by Tony Walker
Cumbrian Ghost Stories
Weird Tales from an Old Land
Tony Walker
White Rabbit Press
Copyright © 2019 by Tony Walker
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Introduction
1. A West Cumbrian Coal Mine
2. The Woman of Wasdale
3. The Crier of Claife
4. The Little Man of Carlisle
5. The Hitcher
6. The Highest Inn in England
7. The Bewcastle Fairies
8. The Croglin Vampire
9. The Fortuneteller's Fate
10. Fiends Fell
11. An Old School Revenant
12. The Orphan of Cartmel
13. The Demon Clock of Mosedale
14. A Grizedale Wedding
15. The Derwentwater Haunting
16. The Mallerstang Boggle
Introduction
This is a collection of sixteen short stories in different styles and set in different time periods set in the modern county of Cumbria, though the stories acknowledge that once what is Cumbria was Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire North of the Sands and parts of North Yorkshire.
Some are traditional ghost stories, a some are more horror stories of the kind I used to read in the caravan at Allonby on school holidays. These would be The Demon Clock of Mosedale, The Fortuneteller’s Fate and The Highest Inn in England.
As the collection grew, I began to become interested in using old stories for inspiration. The Little Man of Carlisle, the Bewcastle Fairies and the Mallerstang Boggle are based on actual legends, though I have made them into pieces of fiction that bear little resemblance now.
The Grizedale Wedding is a longer piece which is probably inspired by Angela Carter and The Company of Wolves.
I have tried to cover most of the county, but have left out some places inevitably. I was saying to my partner that I had been to every village in Cumbria but then I went to Little Urswick and the next day to Hethersgill, which I’d never been to before, so there is still more to explore.
The Beast of Barrow and The Devil’s Visit to Kirkby Lonsdale are at the planning stage!
I suppose my influences are mainly three: classic M R James type ghost stories, H P Lovecraft style weird tales and Folk Horror.
I hope that both local Cumbrians and visitors will enjoy the stories and be able to link them to places they know and have visited.
Tony Walker
Maryport
September 2019
1
A West Cumbrian Coal Mine
John Bragg was a coal-miner. He was a friend of my grandfather William Fell. In the early 1960s, they worked at various pits around the West Cumberland coalfield, moving from one to another as they were closed down. There was a particular pit that he worked at near a village called Siddick on the coast. They’ve landscaped the area now and there’s no trace that there was ever a mine there.
Miners are traditionally superstitious men. Their lives hang on a thread when they are underground. There are so many ways they can die — by earth as the rock collapses on them, by fire as a spark from their picks ignites the invisible fire-damp gas, by water as the sea breaks in and floods the galleries that run miles out under the sea, and finally by air - as the dreadful sucking gas known as choke-damp steals all their oxygen.
Some men would refrain from washing their whole back as they sat in the tin baths in front of the fire when they came home from work. They said that if your whole back got washed, that was inviting it to get broken — as if the bath water would wash its strength away so you couldn’t withstand the falling rock.
They were all superstitious but John Bragg had a reputation for being the worst. He always took a scrap of blue silk with him when he went down the pit. It had belonged to his fiancée — Dorothy. They were due to get married but the Asian ‘Flu took Dorothy. That was years ago, but he wanted no one else. The men he worked with were hard men, and they didn’t tolerate weakness in others, but they never mocked John for his bit of silk. They knew how her death had affected him and they knew that even beyond the grave, he still loved her.
There was one gallery deep down in the mine that had a reputation for being haunted: The Lady’s Gallery. I suppose that during it being worked men must have died down there but oddly, the reports of the ghost, such as they were, never referred to men. It wasn’t dead miners that haunted the gallery but something different. Something that shouldn’t ever be down a mine at all.
People used to avoid going down there unless they had a specific job. It was off the main thoroughfare — the long tunnel that they took on their way to the coalface way out under the sea. Even though it was out of the way, the Lady’s Gallery was a handy place to store things - things like wheels for the bogeys that transported the coal or bricks for building walls or any other structures that they might need underground and general odds and ends that kept the mine ticking. My grand-dad said that what scared the people who went to the Lady’s Gallery were the odd noises. They said that the worst was the sound of rustling silk — as if someone was rubbing the material between their fingers: always behind you and always in the dark. As if it was standing there in the shadows, just outside where the light reached. As if it was watching you.
Most of the time the thing in the Lady’s Gallery was forgotten about. There was a job to do - the coal had to be hewn, and the sea kept out. However, there was an upsurge in interest in the story after one miner reported hearing it when he went to the Lady’s Gallery. This man had a reputation as a bit of a clown and so no one took the story seriously. They thought it was just him trying to get some attention. No one took it seriously that is apart from John Bragg. The story of The Lady’s Gallery seemed to obsess him. People didn’t like to ask him why he was always talking about the story, because he seemed so eager and strange about it.
One time, my grandfather did ask him. He felt he knew him well enough to pull his leg about his fixation on the place, after all they had been boys together. But when William Fell asked him why he seemed able to think of nothing else, John Bragg just smiled a strange smile and said, “I know who it is.”
“Who what is?” said William.
“Who it is that rustles the silk.”
My grandfather half guessed, but asked anyway. “And who is it?”
John pulled the scrap of blue silk from his pocket where he always kept it and rubbed it between his fingers. “It’s her; it’s my Dorothy.”
William thought he was half mad and changed the subject.
Then the next day, John tried to persuade him to go to The Lady’s Gallery when they had finished their shift.
William said, “When I’m finished in the pit, I’m going home. I spend too many hours in the dark as it is.”
John tried to persuade him. “If we just waited there, I’m sure we’d hear it.”
“If we miss the end of our shift, we might have to wait a long time for the cage to come back below. I’d hate them to forget about us down here.” He tried to force some humour, despite how uneasy he felt at seeing John’s frantic, eager eyes.
John said, “But she’s come here for me. I can’t ignore her.”
“Ignore who?” said my grandfather, exasperated.
“Dorothy. She’s come here to talk to me.”
My grandfather looked at him in silence. Could John really believe that his dead bride had returned from grave to me
et him in the inky blackness of a coal mine, away from the bustle of the work, in a place so silent itself that the only sounds were men working miles away or the dripping of water from the roof?
“You can’t be serious.” he said finally.
John nodded. “I know in my heart, Bill. She comes and whispers to me at night; she tells me to come and meet her down there.” And then he looked embarrassed as if he’d just disclosed a terrible personal secret. All his hope was in his eyes — the hope of a man that death had cheated of love.
William felt sorry for him. He wanted to help him but he knew that this was insane. Later, he said the most unnerving thing about it was that John was so serious; he truly believed that some dead woman was calling to meet her in that place without light, deep underground.
William shook his head. “I’m sorry John, but I won’t do it. It’s not good for you to dwell on this.”
Two weeks passed and then it so happened that William’s son was ill. John Bragg should have been off work that day, but he volunteered to do an extra shift to cover William so that William could take his son for medical treatment. William knew he owed John a favour after that but he was wary about what he would ask him to do. At first John asked him nothing. Then, in a few days, when they were getting ready to go underground, John said, “I still want to go to the Lady’s Gallery; will you come?”
William felt like saying that if John was so sure that it was Dorothy, why didn’t he go on his own? But he couldn’t leave the poor sick man to do that. He knew he should go with him to make sure he was all right and to bring him back up to the light when it was proved that it was just his imagination — that Dorothy was dead like everyone else who’d passed away. For if William knew anything, it was that the dead do not return.
John asked again. “Please Bill. It would mean a lot to me.’ He continued quietly, ‘And you do owe me a favour.”
William sighed and turned back to his gear, making sure everything was working and safe. But John persisted. “Will you come with me tomorrow, Bill? After we finish?”
William felt he had no alternative. “I will,” he said, “but I can’t see any good coming of it.”
When William went back home that night and told his wife that he would be late the next day and why, she told him that John Bragg was a fool and that he was a bigger fool for agreeing to go with him. She said, “I know it’s sad that Dorothy died, but it’s not healthy that he dwells on it. And you shouldn’t be encouraging him by going there with him.”
William groaned. “But I owe him a favour. He swapped shifts with me.”
She said, “Your sense of honour will get you in trouble one day, William Fell.”
So they went to work the next day, William and John and all the other miners. John was in high spirits. People commented on it as he worked. “You’d think he’d won the Derby,” said one. “Either that, or he’s got a woman lined up,” said another. William kept quiet. He knew why John was so happy — he thought he was going to meet his dead love.
At the end of the long shift, they hung back as the rest of the men made their way along the tunnels, walking the three miles back to the elevators that would take them up to the surface. William had a strong sense of foreboding. They walked down the tunnel. It was so low in some places so they had to stoop to avoid banging their heads. In this tunnel, there was a long electric cable tacked on the ceiling from which dangled electric light bulbs. The rooms that lay off the main tunnel, such as the Lady’s Gallery, were not lit. The only light in those rooms days came when the miners entered and shone the battery-powered headlamps that they fastened to their hard hats, and the batteries only had a limited life. Enough to last through a shift and then a bit more. That was another reason that William was not keen to linger too long in the Lady’s Gallery; he feared his light would die and then they would be in the impossible dark, a blackness so complete it was as if someone had snuffed the world out.
They were a long way behind the others now. And as they got closer to the Lady’s Gallery, even John became quiet, as if his excitement had turned to apprehension. And finally, they stopped by the dark entrance to the man-made cave. “Here,” said John.
“Aye,” said William, “here.” William saw his lamp flicker. “We need to be mindful of the life left in these batteries,” he said. “We can’t be here too long.”
John turned to William, as if nervous, and said, “You have to wait with me, Bill. You promised.”
They entered the Lady’s Gallery and William sat himself down on a box that lay in the middle of the cavern. John just stood there.
“What now?” said William.
John shrugged. “Maybe we should switch off the lights? Maybe that will encourage her? She always was shy.”
“Do you have any other form of light?” asked William.
John shook his head.
William grunted. “Luckily, I brought a candle and some matches. They’re in my pack.”
William started to search in his pack, while John sat on a big coil of rope. He looked expectantly into the dark tunnels that led off the Gallery. William got out his candle and his matches and set them to the side. He also had a flask of water which he sipped from then handed to John. John smiled and took it. Handing it back, he said, “She will come, you know. She loves me. She told me last night.”
William regarded him with a sense of pity but also of fear because the man was clearly mad; what if she, Dorothy, it — a revenant — did come? He tried to distract himself. Beside the candles he placed an old-fashioned pocket watch. Old-fashioned but it still told the time well. William gave their enterprise one hour, and then he was going for the cage.
He felt the weariness in his muscles after his hard physical labour and although his box was not a bed, and it was far from comfortable, as the silent minutes counted themselves round the watch face, he found his concentration fading and his head drooping and his eyes closing.
Then he heard it.
Something fluttering out of sight in the dark tunnel. William snapped awake, “What was that?” But he knew it was the sound of rubbing silk. He spun round to check John was still there.
John was standing up, a look of pure joy on his face. “It’s her. I knew she’d come.”
“Did you make that noise?” asked William.
“No, Bill. I told you. It’s Dorothy.”
William looked around him. The light in his headlamp battery was fading, and it hardly illuminated the Gallery at all. There was a silence, then he heard it again. The sound was coming just out the light - from one of the darker tunnels that lay beyond the Lady’s Gallery. William stood up. He shouted, “Is there anyone there? Show yourself! Give up with your silly games!”
There was no reply.
John was smiling. “I just want her to show herself. Come on Dorothy. It’s me John. Don’t be shy.”
William noticed that John’s light too was faint.
“I’m going to light the candle,” he said. He scrabbled with the match because his hands were shaking so much. But then he succeeded and the flickering yellow flame caught and grew. “Come on John. Let’s go. This is just someone playing a trick.”
“No, Bill. It’s Dorothy.” And John called again into the darkness, calling for his shy love to show her face.
William put his hand on John’s shoulder. “John,” he said. “I’m as brave as any man but this is getting the better of me. Let’s make our way back to the main tunnel and then to the cage.”
John shook his hand off. The sound of rustling silk came again. This time it was distinct. It was coming from the darkness in the tunnel that led away from the main workings of the mine.
“See, she’s there,” said John. He was pointing down the tunnel. “I saw a shape. Something moved.”
“Your eyes are tricking you. Or it’s someone playing a joke on us.” But William knew none of his mates would have had the patience to wait for so long in a pitch-black tunnel. It was a lot more sinister than a joke
.
“No, she’s down there,” said John. “Maybe she’s too shy to come out and see me with you here.”
“I’m not leaving you on your own.”
“I’ll be all right Bill. It’s Dorothy. She loves me.”
William felt fear rise in him and he struggled to keep it down. Then John’s helmet lamp flickered and died. The diminution of the light brought the shadows crowding in on them. The darkness danced and moved as the single candle flame quavered in the faint drafts.
“What if it’s not Dorothy, John? What if it’s something else?” said William.
John shook his head. “Of course, it’s Dorothy. Who else could it be? The silk is the sign. It’s her a sign that she’s coming for me.”
Then William’s head light died as well, and all it left them with was the light of the candle. He had some matches to re-light it, if the draft blew it out, but not many.
The darkness came very close and as if with that weakening of light; the sound came again, this time more insistent, closer and louder. Whereas before it had come and then was quiet, this time it was a frantic rustling. It no longer sounded like a woman’s dress, but like something quite different - something wicked and old.
William took John’s arm. “Come on. I don’t mind admitting that this is unnerving me. Let’s go now.”
John shook himself free, angry now - annoyed at William’s attempt to keep him from meeting this dead thing that stood, just out of sight in the annihilating blackness of the tunnel.
Without warning, he turned and ran into the dark. Down into the tunnel where the sound was; where whatever it was waiting for him.
And even William’s courage failed. He could barely stay where he was. Every nerve urged him to turn and run, but he couldn’t leave John in the dark. He shouted down the tunnel. He shouted for John to come back but his voice echoed unanswered down the black and vacant tunnels that stretched down into the centre of the earth, perhaps all the way to hell itself.
