blessmycottonsocks
Antediluvian
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2014
- Messages
- 9,443
- Location
- Wessex and Mercia
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.
Hi Maximus OtterMy initial thought was travellers, hence the accent question.
My second thought: Re-enactors?
maximus otter
Hi Bless my cotton socks - not unlike this place, however the building is 18th century and looks more spread out (i mean more greenery, wider spaces, you could pretend you were in the country) - it's on the croydon/surrey border, sort of enclosed & protected from the urban around it.The description of the inn made me think of the Crown and Cushion pub and Meade Hall in Minley woods near the Surrey/Hampshire border.
There's a cricket ground right next to the Meade Hall, where I play occasionally. The premises date from 16th century and are allegedly haunted:
View attachment 13259
We can tell the difference still today between people trying to look poor (hipsters with there Andy Cap flat caps etc) and genuinely poor people that still have a ground in dirt, tired ..
You've clearly not visited Cromer recently .. I'm knee deep in Londoners 'dressing down' here! .. it's cosplay hell ..I
I don't think hipster fashion has got quite that authentic yet haha
Hi Bless my cotton socks - not unlike this place, however the building is 18th century and looks more spread out (i mean more greenery, wider spaces, you could pretend you were in the country) - it's on the croydon/surrey border, sort of enclosed & protected from the urban around it.
Bet your 16th century place has it's fair share of ghosts, so much life & history!
It has! And I've just remembered having a couple of ales there after cricket maybe 4 years ago, when some guys came in dressed in Civil War era garb. I assumed they were Sealed Knot members quenching their thirst after a hard day's reenactment. ...... Or were they?
We've done various periods living history over the years, and scared a few people without realising it, wandering around at night...It has! And I've just remembered having a couple of ales there after cricket maybe 4 years ago, when some guys came in dressed in Civil War era garb. I assumed they were Sealed Knot members quenching their thirst after a hard day's reenactment. ...... Or were they?
Both of which sound scarier! Thank goodness my chicken nuggets kids menu meal was almost readyI'm surprised that everyone has targeted the ghost explanation when the experience more suggests time slip; or even "non human entities trying to entice children away"...
I'm a normally biassed towards time slips, but the strangely unexpressive voice of the little girl sounded a bit worrying, somewhat like those rather sinister black eyed children that knock on people's doors in the US and ask to be let in! But the chicken nuggets came to your rescue.Both of which sound scarier! Thank goodness my chicken nuggets kids menu meal was almost ready
Maybe not, but it wouldn't have been impossible to get shoes by stealing, finding them amongst rubbish, etc. May be time slip, may be something else.The one thing holding me back from mentally labelling it as a timeslip experience was Jacket Potato's recollection that the girl was wearing black shoes. I doubt any really poor family in, say, the mid-Victorian era would have spent money on shoes.
Hi Queen Griddle - i think they were black, however it was a long time ago and i was very young (and i'm still no expert on period clothing) so could be wrong on that. However overall it was still a very strange experience and it doesn't quite sit right with meThe one thing holding me back from mentally labelling it as a timeslip experience was Jacket Potato's recollection that the girl was wearing black shoes. I doubt any really poor family in, say, the mid-Victorian era would have spent money on shoes.