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I'm not sure, although this was only a few years ago?

Maybe I'm talking about the sci fi museum?? If so I don't think I realised it was a museum! Maybe I'm the odd one... perhaps I should move to Alston. :hahazebs:

Edit: Just had a look and I can confirm it's not the sci fi museum! See attachment, found it on Google maps although don't know whether it's still there. Looks like it's a gift shop. :)

They need to reconsider those umbrellas out front. They suggest that they’re selling something, but it ain’t gifts.

maximus otter
 
I've mentioned before on here about the little village three miles from mine, where there is never ANYBODY on the streets. Walked down through there on BH Monday with son and dog and, again, despite the fact it was a Bank Holiday, there was nobody about. The horses were all rugged up, the verges were cut and immaculate, but...just nobody.

The wind was cold, mind, but not THAT bad.

And, as a previous horse owner, I always look askance at horses standing around on sunny weekend or holidays and wonder why their owners aren't using the opportunity to fit in a good long ride.
 
I gotta theory that places with a lot of earth disturbance are creepy - ex-mining villages, ironstone extraction, china clay, quarrying. They don't get any better when slagheaps are reassimilated into weirdly smooth grass hills.

Strange villages got worse since they lost their railways IMO. New ideas and bloodlines arriving at the station always helped. Strangest places I've been, bearing in mind you can move 5 miles and get a totally different atmosphere are:

The Isle of Sheppey
Keighley
Mansfield
Redruth
Neasden
You need to visit Marton, New Zealand
 
And, as a previous horse owner, I always look askance at horses standing around on sunny weekend or holidays and wonder why their owners aren't using the opportunity to fit in a good long ride.
If they are like my friends horse, who works so hard creating vets/livery/farriers bills, too high strung to ride.
 
If they are like my friends horse, who works so hard creating vets/livery/farriers bills, too high strung to ride.
Everyone rides round here, and mostly ex racehorses or thoroughbreds who are far too excitable for their own good.
You need to visit Marton, New Zealand
The weird thing is that the village I spoke about is called Marton, but is in North Yorkshire. Maybe it's the name?
 
Everyone rides round here, and mostly ex racehorses or thoroughbreds who are far too excitable for their own good.
Maybe your neighbors are able to care for their high strung horses (I'm not inferring any blame on their part), but it reminds me of people who get smart, energetic dogs they aren't prepared to take care of. They think the dogs are stylish and cool, but the result is cruel.
 
Maybe your neighbors are able to care for their high strung horses (I'm not inferring any blame on their part), but it reminds me of people who get smart, energetic dogs they aren't prepared to take care of. They think the dogs are stylish and cool, but the result is cruel.
I think it's more that everyone around here is so well off that nobody needs to work. So they ride their horses during the day during the week. I am just coloured by my horse keeping needing to fit time for riding in around the day job and kids and housework (or school in my pony-owning days). So I'm madly jealous when I see a gorgeous weekend or holiday day and horses lazing around in fields, because it would have been one of the few chances for us poor owners to get out and have a good ride!

I'm just jealous. Everything is very well cared for here. Too expensive not to look after properly, these horses!

But I know what you mean about the dogs. Thank goodness huskies have gone out of fashion. Too many people keeping them in tiny suburban houses with tiny gardens and only walking them once a day.
 
We chose our breed of dog (Bedlington Terrier) based upon its character and its needs to be kept happy. Dolly is a perfect fit for our lifestyle, it's a pity that not everyone looks into a breed before they buy.

Our youngest lives next door to us, across the drive. If I go to the garage from the back gate she will zip out and see if their back door is open. She often just runs into the front room and joins them on the settee.
 
Rereading this thread it's struck me that the feeling which I think is being talked about is something I actually associate most strongly with a more urban environment.

One might argue that it could be something to do with early life. I was born on a farm in the middle of the hills, and maybe this immunises a person to a certain type of rural angst. But then, I've also lived in cities, and loved them - so I don't think it's as partisan a psychology as that.

Anyway, without wishing to take the discussion off-thread, I realised that the vibe I have been getting off other peoples vibes is one that I most closely associate with - of all places - Brighton.

I don't actively dislike Brighton - I've visited, and partied back in the day, and I've had a generally good time. But I could never live there. It's not at all unbearable, just oddly, and distinctly, uncomfortable - and in a way which is disconcerting, because I can never find any obvious reason for that discomfort. To me, there's something indefinably out of kilter about the whole town; a 'thin place' - one which, should I enter the wrong door, will find me stepping into the middle of an Aickman short story.
 
One might argue that it could be something to do with early life. I was born on a farm in the middle of the hills, and maybe this immunises a person to a certain type of rural angst. But then, I've also lived in cities, and loved them - so I don't think it's as partisan a psychology as that.
I'm like that. I enjoy the countryside and the cities equally, probably due to the fact that half my ancestors came from a farming community and half from city environments. But I still find villages we drive through somehow a touch unnatural, I think largely due to the apparent lack of life in them with no people visible. On the other hand (I've probably mentioned it before) a new town has sprung up in the North West of the UK in the past 15 years or so. Like me, people I know who have visited the place, describe it as spooky, again being due to the lack of people out and about. The place does give off a strange vibe.
 
I think it's more that everyone around here is so well off that nobody needs to work. So they ride their horses during the day during the week. I am just coloured by my horse keeping needing to fit time for riding in around the day job and kids and housework (or school in my pony-owning days). So I'm madly jealous when I see a gorgeous weekend or holiday day and horses lazing around in fields, because it would have been one of the few chances for us poor owners to get out and have a good ride!

I'm just jealous. Everything is very well cared for here. Too expensive not to look after properly, these horses!

But I know what you mean about the dogs. Thank goodness huskies have gone out of fashion. Too many people keeping them in tiny suburban houses with tiny gardens and only walking them once a day.

If it's a wealthy village its likely that many houses are people's second homes so it is essentially empty.
 
Rereading this thread it's struck me that the feeling which I think is being talked about is something I actually associate most strongly with a more urban environment.

One might argue that it could be something to do with early life. I was born on a farm in the middle of the hills, and maybe this immunises a person to a certain type of rural angst. But then, I've also lived in cities, and loved them - so I don't think it's as partisan a psychology as that.

Anyway, without wishing to take the discussion off-thread, I realised that the vibe I have been getting off other peoples vibes is one that I most closely associate with - of all places - Brighton.

I don't actively dislike Brighton - I've visited, and partied back in the day, and I've had a generally good time. But I could never live there. It's not at all unbearable, just oddly, and distinctly, uncomfortable - and in a way which is disconcerting, because I can never find any obvious reason for that discomfort. To me, there's something indefinably out of kilter about the whole town; a 'thin place' - one which, should I enter the wrong door, will find me stepping into the middle of an Aickman short story.

Really? I lived in the middle of the city from 2001-2008, and have lived about 15 mins away since so am still a regular visitor (well, pre-pandemic anyway). I've never felt uncomfortable there at all. Maybe you heard me DJing and it's all my fault.
 
...of all places - Brighton.

I don't actively dislike Brighton - I've visited, and partied back in the day, and I've had a generally good time. But I could never live there. It's not at all unbearable, just oddly, and distinctly, uncomfortable - and in a way which is disconcerting, because I can never find any obvious reason for that discomfort. To me, there's something indefinably out of kilter about the whole town; a 'thin place' - one which, should I enter the wrong door, will find me stepping into the middle of an Aickman short story.

l quite like the place. On the other hand, it’s the only place in the UK where l’ve noticed that the council has felt it necessary to put stickers on the outside of the street recycling containers, reading:

“PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB INTO THE BINS”

maximus otter
 
Really? I lived in the middle of the city from 2001-2008, and have lived about 15 mins away since so am still a regular visitor (well, pre-pandemic anyway). I've never felt uncomfortable there at all. Maybe you heard me DJing and it's all my fault.

Yep. The feeling seems to be entirely personal - I'm not sure that I've ever heard anyone else with a similar notions about the place.

I am quite fascinated by how these things take root, and I've spent time trying to pinpoint something that might have affected my mood for the place - but I cannot think of a single thing. I wouldn't want to exaggerate the feeling; as I said, I don't dislike the place as such, it just somehow unsettles me - and somehow the nebulousness of that feeling is much more interesting to me than one of outright aversion.

A while back I bought Brighton Ghosts, Hove Hauntings by John Rackham - a hefty book, jam-packed with stories. I suppose the only thing I can say is the fact that Brighton appears to be a singularly haunted place does not surprise me one little bit. But maybe that's just coincidence.
 
An excellent book... Well above average when it comes to local ghost books.

I've not read that, so I bowled on to the usual sites to secure a copy.... seems to be a rare thing, there's one on Amazon UK for 80 quid, and another on the US site for over 800 dollars!

It seems to be a difficult book to pin down, but I've managed to secure a 'near fine' copy from a Sussex bookshop for a very reasonable 12 quid.

Thanks for the recommendation!
 
...It seems to be a difficult book to pin down, but I've managed to secure a 'near fine' copy from a Sussex bookshop for a very reasonable 12 quid...

You're in for a treat - and I totally agree with SimonBurchell's opinion of the book (I've also recently referenced it on the The Ditchling Beacon Walker thread).

I have a nice book on Brighton ghosts which mentions a bookshops with a haunted basement. The ghost washes at a sink in the corner.

I recall at least one story about a ghost doing something in the basement of a shop in The Lanes - but it's far more disturbing than washing up. I'm not going to elucidate for fear of spoiling the fun for Carlos - but it was most...disconcerting.

And apologies - I did manage to take us off-thread.
 
You need to visit Marton, New Zealand

It's just in a weird spot.

Not quite Palmy and not quite Whanganui. It's quite sweet in its own way. It does have a strange Prisoner feel to it though.

Yeah, it's pretty weird.

Bulls and then Hunterville or visa versa and don't stray off the path! (SH1)
 
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As a former resident of Stranraer I’m sorry to report it’s a pretty dull place. Not much of a Fortean nature I’m afraid.


I used to go to Stranraer twice a week to man the Sheriff court. Most of the cases were drugs and assault. I always put it down to there being nothing much to do to do in Stranraer other than to get lifted by the police! I'm sure some of them thought 2 weeks in HMP Dumfries or Kilmarnock was a little break for them. The surrounding area is beautiful but you couldn't pay me to relocate to Stranraer
 
The houses were built close to a boiler works, which I think is still there. It's possible they were originally houses for workers. Newbie is only a mile or so from Annan, so there are plenty of facilities and services nearby. I've always found that area of the Solway Firth quite bleak for some reason, possibly due to the mudflats and quicksand which make parts of it quite dangerous.


I used to work out at Southerness and I loved those early summer mornings with the sun coming up over the Solway Firth with the Criffel lighting up in shades of green and purple, absolutely beautiful. As you say though, it gets much bleaker the further in you go. I believe the houses in Newbie were built for the employees of the two large factories. The one closest to the coast is now Johnson Matthey which is a chemical plant, I can't remember what the other one is. I've only ever been to Annan a handful of times and really like the wide main street and there are some really nice traditional style houses. I think that's one of the things I felt about Newbie, it's so close to Annan but at the same time it feels remote
 
It's just in a weird spot.

Not quite Palmy and not quite Whanganui. It's quite sweet in its own way. It does have a strange Prisoner feel to it though.

Yeah, it's pretty weird.

Bulls and then Hunterville or visa versa and don't stray off the path! (SH1)
Oh I know how to get there alright, I just don't want to. Stayed in a motel there for one night once, can't for the life of me remember why, surely I must have broken down, lol.
I have no intention of ever going back, it certainly qualifies for this thread topic.
 
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