Ghosts at Christmas

by Darren W. Ritson

  He ran as fast as he could towards the car and, as he approached it from the rear, he could see that there were two seriously injured people in the front seat. He dashed around the front to see if they were still alive but both were slumped forwards and obviously dead. He took hold of the man in the driving seat and sat him back to make sure that he was deceased. He then turned his attention to the woman in the passenger seat. As he looked closely at her, he was horrified to see that she was the very same woman who had just flagged him down from the roadside moments earlier.

  He then heard a faint cry coming from the back of the car and when he looked closer he saw a young baby under the debris. The baby had survived the crash.

  The ghost of the recently killed mother, it seems, was still looking after her child – even in death.

  This is not the first account of a ghost coming back from the dead to rescue somebody. A similar occurrence happened on the A1 motorway between Morpeth and Berwick-upon-Tweed when the ghost of a back-packer returned from beyond the grave to save the victim of a car crash, a crash that the ghost had inadvertently caused.

  THE COWLED MONK OF ST PETER’S, HEREFORD

  On 23 December 1926 two policemen were on foot patrol near St Peter’s Church in Hereford when they both saw something that frightened them half to death. As they were strolling past the church gate they happened to glance inside towards the church door and see a ‘strange, hooded figure dressed in a black cloak’. He drifted silently past the iron railings on the outskirts of the church grounds and disappeared from view.

  The two policemen decided to investigate further, just in case it was a burglar, and ventured inside the church grounds. They soon caught sight of the hooded figure once more, but were horrified to then see it drift straight through some locked iron gates and float off towards the porch of the church. Before the two bobbies could react, the figure then floated straight through the locked doors of the church and disappeared from view altogether.

  The policemen’s account of the ghost of St Peter’s spread through Hereford quickly and it was not long before others ventured forth and relayed their own ghost stories; the policemen’s encounter was not the first time the hooded figure had been seen. The father of a former organist at the church admitted that he too, had seen the ghost. He had seen the black hooded figure on a few occasions and on one of those occasions it had floated through the same wooden door. He pointed out that it was always seen in late December too, as that was when he had his sightings of the phantom.

  Some folk came forward with ‘identities’ for the hooded spectre. Some said it was Walter de Lacy, who had fallen from the church tower back in the thirteenth century. Others suggested it may be the ghost of a monk who had allegedly been murdered at the altar. The organist’s father claimed to have seen the monk inside the church, again in December.

  After a while, the ghost story dissipated and the spectre was seen no more … until eight years later, when he made his appearance again. Several locals had claimed to see the figure around first light, when they were passing the church while on their way to work.

  This spate of new ghost sightings brought pandemonium to the town when hundreds of would-be ghost hunters arrived at the churchyard in an effort to see the hooded phantom. On one occasion 200 people turned up in the hope of seeing the ghost. The authorities decided that enough was enough and so, in an effort to quell the unwanted attention, they declared that a joker had been caught in the act ‘faking the ghost’– it worked. The crowds stopped their vigils and life returned to normal in the village. However, the ghost was not the result of a joker and more sightings occurred … always in December.

  To this day the ghost of St Peter’s in Hereford is still said to be seen floating up the path and through the church doors, just like he always has. It seems to me that the ghost of St Peter’s is nothing more that a residual ghost of a former monk or man of the cloth that has simply trodden this path many times when he was alive and continues to do so many years after he died. But why does he haunt so close to Christmas time? One can only wonder.

  A MURDERED WOMAN IN WHITE

  On 20 December 1934 an electrician made his way to work; it was a day at work he would never forget. The Lancashire Evening Post, dated 2 January 1935, reported that the tradesman in question was heading to a property on New Hall Lane, in Preston, Lancashire. He was sent there by his boss to rewire the entire property before new tenants moved in. He got to work early in the morning and was there until the sun went down; it was a good, hard day’s work.

  Nearing the end of his shift, he entered one of the rooms on the first floor of the building when suddenly he felt ‘strange’. An odd silence fell across the room which rattled him somewhat. Suddenly he felt that he was not alone. As he turned around to see if anyone was there with him, he was astonished to see a woman rise slowly out of the floor next to the door, who he described as rather tall, wearing a satin shroud and having black hair. What was most harrowing about her, however, was her large, piercing eyes. He dropped his tools and ran past her, down the stairs and out of the property. He never returned for his tools.

  The owner of the property subsequently allowed four local men (including) a reporter from the Lancashire Evening Post) to spend the night at the ‘haunted house’ to see if they could see the ghost. Two of the others were ‘psychic investigators’ and the other was a medium. The medium claimed, upon entering the building, that she could see a woman with black hair. She said she was forty-two years old and went by the name of Margaret. Although the other investigators could not see the same woman as the medium, they did observe a rather strange white mist which had appeared in the corner of the room.

  As it turned out, back in 1905 the building was owned by a butcher and his wife. The wife, it seems, had succumbed to the demon drink and had had a great stash of gin hidden away in a cupboard. The butcher became more upset at his wife’s behaviour as each day she drank more and more. One day, much to his horror, he discovered that she was having an illicit affair with a local chap and was so angry that he promptly murdered her. It was this woman who locals believed had shown herself to the electrician.

  THE EMLYN ARMS POLTERGEIST, SOUTH WALES

  The Emlyn Arms Hotel is a wonderful little eighteenth-century inn located in the Carmarthenshire village of Llanarthney. It is a quiet little village pub where one can get good pub food and a fine pint of bitter in quiet and peaceful surroundings. However, back in 1909, during Christmas week, the inn was disturbed by a series of bewildering paranormal occurrences which have never been forgotten. The fact that it made many national and local newspapers also helped ‘the haunting of the Emlyn Arms’ to become a well known case.

  The inn owner at the time, Mrs Meredith, had stayed behind while her husband went away for a week’s holiday. It was during this week that the poltergeist struck. While tending to some of her cattle (which she kept at a nearby small property), she was mysteriously pelted by bricks and stones. The stones, which came from ‘nowhere’, bounced off the ground close to where she was walking and she was almost struck by them. Had theyhit her, serious injury would surely have occurred. She put the stone-throwing down to ‘up to no good’ local youngsters and made her way back to the inn.

  Later that evening, a young teenage servant girl was in her room when a thundering series of knocks were beaten upon her door. Thinking that someone was there, she ventured over to the door and opened it, but found that there was no one around. As she peered around the corner she was shocked to see that a candlestick that had been placed on a shelf along the corridor was hurtling towards her. She moved out of the way and the candlestick narrowly missed her head. Upon checking the area to see if anyone was there, she again found no one. This, by all accounts, was the start of the paranormal incidences within the walls of the Emlyn Arms.

  A neighbour going by the name of Mrs Jenkins was walking past the property one night on her way home when she heard tremendously loud screaming coming from within. She
and her niece, made their way over to the pub to see what was happening and, upon entering the inn, saw many household objects flying around of their own accord. She contacted her husband, who was the village policeman, and he arrived some time later to lend his assistance. He was a no-nonsense type of chap and so ventured forth straight into the now empty pub to apprehend the intruder responsible for the commotion. He admitted he could feel an ‘eerie presence’, but ventured into the house nonetheless.

  The policeman heard the sound of padding feet shuffling across the upper landing and so made his way upstairs to see who it was. Being sure he would catch the burglar in the act, he pounced round the corner – to find no one there. As he did so, he was attacked by an invisible assailant who threw glass bottles at him. The bottles smashed around him yet he could see no one actually throwing them.

  Still convinced there was a burglar in the house, he made his way into the bedroom and looked under the bed. He found no one there. Suddenly, a vase came from nowhere and smashed right next to his head. By now half the village had gathered downstairs in the living area. They were all dumbstruck to see household objects being moved around and thrown about without any human assistance. It was a truly spectacular sight.

  Mrs Meredith and the rest of the inn’s residents had now decided that enough was enough and left the pub to stay with friends. The next day they all returned to the inn, whereupon the strange activity began once more. PC Jenkins, assisted by the villagers, formed a tight circle (like a cordon) around the inn to stop any intruder from escaping. However, no one was captured – for the simple reason that there was no one inside the inn causing the mayhem. PC Jenkins, and everyone else for that matter, was forced to conclude that the strange events at the Emlyn Arms were down to ‘unexplained means’.

  Not long after Christmas 1909, the disturbances that had plagued the pub for a week, ceased just as abruptly as it had begun.

  three

  CHRISTMAS INVESTIGATIONS

  The following chapter contains previously unpublished investigation reports from the personal files of the author Darren W. Ritson.

  A NOT SO SILENT NIGHT: DOXFORD HOUSE CHRISTMAS INVESTIGATIONS 2008 – PART ONE

  Doxford House is a magnificent privately owned stately home in the Silksworth area of Sunderland and on Saturday, 1 December 2008 it belonged to GHOST (Ghost and Hauntings Overnight Surveillance Team). Situated on land known as ‘Silksworth manorial lands’, which was once owned by a family named Robinson, Doxford House is a spectacular eighteenth-century mansion built by William Johnson between 1775 and 1780. It is said that the land it was built on was separated from Silksworth manorial lands’ main estate sometime before the 1600s and, more interestingly, a medieval chapel is said to lie under the ground at the side of this beautiful mansion.

  A Mr H. Hopper of Durham acquired the house after William Johnson’s death in 1792; he was the family lawyer and a good friend of William Johnson. Mr Hopper subsequently left it to his nephew, Thomas Hopper. His daughter, Pricilla Marie Hopper, married General Charles Beckwith and moved into the house. It was at this time that the front entrance to the house was constructed and adorned with the Beckwith coat of arms. It is a magnificent piece of stonemasonry that can still be seen to this day. In 1890, the Beckwith family moved to Shropshire and the estate was leased to a man named John Craven. When he died in 1902, a lease was taken up for the house by a man called Charles Doxford, who laid out the gardens and the lake before the First World War. He was a wealthy shipbuilder at that time and certainly had the money, and time, to do this. It was his daughter, Aline Doxford, who lived at the house after Charles’s death in 1935.

  The house is believed to be haunted by the ghost of General Beckwith, with his shade being seen on the grand staircase and in the large bedroom upstairs many times since the 1930s. This sighting usually occurs around Christmas time, or at least in the month of December, so we were in the house at the right time of year to maybe catch of glimpse of this elusive figure. It is also believed that the ghost of Aline Doxford may still reside in the property too. There is an unsubstantiated claim that Aline may have held lurid sexual gatherings with her many friends, who, incidentally, were all said to be women. It is also reputed that a certain room on the ground floor situated in the semi-circular side wing, is the room where Aline Doxford once locked herself in for weeks at a time to carry out Ouija board sessions. Whatever went on there in the past had certainly left its mark on the building.

  The property owner, Phil Jeffries, told GHOST that his two Alsatian dogs will simply not venture upstairs in the house. They say dogs have a ‘sixth sense’ and can see and sense things that humans can’t. If this is the case, it would seem that there is something lurking on the upper floors which keeps these fierce guard dogs at bay.

  We arrived at the building on 1 December 2008 at 1.30 p.m. so that we could have a look around the house during the daylight hours. We were met by the property owner, and the GHOST team – Yvonne Moore, Ralph Keeton, Drew Bartley, Fiona Vipond and myself – ventured inside this magnificent stately home for the first time. We walked into a long corridor that seemed to go on forever. The atmosphere began to take a hold and as we walked along, passing over fifty small rooms along the way, we could sense that this old building really did have secrets hidden deep within. As we approached the end of the long corridor a magnificent foyer and seventeenth-century wooden staircase greeted us. Under the stairwell, directly ahead of where we stood, was a beautiful alcove with seats either side of an old and striking fireplace. Opposite this was the semi-circular wing and Aline’s ‘Ouija room’.

  It was in this room where, many years ago, workmen carrying out construction on the building had their tea breaks. One workman, said to be a big burly chap and not afraid of anything, sat down to his morning cuppa and breakfast sandwich. After enjoying his break he attempted to stand up but found he could not. Something had grabbed hold of his shoulders and pressed downwards on him, pinning him down and stopping him from getting up to his feet. These feelings went on for a minute or so before they subsided. Said to be ‘terrified’ and ‘chilled to the bone’, the workman fled the premises and never returned.

  Doxford House contains many huge rooms with high and original Italian-style Renaissance ceilings and grand fireplaces.

  To our right were the main entrance and a marvellous Victorian-style conservatory, which was festooned with exotic plants and decked out with garden ornaments and old furniture. A large stone water feature with granite stairs going up and around it from either side, led us to the nineteenth-century addition to the house, which was the entrance folly that bares the Doxford coat of arms.

  After a great deal of time exploring the premises, we ventured outside into the gardens. Winter blizzards had brought a blanket of snow, which gave the gardens something of a magical Yuletide feel. The gardens are just as impressive as the house, with a giant oak tree dominating the grounds, casting a dark and foreboding shadow over the great house.

  The afternoon at Doxford House was a worthwhile exercise; not only did it give us time to get to know the building and its layout, but one or two strange occurrences were also reported. Having a medium with us, we expected a few readings and Ralph Keeton certainly provided us with some interesting facts. Ralph is a good friend of our team and was invited along by GHOST to assist in our investigations. He told us that he picked up on ‘lesbian parties and orgies’ along with a feeling of ‘witchcraft and occultism’. This was his first hit of the day because, if the reader recalls, it was alleged that this went on in the house in days gone by. Ralph couldn’t possibly have researched this as the source of information came from those that knew Miss Aline Doxford personally.

  Also picked up by Ralph was the spirit of a little girl, who was somehow left out on a balcony or a landing area. The Ouija board room was identified by Ralph, even though he was unaware of Ouija board sessions being held there, and he also identified two other spirits in Doxford House. One of those was on the
main stairwell, where he saw a black mass come swirling up from the ground floor, straight past him and up to the top of the building. It happened in a split second, but the most significant thing about this sighting was that Yvonne Moore saw it too.

  Fiona also experienced something anomalous during the course of the afternoon. While walking along the long corridor that leads to the bottom of the staircase, she noticed behind one of the many doors, which happened to be open an inch or so, a shadow that seemed to block out the light. Upon stopping to take a closer look, the shadow moved away from the gap in the door, thus letting back in the light from outside. It was as if someone was standing behind the door casting its shadow up the wall and blocking out the light. She burst in through the door but found no one there.

  Drew also experienced an odd happening: twice he saw what looked like a black shape move quickly across the floor. He only saw it out of the corner of his eye, and at first he thought it was a cat scurrying across the floor. However, he saw it again while standing on the first floor on the stairs. I think I was the only one that afternoon that didn’t experience anything. Still, we had yet to return for the investigation.

  Before the investigation began, I asked Ralph to make his predictions to see if he could tell us what would happen during the investigations. He said:

  I think it’s going to be very exciting, I think we are going to see something … definitely. I definitely want to talk about a door closing or opening on its own … certainly in one of the rooms I know we are going to hear a voice, we are going to hear somebody, we are going to get auditory, we are going to get visual communication without a doubt.