the station being closed, a newspaper offered a cash reward to anyone willing to spend the night in it, potentially facing a vengeful spirit. Nobody ever took the paper up on the offer.
The haunting didn't remain confined to the British Museum station. After the station closed, aspects of the haunting moved up the track to Holborn Station.
In 1935, two years after the station closed, a movie named Bulldog Jack, loosely based on the Bulldog Drummond stories, made use of the story, and had as a plot device a secret tunnel leading from the British Museum to "Bloomsbury Station" (a fictional station clearly intended to be the British Museum station). It is often said that, on the night that this movie opened, two women went missing from Holborn Station, and never-described marks were found in the British Museum Station during the investigation.
It has also been said that, late at night, one can still hear the Egyptian spirit screaming if one is standing down the tunnel in Holborn Station. In fact, this is used in Keith Lowe's novel Tunnel Vision as the main character uses the story to try to scare his girlfriend.
Holborn station is currently decorated with images of Egyptian artifacts, as a way of advertising its proximity to the Museum, but to someone who knows the ghost story, these decorations seem amusingly macabre.
Holborn Station also has another ghost story, though one with scant details. During World War II, disused parts of the station were converted into offices, a dormitory, and cantine for government workers who needed to be protected from the Germans' night-time bombing. In the 1950s these facilities were used to house migrants, and in the 1960s may have been used as part of a military emergency facility near Holborn Station (I have been able to find very little on this latter use). Over the years, these facilities fell into disrepair and decay, and became rather eerie (look here for photos). The abandoned offices began to earn a reputation for being haunted, though the descriptions of the alleged haunting seem to be unavailable.
The Platform at Holborn Station
Commentary: Okay, so first things first, let's deal with the mummy. There isn't one. Mind you, there are plenty of mummies at the British Museum, but none of them belong to a princess named Amen-Ra. In fact, Amen-Ra is an Egyptian god, not a princess. The assignation of the Amen-Ra name to the ghost in the station comes from an artifact called "the Unlucky Mummy" which is, in fact, not a mummy but a lid for a burial that indicates that the grave's occupant was a woman, but gives no other indication of her identity. It was suggested by museum workers in the late 19th century that the grave might have belonged to a priestess of Amen-Ra, and in the popular imagination the alleged priestess (who may not actually have been a priestess anyway) has been given the name Amen-Ra, even though her name in life was probably something more like the Egyptian equivalent of Theresa or Betty (maybe Akana or Ebio).
The object was purchased by the British Museum in 1889, and Akana or Ebio or Theresa or Betty has since been blamed for all manner of problems (including the sinking of the Titanic). This item is probably worthy of an entry by itself, and I suppose I should give it one, but back to the matter at hand...
The story of the tunnel between the museum and the British Museum Station is completely fictional, it comes directly from the movie as far as I can tell. However, as happens, many people have chosen to believe that the museum's denial of the story is an attempt to hush up the truth rather than a statement of the truth. This is, on the whole, odd given that, if such a tunnel did exist, then the British Museum Station would have been an ideal place to store artifacts during the Blitz, rather than routing them down to Aldwych Station, as was actually done.
At the Egyptian Room in the British Museum
The stories of the women vanishing and the newspaper offering a reward for anyone willing to stay in the tunnels appear everywhere that the ghost stories appear. However, few verifiable details are ever given (Which newspaper? What were the women's names?), and as such they can't be completely disproven - but the urban legend experts over at Snopes have noted on many occasions that unverifiable details in a story are often red flags that the story is more legend than truth. So, they are great for the creepy story (I intend to use them when telling the story), but may not be true. That being said, missing persons cases are not uncommon in large cities such as London, but that doesn't mean that they are connected to a ghost, and early-20th century newspaper publicity stunts were also not uncommon. So, perhaps these events occurred, but perhaps they did not.
The haunting of the dormitory areas of Holborn station are disappointingly mundane - there's just a general reputation, no details given, pretty much as you'd expect for a disused place that is run-down and creepy. This is really too bad, as it would be great to have more detailed stories about the place. Regardless, the area has now been renovated and no longer has its creepy atmosphere, mores the pity.
Sources: Internet, Underground History, Londonrailways.net, H2G2, Internet, Mysterious Britain, Wikipedia
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The Daschund of Baker Street (AKA, possibly the dumbest ghost story ever told)
Two women shared lodging on Baker Street in London. One owned a pet daschund, who, one day, went missing. The women searched but could not find the dog, and it appears that the animal was presumed dead.
However, for several weeks after the disappearance, the dog was seen wandering Baker Street, apparently the dogs spirit was no resting easy.
Commentary: Okay, this has got to be my candidate for the most pitiful excuse for a ghost story ever. I wouldn't have bothered to include it, except for the fact that I personally find it hilarious that anyone would bother to consider this a ghost story at all. I could only find one reference for it, the, ahem, august Paranormal Database, and I am surprised that it even showed up there.
This is a ghost story? Really? Really?
Okay, so many ghost stories can be explained by anyone with a knowledge of sleep physiology, or how our brains visual centers work, or carefully examination of the physical environment. But this particular story requires absolutely no special knowledge or investigation.
If a dog disappears, and then is seen for a few weeks thereafter in the general vicinity of where it vanished, then why immediately assume that it's a ghost dog and not, oh, I don't know, maybe the real dog wandering around the neighborhood wondering where the fuck precisely it's owner is? I mean, as far as alternate explanations go, this is a pretty easy one.
Sources: Paranormal Database
However, for several weeks after the disappearance, the dog was seen wandering Baker Street, apparently the dogs spirit was no resting easy.
Commentary: Okay, this has got to be my candidate for the most pitiful excuse for a ghost story ever. I wouldn't have bothered to include it, except for the fact that I personally find it hilarious that anyone would bother to consider this a ghost story at all. I could only find one reference for it, the, ahem, august Paranormal Database, and I am surprised that it even showed up there.
This is a ghost story? Really? Really?
Okay, so many ghost stories can be explained by anyone with a knowledge of sleep physiology, or how our brains visual centers work, or carefully examination of the physical environment. But this particular story requires absolutely no special knowledge or investigation.
If a dog disappears, and then is seen for a few weeks thereafter in the general vicinity of where it vanished, then why immediately assume that it's a ghost dog and not, oh, I don't know, maybe the real dog wandering around the neighborhood wondering where the fuck precisely it's owner is? I mean, as far as alternate explanations go, this is a pretty easy one.
Sources: Paranormal Database
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Ghost of Mary Nichols
On the night of August 31st, 1888, a woman named Mary Ann Nichols was on her way to a boarding house after having spent the evening at a local pub. She discovered upon arrival that she lacked the money for a bed that night, and so went to work to make the money - Nichols was a prostitute and was aware that she would be able to walk the streets and produce the money in short order.
At 3:40 am, she was found by a local carter, laying on her back on Bucks Row (now Durward Street) with her legs stretched out and her skirt up. The carter didn't look too closely and didn't know if she was alive or dead. When the police finally arrived, it was found that she had been savagely attacked, and her head nearly cut off. Her murderer was never found, but in short order Mary Ann Nichols became known as the first confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper.
Since that time, people walking on the road at night have reported seeing a strange, green glowing figure of a woman huddled in the gutter of the street at the spot where the body was discovered.
Commentary: As I prepare for my trip to London, I decided to look up London ghost stories, and figured that there would be some related to Jack the Ripper - and I was not disappointed. In addition to the story of Mary Ann Nichol's ghost, there are also hauntings attributed to Annie Chapman, the second victim, and Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim. This isn't surprising, as Jack the Ripper has held the public imagination consistently since 1888. Given that the locations of the murders are well known, anything that seemed odd in these locations would be likely to be attributed to the ghosts of his victims, and it would be a shock if ghost stories weren't told about the murder locations.
What is both interesting and disturbing about the fascination that we have with these murders is what it says about our history, as well as our present. The murder victims were of the lower ranks of Victorian society, living in the slums, and working as prostitutes at the time of their deaths. Had the murders not been so grisly, it is possible that they wouldn't have gathered the attention from law enforcement that they did. That being said, some of the accusations thrown at the police force - that it would have captured the murderer had it been more concerned about the victims - are probably unfair to at least some degree. While it is likely that more effort would have been made especially early on if the victims hadn't been prostitutes, it is also true that this case grabbed such media and official attention that the police were being pressured to find the murderer, regardless of whether they were inclined to do so or not. So, while class politics likely played a role in the investigations, there is no reason to expect that the murderer would have been caught if middle-class or upper-class women had been the targets.
It is also worth considering that someone who is unknown, Jack the ripper, is the focus of the public fascination with the case. While the victims' names are known, all that most people know about them otherwise is that they were prostitutes. They are sometimes portrayed as victims made vulnerable by a profession that they were forced into, sometimes as outsiders whose "immoral" profession adds additional spice to an already wild story. The reality is rather different. Look here for a brief biography of Mary Nichols, and even in these few paragraphs, she appears neither as a wanton harlot nor as a faceless victim, but as someone with a rather more complex past who ended up where she was through a variety of circumstances, some forced upon her and others of her own making. This is worth remembering, as all of us (including, obviously, myself, based on the fact that I went looking for, and posted, a ghost story related to this) are prone to probing the sensationalism and forgetting that these were real people with real lives who were killed by Jack the Ripper.
One final note: Look through the sources. You'll notice that the cut-and-paste is once again present in them thar inter-tubes.
Sources: Mysterious Britain, Internet, Paranormal Database, Internet
At 3:40 am, she was found by a local carter, laying on her back on Bucks Row (now Durward Street) with her legs stretched out and her skirt up. The carter didn't look too closely and didn't know if she was alive or dead. When the police finally arrived, it was found that she had been savagely attacked, and her head nearly cut off. Her murderer was never found, but in short order Mary Ann Nichols became known as the first confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper.
Since that time, people walking on the road at night have reported seeing a strange, green glowing figure of a woman huddled in the gutter of the street at the spot where the body was discovered.
Commentary: As I prepare for my trip to London, I decided to look up London ghost stories, and figured that there would be some related to Jack the Ripper - and I was not disappointed. In addition to the story of Mary Ann Nichol's ghost, there are also hauntings attributed to Annie Chapman, the second victim, and Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim. This isn't surprising, as Jack the Ripper has held the public imagination consistently since 1888. Given that the locations of the murders are well known, anything that seemed odd in these locations would be likely to be attributed to the ghosts of his victims, and it would be a shock if ghost stories weren't told about the murder locations.
What is both interesting and disturbing about the fascination that we have with these murders is what it says about our history, as well as our present. The murder victims were of the lower ranks of Victorian society, living in the slums, and working as prostitutes at the time of their deaths. Had the murders not been so grisly, it is possible that they wouldn't have gathered the attention from law enforcement that they did. That being said, some of the accusations thrown at the police force - that it would have captured the murderer had it been more concerned about the victims - are probably unfair to at least some degree. While it is likely that more effort would have been made especially early on if the victims hadn't been prostitutes, it is also true that this case grabbed such media and official attention that the police were being pressured to find the murderer, regardless of whether they were inclined to do so or not. So, while class politics likely played a role in the investigations, there is no reason to expect that the murderer would have been caught if middle-class or upper-class women had been the targets.
It is also worth considering that someone who is unknown, Jack the ripper, is the focus of the public fascination with the case. While the victims' names are known, all that most people know about them otherwise is that they were prostitutes. They are sometimes portrayed as victims made vulnerable by a profession that they were forced into, sometimes as outsiders whose "immoral" profession adds additional spice to an already wild story. The reality is rather different. Look here for a brief biography of Mary Nichols, and even in these few paragraphs, she appears neither as a wanton harlot nor as a faceless victim, but as someone with a rather more complex past who ended up where she was through a variety of circumstances, some forced upon her and others of her own making. This is worth remembering, as all of us (including, obviously, myself, based on the fact that I went looking for, and posted, a ghost story related to this) are prone to probing the sensationalism and forgetting that these were real people with real lives who were killed by Jack the Ripper.
One final note: Look through the sources. You'll notice that the cut-and-paste is once again present in them thar inter-tubes.
Sources: Mysterious Britain, Internet, Paranormal Database, Internet
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Screaming Skull of Bettiscombe Manor
Azariah Pinney, a man of truly ill-repute by most stories, travelled from England to the West Indies (AKA the Carribean) in 1685. Some stories hold that he was banished, others that he had business dealings. Regardless, on his return he brought with him a slave, a man of African-descent who was poorly treated by Pinney. Pinney died and passed the estates on to his son and, after a time, the slave began to die - whether from the effects of his mis-treatment or a disease contracted in England is unknown - and he stated that he wished for his body to be returned to the Caribean for burial.
Unsurprisingly, Pinney refused the cost of returning the body, and instead buried him Bettiscombe churchyard. Shortly afterwards the house became the center of stramge moands and screams, and objects moving of their own accord. After a while, the body was disintered and brought into the house while Pinney tried ot figure out what to do with it. As soon as the body entered the house, the frightening activity ceased. The soft tissue eventually deocmposed, and over time the bones became lost until only the skull remained.
Since then, many attempts have been made to be rid of the skull. One owner of house threw the skull in a pond, only to have the haunting start up again - it didn't take long for the unfortunate man to pull the skull out of the pond and return it to the house. On another occasion another owner dug a deep pit and buried the skull at the bottom, only to walk out the next morning and find the skull sitting on the ground on top of the now filled-in hole.
Commentary: The screaming skull phenomenon seems to be a type of gohst story unique to England, which is rather odd when you think about it. There are many screaming skull stories (many of which will no doubt eventually show up on this site), but most of them seem to have a few things in common: the skull is associated with an impressive house or similar building, some form of non-aural haunting occurs (poltergeist activity, horrific storms, apparitions, etc.), the skull must be kept inside of the house or some misfortune will occur, most of the stories date to the 16th or 17th centuries, and there is usually a connection to nobility (the skull belongs to a noble person, their servant, or their victim). Interestingly, despite the name of the story (the screaming skulls) not all skulls scream in these stories.
Every source that I have found states that the Bettiscombe skull was examined by archaeologistsa and determined to be a few thousand years old and female, and therefore not the skull of a 17th-century slave.
The concept of keeping the skull in a house will strike most of us as morbid, grisly, or disgusting. However, it should be noted that this has not always been the view. At least since humans began to settle in permanent villages and towns, interring the dead in our places of residence, whether in an attached cemetery, under the home, or within a receptacle in the home, has been a common, though by no means universal, practice. In more recent times, skulls have been kept as trophies - a peice of Californian folkore holds that the severed head of the bandit Joaquin Murietta was kept in a jar in a saloon for decades after he was killed by lawmen, and the posession by American GIs of skulls taken from Japanese dead during WWII was common enough, acoording to forensic anthropologist Dr. William Maples' memoirs.
During the 19th and early 20th century, a variation on this type of practice was seen in death masks - casts of the faces of recently dead friends and family members used as decoration in people's homes.
Whether this practice is the source fo the screaming skull legends or not, I can not say. But it may at least explain why people of the 16th and 17th centuries didn't find it too odd to have a skull hanging around the house.
Sources: Internet, Mysterious Britain, Real British Ghosts, Internet
Unsurprisingly, Pinney refused the cost of returning the body, and instead buried him Bettiscombe churchyard. Shortly afterwards the house became the center of stramge moands and screams, and objects moving of their own accord. After a while, the body was disintered and brought into the house while Pinney tried ot figure out what to do with it. As soon as the body entered the house, the frightening activity ceased. The soft tissue eventually deocmposed, and over time the bones became lost until only the skull remained.
Since then, many attempts have been made to be rid of the skull. One owner of house threw the skull in a pond, only to have the haunting start up again - it didn't take long for the unfortunate man to pull the skull out of the pond and return it to the house. On another occasion another owner dug a deep pit and buried the skull at the bottom, only to walk out the next morning and find the skull sitting on the ground on top of the now filled-in hole.
Commentary: The screaming skull phenomenon seems to be a type of gohst story unique to England, which is rather odd when you think about it. There are many screaming skull stories (many of which will no doubt eventually show up on this site), but most of them seem to have a few things in common: the skull is associated with an impressive house or similar building, some form of non-aural haunting occurs (poltergeist activity, horrific storms, apparitions, etc.), the skull must be kept inside of the house or some misfortune will occur, most of the stories date to the 16th or 17th centuries, and there is usually a connection to nobility (the skull belongs to a noble person, their servant, or their victim). Interestingly, despite the name of the story (the screaming skulls) not all skulls scream in these stories.
Every source that I have found states that the Bettiscombe skull was examined by archaeologistsa and determined to be a few thousand years old and female, and therefore not the skull of a 17th-century slave.
The concept of keeping the skull in a house will strike most of us as morbid, grisly, or disgusting. However, it should be noted that this has not always been the view. At least since humans began to settle in permanent villages and towns, interring the dead in our places of residence, whether in an attached cemetery, under the home, or within a receptacle in the home, has been a common, though by no means universal, practice. In more recent times, skulls have been kept as trophies - a peice of Californian folkore holds that the severed head of the bandit Joaquin Murietta was kept in a jar in a saloon for decades after he was killed by lawmen, and the posession by American GIs of skulls taken from Japanese dead during WWII was common enough, acoording to forensic anthropologist Dr. William Maples' memoirs.
During the 19th and early 20th century, a variation on this type of practice was seen in death masks - casts of the faces of recently dead friends and family members used as decoration in people's homes.
Whether this practice is the source fo the screaming skull legends or not, I can not say. But it may at least explain why people of the 16th and 17th centuries didn't find it too odd to have a skull hanging around the house.
Sources: Internet, Mysterious Britain, Real British Ghosts, Internet
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Aldwych Station, London, UK
Updated with photos May 12, 2010
The Aldwych underground station in London is a ghost station in two senses. It no longer serves as an active subway station, but is maintained and used to throw parties, show art exhibitions, and is frequently used as a movie set. It also is said to be haunted by the mysterious figure of a young woman. Workers who clean the tubes at night have reported seeing her moving along the tracks at Aldwych, allegedly frightening some of the workers enough that they refused to come back.
A television crew, recording for the programme Most Haunted claimed to have seen someone moving in the tunnels. However, they claimed to have seen this movement just at the limits of their lights (where their cameras couldn't film - convenient or inconvenient? I leave that for you to decide). Also, the show Most Haunted...how does one say this? It doesn't exactly have a reputation for honesty. I recommend reading the book Will Storr vs. The Supernatural for a great behind-the-scenes description of the show.
Exterior of Station in May 2010
Commentary: I am preparing to go on vacation soon, and will be taking my girlfriend to London, provided that Iceland will finish exploding and let the rest of us get on with our air travel. As such, I thought it appropriate to look up some London ghost stories. Interestingly, the first one that I came across through Google has something in common with the last story I posted about my home town, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Aldwych station was opened in 1907 as part of the Piccadilly line of the London subway system (aka "The Underground" or "The Tube", not to be confused with the band the Tubes). The Piccadilly line was nick-named the Theatre Line because of its proximity to many of London's theatres. As noted above, Aldwych station itself is built on the location of the Royal Strand theatre.
The name Aldwych is derived from the Old English words meaning "old settlement", and is the location of the 7th-century Anglo-Saxon village of Lundenwic (meaning London Settlement), located about a mile away from Londinium (the originally Roman settlement that would grow into the city of London).
In the online sources that to which I have access, the ghost is always said to be the spirit of an actress, but no reason is ever given for assuming that it is an actress other than that the station is at the location of the old theatre. However, prior to this, it was also the site of an art gallery, and then a non-conformist (Protestant but not Church of England) chapel. So, in the absence of any other identifying information, why claim that the ghost belongs to an actress and not someone associated with the art gallery (the doomed lover of a painter, perhaps?) or the church (a jilted bride left at the church's alter who died of a broken heart?) or the station (someone who failed to mind the gap?)? For that matter, why couldn't the ghost be associated with Lundenwic? The only reason that she seems to be routinely identified as an actress is because of tradition and the theatre location.
As for the similarity with the story of Acacia cemetery, it is simply this. With one exception, every website that I have come across that describes the Aldwych ghost uses the exact same phrase: "The ghost is that of an actress who believes she has not enjoyed her last curtain call." Admittedly, it's not a bad line, but it gets redundant after a very short while. Why does it constantly show up? Perhaps because webmasters and content providers are woefully unimaginative. More likely because we are lazy, and cutting-and-pasting is easier than writing a new sentence. But it makes me wonder: when I arrive in London, will I hear different stories about the ghost, that perhaps she is something other than an actress? Is the actress story spread merely because it's easy to cut-and-paste a semi-decent line than to write something new? And, given the prevalence of the internet amongst ghost story enthusiasts, is it possible that one version of the story, complete with the "curtain call" line, may become the standard.
If you're interested, silly photos of the station can be found here.
Sources: H2G2, Internet, Television Show, Internet, Underground History, Internet
The Aldwych underground station in London is a ghost station in two senses. It no longer serves as an active subway station, but is maintained and used to throw parties, show art exhibitions, and is frequently used as a movie set. It also is said to be haunted by the mysterious figure of a young woman. Workers who clean the tubes at night have reported seeing her moving along the tracks at Aldwych, allegedly frightening some of the workers enough that they refused to come back.
A television crew, recording for the programme Most Haunted claimed to have seen someone moving in the tunnels. However, they claimed to have seen this movement just at the limits of their lights (where their cameras couldn't film - convenient or inconvenient? I leave that for you to decide). Also, the show Most Haunted...how does one say this? It doesn't exactly have a reputation for honesty. I recommend reading the book Will Storr vs. The Supernatural for a great behind-the-scenes description of the show.
Exterior of Station in May 2010
Commentary: I am preparing to go on vacation soon, and will be taking my girlfriend to London, provided that Iceland will finish exploding and let the rest of us get on with our air travel. As such, I thought it appropriate to look up some London ghost stories. Interestingly, the first one that I came across through Google has something in common with the last story I posted about my home town, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Aldwych station was opened in 1907 as part of the Piccadilly line of the London subway system (aka "The Underground" or "The Tube", not to be confused with the band the Tubes). The Piccadilly line was nick-named the Theatre Line because of its proximity to many of London's theatres. As noted above, Aldwych station itself is built on the location of the Royal Strand theatre.
The name Aldwych is derived from the Old English words meaning "old settlement", and is the location of the 7th-century Anglo-Saxon village of Lundenwic (meaning London Settlement), located about a mile away from Londinium (the originally Roman settlement that would grow into the city of London).
In the online sources that to which I have access, the ghost is always said to be the spirit of an actress, but no reason is ever given for assuming that it is an actress other than that the station is at the location of the old theatre. However, prior to this, it was also the site of an art gallery, and then a non-conformist (Protestant but not Church of England) chapel. So, in the absence of any other identifying information, why claim that the ghost belongs to an actress and not someone associated with the art gallery (the doomed lover of a painter, perhaps?) or the church (a jilted bride left at the church's alter who died of a broken heart?) or the station (someone who failed to mind the gap?)? For that matter, why couldn't the ghost be associated with Lundenwic? The only reason that she seems to be routinely identified as an actress is because of tradition and the theatre location.
As for the similarity with the story of Acacia cemetery, it is simply this. With one exception, every website that I have come across that describes the Aldwych ghost uses the exact same phrase: "The ghost is that of an actress who believes she has not enjoyed her last curtain call." Admittedly, it's not a bad line, but it gets redundant after a very short while. Why does it constantly show up? Perhaps because webmasters and content providers are woefully unimaginative. More likely because we are lazy, and cutting-and-pasting is easier than writing a new sentence. But it makes me wonder: when I arrive in London, will I hear different stories about the ghost, that perhaps she is something other than an actress? Is the actress story spread merely because it's easy to cut-and-paste a semi-decent line than to write something new? And, given the prevalence of the internet amongst ghost story enthusiasts, is it possible that one version of the story, complete with the "curtain call" line, may become the standard.
If you're interested, silly photos of the station can be found here.
Sources: H2G2, Internet, Television Show, Internet, Underground History, Internet
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Borley Rectory
In 1863, the Reverend Henry Bull had a rectory built in Borley, Essex to house himself and his family. The land on which the rectory was built was rumored to have been the site of a Medieval monastery, and the locals told stories of a ghostly nun who was often seen in the area. Bull ignored the stories and built his home in this location anyway.
After the home was built, strange things began to happen. Footsteps with no clear source were heard, the Bull children reported seeing a phantom nun walking about the grounds, and stories of a phantom coach with a headless driver began to circulate in the area. These stories squared with local legends concerning a nun who fell in love with a monk at the local monastery. The two chose to elope, and both were executed, along with the driver of the get-away carriage.
Two generations of the Bull family maintained residence at Borley Rectory until 1927, when reverend Guy Eric Smith became the rector of the church and took up residence.
After moving in, Smith's wife discovered a paper package containing the skull of a young woman in one of the cupboards. Shortly thereafter, the sounds of servant bells ringing (even after their strings had been cut) and sourceless footsteps became common. Lights appeared in the house (presumably in unoccupied rooms), and the phantom coach was again seen (though whether or not the driver was headless this time is unknown).
At the Smiths' request, the Daily Mirror newspaper put them in touch with the Society for Psychical Research. The newspaper also arranged for a paranormal investigator by the name of Harry Price* to come to the house.
After Price arrived, new phenomenon were observed, including tappings from spirits (often referred to as "spirit messages") and objects began to be thrown.
The Smiths left in 1929, and were replaced in 1930 by Reverend Lionel Foyster and his family. The old phenomenon continued, and were accompanied by even more violent throwing of objects, shattering windows, people being locked into rooms, people were physically thrown by unseen forces, and Adelaide Foyster, Reverend Foyster's step-daughter, was once attacked by something that was described only as "horrible."
Reverend Foyster twice tried to conduct exorcisms, but to no avail. A stone was thrown at him during his first attempt, and the second simply brought no result. The Foysters eventually left the home in 1937 due to the Reverend's poor health.
Harry Price continued his investigations during this time, and rented the house in 1937. He built a group of observers who would visit the house, often spending several days there, and keep track of their observations. During seances conducted during this period, contact was made with the spirit of a nun who had been killed on the grounds where the house stood. She claimed to have been murdered by Henry Waldengrave, who had owned the 17th-century manor house that had previously stood at the rectory's location.
A second spirit, going by the name of Sunex Amures, was contacted and announced his intention to set fire to the house in order to reveal the remains of a murder victim. In 1939, nearly a year later, the house's new resident, one Captain W. H. Gregson, was unpacking boxes when an oil lamp overturned and started a fire, severely damaging the house. After the fire, Harry Price returned to the rectory, and began exploring the basement, where he found bones, which were interred in holy ground at Liston Churchyard, putting the wronged nun's spirit to rest.
Commentary: ...and you thought that the howling cabin in Harry Potter was the most haunted house in England.
Although much of the legend that has been built up around the house implies that it was built at the abandoned site of a former monastery, it was actually built on the grounds of the previous rector's home, and the story of the monastery, eloping couple, and executed carriage driver was invented by the Reverend Bull's children and only later became part of the legend surrounding the place.
Harry Price's investigations at the house are what "made" him as a paranormal investigator, but have themselves been the source of much controversy. The Society for Psychical Research, once one of the most prominent paranormal investigation groups in the world, performed their own study of the house, and not only came to different conclusions than Price, but also accused Price of Fraud in his investigations. Later biographies of Price have portrayed him as a con-man who made a supplemental income by performing "psychical research."
However, Price also has his defenders, though their case typically seems rather weak. Nonetheless, it can be argued that he was not quite the cunning, cynical force that his opponents made him out to be, though he may still have been a con man. Indeed, his discovery of the bones of an alleged murder victim both seem rather remarkably convenient (especially seeing as how his spirit contact had said that he would burn down the house nearly a year before it actually happened), and the bones were buried in Liston churchyard rather than Borley churchyard after the authorities of Borley established that the bones were from a pig and not a human.
Childhood stories and possible hoaxing aside, it is still difficult to figure out what, if anything, actually happened at the Borley Rectory. As noted, some of the stories appear to have come directly from the imaginations of the Bull children, others may have been due to a hoax, and still others may have come from other non-paranormal sources. For example, after the fact it was revealed that Marianne Foyster was having an affair with a lodger, and used the well-known ghost story to create distractions and cover up some of her activity. In addition, the media attention focused on the house likely resulted in "bigger fish" stories being created, turning natural phenomenon into larger-than-life (or death) ghostly happenings in order ot feed the ravenous media creature.
Unlike the rather similar Amityville case, the media of the time was more limited, producing fewer reports to be examined, and there was no legal proceedings involved, further preventing the generation of publicly available information. As a result, this case can not be examined as exhaustively as the Amityville case.
So, in the end, what happened at Borley Rectory? Did something truly strange and unexplainable happen in the midst of the made-up stories and the media blitzkrieg? Or was the haunting simply a series of hoaxes?
I have no idea. I do know that those who advocate for proof of spirits would do well to steer clear of the Borley Rectory simply because there is so much confusion surrounding the place. Whether or not there is something strange sitting underneath the surface is an open question, but one that we would do well to consider somewhat skeptically.
SOURCES: Prairie Ghosts, Brittania.com, LLc, Ghost-Story.co.uk, Podcast, Internet, Internet, Internet, Internet, Internet
*Irrelevant to most people, but funny to me - I used to work for an archaeologist named Barry Price, and so I keep having to go back and change my "b"s to "h"s when I write Harry Price's name.
After the home was built, strange things began to happen. Footsteps with no clear source were heard, the Bull children reported seeing a phantom nun walking about the grounds, and stories of a phantom coach with a headless driver began to circulate in the area. These stories squared with local legends concerning a nun who fell in love with a monk at the local monastery. The two chose to elope, and both were executed, along with the driver of the get-away carriage.
Two generations of the Bull family maintained residence at Borley Rectory until 1927, when reverend Guy Eric Smith became the rector of the church and took up residence.
After moving in, Smith's wife discovered a paper package containing the skull of a young woman in one of the cupboards. Shortly thereafter, the sounds of servant bells ringing (even after their strings had been cut) and sourceless footsteps became common. Lights appeared in the house (presumably in unoccupied rooms), and the phantom coach was again seen (though whether or not the driver was headless this time is unknown).
At the Smiths' request, the Daily Mirror newspaper put them in touch with the Society for Psychical Research. The newspaper also arranged for a paranormal investigator by the name of Harry Price* to come to the house.
After Price arrived, new phenomenon were observed, including tappings from spirits (often referred to as "spirit messages") and objects began to be thrown.
The Smiths left in 1929, and were replaced in 1930 by Reverend Lionel Foyster and his family. The old phenomenon continued, and were accompanied by even more violent throwing of objects, shattering windows, people being locked into rooms, people were physically thrown by unseen forces, and Adelaide Foyster, Reverend Foyster's step-daughter, was once attacked by something that was described only as "horrible."
Reverend Foyster twice tried to conduct exorcisms, but to no avail. A stone was thrown at him during his first attempt, and the second simply brought no result. The Foysters eventually left the home in 1937 due to the Reverend's poor health.
Harry Price continued his investigations during this time, and rented the house in 1937. He built a group of observers who would visit the house, often spending several days there, and keep track of their observations. During seances conducted during this period, contact was made with the spirit of a nun who had been killed on the grounds where the house stood. She claimed to have been murdered by Henry Waldengrave, who had owned the 17th-century manor house that had previously stood at the rectory's location.
A second spirit, going by the name of Sunex Amures, was contacted and announced his intention to set fire to the house in order to reveal the remains of a murder victim. In 1939, nearly a year later, the house's new resident, one Captain W. H. Gregson, was unpacking boxes when an oil lamp overturned and started a fire, severely damaging the house. After the fire, Harry Price returned to the rectory, and began exploring the basement, where he found bones, which were interred in holy ground at Liston Churchyard, putting the wronged nun's spirit to rest.
Commentary: ...and you thought that the howling cabin in Harry Potter was the most haunted house in England.
Although much of the legend that has been built up around the house implies that it was built at the abandoned site of a former monastery, it was actually built on the grounds of the previous rector's home, and the story of the monastery, eloping couple, and executed carriage driver was invented by the Reverend Bull's children and only later became part of the legend surrounding the place.
Harry Price's investigations at the house are what "made" him as a paranormal investigator, but have themselves been the source of much controversy. The Society for Psychical Research, once one of the most prominent paranormal investigation groups in the world, performed their own study of the house, and not only came to different conclusions than Price, but also accused Price of Fraud in his investigations. Later biographies of Price have portrayed him as a con-man who made a supplemental income by performing "psychical research."
However, Price also has his defenders, though their case typically seems rather weak. Nonetheless, it can be argued that he was not quite the cunning, cynical force that his opponents made him out to be, though he may still have been a con man. Indeed, his discovery of the bones of an alleged murder victim both seem rather remarkably convenient (especially seeing as how his spirit contact had said that he would burn down the house nearly a year before it actually happened), and the bones were buried in Liston churchyard rather than Borley churchyard after the authorities of Borley established that the bones were from a pig and not a human.
Childhood stories and possible hoaxing aside, it is still difficult to figure out what, if anything, actually happened at the Borley Rectory. As noted, some of the stories appear to have come directly from the imaginations of the Bull children, others may have been due to a hoax, and still others may have come from other non-paranormal sources. For example, after the fact it was revealed that Marianne Foyster was having an affair with a lodger, and used the well-known ghost story to create distractions and cover up some of her activity. In addition, the media attention focused on the house likely resulted in "bigger fish" stories being created, turning natural phenomenon into larger-than-life (or death) ghostly happenings in order ot feed the ravenous media creature.
Unlike the rather similar Amityville case, the media of the time was more limited, producing fewer reports to be examined, and there was no legal proceedings involved, further preventing the generation of publicly available information. As a result, this case can not be examined as exhaustively as the Amityville case.
So, in the end, what happened at Borley Rectory? Did something truly strange and unexplainable happen in the midst of the made-up stories and the media blitzkrieg? Or was the haunting simply a series of hoaxes?
I have no idea. I do know that those who advocate for proof of spirits would do well to steer clear of the Borley Rectory simply because there is so much confusion surrounding the place. Whether or not there is something strange sitting underneath the surface is an open question, but one that we would do well to consider somewhat skeptically.
SOURCES: Prairie Ghosts, Brittania.com, LLc, Ghost-Story.co.uk, Podcast, Internet, Internet, Internet, Internet, Internet
*Irrelevant to most people, but funny to me - I used to work for an archaeologist named Barry Price, and so I keep having to go back and change my "b"s to "h"s when I write Harry Price's name.
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