Platform 6, seen here behind the statue of a friendly traveller at Skegness railway station.
It is not just railways – there seem to be a plethora of haunted roads in Lincolnshire, which is no surprise given the number of accident black spots in the county. There was a very interesting Richard and Judy show in 1998 when their special guest was the Reverend Fanthorpe from Fortean TV. A man, Kevin Whelan, rang in clearly very shaken about an experience he had just had driving along the A15. Up ahead, just before the left turn to Ruskington, he saw some white lights. Before this incident he never believed in ghosts or the supernatural and was the first to look for a reasonable explanation, so he did not give the lights much thought, believing them to be headlights. As he drew near, however, a face suddenly appeared on the windscreen of the driver’s side, with its left hand held up. He described it as having dark hair with olive-grey skin and a pitted face, giving the whole image the semblance of a photographic negative. Kevin was understandably terrified and did well to keep the car on the road. He says the figure must have stayed with him for nearly a full minute before moving down the side of the car and fading away. After doing some research, Kevin found out that there had been a terrible motorcycle accident there in the last eighteen months, where the rider had died after losing both his legs. He wondered if it had been a warning to slow down, as he had been slightly over the speed limit.
In the same show, two other callers rang in to say they had experienced the same thing in that exact spot. The next show carried on the story, as apparently up to sixty more people had rung in with similar accounts of that same place. Some of the accounts went back ten or fifteen years, so the recent motorcycle accident was not the cause. A follow-up investigation of the area discovered a hermit used to live there and had been run over by an army lorry during the Second World War. Also, in the past highwaymen would hold up stagecoaches in this spot. So perhaps the raised hand could be seen as a cry for help, a warning or a hold-up, but Richard seemed to think it had more sinister connections, as every encounter caused a feeling of fear.
Another reportedly haunted road is the A16, near Walmsgate. Starting in the 1950s, motorists were purportedly witnessing a green glowing mist arising out of an old sandpit and then drifting across the road. Sometimes the mist took the shape of a man before it disappeared into fields on the side of the road. The area became known as Green Man Pit as the sightings became more regular.
A ghost haunted a lane in Boston, but not because of a traffic accident. The Lincolnshire Life magazine from 1998 retells the story that was current in 1912 about a miller lad and a baker boy who became friends in Boston.16 They both had cruel, hard masters and after work they would often meet up and talk about running away overseas together. One day, the miller boy was late to work and his master punished him by throwing him in the marketplace stocks, as an example to all his other workers. People in the busy marketplace jeered at him and threw rotten fruit and small stones at him, but his baker friend was in the crowd and heard his cry. He went to see him and gave him a small loaf of bread as some comfort. The miller boy was very grateful. However, the baker found out and punished the baker lad for stealing his bread. He had him hanged on a gibbet on the crossroads. When the miller boy was eventually freed, he heard about his poor friend’s demise and as a sign of their friendship, he ran away to sea as they had both dreamt about. The next spring, a robin built a nest in the jaw of the hanging baker boy’s body and began to sing. Straight away people recognised the whistle as that of the baker boy, who used to always whistle while he worked. Rumour spread that he had returned to haunt the baker for the rest of his days, and the baker became so afraid that he dared not pass by the gibbet anymore. It is said that day and night the baker could not get the sound of the bird’s whistle out of his head and he eventually lost his mind completely, and consequently all his business too. Belief in Boston is that Gibbet Lane is named after the memory of the baker boy, although his spirit rests in peace now he has found justice.
A much older ‘ghost road’ story is told by folklorists Gutch and Peacock, concerning Orgarth Hill, near Louth. The haunting was notified in the 1860s and the sighting was that of a man riding on a shaggy horse, which was said to suddenly appear out of thin air and ride alongside people until they were rightly terrified: ‘Usually it appeared to people riding or driving, who did not notice the horse and its rider, until they looked to see what had terrified their horses which stood trembling with fear until they bolted down the hill.’17
Of course, stories of phantom coach and horses are a familiar tale all around Britain, and Lincolnshire is no exception. In 1985 a lady was driving along the A169 towards Grimsby at dawn. She saw a horse-drawn cart in front of her with no lights and thought she ought to tell the driver. She overtook him but when she looked back in her mirror the cart was no longer there. There had been no turnings they could have taken; they had simply disappeared. Then there is the phantom coach at Ostlers Lane, Maidenwell, whose driver has his severed head on the seat beside him!
Codd tells of a phantom coach and four which pulls into the grounds of Cadeby Hall, near Ludborough and up the driveway – an ‘ominous vision [that] was a sign that someone in the family was going to pass away the following day’. The vision apparently appeared only in the evening and then slowly faded from view. He links this apparition to the curse a mother made on Cadeby Hall when her son went missing in the grounds. A child’s skeleton was found years later in a hollow tree.
Could this death and curse be linked to that of poor George Nelson, a sixteen-year-old boy who, in 1885, was thrown from his horse and killed close by on Barton Street? Could he be the ghost that a phantom horse reputedly throws into a ditch along this street? There is an engraved stone along the A18 to commemorate his death.
Cadeby Hall, near Ludborough. A private residence, but with a public footpath passing close by.
Along a road at Digby Fen there used to be glowing lights seen in the 1900s. The belief was that these belonged to a coach that was accidentally driven into a bog and vanished without a trace. A phantom horseman has also said to have been heard laughing along the road just before Scawby. He apparently got the blame when a local man drowned in a lake that used to be there.
Stone to commemorate sixteen-year-old George Nelson, who was killed on this spot in 1885. It can be seen by the side of the road along the A18 near Ludborough.
At Girsby, a huge ball of fire used to be seen screaming across the road where the body of a pageboy from Girsby Hall was found, skinned alive. It was supposedly his punishment for betraying some robbers who forced him to help them gain access to the hall to steal its goods. However, another version of this story18 runs that Billy Hooker was the unfortunate post boy, who had been sent on an errand to collect a parcel of money for his employer. Some robbers apparently got word of this and ambushed him on his return. They demanded the money but Billy refused, so the robbers dragged the poor lad down the hill to what became known as Billy’s Hole, where they skinned him alive, draping his skin on the hedge to dry. They ran off with the money, but when they had skinned Billy, they had left the palms of his hands intact and legend has it that this skin grew and grew, eventually re-covering the boy’s body in skin once more. The hedge never recovered, however; it has never been able to grow in the place where Billy’s skin was draped.
The Lincolnshire Life magazine reiterates another interesting ghost story involving burning.19 It is set in the eleventh century at Monksfield Farm in the Fens. It is said a monastic community lived there, but one night there was a terrible fire and the dormitory was burnt down. Every member of the community died in the fire and every year since, on the anniversary of this tragic event, the ghostly figure of a monk has apparently been seen hurrying across the farmyard with his clothes flaming. It seems that all the locals knew of this ghostly spectre and were very wary of it, but a man called Wellam took the farm over in the nineteenth century and scoffed at the superstition. The tradition had always be
en to stack the hay in the field but Wellam told the foreman, Glens, he wanted it stacked in the yard from now on. Glens warned him that it would all be burnt, as that was the path along which the flaming monk ran but Wellam didn’t believe the story and insisted. He even bet the foreman £5 that the hay would not be burnt. The anniversary came and went and in the morning Wellam found all the hay in the yard had been burnt to a crisp. At first he suspected Glens, thinking he was after his £5, but when he saw how terrified the man was he soon lost his suspicion. The next year he insisted the hay be stacked there again, and he said this time he would keep watch on the anniversary and stop anyone up to mischief, even the blazing monk. However, the next morning the farm workers found his burned and charred body in the yard. No-one ever knew what he had seen.
Lincolnshire has always been a very important centre of military aviation in this country, especially during the First and Second World Wars. In the First World War, there were thirty-seven military aerodromes and Lincolnshire was also the major centre of aircraft production. There were around one hundred RAF stations in Lincolnshire and one can only imagine the numbers of men involved in those operations. The war was a terrifying time for everyone but that fear must have been greatly increased when flying over enemy territory and having to negotiate enemy fire in the air. Of course, there were many casualties and thus many hauntings have been reported, from phantom sounds of squadrons still flying to people talking to airmen who then simply disappeared from sight. Bruce Barrymore Halpenny has written a series of books entitled Ghost Stations and he describes numerous experiences and incidents connected with the ghosts of Lincolnshire’s RAF.
The Dambusters is perhaps one of the most well-known squadrons in the Second World War, and it was formed at RAF Scampton in 1943 for the specific task of attacking three major dams in Germany. The original commander of this squadron, 617, was Guy Gibson. Guy owned a black labrador retriever who became the mascot of the squadron. Unfortunately, later that year the dog was hit by a car and died on the exact day the squadron launched for the attack on the dams.He was buried at RAF Scampton at midnight, outside the window of Guy’s office, as requested by Gibson, and the ghost of the dog is said to haunt the station still. There are stories of a black labrador appearing to guide people who are in trouble, then just disappearing. There have been numerous sightings and his story has become something of a legend. The site of his grave can still be seen and is included in the fascinating and thorough tours of the base, which can be booked by prior arrangement. Also famous as the home of the Red Arrows, the RAF aerobatic team, a tour of RAF Scampton is a must if you are in the area.
The Dambusters Memorial, Royal Square, Woodhall Spa. Another strange incident tells of a black labrador dog appearing and refusing to move when St Hugh’s School Choir were posing there for a picture. Still seen in the photograph today, the dog disappeared soon after and no one in the village or surrounding area knew whose dog it was or where it had gone.
The grave of ‘Nigger’, Guy Gibson’s black labrador dog, whose death was treated as suspicious as it occurred the night squadron 617 were to set out for the Dambusters raid. One theory was that he was murdered, to make the men think their mission would be jinxed. Guy Gibson’s office is the top-right window. Flowers and dog biscuits are placed on his grave every year on the anniversary of this date, and the biscuits are said to have always disappeared by morning!
A colourful stained-glass window in the museum on the RAF Scampton air base, depicting Guy and his dog, Nigger.
The Red Arrows at home in their hanger at the RAF base at Scampton.
The Black Bull Inn in Welton was apparently a regular pub for Guy and his squadron, and since their deaths it is said the premises are haunted. The landlord allegedly made some tape recordings of inexplicable noises – doors opening and closing and the sound of footsteps walking slowly up to the restaurant, even though no-one was there.
RAF Scampton has a few other ghosts to keep the dog company. A pilot in a life jacket has apparently been seen in the control tower at the airbase and voices have been heard talking in the crew room, even when it was empty. There is also the report of one pilot greeting Lieutenant Salter as he entered the officer’s mess, during the First World War. The officer acknowledged him and carried on his way, and it was only later the pilot discovered Salter had died that day in an air crash many miles away and could not have been in the mess at all. A Roman soldier is also said to have been seen walking across the runway.
At the former RAF base at Metheringham, the ghost of a young woman, Catherine Bystock, is said to appear. In life she was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and engaged to be married to a flight sergeant. She was only nineteen when she was involved in an accident whist riding pillion on his motorbike on the bomber base and was killed. Reports have varied; some say they have seen a girl in a RAF uniform flagging cars down and asking for help for her injured fiancé. However, no fiancé was ever found upon investigation, and when the motorists looked around the girl had vanished too – in some cases leaving behind a scent of lavender.
There are many more hauntings, ghosts, strange sightings and inexplicable occurrences in Lincolnshire’s history – too many to mention them all here, but this is a very interesting subject to research if ghosts rattle your chain.
SIX
WITCHCRAFT
AND CUNNING
Witches are not merely mythical crones on broomsticks who fly with their cats at Halloween. They were once imagined to be a major problem in society. The country was apparently overrun with them and like vermin, they were pursued and exterminated. But who were these infamous witches and where did they come from?
Unfortunately, they were usually normal women who became scapegoats during an era of ignorance and superstition, as illustrated in this chapter.
The European witch trials of the Middle Ages is not a period of history we should lightly forget. Present scholars estimate that the number of people who were executed ranges between 40,000 and 100,000, one source suggesting that more than 2,400 of these were Lincolnshire women. There is evidence that as early as 1417, a witch was tried in Sleaford for using divination to trace a thief.
Witchcraft and sorcery are age-old practices, spreading back to when our race was young. One example of this is the Code of Hammurabi, which is an ancient law-code not dissimilar to the Ten Commandments. This document, from Babylon, has been dated to 1790 BC, with 282 laws existing on clay tablets. It seems that the first two laws concern witchcraft, with frighteningly familiar – if perhaps slightly fairer – punishments:
1. If a man has accused another of laying a death spell upon him, but has not proved it, he shall be put to death.
2. If a man has accused another of laying a spell upon him, but has not proved it, the accused shall go to the sacred river, he shall plunge into the sacred river, and if the sacred river shall conquer him, he that accused him shall take possession of his house. If the sacred river shall show his innocence and he is saved, his accuser shall be put to death.
The book Malleus Maleficarum (which translates as The Hammer of Witches), subtitled Which Destroyeth Witches and their Heresy like a Most Powerful Spear, was written in fifteenth-century Germany and became one of the powerful forces behind the terrible witch hunts that followed.
In the present day we use the term ‘witch hunt’ to refer to any situation in which someone is persecuted without any concrete evidence – guilty unless proved innocent. Unfortunately, many of the witch trials focused on drawing confessions out of the accused, often through methods of torture or trickery. The witch hunts and trials of the past were spurred on by fear, propaganda, ignorance and misunderstandings.
In many cases, women accused of being witches were healers or those with knowledge of herbal remedies. Alternatively, they may have had a squint in their eye, or a hunched back. They may have angered a neighbour or aroused suspicion by displaying unusual habits or keeping pets. Midwives were common targets, because if
they could bring life into the world they might decide to take it away.
As the persecutions increased, more methods of torture for extracting confessions were developed. One such technique was the use of large boots of leather or metal into which boiling water was poured, or sometimes wedges were hammered up the length of the boot into the wearer’s legs. Thumbscrews or turcas were used to tear off fingernails. Red-hot pincers, crushing, stoning, and the cutting out of the tongue were punishments often employed, together with sleep/light/warmth deprivation and torment with pins. The Witch Finder General’s favourite, the swimming test, was amongst the tortures endured. Whilst bound, the accused were lowered into water where, if they sank and drowned they were innocent, but if they floated they would be tried as witches. A physician serving in a witch prison is said to have talked about women who were driven half mad by such techniques:
…by frequent torture…kept in prolonged squalor and darkness of their dungeons…and constantly dragged out to undergo atrocious torment until they would gladly exchange at any moment this most bitter existence for death, [they] are willing to confess whatever crimes are suggested to them rather than to be thrust back into their hideous dungeon amid ever recurring torture.’1
It is hardly surprising that so many confessions were forthcoming!
The Scottish Forfar Witch Hunts of the 1600s and the Pendle Witch Trials in 1612 are two of the most famous cases in the UK. Lincolnshire, which boasted its very own Witch Finder General, had a case almost as infamous as these; the Witches of Belvoir.
The Earl and Countess of Rutland, who resided at Belvoir Castle near Grantham, employed as servants, in 1618, Joan Flower and her daughters Margaret and Philippa. Apparently, the countess became dissatisfied with the family, claiming Margaret was pilfering items from the castle, Philippa was conducting lewd activities with her lover and Joan, the mother, was an ungodly and spiteful woman whom she no longer wished to employ. The three were not dismissed immediately but Margaret, who was the only one residing at the castle, was sent home. It seems that it was this action that moved Joan Flower to exact revenge, in the form of cursing the countess’ eldest son, Henry. Henry became sick and died shortly afterwards, whilst his younger brother Francis also became ill. Katherine, his half-sister, suffered sudden fits and this ‘overwhelming evidence’ resulted in the arrest of Joan Flower and her daughters, who were taken to Lincoln Prison.
Folklore of Lincolnshire Page 12
