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Post by dem bones on Feb 21, 2021 17:17:32 GMT
Betty Puttick - Ghosts of Bedfordshire (Countryside Books, 1996) Colin Doggett Introduction
The Ghost with the Rose Perfume Message from a Fallen Giant The Witches of Bedfordshire Sudden Death at Puddlehill Unhappy Ghosts at Woburn Abbey The Ghost who Died for Love Was there a curse on 'The Alma'? Ghosts at the Priory Life with Fred The Bedford Arms Haunting Black Magic at Clophill Stand and Deliver Ghosts in the Gallery The Little Blue Man at Studham Haunted Pub Crawl Ghosts of the Highways and Byways Phantom Vehicles The Restless Huetts of Millbrook Sid Mularney's Poltergeist Ghosts Galore!Blurb: Some people might say they do not believe in ghosts but few are rash enough to say categorically that they do not exist. The sheer numbers of Bedfordshire's apparitions, phantoms and spectres which Betty Puttick describes here will cause even hardened sceptics to pause.
Her stories range in time and place throughout the county. Who is the little, old, grey-haired lady who haunts Flitwick Manor? Why will the ghost who walks at Woburn Abbey never shut doors behind him? Were the technical outpourings, through a medium, really those of the dead captain from Cardington's crashed airship R101? How did the famous highwayman, Dick Turpin, secure a 'safe house' in Woodcock Lane, Aspley Guise?
These tales and the many others in this book are taken from first hand accounts and make chilling and compulsive reading.A thing of fits and starts. Some entries too short and flimsy to leave an impression. The appeal for this reader, five pages devoted to grave robbery and desecration at St. Mary's church, Clophill, during the 'sixties and 'seventies. The gist of which. Black Magic at Clophill: In March 1963, two schoolkids playing among graves in the ruins of St. Mary's churchyard on Dead Man's Hill, found a human skull impaled on a pike. The lads showed it to a couple come to tidy a grave and told them of more bones inside the chapel. The adults informed the police. The youths had not exaggerated. On a stone slab where once stood the altar lay a pelvis, leg and breastbone and the bloody feathers of a chicken. A Celtic cross had been carved into the wall and painted red. Climbing the barbed wire fence that separated church from graveyard, the police found a discarded crowbar. It had been used to prize the slab from the tomb of Jenny Humberstone who died of smallpox in 1720. Six other graves had been tampered with. Who could have done such a thing? Clophill was, after all, a sleepy English village where everyone knew everyone else and nothing ever happened! Jenny's bones were given to Reverend Leslie Barker who kept them in a cupboard for a number of days, fearful that the vandals could return. "Not even my nearest and dearest know where Jenny lies today", he would later recall. His caution was justified. Once the News of the World got wind of the story, the village was besieged by coach parties. According to the Reverend, strange rites and desecration's would continue in the churchyard on a monthly basis right up until ( and, presumably, after ?) his retirement in 1969. As late as 1990, Janet & Colin Bord would comment in their Atlas of Magical Britain (Sigwick & Jackson, 1990) "When we visited we felt an overwhelming evil atmosphere emanating from the whole area of church and graveyard. We hurriedly took a few photographs and left as quickly as we could". Some of the above is included in Betty Puttick's account, some isn't, but she does mention an earlier macabre episode involving Dead Man's Hill, the A6 Murder, for which James Hanratty was controversially convicted and duly executed in April 1962. Also includes; Ghosts at the Priory: The Phantom Nun of Chicksand Priory. Familiar story of 'Rosata,' a novice who, on falling pregnant, was first forced to watch the murder of her lover before the Sisters walled her up alive for her sins. Ghosts of the Highways and Byways: The phantom cricketer of the Packhorse Inn; the ghostly jaywalker of the Toddington turn off; the spectral monk of Edlesborough church; the vanishing cyclist, and Roy Fulton's famous encounter with a phantom hitch-hiker. Sudden Death at Puddlehill: Did a ghostly Saxon warrior once haunt the footpath to Houghton Regis? Was there a curse on 'The Alma'?: Luton's haunted cinema - demolished at last. Message from a Fallen Giant: Two days after the R101 airship disaster, Harry Price's National Laboratory of Psychic Research conducted a seance in London. Did medium Eileen Garrett establish communication with the late Captain Irwin? Who but the pilot could have described in such technical detail the events leading up to the explosion?
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Post by helrunar on Feb 21, 2021 19:55:19 GMT
Kev, the Ghosts of Bedfordshire sounds intriguing. So does the Cotswolds one. I'm not nearly so intimate with these books as are you and Miss Scarlett but I'm starting to see certain incidents of "oh yeah, THAT story."
The Clophill desecration is still to this day infamous in legitimate Craft circles--among those who bother to read up on occult history of the last century, that is. I saw something last year where a report was given of what was claimed to be an interview with one of the men who participated in that rite. They were part of one of the DIY black magic circles of the era. I'd never heard of the desecrations continuing so many years and would imagine, from what I recall reading in the past about this, that that was the work of copycats--but from what I have read, the possibility of poltergeist activity cannot be discounted.
Thanks for the great scans!
Steve
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Post by helrunar on Feb 21, 2021 20:06:27 GMT
This page about Clophill includes a 2020 interview with somebody (some kind of researcher, it says) about the site: www.spookyisles.com/haunted-clophill-church/Another site I checked reports the story that the church had been oriented West instead of East as fact. The above site says that's a myth. H.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 21, 2021 20:22:09 GMT
I am curious---what is the exact definition?
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 21, 2021 21:06:05 GMT
Betty Puttick - Ghosts of Bedfordshire (Countryside Books, 1996) Colin Doggett Introduction
The Ghost with the Rose Perfume Message from a Fallen Giant The Witches of Bedfordshire Sudden Death at Puddlehill Unhappy Ghosts at Woburn Abbey The Ghost who Died for Love Was there a curse on 'The Alma'? Ghosts at the Priory Life with Fred The Bedford Arms Haunting Black Magic at Clophill Stand and Deliver Ghosts in the Gallery The Little Blue Man at Studham Haunted Pub Crawl Ghosts of the Highways and Byways Phantom Vehicles The Restless Huetts of Millbrook Sid Mularney's Poltergeist Ghosts Galore!Blurb: Message from a Fallen Giant: Two days after the R101 airship disaster, Harry Price's National Laboratory of Psychic Research conducted a seance in London. Did medium Eileen Garrett establish communication with the late Captain Irwin? Who but the pilot could have described in such technical detail the events leading up to the explosion? An entire book is available on this topic:
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Post by dem bones on Feb 22, 2021 17:47:41 GMT
Kev, the Ghosts of Bedfordshire sounds intriguing. So does the Cotswolds one. I'm not nearly so intimate with these books as are you and Miss Scarlett but I'm starting to see certain incidents of "oh yeah, THAT story." Steve I'm sure Swampi, Dr. Strange, Shrinkproof and Mr. Brewer and any other Vault contributor you care to mention are far more knowledgeable about the paranormal & Co. With no Sunday market, library out of commission and usual haunts either closed or off-limits, it kind of focused me on what books were hanging around indoors - hence disproportionate amount of 'true ghosts' posts of late. Busman's holiday, really, as so much of the more dramatic material reads like supernatural and/ or horror fiction. Anyway, might as well give Betty Puttick a separate thread as she published three 'haunted' books in quick succession, and for some reason, I've copies of each. Betty Puttick - Ghosts of Hertfordshire (Countryside Books, 2003: originally 1994) Colin Doggett Introduction
St. Albans' Haunted Abbey The Valley of the Nightingales Abbots Langley's Restless Spirits The Ghosts of Knebworth A King's Mistress Still Lingers The Wicked Lady of Markyate The Ghostly Monk of Ayot St. Lawrence The Grey Lady of Bishops Stortford Ghosts of the Wayside Little Boy Lost, Part I Little Boy Lost, Part II The Strange Will of Henry Trigg A Ghost to the Rescue The Haunting of Minsden Chapel The Return of the Saint '... And Battles Long Ago.' Last Post for a Villain The Death of a Witch Ghosts of Old St. Albans The Watford Hauntings Strangers on a Train A Ghost at the GrocersBlurb: Most people are intrigued by ghosts and stories about hauntings, even if they do not believe them. Betty Puttick’s accounts of the supernatural in Hertfordshire are likely to unsettle even hardened sceptics.
Hertfordshire has a wealth of sightings: from the mysterious ringer of the Abbey bell in St Albans to the ghostly vandal in the butcher’s shop. The book reveals other strange hauntings and mysteries. Why was the black—hearted pieman murdered and does he still haunt the lanes of Bramfield? What was the barbaric ordeal of ‘Swimming’ a witch, and who’s icy hand helped an engine driver stop his train when the line was blocked?
Betty Puttick describes these and other ghostly encounters, using first hand accounts, and her book makes reading that is both chilling and compulsive.
Betty Puttick lives in St Albans. She writes regularly for both local media and for many of the country’s leading women’s magazines. The supernatural has been a life long interest, and she has written many stories of ghosts — interviewing people in haunted houses, pubs, shops, theatres, and even the inspector of a haunted London tube station.The Ghostly Monk of Ayot St. Lawrence: A suicide monk in brown robe haunts The Brocket Arms pub. Ghosts of the Wayside: Phantoms of the roadside, ghostly jaywalkers & Co. Some crossover with similar chapter in Haunted Beds.. The vengeful ghost of Moat Farm (she rises from the ditch where her corpse was dumped by her murderer); the phantom policeman of Holy Cross Hill; the headless horse of Burnham Green; Boudicca's chariot at Pendley Beeches (that chariot gets around more than Dick Turpin), Roman soldiers on the march across Wigginton Common, etc. The Valley of the Nightingales: Haunted Harpenden, including the ghastly faced trio in The Cross Keys pub and the strange case of the landlady's disappearing tartan skirt. The Haunting of Minsden Chapel: You Can't move for phantom monks in Herts. This one materialises to a tolling of ghostly bells at midnight on Hallowe'en. As investigated by Elliott O'Donnell (who got chased off as a poacher), Peter Underwood, among others.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 23, 2021 14:21:02 GMT
Margaret Lockwood The Wicked Lady, 1945. The Wicked Lady of Markyate: Lady Katherine Ferrers of Markyate Cell manor house, seventeenth century highway woman, fatally wounded mid-hold up of a carriage on Nomanslandcommon. Reported sightings of her ladyship continued up until the mid-1990's and possibly do so to this day, for all I know. St. Albans' Haunted Abbey: A ghostly Benedictine choir accompanied by a phantom organist celebrate midnight mass during the blackout on 24th December 1944. As witnessed by a sixteen year old on duty as a fire-watcher. The Ghosts of Knebworth: Including the Radiant Boy, aka the ghost in the Yellow Boy's Room, who appears only to those destined to meet a violent end. One such was Lord Castlereagh who, having been promoted beyond his capabilities, dutifully slit his throat with a penknife; Spinning Jenny, imprisoned in the East wing to keep her from her lover; The presence of Edward Bulwer Lytton, of The Haunters and the Haunted: or, The House and the Brain repute, has been sensed in the study which, at time of writing, had been kept exactly as he left it, which probably explains the friendly demeanour. The Watford Hauntings: Pick of a rum bunch, Aggie, a light operator who plunged to her death at the Watford Palace Theatre; Unknown, the friendly Tudor ghost of the former Copperfield's restaurant; and Cassiobury, the bargee-botherer, drowned at Ironbridge Lock. Abbots Langley's Restless Spirits: St Lawrence vicarage and graveyard is home to the pale, shrouded phantom of Mary Ann Treble, a young housekeeper allegedly murdered by Mrs. Parnell, the vicar's wife, though nobody knows the truth of it. "Ann died a horrible death in this room and the place will never be free of her" reckons a gent who came to repair a fireplace the ghost repeatedly vandalised. Quotes Peter Underwood's Gazetteer of British Ghosts and the seemingly omnipresent August Hare.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 23, 2021 15:41:41 GMT
Margaret Lockwood was superb in The Wicked Lady, a delightful gem from a long vanished era which also features a young, sexy, elegant Michael Rennie.
This book sounds like a lot of fun.
H.
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 23, 2021 19:13:09 GMT
Watched Lockwood in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes on TV just the other day.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 24, 2021 12:08:23 GMT
Margaret Lockwood was superb in The Wicked Lady, a delightful gem from a long vanished era which also features a young, sexy, elegant Michael Rennie. This book sounds like a lot of fun. H. It's pretty slight to be honest, but I'm enjoying it. Some of the authentic ghost stories are maybe too authentic for their own good - who cares if a phantom dog walks in a bar and vanishes through a wall without savaging a child's throat or giving a barman rabies? Then again, am reading it off the back of an Elliott O'Donnell, and he's a hard act to follow. Last Post for a Villain: Walter Clibbon, pie-man and bandit, was so despised by his Bromfield neighbours that, fatally wounded during a robbery, his corpse was tied to a horse and dragged up and down Bulls Green. Finally, what was left of Clibbon was buried in the woods with a stake driven through the heart. A lot of good that did. Bulls Green still haunted by "the shadowy shape of a horse pulling a black writhing body along the lanes." The Death of a Witch: The fatal 'swimming' of aged couple, John and Ruth Osborne, at Long Marsden, Tring, on 22 April 1751, by a mob led by Thomas Colley, chimney sweep, who was eventually gibbeted for their murder at Gabblecote Cross. Read about this quite recently. Clifford Morley's excellent News From The English Countryside; 1750-1850 reprints contemporary press coverage from editions of the Northampton Mercury. Strangers on a Train: As reported in the Hertfordshire Express for 17 March 1894, three years after the incident took place. A meddlesome, sad-faced ghost mans the footplate, prevents a collision at Hitchen. A Ghost at the Grocers: Poltergeist activity at the shop on Royston High Street. Place has not known a moment's peace since a former owner, Mr. Grosvenor Elson, purveyor of wines & spirits, hung himself in the cellar.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 26, 2021 18:50:22 GMT
A King's Mistress Still Lingers: "Then the bed began to rock quite violently back and forth for about three minutes." Of the several ghosts of Salisbury Hall, Nell Gwynne, the King's fancy bit, is particularly active. Support provided by a young Cavalier dressed to the nines.
The Grey Lady of Bishops Stortford: Gets around a bit, Haunts include Handscombe's department store, The George Inn, and Tissimans & Sons (formerly the Old Horse cafe). Alleged poltergeist activity. Some witnesses report accompanying burning smell, leading to speculation that mystery woman may have been a victim of Bishop Bonner.
Town also boasts the phantom serving wench of The Cock Inn.
Little Boy Lost: Parts I & II: Poltergeist activity in The Wellington (formerly The Blue Boar) pub, St. Albans. A bag of golf clubs perform a somersault; attack of the soda syphon; terror of the animated crisp packets, etc.
In the mid-'seventies, pub sold off and re-opened as a butcher stop. The ghost - thought to be that of a ten-year-old boy - continued where it left off.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 27, 2021 16:09:06 GMT
Betty Puttick - Ghosts of Buckinghamshire (Countryside Books, 1995) Colin Doggett Introduction
Haunted Missenden A Couple of Bogeymen Ghosts at the Chequers Echoes of the Past at Chenies Murder at Ye Old Ostrich Inn The Cavalier of Claydon House Gentlemen (and Ladies) of the Road The Poisoner's Tale The Mischievous Quaker The Hell-fire Club The White Lady of West Wycombe No Laughing Matter Disraeli at Hughenden William Loosley's Close Encounter Black Dogs and Psychic Pets A Miscellany of Hauntings Things that went Bump in the Night at Turville A Ghost at the Pictures A Fairy in the Night Olney's Shades They Rented a Ghost ... More haunted PubsMost people are intrigued by ghosts even if they do not really want to believe in them. Betty Puttick’s accounts of the the supernatural in Buckinghamshire are likely to unsettle even hardened sceptics.
Buckinghamshire has a wealth of hauntings: from the limping ghost of Henry VIII at Chenies Manor to the mysterious shades at Olney’s Castle Inn. The book reveals many other spectral events and the unusual historical backgrounds which give them further credence. Why should the long dead steward of the notorious Hell-Fire Club at West Wycombe return to the estate to wave and beckon at passers-by, and what paranormal traces of the members of this infamous club can be found today? What were the strange beings seen by William Loosley in 1871 or was his incredible adventure the first ‘close encounter of the third kind’?
The author describes these and other examples of the Unexplained, using first hand accounts, with the result that her book provides chilling and compulsive reading.Haunted Missenden: Black Monks, a phantom thirteenth century lord on spectral warhorse, and an ashtray-hurling floozy in crinoline. A Couple of Bogeymen: Bishop Henry Burghersh, who stole 300 acres of common land from the village people, cursed to walk Hanger wood for eternity; and wicked Bobby Banistre, tyrannical Lord of the Manor, whose corpse resisted burial until threatened with exorcism. Ghosts at the Chequers: Amersham's The Chequers Inn is reputedly haunted by 'Auden', who acted as gaoler to a group of religious dissenters on the eve of their martyrdom at the stake. Also a fellow in a black cloak attempting to a escape up the chimney, and a woman with a friendly smiling face. Echoes of the Past at Chenies: A groaning, gammy-legged spectre hobbles the corridors, possibly that of Henry VIII snooping on doomed bride #5, Catherine Howard. Also the headless ghost of Sir William Russell, and "civil war soldiers larking about with the village girls." Murder at Ye Old Ostrich Inn: Shades of The Terribly Strange Bed and the legend of Sweeney Todd about this one. "This room was immediately above the kitchen and had a trapdoor in the floor. By the removal of a couple of bolts, the bed would tip the sleeping occupant through the trapdoor and into a waiting vat of boiling water in the kitcher below. According to Thomas Deloney (Thomas of Reading, 1632), 'In the dead time of night, when the victim was sound asleep, they plucked out the bolts, and down would the man fall out of his bed into the boiling cauldron, and all the cloathes that were upon him, where being suddenly scalded and drowned, he was never able to cry or speak one word.'"By this means, Jarman the murder landlord and his avaricious wife, boiled and robbed sixty travellers before justice finally caught up with them.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 4, 2021 19:24:13 GMT
A Ghost at the Pictures: The Chiltern Cinema, Beaconsfield, was reputedly haunted by former manager Walter Gay until it went out of business in the late 'eighties. Has since been converted into a phantom-free Pizza restaurant.
The Poisoner's Tale: Dolsden Farm, Churchfield Woods and various Henley and Turville premises are all alleged haunts of Mary Blandy, executed in April 1752 for poisoning Blandy senior with 'love philtres,' these provided by her dastardly bigamist husband, Captain Craunston, who got off scott free. Mary's ghost also reputedly attended a production of The Hanging Wood, a play based on the case, at the Kenton Theatre, Henley, in 1969.
No Laughing Matter: How Nobel Edden, smartarse market gardener, learned the hard way that it never pays to chortle 'Baa!' at edgy sheep rustlers. Especially when they carry hammers.
The Hell-fire Club: Exploits of Sir Francis Dashwood and fellow debauchees at Medmenham Abbey including the famous baboon in a devil mask episode. The ghost of 'Friar' Paul Whitehead was briefly something of a in West Wycombe Park though haunting ceased on the death of his best friend, Sir Francis. Still doing the rounds, the spectre of the pond on Cressex Lane, a beautiful girl drowned when the leering lechers chased her carriage off the road.
The White Lady of West Wycombe: The George & Dragon Inn is home to Sukie, an eighteenth century barmaid who met her death in the chalk pit as the result of a cruel prank by three local idiots bitter that they stood no chance with her. It is claimed a second pub spook is that of a traveller murdered in one of the rooms.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 5, 2021 12:24:39 GMT
William Loosley's Close Encounter: Concerning an Account of a Meeting with Denizens of Another World in Downley Wood, October 5th 1871, a manuscript supposedly found concealed at back of a desk by the author's great great granddaughter who presented it to UFOlogist David 'Ansible' Langford. This chilling first hand testimony of a man whose walking stick was the victim of alien abduction saw publication as a 96 page booklet in 1979. I believe there is uh, some scepticism as to it's "authenticity."
A Miscellany of Hauntings: A nuisance phantom monk banging on the window of a phone booth near St. Faith's church, Newton Longville. The haunted telephone exchange at Newport Pagnel; Phantom footsteps tread the platform at High Wycombe station; A trolley of terror stalks the wards of an RAF sick bay at Bletchley.
Things that went Bump in the Night at Turville: Cottage haunted by the ghost of tragic Daisy Sewell, an epileptic who fell into the fireplace mid-violent fit and did not survive the ordeal. Some mild poltergeist activity, occasional throat-throttling reek of burning flesh, although, given the circumstances of her cruel death, Daisy's ghost is surprising bereft of malevolence.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 6, 2021 10:48:06 GMT
The Cavalier of Claydon House: Sir Edmund Verney, loyal standard bearer of the King's army, slain in battle at Edge Hill in 1642. His ghost was among the thousands to return for the annual Christmas re-enactment. Sir Edmund also spends some time wandering the family home in search of his severed hand.
A Fairy in the Night: Farnham Common. For two years after the Hillier's moved in, 'Elsie,' a blonde in Victorian dress, would flit about their sixteenth century cottage, playing harmless tricks and watering the plants. Once Pamela Hillier had given birth to her first child, Elsie was seen no more.
The Mischievous Quaker: The resident ghost at The Old Market House restaurant, Buckingham, is a lady in a long black dress who rings bells and taps gents on the shoulder while they're taking a leak.
Gentlemen (and Ladies) of the Road: There's not a highwayman or woman galloped Britain's heaths and commons didn't leave behind their ghost, so why should the Bucks contingent be any different? Am quite surprised that the only example the author can provide is the ubiquitous Dick Turpin, who, lets face it, haunts England's every blade of grass, let alone pub. Of greater entertainment value are such roadside phantoms as the ghostly jaywalkers, the headless horseman of Great Missenden, the Spangled Lady of Sandage Wood, and a spectral coach and four outside The Greyhound pub in Chalfont St. Peters.
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