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Chysauster. Never had the strongest feeling of get the heyhoo out as this place. It literally raised heckles before I even knew humans had heckles.
That rang a bell and I just went to look it up - I've been there, too. I remember saying to my husband "It feels like there's little pigs running about everywhere!" such a random thing. I guess at one point there might have been. But I could kind of feel that... One of my few Derek Acorah moments.... That was... that place I can't spell! That would have been around 2000.
 
At weekends they'd often meet up and drive out around the surrounding smaller towns and villages, looking for Country pubs and the like to have a pint or two or a Sunday lunch.

One weekend in the mid-noughties they stopped by in one such small village, but were struck at quite how quiet it was. No sign of people around on what was quite a warm day (in April but still) struck them as being a little odd. But they had spotted a village pub that they decided to get a pint in. The pub itself appeared to be empty, beyond the bar staff. They ordered drinks and sat down. As the only customers.

I think it was my Brother's mate Chris who picked up on it first, but eventually, they all began to realise what they could hear in the background. It was an audio recording in German. A speech being given.

And it wasn't hard to work out which Austrian gentleman was delivering it.

They sat there, mostly in silence, sipping their pints to the soundtrack of what certainly appeared to be a certain Nuremberg Rally. They all felt rather uncomfortable, drank rather quickly, and decided to leave.

As they did one of them did decide to google the date of Hitler's birthday, and found that worryingly it tallied. They were all of the opinion that it couldn't be a coincidence, and that whoever the landlord was they were clearly trying to mark the birthday of the fallen dictator.

The went home rather quickly after that.

Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the village.

I wonder if it was somewhere associated with Kevin Wheatcroft, who is known for his massive collection of 3rd Reich stuff? IIRC his family owned Donington Park, and lots of land/property in that neck of the woods...
 
I wonder if it was somewhere associated with Kevin Wheatcroft, who is known for his massive collection of 3rd Reich stuff? IIRC his family owned Donington Park, and lots of land/property in that neck of the woods...

Crikey. I have no idea. But I always find myself somewhat suspicious of anybody who would wish to display such stuff as memorabilia. I mean it's not quite the same as a football shirt or a movie prop. It's fine if you're looking at them in context, in a museum or an exhibition. But Artifacts from a regime which killed millions should not be displayed in a more casual situation. Certainly, if they had been on display amongst the brick-a-brack of a country pub that would have been in bad taste.
 
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Crikey. I have no idea. But I always find myself somewhat suspicious of anybody who would wish to display such stuff as memorabilia. I mean it's not quite the same as a football shirt or a movie prop. It's fine if you're looking at them in context, in a museum or an exhibition. But Artifacts from a regime which killed millions should not be displayed in a more casual situation. Certainly, if they had been on display amongst the brick-a-brack of a country pub that would have been in bad taste.

I suspect that chap is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic. His stuff, arguably the largest collection in the world, isn't on display, and he has so much that he has storage containers and buildings crammed full. Maybe he has an inventory, but the impression I have is that he's a spoiled twat spending his dead Daddy's fortune on collecting stuff that even he won't get to sit and gaze at, however morbid the items may be. I can understand him wanting to have a load of (cool/evil - delete as applicable) Panzers etc to play around in on his massive estate, but going out of his way to salvage Hitler's cell door from Landsberg...well, the word "bell-end" springs to mind. A classic example of why rich people shouldn't be allowed to breed.
 
That rang a bell and I just went to look it up - I've been there, too. I remember saying to my husband "It feels like there's little pigs running about everywhere!" such a random thing. I guess at one point there might have been. But I could kind of feel that... One of my few Derek Acorah moments.... That was... that place I can't spell! That would have been around 2000.
Creepy! We went a few years after you probably, got out of the car and it felt like the air was humming or buzzing. The three of us had the strongest feeling of dread and danger so we noped it right back out of the place.
 
Interesting. I almost had the opposite feeling of it once being a place full of life and quite positive. I'd always remembered that things about pigs running about but had forgotten the name of the place... I guess places have a different feeling for us all and different at different times, too.
 
In the same sort of neck of the woods, I remember visiting the remains of Grimspound on Dartmoor during our regular family holiday to Plymouth. After wandering the grassy mounds left of the round houses and boundary walls, we continued walking to reach the abandoned medieval village of Hound Tor.

It was here that my mom, a stoic Black Country girl, refused to loiter and simply told us we were leaving. I remember her turning heel and hurrying away, saying the place felt wrong and didnt want us there.

It was strange as we visited all sorts of ruins, monuments etc and this was the only time she ever had such a reaction too "place".
 
In the same sort of neck of the woods, I remember visiting the remains of Grimspound on Dartmoor during our regular family holiday to Plymouth. After wandering the grassy mounds left of the round houses and boundary walls, we continued walking to reach the abandoned medieval village of Hound Tor.

It was here that my mom, a stoic Black Country girl, refused to loiter and simply told us we were leaving. I remember her turning heel and hurrying away, saying the place felt wrong and didnt want us there.

It was strange as we visited all sorts of ruins, monuments etc and this was the only time she ever had such a reaction too "place".

Did she ever talk about it afterwards? Any ideas as to what may have spooked her?
 
In the same sort of neck of the woods, I remember visiting the remains of Grimspound on Dartmoor during our regular family holiday to Plymouth. After wandering the grassy mounds left of the round houses and boundary walls, we continued walking to reach the abandoned medieval village of Hound Tor.

It was here that my mom, a stoic Black Country girl, refused to loiter and simply told us we were leaving. I remember her turning heel and hurrying away, saying the place felt wrong and didnt want us there.

It was strange as we visited all sorts of ruins, monuments etc and this was the only time she ever had such a reaction too "place".
I've seen a few youtube wild-campering videos from there, iirc someone mentioned Arthur Conan Doyle got inspiration for Hound of the Baskervilles from there.
 
n the same sort of neck of the woods, I remember visiting the remains of Grimspound on Dartmoor during our regular family holiday to Plymouth. After wandering the grassy mounds left of the round houses and boundary walls, we continued walking to reach the abandoned medieval village of Hound Tor.

It was here that my mom, a stoic Black Country girl, refused to loiter and simply told us we were leaving. I remember her turning heel and hurrying away, saying the place felt wrong and didnt want us there.

That's a shame, I've had great fun stomping round Hundatora. I always thought it would be a great place to escape to if civilisation collapsed, but then I'm weird like that.
 
Bugmum, I’ve often had that self-same thought whilst rambling on Dartmoor, but a friend who has managed country estates all his life reckons hordes of Plymothians would descend on the moor to scavenge whatever they could find (mostly sheep)

His suggestion is to follow the River Dart downstream from the high moor and find an isolated but fertile tributary valley in the South Hams where you could grow things and keep chickens etc without intrusion.

But Dartmoor is far more romantic
 
Not sure if I ever posted our weird trip to Heptonstall?

Years ago, right back in the 1980s, my mate was visiting. She'd moved to the US but was back in the UK staying with us for a week or so. One day she hired a car and took us on a day trip. She'd always wanted to visit Heptonstall, to see the grave of US poet, Sylvia Plath and so Heptonstall it was after the obligatory trip to Haworth.

Anyway, after Haworth it was getting to almost dusk by the time she drove us upto Heptonstall. Yorkshireperson but I'd never been there before. What was eerie about it was the shell of the old church, and the current church built next to it. Very creepy. I remember saying I didn't want to go there ever again. Something truly scary about it.

We start searching the graveyard for Sylvia's grave but it's getting darker by the minute. Eventually a local spots us and points us to where it is - we were totally in the wrong area. We visit it and friend returns to US content she got to see what she came to see. I found the place creepy and unsettling - not the SP connection, just that gutted church...

Somewhere round about 2010, we decide to go back up there on a day trip. This time, afternoon and broad daylight.

As before, we struggle to find the grave. We have no idea where it was - totally forgotten. Just as we're wondering... A head pops up above a lintel of one of the windows of the empty church and an American voice (female) calls out instructions to tell us where the grave is! Not Sylvia, or remotely ghostly, obviously - just a weird thing that made us laugh/creeped out simultaneously.
 
Not sure if I ever posted our weird trip to Heptonstall?.

Sorry, but as soon as you mentioned an eerie church I had to look it up.
Yep - steer clear of that at night.

heptonstall_old_church.jpg
 
His suggestion is to follow the River Dart downstream from the high moor and find an isolated but fertile tributary valley in the South Hams where you could grow things and keep chickens etc without intrusion.

We've got friends who live in Harbertonford, that might fit the bill.

But I'm glad I'm not the only one who has these thoughts!
 
Has anyone voted for the deserted village of Wharram Percy yet? I've never felt it to be creepy myself, but then I only go up there on lovely clear bright days. The wolds are not good places to be when the weather is bad, I've been stuck in snow up there more times than I care to think, when it's been just mizzly lower down. I have a wonderful picture of my son and his dog at Wharram, it's my favourite picture of both of them in the world, so I may be biased For the place, rather than Against.
 
Hi catseye been to wharram percy a few times myself lovely place.
Like the Yorkshire wolds too.If you get a chance walk the pocklington canal walk 9 miles .
Easy going and loads of wildlife.Mrs who me and I spent some quality time there.
 
Has anyone voted for the deserted village of Wharram Percy yet? I've never felt it to be creepy myself, but then I only go up there on lovely clear bright days. The wolds are not good places to be when the weather is bad, I've been stuck in snow up there more times than I care to think, when it's been just mizzly lower down. I have a wonderful picture of my son and his dog at Wharram, it's my favourite picture of both of them in the world, so I may be biased For the place, rather than Against.

I dug at Wharram Percy 1979-85ish. It was one of the supervised digs for my degree and then I carried on going for a couple of years.

Used to give me the grues, and I've slept in the same tent perfectly happily in a medieval cistercian graveyard, a medieval castle yard, an earlier medieval castle motte and so on.
 
Morning frideswide was it an interesting dig . I’m going on a dig in the spring which is fairly local for me.
Don’t want to say where for obvious reasons. Also I think there is going to be a dig in York fairly soon.
Any spooky experiences to tell us from any of your digs. Who me now hopping from foot to foot hoping for a ghost story :exercise:
 
Sorry, but as soon as you mentioned an eerie church I had to look it up.
Yep - steer clear of that at night.

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And imagine a disembodied head popping up behind one of them windows and an American, young female's voice helpfully pointing us to the grave of the American, young female poet... Nearly crapped ourselves. At the same time - it was funny.
 
I dug at Wharram Percy 1979-85ish. It was one of the supervised digs for my degree and then I carried on going for a couple of years.

Used to give me the grues, and I've slept in the same tent perfectly happily in a medieval cistercian graveyard, a medieval castle yard, an earlier medieval castle motte and so on.

Oh my husband's friend John dug there for quite some time. Oddly, husband was just saying to me last week when we get the chance we should walk t'dog up there - we've never got round to it. It's quite a walk from where you can park, I think?
 
Morning frideswide was it an interesting dig . I’m going on a dig in the spring which is fairly local for me.
Don’t want to say where for obvious reasons. Also I think there is going to be a dig in York fairly soon.
Any spooky experiences to tell us from any of your digs. Who me now hopping from foot to foot hoping for a ghost story :exercise:
There's been a big Roman dig going on, as York Archaeological Trust are planning on building a Roman world to go along with Jorvik... I've heard rumours of a couple of the finds, so far. Sounds interesting. (Happen to know a handful of archaeologists).
 
Journey's End ?

I dropped my bike off for an MOT in Bierton on Friday and spent a little while looking for Corbet's Piece, the site of the last gibbet erected in Bucks (1773) with massive thanks to @Eponastill for researching the grid ref.
I was hoping to reach the site from a Farm but ingress and egress was blocked by two trucks loading sheep. A gate leading to Corbet's Piece was a bit muddy and construction of the HS2 rail blocked access from the other direction. Well it all looked peachy on the satelite view.
I will try to find the farmhouse where Corbet had done his deed when the land dries out, I think the diversionary footpath around the gibbet site has now been lost forever. 250 years after the event, I was 18 months too late.
Bugger.

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Journey's End ?

I dropped my bike off for an MOT in Bierton on Friday and spent a little while looking for Corbet's Piece, the site of the last gibbet erected in Bucks (1773) with massive thanks to @Eponastill for researching the grid ref.
I was hoping to reach the site from a Farm but ingress and egress was blocked by two trucks loading sheep. A gate leading to Corbet's Piece was a bit muddy and construction of the HS2 rail blocked access from the other direction. Well it all looked peachy on the satelite view.
I will try to find the farmhouse where Corbet had done his deed when the land dries out, I think the diversionary footpath around the gibbet site has now been lost forever. 250 years after the event, I was 18 months too late.
Bugger.

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Just wanted to say I love it that you’re doing this!
 
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