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A Childhood Experience

Jacket_Potato

Devoted Cultist
Joined
Oct 20, 2018
Messages
125
Hi all

I am new to this site (although i lurked for a while and when the site change happened, one of the administrators was kind enough to sign me up so i could stay in the loop about the new site - am very glad that this forum has survived)

I wanted to share a childhood experience that has made me wonder ever since i got old enough to really think about it: it was the mid 90s & I was about 9 years old, it was the spring or summer (light in the evenings, although I couldn't say what month).

My parents would sometimes take me and my two younger brothers (2 and 3 years or so younger than me) for dinner in a bar / restaurant that was in a converted Grade 2 listed building, it's a really beautiful place with a large garden area where we could play and easily large enough to run around in. It's still a beautiful place, you can feel the history in the building when you go for a meal and i still love it there.

This one time it was early evening as we were there for dinner. I was wearing jeans and t-shirt, out in the garden playing with my brothers. We would always make friends with and play games with other kids we met there (like 'it' or similar) - the garden was enclosed from the road and everything so it was quite safe. This particular time, me & my brothers we went into an area of the gardens we weren't technically meant to (off limits to guests) that was over a small wall.

This is where it gets strange - standing a few feet away from me were a girl & boy of about my age but they were dressed in grubby, ripped Victorian style clothing. This didn't compute with me, I'd never seen anything like that before & was obviously only used to modern clothing. I looked them up and down with suspicion asked them why were they dressed like that? They were absolutely solid and very real. The girl (in a grubby white petticoat thing) said to me 'we're poor'. But the answer didn't make sense to me because so were many people but I'd never seen anyone else dressed like that and really dirty / unwashed, where were their jeans and trainers? The girl then said to me 'come and play with us' and I said no, our meal would be ready soon and we had to go. I was aware that we weren't meant to be there and these kids were weird, I didn't want to play with them.

I told my brothers we were going back (they listened to me at that age!) and we went back to the restaurant, I told my mum that some kids in old fashioned dirty victorian clothes had asked us to play with them and was told to not go to that place again. I never thought about it again until I was older - who were they and why were they dressed like that?!

I thought had they been due to go to a fancy dress party - but then they were young children and aren't kids parties usually at lunch time / afternoon? And there's no housing over there, so even if they had been to a party there was no reason for them to be there. Also who would dress their child in a ripped dirty costume with dirt all over them? They looked like they hadn't washed in weeks - this was no fancy dress outfit, it was more like they'd been dug up (excuse the phrase!). They weren't distressed or anything, there was no sense that these were children in danger or anything - they were quite calm and matter of fact. Had my parents thought so, they would have acted. But that's not the vibe these kids gave off.

I asked my mum recently if she remembers me talking about it at the time and she said yes. Anyway i still love the building, and didn't ever see them there again
 
whenever im somewhere a bit odd, or the feeling of oddness descends upon, i always expect to see a couple of kids in victorian clothing running past
 
Hi all

I am new to this site (although i lurked for a while and when the site change happened, one of the administrators was kind enough to sign me up so i could stay in the loop about the new site - am very glad that this forum has survived)

I wanted to share a childhood experience that has made me wonder ever since i got old enough to really think about it: it was the mid 90s & I was about 9 years old, it was the spring or summer (light in the evenings, although I couldn't say what month).

My parents would sometimes take me and my two younger brothers (2 and 3 years or so younger than me) for dinner in a bar / restaurant that was in a converted Grade 2 listed building, it's a really beautiful place with a large garden area where we could play and easily large enough to run around in. It's still a beautiful place, you can feel the history in the building when you go for a meal and i still love it there.

This one time it was early evening as we were there for dinner. I was wearing jeans and t-shirt, out in the garden playing with my brothers. We would always make friends with and play games with other kids we met there (like 'it' or similar) - the garden was enclosed from the road and everything so it was quite safe. This particular time, me & my brothers we went into an area of the gardens we weren't technically meant to (off limits to guests) that was over a small wall.

This is where it gets strange - standing a few feet away from me were a girl & boy of about my age but they were dressed in grubby, ripped Victorian style clothing. This didn't compute with me, I'd never seen anything like that before & was obviously only used to modern clothing. I looked them up and down with suspicion asked them why were they dressed like that? They were absolutely solid and very real. The girl (in a grubby white petticoat thing) said to me 'we're poor'. But the answer didn't make sense to me because so were many people but I'd never seen anyone else dressed like that and really dirty / unwashed, where were their jeans and trainers? The girl then said to me 'come and play with us' and I said no, our meal would be ready soon and we had to go. I was aware that we weren't meant to be there and these kids were weird, I didn't want to play with them.

I told my brothers we were going back (they listened to me at that age!) and we went back to the restaurant, I told my mum that some kids in old fashioned dirty victorian clothes had asked us to play with them and was told to not go to that place again. I never thought about it again until I was older - who were they and why were they dressed like that?!

I thought had they been due to go to a fancy dress party - but then they were young children and aren't kids parties usually at lunch time / afternoon? And there's no housing over there, so even if they had been to a party there was no reason for them to be there. Also who would dress their child in a ripped dirty costume with dirt all over them? They looked like they hadn't washed in weeks - this was no fancy dress outfit, it was more like they'd been dug up (excuse the phrase!). They weren't distressed or anything, there was no sense that these were children in danger or anything - they were quite calm and matter of fact. Had my parents thought so, they would have acted. But that's not the vibe these kids gave off.

I asked my mum recently if she remembers me talking about it at the time and she said yes. Anyway i still love the building, and didn't ever see them there again
Hi Jacket Potato, are you comfortable giving the name of the bar restaurant?
 
Hi Swifty - it's a Harvester type place (although not actually a Harvester) near greater London / Surrey borders, building originates in the 1700s I believe. However i'd rather not put the exact name if you understand!
 
Hi Swifty - it's a Harvester type place (although not actually a Harvester) near greater London / Surrey borders, building originates in the 1700s I believe. However i'd rather not put the exact name if you understand!

Damn! That last post scuppered my line of thinking. Your description of the building and it's layout put me in mind rather strongly of a sort of gastro-pub type thing in Leicester/Oakham (UK).This particular bar adjoins what is effectively a countryside area and I was going to suggest that these kids were the children of farmers - rural people - who had just been playing in the soil and not minding getting dirty. (We townies sometimes forget how different rural folk can be from us. The statement `We're poor` might have been shorthand for `We're not city boys`). I was going to say that even if it was not the place I'd suggested it could still be a similar type of place bordering farmlands.

So - forgive my ignorance - is Surrey a countrysih area? And when you say `Victorian style clothing` can you specify what you mean? Poor people still exist and it is still possible to catch sight of grubby kids - particularly in counttry areas.
 
Hi Swifty - it's a Harvester type place (although not actually a Harvester) near greater London / Surrey borders, building originates in the 1700s I believe. However i'd rather not put the exact name if you understand!
Thanks and I don't understand sorry but I respect your wish for privacy so I won't push it. Welcome to the board though :)
 
Damn! That last post scuppered my line of thinking. Your description of the building and it's layout put me in mind rather strongly of a sort of gastro-pub type thing in Leicester/Oakham (UK).This particular bar adjoins what is effectively a countryside area and I was going to suggest that these kids where the children of farmers - rural people - who had just been playing in the soil and not minding getting dirty. (We townies sometimes forget how different rural folk can be from us. The statement `We're poor` might have been shorthand for `We're not city boys`). I was going to say that even if it was not the place I'd suggested it could still be a similar type of place bordering farmlands.

So - forgive my ignorance - is Surrey a countrysih area? And when you say `Victorian style clothing` can you specify what you mean? Poor people still exist and it is still possible to catch sight of grubby kids - particularly in counttry areas.
Wild .. I briefly lived in Oakham in '97 and helped run a chip shop and bistro that was haunted, it's an estate agents now the last time I checked.

I think I might know the bar you're on about, if you're driving into Oakham it would be the furthest away on the right hand side? .. I used to date a girl who worked there.

edit: correct me if I'm wrong because I remember it having a larger area in front of the building 21 year ago and two or three pool tables inside.

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=e...sAF1QipO4RiyfuyQrysWubzyNy2Wd4hvfTlaX5Wohpy7z
 
Last edited:
Wild .. I briefly lived in Oakham in '97 and helped run a chip shop and bistro that was haunted, it's an estate agents now the last time I checked.

I think I might know the bar you're on about, if you're driving into Oakham it would be the furthest away on the right hand side? .. I used to date a girl who worked there.

I'm not being cagey (like the OP) but my memory is low on names and details. The place was technically in Evington, Leicester - but the part of it that opens out into countryside. It was a big oldish white building - with a rather normal, downmarket pub at the front and a sort of indoor garden, complete with mini-fountains, when you went further inside (much as the Op describes it) - and this somehow adjoined a bigger field.

Yes, I was in Leicester in `97. Oakham was very much the `des res` posh end - and used to go jogging through that area on a regular basis. Leicester is full of ghost tales and even was once voted the most Fortean place in the UK, I believe. It wasn't good for me though. Staying on there after I had studied there was one of the biggest mitakes I have made in my life, I now think.
 
Damn! That last post scuppered my line of thinking. Your description of the building and it's layout put me in mind rather strongly of a sort of gastro-pub type thing in Leicester/Oakham (UK).This particular bar adjoins what is effectively a countryside area and I was going to suggest that these kids were the children of farmers - rural people - who had just been playing in the soil and not minding getting dirty. (We townies sometimes forget how different rural folk can be from us. The statement `We're poor` might have been shorthand for `We're not city boys`). I was going to say that even if it was not the place I'd suggested it could still be a similar type of place bordering farmlands.

So - forgive my ignorance - is Surrey a countrysih area? And when you say `Victorian style clothing` can you specify what you mean? Poor people still exist and it is still possible to catch sight of grubby kids - particularly in counttry areas.
Damn! That last post scuppered my line of thinking. Your description of the building and it's layout put me in mind rather strongly of a sort of gastro-pub type thing in Leicester/Oakham (UK).This particular bar adjoins what is effectively a countryside area and I was going to suggest that these kids were the children of farmers - rural people - who had just been playing in the soil and not minding getting dirty. (We townies sometimes forget how different rural folk can be from us. The statement `We're poor` might have been shorthand for `We're not city boys`). I was going to say that even if it was not the place I'd suggested it could still be a similar type of place bordering farmlands.

So - forgive my ignorance - is Surrey a countrysih area? And when you say `Victorian style clothing` can you specify what you mean? Poor people still exist and it is still possible to catch sight of grubby kids - particularly in counttry areas.

Hi Zeke thanks for your reply - no it's not the proper country! Very close to the town/city and part of the suburban sprawl, it's not open countryside (although the grounds look a lot more rural as it would have been rural back when it was built in the 18th century) an everyone is in modern clothes - jeans, tracksuits etc. The girl was in a white petticoat dress and black shoes. I can't remember the boy very well as it was the girl I interacted with and not him. They looked like they'd walked off the set of Oliver Twist or something. It was all over very quickly as I didn't hang around to talk to them more
 
I'm not being cagey (like the OP) but my memory is low on names and details. The place was technically in Evington, Leicester - but the part of it that opens out into countryside. It was a big oldish white building - with a rather normal, downmarket pub at the front and a sort of indoor garden, complete with mini-fountains, when you went further inside (much as the Op describes it) - and this somehow adjoined a bigger field.

Yes, I was in Leicester in `97. Oakham was very much the `des res` posh end - and used to go jogging through that area on a regular basis. Leicester is full of ghost tales and even was once voted the most Fortean place in the UK, I believe. It wasn't good for me though. Staying on there after I had studied there was one of the biggest mitakes I have made in my life, I now think.

Sorry if you think i'm being cagey - I just don't want to put where I live/lived, I was asked if i felt comfortable doing that and I don't. Will keep my experiences to myself in future!
 
No not `The Old Plough` - although I do remmenber that place - and used to talk a fairly long walk just to visit it.

Damn - you're making me homesick Swifty! Homesick for a place I never even liked when I was there!
 
Sorry if you think i'm being cagey - I just don't want to put where I live/lived, I was asked if i felt comfortable doing that and I don't. Will keep my experiences to myself in future!
Calm down mate! I didn't mean the word in a negative sense. You are entitled to reveal or not reveal whatever information you like. It's just that if you're going to tell a ghost story - people will want a bit of local colour that's all.

Please come again - it's a wonderful story.
 
Calm down mate! I didn't mean the word in a negative sense. You are entitled to reveal or not reveal whatever information you like. It's just that if you're going to tell a ghost story - people will want a bit of local colour that's all.

Please come again - it's a wonderful story.

Ah ok sorry I was nervous about posting it and thought you were having a go. Of course I understand why anyone would ask the exact location, it's a fair question.
 
Living in Leicestershire though - Oakham is not near Evington. Is this the pub in Evington you are talking about?
The Cedars

https://g.co/kgs/8w111i

Yes that's the one! (Anyway, it's totally irrelevant to the trhread now).

In my mind's eye Oakham is sort of an extension of Evington - but I'm thinking as a jogger (I was a regular one when I lived there) plus my mind is addled by years of exile.
 
Yes that's the one! (Anyway, it's totally irrelevant to the trhread now).

In my mind's eye Oakham is sort of an extension of Evington - but I'm thinking as a jogger (I was a regular one when I lived there) plus my mind is addled by years of exile.
I think you may mean Oadby which is near Evington. Oakham is in Rutland not Leicestershire. Interesting about the pub, I may go and pay a visit soon!
 
I think you may mean Oadby which is near Evington. Oakham is in Rutland not Leicestershire. Interesting about the pub, I may go and pay a visit soon!

Yup - you're right., I was thinking of Oadby! See what I mean about exile? (Been in Russia for almost a decade).

The Cedars is actually a bit creepy (in a good way) if you go in the evening and sit where the internal garden bit is. (I was setting Jacket Potatoe's story there when I first read his thread). However, there is a much much better place which is about 10-15 mins walk away - getting near the counry (don't ask for exact directions). It's called (if it is still there!) The Cow and Plough and is a converted big farmhouse type thing, and there is a lot of retro war period commercial art on the walls and they do (or did?) porent local ales there such as Steaming billy (brewed in Oadby, if memory serves). That place was a good afternoon out. I hope it is still standing!

Give my regatds to Leicester! (That little city damn near destroyed me!)
 
Yup - you're right., I was thinking of Oadby! See what I mean about exile? (Been in Russia for almost a decade).

The Cedars is actually a bit creepy (in a good way) if you go in the evening and sit where the internal garden bit is. (I was setting Jacket Potatoe's story there when I first read his thread). However, there is a much much better place which is about 10-15 mins walk away - getting near the counry (don't ask for exact directions). It's called (if it is still there!) The Cow and Plough and is a converted big farmhouse type thing, and there is a lot of retro war period commercial art on the walls and they do (or did?) porent local ales there such as Steaming billy (brewed in Oadby, if memory serves). That place was a good afternoon out. I hope it is still standing!

Give my regatds to Leicester! (That little city damn near destroyed me!)

Still there, near Leicester airfield ....I know as I drive past it a lot and only live about 5 miles from it. The associated farmpark closed down during the second outbreak of foot and mouth though. I only go to Leicester to work, don't like it much. Prefer the South East of Leicestershire.... I am more 'County' daaaaaarling.
 
I'm not being cagey (like the OP) but my memory is low on names and details. The place was technically in Evington, Leicester - but the part of it that opens out into countryside. It was a big oldish white building - with a rather normal, downmarket pub at the front and a sort of indoor garden, complete with mini-fountains, when you went further inside (much as the Op describes it) - and this somehow adjoined a bigger field.

Yes, I was in Leicester in `97. Oakham was very much the `des res` posh end - and used to go jogging through that area on a regular basis. Leicester is full of ghost tales and even was once voted the most Fortean place in the UK, I believe. It wasn't good for me though. Staying on there after I had studied there was one of the biggest mitakes I have made in my life, I now think.
If you remember reading about a blue Ford Fiesta that was written off in '97 one night that almost hit a local church? .. that was me sorry. That was my first car.

So you might remember The Catmose Fish Bar fish and chip shop? .. that was me and my best mate running that .. I used to DJ in the pub next door as well although I can't remember the name of it, it had that small cellar that was sometimes used as an overflow bar ..
 
If you remember reading about a blue Ford Fiesta that was written off in '97 one night that almost hit a local church? .. that was me sorry. That was my first car.

So you might remember The Catmose Fish Bar fish and chip shop? .. that was me and my best mate running that .. I used to DJ in the pub next door as well although I can't remember the name of it, it had that small cellar that was sometimes used as an overflow bar ..
Was that the car that didn't quite make the bend in house at Glen?
 
Was that the car that didn't quite make the bend in house at Glen?
If Glen is close to Oakham, the car was a blue Fiesta and it was '97? .. probably, yes. It was at a bend (turning left as I was driving). My front axle was totalled, if the kerb hadn't been so tall, I would have probably hit the church. Sorry. We abandoned it and my mate called us a taxi instead.

If you can google street view it for me?
 
Ah not the same one. This one went through the bushes and hit a gravestone.
 
The OP's story conjured up an image from my memory. When my parents split, I spent ALOT of time in pubs with my Father. That's all we did. One of them was a place called The Barn, near Birtley, Gateshead.

The description reminded me of that place. An old country farm converted into a pub place doing food. The best bit was the inner courtyard of the pub. It was a perfect square, walled in on all sides by the high buildings. In the darkest corner of the courtyard was a huge, old double barn door that was always half open, wonky on its hinges. Through there was a sort of tunnel/archway (under the building above it) leading out onto a dirt track road. There was old agricultural machinery in there and out on the track there was a small wall or two and eventually over the fields the main road.

Everything about that pub was cosy and friendly. The inner courtyard was crazy fun as a kid with a huge plastic fun-tree climbing thing with a slide and swing. But if we were ever brave enough to venture through those big doors, then the atmosphere changed immediately. It was always strange, dark and scary and we would run screaming back into the inner yard.
 
The OP's story conjured up an image from my memory. When my parents split, I spent ALOT of time in pubs with my Father. That's all we did. One of them was a place called The Barn, near Birtley, Gateshead.

The description reminded me of that place. An old country farm converted into a pub place doing food. The best bit was the inner courtyard of the pub. It was a perfect square, walled in on all sides by the high buildings. In the darkest corner of the courtyard was a huge, old double barn door that was always half open, wonky on its hinges. Through there was a sort of tunnel/archway (under the building above it) leading out onto a dirt track road. There was old agricultural machinery in there and out on the track there was a small wall or two and eventually over the fields the main road.

Everything about that pub was cosy and friendly. The inner courtyard was crazy fun as a kid with a huge plastic fun-tree climbing thing with a slide and swing. But if we were ever brave enough to venture through those big doors, then the atmosphere changed immediately. It was always strange, dark and scary and we would run screaming back into the inner yard.

These places are very atmospheric! There was a ladies loo in the restaurant in my story which had such a dark atmosphere we would almost run screaming from it, could not get out quick enough! Instead I would go out of my way to the loos on the other side of the building
 
...a girl & boy of about my age but they were dressed in grubby, ripped Victorian style clothing. This didn't compute with me, I'd never seen anything like that before & was obviously only used to modern clothing. I looked them up and down with suspicion asked them why were they dressed like that? They were absolutely solid and very real. The girl (in a grubby white petticoat thing) said to me 'we're poor'. ...I'd never seen anyone else dressed like that and really dirty / unwashed, where were their jeans and trainers? The girl then said to me 'come and play with us'...

Do you remember them having accents or unusual speech patterns?

maximus otter
 
Do you remember them having accents or unusual speech patterns?

maximus otter
Hi Maximus Otter - as i remember, the girl's accent (who was the only one who spoke) was southern english, no strong accent. I don't remember any marked speech patterns as the conversation was very short. But there was no emotion when she spoke, when she said 'we're poor' and 'come and play with us' it was very matter of fact, more like statements with no emotion behind them. None of the noise & chatter that kids make. Looking back i'm glad we didn't play with them, the whole thing was very strange!
 
Hi all

I am new to this site (although i lurked for a while and when the site change happened, one of the administrators was kind enough to sign me up so i could stay in the loop about the new site - am very glad that this forum has survived)

I wanted to share a childhood experience that has made me wonder ever since i got old enough to really think about it: it was the mid 90s & I was about 9 years old, it was the spring or summer (light in the evenings, although I couldn't say what month).

My parents would sometimes take me and my two younger brothers (2 and 3 years or so younger than me) for dinner in a bar / restaurant that was in a converted Grade 2 listed building, it's a really beautiful place with a large garden area where we could play and easily large enough to run around in. It's still a beautiful place, you can feel the history in the building when you go for a meal and i still love it there.

This one time it was early evening as we were there for dinner. I was wearing jeans and t-shirt, out in the garden playing with my brothers. We would always make friends with and play games with other kids we met there (like 'it' or similar) - the garden was enclosed from the road and everything so it was quite safe. This particular time, me & my brothers we went into an area of the gardens we weren't technically meant to (off limits to guests) that was over a small wall.

This is where it gets strange - standing a few feet away from me were a girl & boy of about my age but they were dressed in grubby, ripped Victorian style clothing. This didn't compute with me, I'd never seen anything like that before & was obviously only used to modern clothing. I looked them up and down with suspicion asked them why were they dressed like that? They were absolutely solid and very real. The girl (in a grubby white petticoat thing) said to me 'we're poor'. But the answer didn't make sense to me because so were many people but I'd never seen anyone else dressed like that and really dirty / unwashed, where were their jeans and trainers? The girl then said to me 'come and play with us' and I said no, our meal would be ready soon and we had to go. I was aware that we weren't meant to be there and these kids were weird, I didn't want to play with them.

I told my brothers we were going back (they listened to me at that age!) and we went back to the restaurant, I told my mum that some kids in old fashioned dirty victorian clothes had asked us to play with them and was told to not go to that place again. I never thought about it again until I was older - who were they and why were they dressed like that?!

I thought had they been due to go to a fancy dress party - but then they were young children and aren't kids parties usually at lunch time / afternoon? And there's no housing over there, so even if they had been to a party there was no reason for them to be there. Also who would dress their child in a ripped dirty costume with dirt all over them? They looked like they hadn't washed in weeks - this was no fancy dress outfit, it was more like they'd been dug up (excuse the phrase!). They weren't distressed or anything, there was no sense that these were children in danger or anything - they were quite calm and matter of fact. Had my parents thought so, they would have acted. But that's not the vibe these kids gave off.

I asked my mum recently if she remembers me talking about it at the time and she said yes. Anyway i still love the building, and didn't ever see them there again
If you or someone you know has Ancestry.com, might be worth looking that place up in the Victorian censuses - although that is quite a few decades' worth - it won't take too long if there aren't too many other pubs on the street, (as they're not usually listed by name, just house number). I'd also run a search on a 19thC newspaper database but then I'm a nerd like that. I grew up in a 'badly' haunted house (is the only word I can think for it) and as I research for what I stupidly call a 'living', have often tried to find out about whoever lived in that house in the 19thC (as our ghost too, wore generic 'Victorian' clothing but nothing specific enough to have a rough idea of the decade and like you, I was only a kid when I saw it, so had no sense of clothing history yet). Try as I might, I can't find out about anything ever happening there - and according to the census, it was usually lived in by a farmer (what I think I probably saw, that or a labourer), his family and the occasional servant. But although it looked like a terraced house when I lived in it, we'd always known it used to be a farmhouse (the rest of the terrace got built along from it, until what had been a farm in a field became a street).

You may have more luck and find something. If the building was always a pub - things happened in pubs in the nineteenth century (fights, inquests, people about to be hung stopping by for a last drink, body snatchers used them as bases in Georgian times...

Also once saw a 'mucky' ghost - and he reminded me of nothing so much as the tramps I used to see in Leeds station when I was a kid. Those people were dirty on a whole new level - dirty like you never see now, not even homeless people look like tramps (and probably many people who weren't, in the past) used to look.
 
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