scary legends from yr own immediate locale

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i wz just reminded by something snowy mann posted of SPRING-HEEL'D JACK, and googled him and wz reminded that when small i found the stories of his predations for some reason particularly spooky

(now i live in his manor more or less oo-er)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:33 (twenty-three years ago)

haha in shropshire where i grew up, the miners round the stiperstones told of a menacing supernatural phenom known as the KNOCKERS

for some other reason when small i found this less spooky

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Dawlish literally means "Devil's water" in some olde language, cos apparently Satan used to wonder around the area a bit eating kis or something and making the Brook flood. Fucking terrifying, obv.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Where I lived, there were always hushed and frankly unbelievable tales about a man who once had a job.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Devil = Torquay fan, obv.

Dave: that is scary.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:37 (twenty-three years ago)

in Dublin there was some guy called Billy in the Bowl who had no legs and went around in a bowl with wheels on it KILLING PROSTITUTES!

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Is there a song about that DV?

I always used to find the whole Dartmoor hairy hands legend thing a bit scary but then I'm soft. This is more Nick S.'s manor than mine but then frankly nothing's scary in Sidmouth.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Wasn't that in the X-files? Though it was kids, rather than prozzies. Couldn't have anything as immoral on US TV.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:39 (twenty-three years ago)

haha Mpls most famous ghost has such a midwest name: John Moshik

― g.cannon (gcannon), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:40 (twenty-three years ago)

There was the legend of the white lady, who wandered Ashworth Valley in Rochdale (where we had cub scout camps). Her beloved arranged to meet her one night, it is said, and a fog descended, and he fell off Dead Man's Drop (a cliff) into the valley and their love hit the skids. Arf. She now prowls looking for him to reappear and in the meantime, fucntions as a story to scare 8 year olds who are already quite scared about being on a cub scout camp as it is.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh aye, Hairy Hands, stone circles, druids, pagans, satanists, beasties, all kinds o' shit on Dartmoor. But the WORST thing on Dartmoor by a long way is Noel Edmonds.

There's a White Lady legend in every school ever.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Say it ain't so!

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Tis.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Our White Laydee story had a propah drop with a big cliff and everything. So ner ner ner.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:53 (twenty-three years ago)

My local theatre is haunted by a previous owner, Ellen Nye Chart, now called 'The Grey Lady'. She is supposedly benelovent, the guardian spirit of the theatre or something. There are regular sightings, so she is maybe the only ghost I believe in.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:56 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a white lady story about the Castle grounds near where I live, we used to walk around up there at night when I was 12 or 13. There was also a story about a ghost called "puck", though the story extended as far as there being a ghost called "puck", one night when we were up there one of my friends got a bit creative with this one and said that puck used to stalk the grounds and beat people to death with a stick, as the story was reaching its crescendo he whacked one of my friends on the ass with a stick. It was a lame excuse to do this but the friend in question ran home.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, our local theatre had a ghost 'n'all (this is Devon), and my old drama group director told me to say "pass friend I do not know you" if you ever saw it. Our White Laydeee at school had a proper old subsiding house on the grounds which got demolished and turned into a boule court when I was in the 4th year.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 15:59 (twenty-three years ago)

The office I'm in RIGHT NOW is apprently one of the most haunted buildings in Britain. It's an old Victorian police station that's been converted, and one of the cells is meant to be haunted by the ghost of a Sgt Goddard who hung himself in one of the cells many many moons ago.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There are lots of ghost stories about the Civil War prison on Pea Patch Island. I don't know any details of them, but I know that a while ago people used to be able to roam in the underground tunnels, but they blocked them off for some unknown reason.

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Keats wrote a poem about Dawlish too, about ginger-bread men with giant balls.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I would like to reassure any worried readers that my school, although in the same County as Nick's, never had a 'boule court' while I was there and - to the best of my knowledge - still doesn't.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:03 (twenty-three years ago)

yes, some legends shd remain secret nick!!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I have just remembered I was scared by the legend of Drake's Drum, which is a k-rub thing to be scared of since it's supposed to be inspiring.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:06 (twenty-three years ago)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The pub I worked in for five years has one in the garden! I'm the ponciest ex-barman evah!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:06 (twenty-three years ago)

"A pint of mead and a set of boule balls, please barman. Oh, and some lapsang souchon. And suck my dick while you're at it."

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:10 (twenty-three years ago)

These two buildings in my home town are said to be haunted:

http://www.avmcyber.com/mdinns/brice.jpg
http://www.covesoft.com/annapolis/renyolds.jpg

The one on top is said to be haunted by at least three ghosts: Col. James Brice, after home the house is now named, was bludgeoned to death by an intruder, and neighbors have said they've seen the death reinacted; a crazy old aunt who was walled up into a room; and the coachman, who can be seen walking across East Street that's no longer there.

The one on the bottom, where I also once worked, is haunted by Mary, who is believed to be the first innkeeper (it is known that a woman named Mary first rented the building from Mr. Reynolds and then later married him). I never saw her, but she was quite often heard and "sensed", and waiters claimed that she was always moving stuff.

There's also Joe Morgue, the old gravedigger at St. Anne's Church in the late 19th Century, who was notorious for telling the people of Annapolis to change their evil ways, as they were all going to end up in his graveyard sooner or later.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry, should be "walking across East Street to a tavern that's no longer there."

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:12 (twenty-three years ago)

"waiters claimed that she was always moving stuff" = evidence that csicop will not yet accept, bafflingly

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:13 (twenty-three years ago)

in Stuart Florida there's a banyan grove with a road through; purportedly if you drive this road during a healthy-sized moon you can see a witch in the trees. i tried to see her but i couldn't. i fear i am pathologically immune to cool things like this, for instance i doubt i could ever be hypnotized

heh Colin i'm imagining Joe Morgue on his third day on the job at the pharmacy, and finally his boss is like "Joe you're scaring all the customers away... why don't you try for a job round the cemetary?"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

"If ye keep sinning, ye'll need a lot more than jest a few aspirin, I tells ye."

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I was going to say, well there's the Jersey Devil, but then I rememberedthis

― rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:22 (twenty-three years ago)

The pub I worked inw as haunted too, one time a shot glass with a pound coin in it wot had not been touched for about a year fell off a tall shelf wot no one was near and did not break. Plus one afternopon when I was on me own playing darts, I threw treble 20, definitive evidence of influence.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:24 (twenty-three years ago)

i think what i found scary when small abt spring-heeled jack — who really is like a marvel comics villain in his not-really -very threatening pointlessness (oh no!! he jumps around!! oh no!!) — is actually this pointlessness: it's like a door into an alien logic

most ghost stuff i find k-unspooky bcz the motivation is just the same as us non-deaders really

i am deeply unimprssed by "the dog wz barking at the corner and THERE WAS NOTHING THERE!", bcz, yes, 15 minutes b4 the dog was barking at "NEXT DOOR'S DOOR BUZZER!!" Dogs are quite dumm often; certainly their phenomenology lacks finesse

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Dur...

Other worldly influence...

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I posted to this thread AND MY REPLY DISAPPEARED!

now that's scary.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:28 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, the Reynolds tavern ghost story is a bit rub ("shit, my tray was here a second ago -- I am clearly in the presence of the unearthly and must go snort cocaine in the bathroom to calm my nerves"), but the two stories have MURDER! INSANITY! THREATS OF DEATH AND DAMNATION!

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:29 (twenty-three years ago)

All the chupacabras do their dirty work well away from here.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Was his name really Joe Morgue, things were so much simpler then what with Johnny Pub and Peter Bookmaker.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:42 (twenty-three years ago)

His real name was Joseph Simmons, and he really existed.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

The first story is particularly scary, at least not something you'd like to see.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I've got a mate called Joe Simmons. Big orange beard, from Birmingham - bloody terrifying.

― SittingPretty (sittingpretty), Friday, 21 February 2003 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Bono was thinking of buying a house near my parents'.

*shudder*

― Lara (Lara), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:01 (twenty-three years ago)

!!!!!!! i am vindicated !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bear Hunt

Location: E8; Hackney marshes
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / time if known: Winter 1980/81
Further comments: Three children reported seeing a bear in the marshland at Hackney - investigators discovered large paw prints in the snow, but couldn't find the animal.

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Bah. My house has bullet holes.

― adam (adam), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Worcester, Mass. is haunted by the Hasselsloth.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:14 (twenty-three years ago)

k-blimey-o

A strange, true, and dreadful relation, of the devils appearing to Thomas Cox a hackney-coach-man; who lives in Cradle-Alley in Baldwins-Gardens. First, in the habit of a gentleman with a roll of parchment in his hand, and then in the shape of a bear, which afterwards vanish'd away in a flash of fire, at eight of the clock on Friday night, October the 31th. 1684 (London, 1684) microfilm: Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2360:10 (scroll down to find) (but loads of top non-bear-related stuff if you don't)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:20 (twenty-three years ago)

from google!!

Interestingly, just two years earlier, the decapitated heads of two bears were found
on the Hackney Marshes - they were thought to have come from a private zoo ...
www.bigfootresearch.com/britain/englandwales.htm - 35k - Cached - Similar pages

but the link is gone

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:23 (twenty-three years ago)

The David Hasselsloth?

― Matthew Adam Thurgood (Matt T), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:51 (twenty-three years ago)

The legend of Spider-Man.

There's a house in NW Denver that supposedly had a homeless person living in the attic for several years. The family that lived there was completely oblivious to the fact that there was a man in their attic who would sneak down while they were out and steal food. When they found the guy he was in some kind of animalistic state, with long hair and fingernails like Howard Hughes.

― David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Near where I work I've heard about offices where they READ ALL OF YR EMAIL and LISTEN TO ALL YR PHONE CALLS and then pass off the juicy bits to BLACKSUITED AGENTS who contract for your capture and assassination, also they PLOTTED THE 9/11 DISASTER right down the street as a way to start a war on Muslims everywhere. It's true it's true

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:16 (twenty-three years ago)

my friend says her old house was haunted by a man who died there. it is a small yellow wooden house with a lot of woods behind it. apparently he was a friendly ghost who made a lot of noise.

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:30 (twenty-three years ago)

My aunt and uncle's house had been owned previously by a bachelor mink farmer, who was so unhappy he hung himself in the cellar. It was pretty obvious once they'd moved in that the rumblings and knockings were 'Harold'. My aunt would also see fleeting images at the corner of her eye.

Harold went away when my cousin, who is adopted, first came home aged one month.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, 22 February 2003 19:24 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.btinternet.com/~loonboy/para_stocks.html
This is the most famous one from where I grew up, and most corroborated. (Witnessed by 2 security guards, then later 2 policemen.) Stocksbridge Bypass in North Sheffield, it was on the "Strange but True" program so some people may know it.

The main reports say it's a monk who was buried on unhallowed ground, and there are also sightings of children doing maypole dancing around pylons. Local legends say it could be a coach driver. I think the coach driver one is more likely, as there used to be a stage coach that went around the farms collecting children to take them to school. One day something startled the horse and the coach went down the hillside, all the children, and the coach driver died.

― celeste (Celeste), Sunday, 23 February 2003 00:18 (twenty-three years ago)

the only scary legend who lives near me is Rowland S Howard (and he is very very scary looking these days)

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Rowtor rocks at Birchover are very very scary, as are the walking fraternity who have taken over the Druids inn at the foor of them, turning it from a decent boozer into a ponces boudoir.

― chris (chris), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:59 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.birchovervillage.co.uk/LocalHistory19.htm

this person has a lot of time on their hands

― chris (chris), Sunday, 23 February 2003 23:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Local lore: A woman who owned my neighborhood bar nearly 30 years ago was murdered atop the pool table by her live-in boyfriend. Any apparitions hencefore seen in the bar, however, have been attributed to things other than supernatural forces.

The felt on the pool table has been changed as well.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Sunday, 23 February 2003 23:10 (twenty-three years ago)

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