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Post by andydecker on Sept 19, 2022 20:15:35 GMT
Thanks for the link, Swampi! Very interesting. As I discovered I thought gallows and gibbets to be the same which it is not. A new fact every day.
The vintage foto is kind of creepy. It reminds me of James.
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Post by Swampirella on Sept 19, 2022 20:32:16 GMT
It is deliciously creepy, isn't it?
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Post by dem bones on Sept 20, 2022 12:33:57 GMT
The vintage foto is kind of creepy. It reminds me of James. It is deliciously creepy, isn't it? It would make a perfect building-double for 'Ye Journey's End' in Guy Preston's The InnThe Skull of Wardley Hall : The home-loving severed head is believed to be that of either Roger Downes, profligate heir, public nuisance, and courier to Charles II, or Alexander Barlow, a devout Catholic beheaded for his faith at Lancaster Castle. Attempts to bury it are in vain. Sooner or later, the skull — the flesh fell away with the passing of time — is back beside its favourite window. Its most extraordinary accomplishment to date was a feat of escapology worthy of Houdini. The skull unnailed itself from within a wooden box. Oldham's Unwell Well Woman: Elza Jane Mackay, alcoholic from the age of three, dead at sixteen, drowned in the well at her workplace, The Old Original Inn, Scouthead. Ghost notable for an impressive turn of pace. The Lime Street Beetle-Eater: George Edwards, a 15th century scouser who revelled in tales of the tortures inflicted by Vlad Tepes, Torquemada and the Inquisition, made good his promise to eat human flesh. Edwards' cannibal phase came to an abrupt halt when the doctor who kept him in discarded limbs quit town, necessitating a modification of his diet to rats, dead birds and live cockroaches, the bigger and slimier the better. His ghost is suitably spectacular - a floating head and torso with a monstrous bug jammed in its mouth. Nelson and his Lady in Dawlish: Topper Handerson, ex of the Border Regiment, recalls an encounter with Admiral Nelson (both eyes and full complement of limbs) and the very gorgeous Lady Hamilton on the Devon seafront one night in August 1944. The Hand That Walks: Severed from a poacher's arm in a fight with a bailiff, the lonesome hand has been reported crossing a road at night and caressing a young woman's shoulder near Sixpenny Handley, Dorset. Buckton's Grizel: A figure in a black cape and tricorn hat, riding a black charger along roads near Buckton, Northumberland, is believed to be the ghost of Grizelda, dutiful daughter of Sir John Cochrane. During the Bloody Assizes, this plucky young woman dressed in highwayman attire to hold up a coach and prevent her imprisoned father's death warrant reaching Edinburgh. The Barber of Belford: Urban legend involving Watty, veteran Victorian hair stylist to both the living and the dead, who finally retired after a late client was whisked from his chair by a visitor from the fiery pit. The Ghastly Firefighter: Horrible death of Jack 'the sod' Bell, station commander and "man of vulgar habits," who made life Hell for those who served under him in the Croydon fire brigade. One morning in January 1892, Bell was discovered splattered across the stable, apparently having upset the station's formerly benign and docile horses to the point where they trampled him to pieces. An alternate theory has it that Bell was battered to bits by a fireman named Harry Redpath whom he'd refused time off to attend the birth of his first child. Both wife and baby were lost, and the heartbroken Redpath lost no time in letting Bell know what he thought of him. The poor man returned from burying his dead to find he'd been sacked for "assaulting a superior officer." The day after Bell met his death, Redpath joined him in the afterlife, having downed two bottles of whisky and slit his wrists in the bath. There is some dispute over which of their ghosts haunts Park Street Fire Station, and whether one or the other may be responsible for the poltergeist activity at the King's Cellars pub which stands on the site of the original fire station.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 21, 2022 12:29:14 GMT
Beadnell: Where There's Life There's Hope, When There's Death?: Ups and downs of Frank Charlton, randy bar-tender and odd-job man around local villages, who seemingly seduced every married woman on the Northumberland coast before he was lashed to death and beheaded by irate husband or husbands unknown. Verdict: Accidental death. The story has it that Frank's ghost walked until an anonymous source left a stone replica of his head on the Bull Inn with a note explaining that, while he couldn't return the real head, he hoped Charlton would settle for this replacement and return to his grave.
The Ghost Battle of Langley: 1n 1405, Henry IV's army burnt down the border stronghold, Langley Castle. Over the centuries, select fortunate visitors to the Castle have been treated to a spectral re-enactment of the battle.
The Norman of Prudhoe Castle: After the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror rewarded his victorious knights. Sir Robert de Umfraville was granted the freedom of Redesdale, castle and all. Sir Robert took such a shine to his domain that his chainmail clad ghost, sporting trademark black bushy beard, haunts the castle to this day.
The Terrifying Trio of Houghton le Spring: Contemporary haunting of the Robbie Burns pub. A woman in black, a child in baggy 'Victorian' shorts, and a poltergeist tampering with the one-armed bandit. Title overdoes it a bit.
The Bellingham Pedlar: Episode in crime from the 1720s. An audacious attempted burglary of Colonel Ridley's ancestral home by the titular pedlar and a pint-sized accomplice was foiled by servants too smart and violent for them. A gravestone in Bellingham cemetery, carved in the shape of a rucksack, commemorates the tiny side-kick.
The Wiltshire Body Pit: A treasure hunter, digging at a disused quarry near Marnhill, Wilts., made a discovery not much to his liking when the ground gave way beneath him, and he fell through to a subterranean pit piled with the bones of Plague victims. Ghosts disturbed by the subsidence include "a procession of skeletons carrying dead bodies to their underground home."
Bossy Betty, the Good Witch: Curse of Elizabeth Bastre, the wise woman and midwife of Cirencester, Glos., who dared tell a clap-ridden witch-finder what she thought of his kind and paid with her life. Possibly a few liberties taken with the 'facts' here; was it really common practice in England for those found guilty of witchcraft to be burnt at the stake?
The Hoppings' Head Boy: Horrible shock for a lady visiting the Hopping Fair at Newcastle in the early 1900s. Examining the morbid delights on exhibition in the Emporium of Freaks, she recognised a severed head in a jar as that of a loved one recently buried.
The Spider of Stock: When botanist Arthur Trimble returned to Essex from the Amazon jungle in 1777, he brought home a massive spider, which promptly escaped, causing a great panic. The most recent reported sighting of this arachnid "the size of a dinner plate" was in 1974, though you can be sure it is still out there, somewhere, seeking the next bare leg to climb. This legend spawned a second when Charlie Marshall, ostler, pronounced himself the Spiderman of Stock, and to prove it, crawled up one chimney of the Bear and Stock pub, crossed the roof, and came down the second into the bar next door. He repeated the feat regularly for a modest fee until one day he went up — and, a century later, we've grown a little anxious that he might be stuck up there.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 23, 2022 15:03:57 GMT
The Crippled Children of Poole: Mid-nineteenth century. Faced with the prospect of raising two hideously deformed handicapped children, a pub landlord of Market Street locked them in an attic above stables and left them to starve. As far as his wife was aware, he'd "taken them to a convent" for a better life. It was only when the parents sold up and moved that the infants' ghosts made their presence known. A celebrated appearance was a 'Phantom of the Opera' turn on the piano during the pub's 1960s disco incarnation. Black in Bath: A Ouija board session at widow Joyce McFadden's house in September 1954 let loose a "huge black shape" at the foot of her bed. It returned mob-handed every night thereafter until Joyce's death in 1977.
The Divelstons of Dilston: Soon into their marriage, John Divelston discovered the beautiful Elizabeth was not merely a prolific serial adulteress, but a Yorkshire Countess Bathory, bathing in her lovers' blood and eating their brains. Caught in the act, Elizabeth suggested a compromise. She'd stay faithful if he would share her bed each night. Diveston sliced off her head, whereupon his wife uttered a terrible curse. "Within a hundred years your family will be gone, and all of the occupants of this castle will live in misery!"
Lawrence of Arabia, a Ghost in Waiting?: A phantom biker haunts Cloud Hill.
The White Lady of Blenkinsopp Castle: "It is said that Sir Bryant's wife walks the castle walls late at night, and can be seen sobbing in the dungeons. Wearing a wispy white robe, she glides across the floor, her dark features often invisible in the darkness so that what is seen is the white gown floating by apparently of its own volition." The sixth century Sir Bryan de Blenkinsopp returned from the Holy Land having taken a Sultan's daughter as his wife. Theirs was no happy marriage. The homesick wife guessed early that he'd wed her for the dowry. Consequently, Lady Blenkinsopp sought to bury her personal wealth beneath the dungeon floor, and died doing so.
The Brigand of Bardon Mill: Revolting career of a 14th century Border bandit of prodigious strength and unlimited capacity for evil, whose crimes include murder, arson, rape, non-consentual buggery and child molestation. He was eventually hacked to bits while counting his coin at Hardriding House.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 27, 2022 18:11:38 GMT
The Rye Owlers: Phantom re-enactment of a 17th century massacre on the beach at Winchelsea Bay. The King's regiment open fire on scores of smugglers, some of them children, engaged in unloading a spectral schooner.
The Devon Highwayman: 'Tis said dashing Tom King still rides his black charger wherever he pleases, be it through the bar of the Stag Inn, Rackenford, or a hippie encampment at Exeter. Known to wave at parties of school kids on a day's outing, so not all bad.
A Demon's Hands: Isle of Wight, 1982. Michelle Taylor had not long moved into a flat in Arreton when she was savagely molested in her bed by a pair of disembodied, hairy hands. Back in the 'fifties, a previous tenant named Robbins was driven out by angry residents after a series of sex attacks on little girls. Leathery Coit of Elland: A travelling salesman brutally murdered in his room at the Fleece Inn, his corpse dragged downstairs and dumped in the courtyard. The culprit went free. A trail of bloodstains in the yard will not scrub out until the killer is apprehended.
The Black Magic Woman and the Geordie: How Mamma Yeppo, Voodoo Queen, used demon-enhanced surgery to diagnose and repair a holidaymaker's torn cartilage at Montego Bay.
The Pirate of the Jamaica Inn: Eventful first visit to the tourist attraction for Londoner Pauline Rutter. No sooner had she arrived in the car park than she met with a fearsome sight; Long John Silver in regalia brandishing a cutlass. By the time she regained consciousness, the unfortunate holidaymaker was surrounded by the entire ghastly crew ...
The Bloody Footprint of Oakwell Hall, Birstall: During the great freeze of 1684, with conditions so bitterly icy unsheltered cattle froze to death where they stood, William Batt set out from Yorkshire to London on business, promising he'd be home on Christmas Eve. He kept his word, to a point, retiring straight to his room without a word, whereupon he vanished, leaving a solitary bloody footprint to return each December 22nd.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 12, 2022 11:01:46 GMT
The Cockney Curser: "Pay heed to me, you thieving git, for I curse you and your family, and it shall not end for twenty long years. You shall know it's over for I will make your entire world turn to ice." In January 1935, Derek Walker, a Geordie builder come to London for work, lifted a Pearly King's wallet while they were sharing a pint. Hexed by his victim, Walker came to dread the arrival of a new year as each January he was visited by freak accident, family tragedy, disease, bereavement, and desertion, until, having survived the opening month of 1955, he dared hope John Good's curse was lifted ... The Real Scarlet Pimpernel: ... was John Robinson of Brighton, Sussex, who rescued the entire Picard family from the guillotine and played a prominent role in Robespierre's downfall (it was his bullet wrecked the Revolutionary's chin). Fighting what he considered just causes became Robinson's thing until he came a cropper in Tehran, his eyes gouged out as punishment for participating in a failed rebellion. Eventually, he begged his way home to the South Coast to die on English soil. His blind, flesh-dripping, maggot-ridden ghost corpse has occasionally been sighted rifling the litter bins of Gloucester Place. The Devil in the Parrett: Alan Pownton, river monster. Pownton was a 15th century mercenary who brought his work home. Distraught at butchering a girl (in his defence, she was dressed in male attire), the mass killer weighted his pockets with rocks and tumbled into the Parrett to drown. At time of publication, he was still there, dragging down the occasional swimmers to join him beneath the waves. The Clare Head Hunter: Outcast by his community, Pat Muldoon, twisted, deformed, impaired of speech, etc., revenged himself on cruel mankind by defiling graves, decapitating the occupants and making off with their heads. Several morbid trophies later, Pat turned his attentions to the living .... Eventually, a search party located Muldoon to a cavern and gave him a taste of his own medicine. Three centuries have passed, but the headless, hunchbacked mad axeman's ghost - even less pleasing on the eye than that of the Brighton Pimpernel - is still said to haunt the beach at Ennis every August 1st. The Surrey Puma: First sighted in 1707, the phantom big cat is said to intervene on behalf of lone women under threat from beaters, rapists, and robbers. Legend has it the protective puma is the offspring of a murdered wise woman's familiar. The Bloody Monk of Exeter: Tortured with rocks, knives and a red hot poker, still the unfortunate Monk of St. David's on Exe refused to reveal the whereabouts of Excalibur and the Holy Grail to the evil Brothers of a rival order. As a last throw of the dice, they resorted to The Copper Bowl treatment. Still he protested the truth. If these mythical treasures were concealed about the monastery, it was news to him. The phantom monk with bloody eye sockets still puts in the occasional appearance, most often in the vicinity of Exeter station.
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