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A15 Lincolnshire Road Ghost (Ruskington / Sleaford)

So, there's not really been any change on this thread since 2012. I had hoped Sarah might drop by again. Ah, well.

Still one of the Fortean cases to have grabbed my attention the most, over the years. And I've still yet to drive that road...
 
Back in the days shortly before I was a student 1997/98 I watched a shit load of daytime TV. I seem to remember at some point while watching a broadcast of This Morning that they ran some kind of Supernatural Phone-in section one day. I think that the Rev Lionel Fanthorpe may have been involved. It was the late 90s, Fortean TV was still on the air. It was likely.

Now, during the course of this phone in, amongst the usual mentals you'd expect from a live TV phone-in, they received a call from this guy who sounded pretty damned shook up relaying his experience. If I recall rightly he'd been driving late at night on a road (near either Nottingham or Lincoln I think..?) and all of a sudden hit a figure in the road who clung to his windscreen for a while before being brushed off and disappearing. There wasn't anybody actually there, though. This was definitely a ghost.

He claimed not believe in such things, but this shook him up so badly. The guy had been literally terrified.

Nothing much more was thought of this, other callers were put on, the segment ended. Job done. Only at the end of the show they said that since that guy had phoned in they'd received several other calls, all relaying the same story on the same patch of road.

Now this was at the point were This Morning was still fronted by Richard and Judy. But Judy was... absent through ill-health. and during that period Richard was prone to going a bit... mental. (I seem to remember one week he trued to start up an impromptu 'This Morning Band' which he would sing with at the end of the week) He was truly doing anything he felt he wanted to. And so naturally insisted that they looked into this further...

I remember seeing the first follow up section they did of this, which included some more of the many accounts the show had received from people since going off air that day. All on this same stretch of road.

The follow up was pretty disappointing from what I recall. A rushed attempt to drive down the stretch of road in the daylight, which yielded nothing. They'd also discovered that the road was supposed to be some kind of 'witches hollow' at some point, and that their might have been a connection to a local RAF base or something? I don't remember. But they did say that they were intending to do another more detailed follow up piece.

I never saw that.

Does anybody remember this show? Or more specifically which stretch of road it was supposed to be, and a slightly better researched explanation of it. Like I say it was somewhere in the Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire area. But other than that it was over 10 years ago, and I'm buggered if I can remember which, now.

It sounded, from that piece on the show at least, like this might have been a case worth reviewing and researching. With enough people having reported it.
Hi I am Kevin Whelan,who experienced this and was on Richard and Judy. I still live in the Sleaford area. I have read some utter rubbish on this site about what I saw that night and what I actually said.
 
To be honest, on the day in question my wife at the time called in. I had just bought a Beach Buggy and was doing some work on it. She called me and told me that the TV company wanted to talk to me. I got back to them and after the live phone chat with Richard and Julia Carling it went mad. The TV company came over the next day and got so much of it completely wrong. I was on various other TV shows relating to this one incident and went to see other people at universities. People were contacting me for over two years later. The TV company must have given them my details. It was a very strange couple of years in my life. One thing I would like to say is.... I wasn't drinking alcohol on that night. Anyone who knows me will vouch I am not a drinker and certainly never have ever taken any illegal drugs in any form. I was completely awake on the night. I saw what I saw and it frightened the hell out of me.
 
Hi I am Kevin Whelan,who experienced this and was on Richard and Judy. I still live in the Sleaford area. I have read some utter rubbish on this site about what I saw that night and what I actually said.

Hi Kevin, welcome to the message board. I'm sorry to hear that you don't feel you have been well represented here up to now. If you're open to the idea of setting the record straight, I know I would be really interested to hear your recollections, and I would be amazed if I was the only one. Might you be willing to give us your account?

Edit: my post crossed with your second - it sounds like there was a lot of unwelcome attention that came your way. The interest is clearly there, but your well-being is more important, please don't feel pressured to share anything if it might rekindle any distress.
 
Seconded that - Kevin, please do share your experience with us. I am sure you will find this place quite pleasant and open-minded. Thanks in advance
 
Certain things about the story stand out for me.

Firstly that it was late at night, or rather a Sunday morning in a rural area. Far be it from me to suggest that Kevin had been at a boozer somewhere and was on his way home, but he wouldn't be the first, I'm sure.

Secondly the bit about the cassette player. He says the player was on then he was baffled and threw the fascia out. Out of the window? An open window? A window left open to give him some fresh air on his way home late at night? Whilst he sang along to his cassette player? I do the same thing (apart from throwing things out of the window) when I'm on my way home late at night, to stop myself from falling asleep at the wheel. I bet I'm not alone here, right?

I'll not proud of it, but I'll confess that it hasn't always worked and I've jerked back into wakefulness with a start, heart hammering as I find myself belting down the road ("faster than I should have been"?), crapping myself at what I've allowed to happen and thanking my lucky stars I'm still in one piece. Sometimes it has been the appearance of someone running out in front of the car that has startled me awake, or large animals, typical hypnagogic hallucinations.

To me Kev's story sounds just like he fell asleep or was falling asleep at the wheel, perhaps after a couple of sherberts, and woke suddenly, befuddled, as he travelled a stretch of road which knows has had at least one recent fatality (he also states that it happened just before "a very very tight bend"). I think his unconscious mind was shaking his conscious mind back into full control before he hit that tight bend when it would have been curtains for both minds!

Add to that the fact he thought the face was there for 40 or 50 seconds during which time it seems he threw his cassette fascia out. This sounds strange to me. Did he throw it at the face, or as I interpret it, just out of the window? If you saw what looked like a person at your window at such a time, would you throw your cassette fascia out of the window, or brake hard? To me, the appearance of a face by the window at speed would trigger an immediate jamming on of the anchors in a normal, wide-awake sober driver, throwing something out of the window is just not natural, even if something has terrified you. I know that I'm falling asleep when I start thinking sentences that don't make sense, complete gibberish, and do things for no apparent reason. I've yet to chuck my tape player out of the window, but there's always a first time.

Anyway, I would imagine you'd get a bloody good look at it, 40 or 50 seconds is a long time - get your stopwatch out and see, more than enough time to be sure of what the hell is going on. Unless, of course you aren't fully awake.

You'd cover a considerable distance at 60+mph as well, can anyone local drive past the scene and estimate how far he'd have gone with this "bin bag" hanging off his wing mirror?


I think more interesting than the supposed ghost angle is the RAF transmitter which apparently prevents TV broadcasts. To me, the answer to multiple experiences in this locale is more likely to be related to MOD transmission equipment, secret or not, and some kind of electro-magnetics.
I am Kevin Whelan.... I never threw the facia or the cassette out of the window and never suggested so. I can ember as if it was yesterday I had a cassette of Superbad and the Isley Brothers were playing at the time I was trying to switch the damn tape player off. I was not under the influence of anything and had not had a few sherbets. The times and distances I mention are completely off the cuff at the time I was talking to Richard and Julia. Now years later I do accept that some of the lengths of time of the incident would have been a lot less. I was absolutely petrified on the night it happened.
 
Hi Kevin, welcome to the message board. I'm sorry to hear that you don't feel you have been well represented here up to now. If you're open to the idea of setting the record straight, I know I would be really interested to hear your recollections, and I would be amazed if I was the only one. Might you be willing to give us your account?

Edit: my post crossed with your second - it sounds like there was a lot of unwelcome attention that came your way. The interest is clearly there, but your well-being is more important, please don't feel pressured to share anything if it might rekindle any distress.
I cam across this site purely by accident. I happened to type my name into google(we all do it) and all this stuff came up about the Ruskington horror. (It wasn't at Ruskington) I then went onto this site after reading other bits and bobs. I then joined it as some of the things written about the night on this site were so incorrect. I never said or implied a lot of what has been written. I had been traveling home early in the morning. I have had it suggested to me so many times that I was drunk, or under the influence of something. I am not a drinker and have never ever in my life ever taken anything to do with drugs, it's just not me. After I experienced what I saw, I remember eventual led getting home and just getting out the car ( a blue mondeo) and running into the house, later finding out I had left the car door still wide open. When getting in the house I locked the door straight behind me and ran upstairs and told my wife. I never ever actually said ghost to her I said I had seen a scary image. I was actually crying at this time through fear. I got undressed and went into the shower. After that I tried sleeping but I couldn't. I was still very frightened. I did eventually drop off. And went through it all again with the wife the next day
 
I am going to read in more detail some of the things written on here over the next couple of days. I shall correct anything I think is wrong or disagree with. To be honest this event went on to have a hold over me for a couple of years. I did experience some very strange things. My wife at the time is deceased. I have moved on from that experience and feel I can discuss it in a more rational and less emotional way
 
We would be very interested in reading your story Kevin, when or if you feel up to relating it. It would be interesting to see just how far it was twisted from what you originally witnessed too.
 
It is always very useful to have the original person who experienced it to relate their tale, start to finish.
It really helps to clear up any inaccuracies that may have crept in over the years.
I look forward to hearing your account, Kevin.
 
I am Kevin Whelan.... I never threw the facia or the cassette out of the window and never suggested so. I can ember as if it was yesterday I had a cassette of Superbad and the Isley Brothers were playing at the time I was trying to switch the damn tape player off. I was not under the influence of anything and had not had a few sherbets. The times and distances I mention are completely off the cuff at the time I was talking to Richard and Julia. Now years later I do accept that some of the lengths of time of the incident would have been a lot less. I was absolutely petrified on the night it happened.


Well, I can't find where I was quoting from now, but somewhere there must have been reference to you throwing the fascia out. I can find a reference to you tearing it "away", but as I made a point of it being said to have been thrown out, I'm sure there's an account somewhere with those exact words. Or rather, there was, but it may have been edited in the ensuing 6 years. This was from discussion of a second or third hand account anyway.
My comments on your alcohol intake were merely supposition to explain torpor whilst driving, rather than being so pissed you can't see straight ;)

Anyway, welcome to the discussion, no disrespect to you was intended, and now we can at least get the whole story straight from the horse's mouth. I look forward to you clarifying the details when you get chance (no rush, like, this thread is a slow-burner...), it'll at the very least demonstrate how eyewitness accounts of anything change with each re-telling by other parties.
 
To be honest, on the day in question my wife at the time called in. I had just bought a Beach Buggy and was doing some work on it. She called me and told me that the TV company wanted to talk to me. I got back to them and after the live phone chat with Richard and Julia Carling it went mad. The TV company came over the next day and got so much of it completely wrong. I was on various other TV shows relating to this one incident and went to see other people at universities. People were contacting me for over two years later. The TV company must have given them my details. It was a very strange couple of years in my life. One thing I would like to say is.... I wasn't drinking alcohol on that night. Anyone who knows me will vouch I am not a drinker and certainly never have ever taken any illegal drugs in any form. I was completely awake on the night. I saw what I saw and it frightened the hell out of me.


Hi Kevin. I don't know if you'll see this post, but I'd hope that you do. I'm the guy who started this thread all those years back.

I certainly hope that my comments on this thread did not offend you, or were interpreted in any way to be disrespectful. That was certainly not my intention at any point. Far from it.

As I have said several times on this thread that broadcast at the tail end of the 90s has stuck with me. And you yourself are a large part as to why. Because you came across as being a very genuine, very down to earth guy.

A lot of the kind of people who do call in to this kind of phone-ins and the like are people who want to believe in ghosts. People who are searching for something. Hoping to see something.

Well, from your comments at the time that clearly was not the case for you. Whatever it was that you saw that night, it appeared very much to have found you. :)

Let me make one thing clear, I wholeheartedly believe that you saw something that night. That you encountered something. I certainly don't believe that you were drunk. Though thee whole thing does sound quite sobering to be honest. :)

I do hope that this thread hasn't offended you, and that you do come back to see these comments. While, as you say, it was a very strange couple of years of your life (and I would quite understand if you did not wish to talk about it any further) anything you might be willing to share about your experience would be very welcome and appreciated.


I cam across this site purely by accident. I happened to type my name into google(we all do it) and all this stuff came up about the Ruskington horror. (It wasn't at Ruskington) I then went onto this site after reading other bits and bobs. I then joined it as some of the things written about the night on this site were so incorrect. I never said or implied a lot of what has been written. I had been traveling home early in the morning. I have had it suggested to me so many times that I was drunk, or under the influence of something. I am not a drinker and have never ever in my life ever taken anything to do with drugs, it's just not me. After I experienced what I saw, I remember eventual led getting home and just getting out the car ( a blue mondeo) and running into the house, later finding out I had left the car door still wide open. When getting in the house I locked the door straight behind me and ran upstairs and told my wife. I never ever actually said ghost to her I said I had seen a scary image. I was actually crying at this time through fear. I got undressed and went into the shower. After that I tried sleeping but I couldn't. I was still very frightened. I did eventually drop off. And went through it all again with the wife the next day


Thank you for sharing that. And yes, we do all google our own names from time to time. Though granted few of us probably discover threads such as this relating to us :)
 
I know this is a bit late...
Just reading through this thread and noticed on post no.19 page 1 you mention the book Atlas of Magical Britain. I have this, it's by Janet and Colin Bord. Just had a look and there is no mention of Sleaford or Ruskington. Cranwell gets a mention for an old witch legend, but there are no nearby road ghosts or Phantom Hitch hikers I'm afraid.
Anyway, amazing thread. You did a lot of work and it's a great read, thanks.
 
I know this is a bit late...
Just reading through this thread and noticed on post no.19 page 1 you mention the book Atlas of Magical Britain. I have this, it's by Janet and Colin Bord. Just had a look and there is no mention of Sleaford or Ruskington. Cranwell gets a mention for an old witch legend, but there are no nearby road ghosts or Phantom Hitch hikers I'm afraid.
Anyway, amazing thread. You did a lot of work and it's a great read, thanks.
What about the A15 heading to Sleaford?
I vaguely remember some mention of ghost sightings on that road.
 
I know this is a bit late...
Just reading through this thread and noticed on post no.19 page 1 you mention the book Atlas of Magical Britain. I have this, it's by Janet and Colin Bord. Just had a look and there is no mention of Sleaford or Ruskington. Cranwell gets a mention for an old witch legend, but there are no nearby road ghosts or Phantom Hitch hikers I'm afraid.
Anyway, amazing thread. You did a lot of work and it's a great read, thanks.


Thanks, David. I don't drop by here anywhere near as much as I used to or aught to.

Thanks for taking a look. Interesting to know. I very much suspect that whichever This Morning researcher was involved here went of on a Cranwell tangent, and ran with it.

We did have that associated caller who was talking about her father having seen this figure in fields near RAF Cranwell. And if you were searching for 'Cranwell' rather than 'Sleaford' you'd probably end up heading down that separate route.

'Oh, wait! Witch! Witch Legend!!!!'

And the research tangent begins...

Nothing relating to the majority of sighting reported here suggests any connection of the kind. Even if you take into account that one report connected didn't occur on this actual stretch of road, I would still strongly believe that the figure reported was likely the same. It's the same reported stance, same action.

That's what fascinates me, here. Something seen, by multiple unconnected individuals, around the same geographic area which seemingly cannot be explained.
 
Just found this thread and thought I would share what happened to me tonight.
I live in Ruskington, and was due to collect an item at 6pm from a Facebook seller who lives in Cranwell village.
I left home at 5.50 and travelled out of the village along the back roads until I came to the a15, where I turned left towards sleaford.
I was aware of the time and if I'm honest I began to drive slightly above the limit for that stretch of road, I round the first and second slight bends then onto the straight stretch of road towards the Cranwell turn off, when I began to break, I could swear someone was crossing the road, I made sure I broke considerably so as to give them plenty of space to make it across, but the figure stopped just across the centre line, it was a black figure I would say of a man, by this time vehicles were approaching from the other side. The figure silhouetted against the oncoming headlights did not move and at the point the oncoming van would have hit the person it's front headlight on the dives side went out. I have to say I am freaked out I have shivers cascading from head to toe and when I think of it my eyes begin to water. 19/2/2016 @ 17:54 Road conditions were dark and I was speeding just prior to the experience.
 
I wouldn't always dismiss the testimony of people who come forward after a road ghost has been mentioned in the media. For this reason.

Friend of mine genuinely did see the Stockbridge Bypass Ghost - or two of them - I think he said he saw them in the 1980s, (or early-mid 90s?) when he was living in Sheffield.

Of all the friends I have known in my life, he was the most credible person - a down to earth Lancashire lad, who had a high flying job in programming so quite a 'scientific' turn of mind. He had been a total cynic. And for a number of years after he saw it, it stuck in his mind as a weird thing but he was so down to earth he didn't think it was supernatural.

What he saw - and it must have looked solid and real - was a monk, and a boy, on the side of the road. He thought it was odd, seeing a monk but by no means impossible. It stuck in his mind but he thought nothing more of it til he saw a TV programme about the Stockbridge Bypass ghosts. He'd never heard the urban myths either, originally being from Lancs and just living temporarily in Sheffield. But when he saw it on TV he immediately knew he'd also seen the monk ghost. (I dunno if other accounts mention a boy as well, or not?)
 
Forgot to say, but I also saw the story the OP refers to, on the Richard & Judy show. And it has also stayed with me. It was around 1998 or 9 that my old friend told me what he saw on the Stockbridge Bypass, and I distinctly recall telling him of this story I'd seen on TV. It was probably one of the most compelling accounts I'd seen on TV, and very credible.

Talking of road ghosts I'm aware there is one on a road I use a lot, the A64, somewhere outside of York. Wonder if anyone else has heard that one? My husband saw a woman on the side of the road, looking distressed and wearing what he thought were 1940s/early 50s clothes - no bus stops, or houses, or a car parked near, on the B1222 not far from York. On a different stretch of the same road, really quite lose to that spot, though, we both saw a 'ghost cat' (I can hardly bring myself to type it as it looks so ridiculous, and our kids still don't believe us). We both saw it and it was transparent (which not many cats are!) I can't find a single account of anyone else reporting anything whatsoever on that road but I've had more than one strange occurrence on it, as has my husband - the cat was the only one we both saw. The B1222 is a very old road - it would have to pre-date enclosures, so may even go so far back as medieval times. (Just as the A64 was an old coaching route in the 18thC/19thC).
 
I am Kevin Whelan.... I never threw the facia or the cassette out of the window and never suggested so. I can ember as if it was yesterday I had a cassette of Superbad and the Isley Brothers were playing at the time I was trying to switch the damn tape player off. I was not under the influence of anything and had not had a few sherbets. The times and distances I mention are completely off the cuff at the time I was talking to Richard and Julia. Now years later I do accept that some of the lengths of time of the incident would have been a lot less. I was absolutely petrified on the night it happened.

Have I read this wrong or was Kevin listening to the cassette soundtrack of Superbad the film on which the Isley Brothers appear? Or a song called Superbad?
 
Is this fortean or what!!! Yesterday morning, I set up a journey to attend a conference this week in Norwich. The journey is from the North of England to Norwich, which takes me down the A1 to Coddington, onto the A17 then it cuts across the A15 just North of Sleaford!!!!!! I didn't read this thread until I got home last night after id looked at the maps etc......!!!!! a bit spooky for my liking, ......if I see anything ill erm let you all know!!!!!!!!
 
Yes! Do this thing Bororeturn1! :clap:
 
Have I read this wrong or was Kevin listening to the cassette soundtrack of Superbad the film on which the Isley Brothers appear? Or a song called Superbad?
Maybe Supertramp? But a guy from the Isley Brothers did record a song called Superbad...
 
Is this fortean or what!!! Yesterday morning, I set up a journey to attend a conference this week in Norwich. The journey is from the North of England to Norwich, which takes me down the A1 to Coddington, onto the A17 then it cuts across the A15 just North of Sleaford!!!!!! I didn't read this thread until I got home last night after id looked at the maps etc......!!!!! a bit spooky for my liking, ......if I see anything ill erm let you all know!!!!!!!!
Definitely let us know!!

If you do see anything strange, please, please let us know. If you do and then should I ever need to go to Lincolnshire, the Fens, or Norfolk, I'll use a helicopter! Dark country roads are scary enough without road ghosts added into the terror.

I'm still nervous of the word bluebell because of Blue Bell Hill and think myself quite brave to wear bluebell perfume!
 
If you're on Facebook, look up Neil Arnold - he has several groups running on Kent ghosts including Pluckley, Blue Bell Hill etc.
 
Definitely let us know!!

If you do see anything strange, please, please let us know. If you do and then should I ever need to go to Lincolnshire, the Fens, or Norfolk, I'll use a helicopter! Dark country roads are scary enough without road ghosts added into the terror.

I'm still nervous of the word bluebell because of Blue Bell Hill and think myself quite brave to wear bluebell perfume!
I'd never heard of the Blue Bell Hill ghost, so just went to look it up. And it occurred to me... this is a known person, who died within living memory (1965) said to be a 'ghost'... I wonder how people's families and friends feel when they read about it? They knew their loved one - and whether they'd be a likely ghost or not.

I read a ghost story local to here, a while back. I'd link to it but I can't find it so maybe it was just in the local press, dunno, but... People in a village near here kept reporting seeing a gardener, working in the grounds of what is how a hotel type thing - he'd be there, then vanish - probably hard to date by his clothing, as I'm guessing the average gardener looked fairly nondescript and similar for decades of the 20thC... Anyway, this woman reads about it, and realises they;'e describing her father - who died within living memory. I couldn't help wondering how strange it would seem, if people started describing a ghost in a certain place... and you realised it was someone you'd known!

I've seen other accounts of ghosts in say, 60s or 70s clothing and thought I'm not sure I'd tell anyone about that, if the person was identifiable, and their loved ones could still be alive...

ETA: Forgot to add, what made the ghostly gardener worse is, the graveyard where he is buried happens to be a few metres from the remains of the garden where he has been seen and where he worked, when alive. There was a photo of his gravestone, and it is very close to where he worked.
 
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