John Janaway - Ghosts of Surrey

[dem bones]

John Janaway - Ghosts of Surrey (Countryside Books, 1991)

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Whistling in the Dark
Death on a Train
The Ghost of Ganghill
Two Sisters of Tadworth Court
The Death of Percy Lambert
Merry Hall
The Secret of Welcombe's Farm
The Camera cannot Lie
An Incident at Hindhead
The Mystery of Haroldslea
The Haunting of Wotton House
Mirror, Mirror ...
The Prisoner
The Moodiwarp
Soapy Sam
Take Me Home
The Man with the Three Cornered Hat
Poltergeist at the Percy Arms
A Tsar in Surrey
Vengeance at Pitt Place

Blurb:
If you think there is an easy answer to the strange events in John Janawav's account of Surrey ghosts and hauntings. Discover how like-minded people through the centuries have been convinced by sightings and happenings too curious for rational explanation.

Was it a mother's intuition that revealed the whereabouts of her murdered son, or a supernatural phenomenon? Why should evil and terror haunt a seemingly ordinary house in Merrow? Meet the ghost of Percy Lambert, clad in racing cap and goggles, as he was on the day of his fatal crash at Brooklands. Discover the facts behind the legendary haunting of Tadworth Court and experience a hitchhiker's rendezvous with death at the Devil's Punchbowl in a phantom black car. John Janaway recreates these and other ghostly encounters, revealing first hand evidence in Ghosts of Surrey.

Senior Local Studies Librarian for Surrey, John Janaway has a considerable knowledge of his County's history and is the author of several books including Surrey Murders.

More stories of mild terror from the same publisher brought us Betty Puttrick's Ghosts of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

Whistling in the Dark: The Townsend's dream move from South London to Godstone is soured by the phantom tread of heavy boots on the path and an unseen whistler in the garden of their new home. Local records suggest the ghost is that of Jim, a cowman who drowned in the well, losing the treasured crucifix from around his neck in the process. John Townsend retrieves the ikon, leaves it on the grass for the grateful ghost to collect.

Death on a Train: "Whichever of us dies first must promise to appear to the other at the moment of their death. It has been several decades since the two public schoolboys vowed their blood pact, and they've long fallen out of contact, the one remaining in England to follow a career in law, the other joining the Indian army. One night the soldier's phantom appears to his old chum in the car park of the Whitsheaf Inn, Virginia Waters. The barrister remotely witnesses his schoolfriend's murder.

The Ghost of Ganghill: Finches Rise, Merrow, 1977. Did the restless spirits of a highwayman and two thieves gibbeted in 1776 set loose an elemental on the Fairweather family during the Queen's silver jubilee?

Two Sisters of Tadworth Court: An 18th century mansion on the outskirts of Banstead houses the 'haunted' painting of an attractive young woman stood among fruit trees, blind to the sinister face watching from between the branches. Fanciful family legend has it the foremost figure is that of a girl pushed down a flight of stairs and killed by her sister over love of the same man. Horrified at what she'd done, the murderess climbed onto the roof and threw herself off.

Thanks, Sam!

[dem bones]

The Death of Percy Lambert: A ghost in racing helmet and goggles haunts the site of the former Brooklands Motor circuit. In October 1913, Percy Lambert, 23, the first man to drive 100 miles inside an hour, was killed when a burst tyre sent his vehicle tumbling pell-mell down an embankment.

Merry Hall: Alleged ghost claimed to be that of Mr. J. C. Masterton whose horse, Ilex, won the 1893 Grand National. Alas, the joy and excitement of the triumph put too great a strain on a weak heart. Author suggest that, as with many a 'true' ghost story, the details don't bear scrutiny.

The Secret of Welcombe's Farm: The Rev. Toombe's wife grows increasingly anxious for the safety of her missing son. Nightly she dreams of Eric dead at the bottom of a disused well. To add to her concerns, the young man's shady business partner, Ernest Dyer, has been AWOL since the insurance company refused to pay out on a suspicious fire at their joint investment, Welcombe farm ...

The Camera cannot Lie: Boyles Farm, Thames Ditton, Oct. 1962. Historian T. S. Mercer's photograph of a mural painted by an artistic nun captures a white and wispy image that ought not be there.

An Incident at Hindhead: Caught in a rainstorm near Devil's Punchbowl, Robin Brown, a scavenger of rubbish tips in search of Victorian bottles, thumbed down a passing '30s Vauxhall on a deserted stretch of road. On realisation that taciturn driver and two mutilated passengers are no longer of this world, a terrified Robin threw himself from the car, sustaining a broken leg and gory head wound in process.

The Mystery of Haroldslea: November 11, 1938. The annual tolling of the phantom death knell is this year accompanied by the tramp of a marching spectral army ....

[dem bones]

Quite jarring coming to this off the back of Alan Roberts' Nightmare on Your street: More Grisly Trails and Ghostly Tales. In keeping with Betty Puttrick books in this series, Janaway's ghosts are on the sedate side.

The Haunting of Wotton House: A dwarf in hairy brown tweed jacket carrying fishing tackle; phantom footsteps in the corridor; and an "evil presence" in the panelled room beside the porter's office.

Mirror, Mirror ...: Angel Hotel, Guildford, January 1970. A mirror in the Prince Imperial of France room reflects a man in military uniform when the only two people present are guests Mr & Mrs. Dell. The ghost eventually fades to nothing, but not before Mr. Dell has sketched his likeness.

The Prisoner: Probably as close as Ghosts of Surrey gets to a splatterpunk interlude. During the 1930's, following a series of disturbances at their home, Ash Manor, a 14th century timber mansion on the Hampshire border, the Kelly's contacted a medium who duly conducted a séance. The ghost, it transpired, had been chained up in the cellar several centuries ago, having first had his tongue mutilated to prevent eerie groans(am sure I've read a very different account of this haunting). Ash Manor saw a second tragedy soon after the séance when Mr. Maurice Kelly ended his own life with cyanide.

[Swampirella]

You may call them "sedate" but there are enough interesting tales to get me to buy a copy, despite already having "Haunted Surrey" by Rupert Matthews. I've been waiting to read a little bit more about the stories, but today's post has done it. Thanks!

[dem bones]

Nov 25, 2022 12:39:10 GMT Swampirella said:

You may call them "sedate" but there are enough interesting tales to get me to buy a copy, despite already having "Haunted Surrey" by Rupert Matthews. I've been waiting to read a little bit more about the stories, but today's post has done it. Thanks!

Hi Swampi. I had you in mind with that 'Grisly Trails ...' comparison, as I know you're a fan of Alan Roberts' books. John Janaway's ghosts don't seem to go in for any of that gouging their own eyes out attention seeking. What's the Rupert Murray book like?

[Swampirella]

Nov 25, 2022 17:45:37 GMT dem bones said:

Nov 25, 2022 12:39:10 GMT Swampirella said:

You may call them "sedate" but there are enough interesting tales to get me to buy a copy, despite already having "Haunted Surrey" by Rupert Matthews. I've been waiting to read a little bit more about the stories, but today's post has done it. Thanks!

Hi Swampi. I had you in mind with that 'Grisly Trails ...' comparison, as I know you're a fan of Alan Roberts' books. John Janaway's ghosts don't seem to go in for any of that gouging their own eyes out attention seeking. What's the Rupert Murray book like?

It has a some of the same stories, but probably not in as much detail. It's been awhile since I read it, but the whole "Haunted....." series is good. Lots of photos (perhaps a few too many & not enough text) 95 pages, with chapters on "The Thames Valley", "The Heathland" "The Downs" "Guildford" and "The Weald".

[dem bones]

Nov 25, 2022 17:45:37 GMT dem bones said:

What's the Rupert Murray book like?

Goddamit, Rupert MATTHEWS.

The Moodiwarp: Reigate during the 1950s. David accompanies his mum on a stopover at a widowed friend's flat above a shop. Hostess Marjorie puts him up in a box room for the night, where a big dark furry something attempts to join him beneath the sheets.

Soapy Sam: Two stories ghost stories relating to Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. First concerns a visit to Surrey [location unrecorded] during the 1840s, during the course of which he obliged a phantom monk by taking a sheaf of papers and burning them in a grate. Second features the Bishop's own ghost. At the exact moment he was thrown from his horse while riding with Lord Granville in 1873, a mournful Wilberforce appeared before a party of four witnesses at Wotton House.

Take Me Home: It were a wet, gloomy Saturday night in 1947 when a motorist took pity on a girl standing by the roadside at Tartar Hill. She climbed in the back without a word, and remained mute until, approaching Cobham, the car packed up beside the graveyard on Church Street. Saying nothing, the girl pulled the driver's coat above her head and headed in the direction of a house. When next he travelled the route, the motorist called to ask for his coat back. Fans of magical death disc, The Sweater (Strange Things Happen), will know the rest.

[dem bones]

Lord Lyttleton and the phantom of doom

Perhaps I was a little hasty in declaring this book a gore-free zone.

"The three men working the trolley had been blown to apart. Portions of one of them were found in a meadow 150 yards away. The mangled trunk of another lay by the side of a blast protection wall while the third victim was discovered in various places. His body had fallen on the tramline, one leg was elsewhere, and one arm was a quarter of a mile away."

The Man with the Three Cornered Hat: Did the author's mum meet the ghost of Major Peter Labellierre, the eighteenth century philanthropist, at Box Hill, Dorking, during a thunderstorm? And why did the Major insist upon an upside down burial at the spot where his eye was gouged out by a twig?

Poltergeist at the Percy Arms: The cabaret at Mrs. Telstar's Chilworth village pub comes courtesy of a glass smashing, stool juggling, door slammer unseen. Could it have some a connection with the explosion of 1910 which cost six mill-workers their lives?

A Tsar in Surrey: Author's own minor supernatural experience while drinking with friend in the King's Head Royal Hotel, Godalming. Did the ghost of Peter the Great spill his pint?

Vengeance at Pitt Place: On the night of 25th November 1779, Lord Lyttleton, 35, was awoken by the ghost of Mrs. Amphlett, the outraged mother of three daughters he'd seduced and ruined, who informed him he would be dead within three days. Lyttleton laughed off the incident as a bad dream, spent the third night partying in Epsom. But as the clock struck eleven ....