Testing the Legend
By Marie Brompton The Legend of Chambercombe Manor, near Ilfracombe in North Devon revolves around a secret room that was allegedly discovered around 1865. One version of the story is that a farmer living at Chambercombe in 1865 was carrying out some repairs to the then thatched roof when he found the outline of a...
The Royalist Devil of Woodstock
From Woodstock Manor House comes the tale of the “Royalist Devil of Woodstock”, whether the spirit was the devil or an ingenious follower of the King, it disturbed the Parliamentarians so much, they refused to occupy the building again. Formerly Woodstock Palace, Woodstock Manor House was visited by Cromwell’s commissioners on 13th October 1649, with...
The Hooded Ones
Is Britain not the land of the Ghosts of White Ladies and Black Monks? For many years the alleged ghosts of Black Monks have appeared to scared motorists and spooked tourists in our countryside. The monks have been seen in grey, white or black, when more than one is seen they tend to be in...
The Miner and the Ghost
“This silent spot tradition old, Had peopled with the spectral dead.” PALEY has happily described the richly developed limestone mountains as the gorgeous relics of the happiness of past ages; ” in allusion, it must be supposed, to his marine formation, containing such endless remains of organic life. In the dells of Stoney Middleton and...
A fight with a ghost!
James Durham’s story has never been under question even though his story pushes the boundaries of belief. Durham gave a witness statement to Rev Harry Kendal, a Congregational Minister in the late 19th century, at Darlington. The statement said that James Durham was a night-watchman at the Old Darlington and Stockton Station, dated 9th December,...
The Wraith of Haughton Castle
Haughton Castle sits on the banks of the North Tyne and is a well-known area for fine trout fishing. The castle bears over the neighbouring village of Barrasford and is an impressive building. The castle, similar in design to the fourteenth century tower built at Chillingham, is inhabited and parts of the castle are have...
Lancashire Family Hauntings
Discovering the ghosts of the Wall, Southworth, Osbaldeston and Norris families. The Walls of Chingle Hall Just off the Goosnargh to Whittingham Lane, is one of the most haunted and wrote about houses in Lancashire, Chingle Hall. A cross-shaped house, it was built by the de Singletons about 1260, surrounded by a moat and approached...
Demon Spirits at a Haunted Pub
The lager is chilled at the Kings Arms… and so are the couple who run it. Peter and Dawn McCulloch thought they had landed the perfect job when they took over the Lake District pub. But they didn’t know they had inherited one of Britain’s most haunted inns – and that their dream would turn...
The Spectre of Whittington Heath
By Anne Bradford and Barrie Roberts The Illustrated Police News was a late 19th Century tabloid. Like its modern descendants it dealt with crimes, disasters and society scandals, but it did not possess their sexual freedom. Instead it developed the dramatic possibilities of monsters and strange animals, filling its pages with gorillas, sea serpents, giant...
The Ghost Bus of Ladbroke Grove
In the middle of the 1930s a large red London Bus, bearing a “7″ route number harassed motorists in the North Kensington area of London. The Junction of St Mark’s Road and Cambridge Gardens in that area had long been considered a dangerous corner – it was “blind” from both roads and had been the...
The Phantom Cannons of Humberside
Occasionally the Mystery Magazine Editors find strange articles or incidents buried within old literature. During one of many visits to the Bradford Central Library we came across the following passage in the “Yorkshire Folklore Journal Vol.1″. As Charles Fort wrote about the Guns of Barisal, a series of incidents during the 1890’s that were thought...
Blenkinsopp Castle’s Ghost
Like almost all the old Northumbrian castles and peels, Blenkinsopp has the reputation of being haunted. A gloomy vault under the castle is said to have buried in it a large chest of gold, hidden in the troublous times: some say by a lady whose spirit cannot rest so long as it is there, and...
