Crewe

[hunck]

Very little happening in that video apart from a man freaking himself out & a few noises. Admittedly I watched it on double speed - maybe I missed something..

 

[escargot]

Here's about the most Crewe photo I've ever taken.

The APT, the iconic red-and-grey railway-built wall, the stanchion, two sizes of track, a Junction floodlight and a Works eagle.

 

[Nemo]

A Slapped Ham video

Crewe Station "Wailing Ghost" (19:11 to 21:55 by BenTaylorr)

To me, it sounds like a bad impression of a dog howl.

 

[escargot]

A new video from Crewe Station.

That's a couple of years old now.

 

[Vardoger]

That's a couple of years old now.

And it was posted a couple of years ago.

 

[escargot]

And it was posted a couple of years ago.

Oh I dunno any more.

 

[Floyd]

Oh I dunno any more.

You've been on here too long!

 

[escargot]

You've been on here too long!

Yup, having trouble reading the small print.

 

[Floyd]

Yup, having trouble reading the small print.

I know how you feel. And I'm sure writing has got smaller on the ingredients part on jars etc.

 

[escargot]

Can't remember if we've had this before. If so, here it is again.
Crewe had its own Spirit Photography group. There were six practitioners to choose from.

Flickr page on the Hope Circle

These photographs of 'spirits' are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of our curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863–1933).

Born in 1863 in Crewe, Hope started his working life as a carpenter. In about 1905 he became interested in spirit photography after capturing the supposed image of a ghost while photographing a friend.

He went on to found the Crewe Circle—a group of six spirit photographers led by Hope. When Archbishop Thomas Colley joined the group they began to publicise their work.

Following World War I, support for the Crewe Circle grew as the grieving relatives of those lost to the war sought a means of contacting their loved ones.

By 1922 Hope had moved to London where he became a professional medium. The work of the Crewe Circle was investigated on various occasions.

The most famous of these took place in 1922, when the Society for Psychical Research sent Harry Price to investigate the group.

Price collected evidence that Hope was substituting glass plates bearing ghostly images in order to produce his spirit photographs.

Later the same year Price published his findings, exposing Hope as a fraudster. However, many of Hope’s most ardent supporters spoke out on his behalf, the most famous being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Hope continued to practice, despite his exposure. He died in London on 7 March 1933.

 

[Cochise]

Here's about the most Crewe photo I've ever taken.

The APT, the iconic red-and-grey railway-built wall, the stanchion, two sizes of track, a Junction floodlight and a Works eagle.

View attachment 49642

A classic example of the UK losing its bottle. It was a much better design than the decades later Pendolinos but a few railway hating journalists caused it to be abandoned.

Having said which, the HST's actually did everything our railway network with its relatively short distances between conurbations ever needed. It's no good having a 175 mph top speed if you've got to stop every 30 miles. Most of our population lives in a 120 mile long coffin shaped area Beween Greater London and Greater Birmingham.

 

[escargot]

I posted the Hope 'spirit' photography item on a Crewe Facebook page and had a surprising response.

Thusly -

Poster -
That’s interesting.
One of my grandparents supposedly had a photo that had the face of his dead best friend and partner in fortune telling and phrenology on their wedding photo. That would have been in 1916. Both spiritualists. I wonder???

Me -
Crewe has a long history of Spiritualism. It would surely overlap with the spirit photography. I'd love to see your family photo!

Poster -
So would I Scargy.. It’s been talked about by my parents but no one has it.
This is my Grandfather as a young phrenologist about 1912 ? before he went to fight in WW1.
(See first photo below.)

Poster -
And as a fortune teller standing by the cart along with his friend and colleague holding the horses rains whose face was supposedly seen on their wedding photo even though he had passed away earlier. Again around 1910?
(See second photo below)

Me -
Fantastic! I wonder where this was taken? Also, as the 'spirit photography' business was a scam, and there were photos of your friend available, that's an example of how the fakes were made.

------------

If I have any more replies I'll post them.

The poster's relation was of course a fraud with his palmistry and phrenology. I bet the spirit wedding photo was a gift from one of the local charlatans.

My paternal grandmother, born around 1900, was a staunch Spiritualist. I often wonder how much she knew about the jiggery-pokery that went on.

 

[escargot]

Most of our population lives in a 120 mile long coffin shaped area Beween Greater London and Greater Birmingham.

That isn't how inclusiveness and accessibility work.

 

[escargot]

Further to the Crewe spirit Photography post -

Poster -
It sounds credible Scargy.
Certainly given me something think about. Thanks.

Poster -
I’d love to know where the photo (of the cart) was taken too? I only know my grandfather traveled all over England and certainly Wales too after the war, became a member of the Showman’s Guild of Great Britain and diversified with three different shows. Two freak shows and a burlesque show.
My mum who is almost 104 used to help with the menagerie of exotic animals and remembers it all well.

====

Wow!

 

[Cochise]

That isn't how inclusiveness and accessibility work.

Its how economic realty works. Otherwise we'd extend HS2 to Penzance and John O'Groats. And maybe even Southend-on-Sea

That last sentence is flippant - I grew up there and some people see it as the ends of the earth in competition with Cromer. It actually has a brilliant train service, as long as the only place you want to go to is London.

 

[Floyd]

It's no good having a 175 mph top speed if you've got to stop every 30 miles.

If only the road designers would bear this in mind (albeit on a slower speed scale) when putting a good dual carriageway in.............. and then filling it with roundabouts - or even roundabouts with traffic lights.

By the way, did you know that you can have a four/three/two and even one lane dual carriageway?

Sorry, I digress...........

 

[escargot]

Seen on Facebook -

I have another true ghost story to share, however this wasn't experienced by me.

This account took place in Crewe in the 1960s and concerns a supernatural experience that my older brother had.

He has recounted this story to me several times over the years and I have always been fascinated by it.

My brother and his friend were walking home from Crewe train station late one night and had walked towards town down Mill Street then under the iron railway bridge and onto Oak Street.

Feeling a little tired they stopped for a rest on a bench opposite where the former tax office building now stands (I think this is now occupied as a day nursery).

This is next to a railway bridge and back then the tax office building was still under construction and was still a building site.

My brother told me that there were a number of pallets of bricks and other building materials on site.

While resting on the bench, my brother spotted a newspaper blowing in the wind along the street in their direction.

He said that the weird thing was that this newspaper moved with purpose, and appeared to move around the pallets of bricks before getting closer to them.

Then, when the 'newspaper' was opposite them over the road it suddenly elongated and formed the figure of a person before their eyes.

My brother said that the odd thing was that he wasn't scared, more fascinated than anything.

He turned to his friend to discover that he'd ran away as fast as his legs would carry him and my brother then decided to run and find him, although he said he wishes that he'd stayed a while longer.

I asked him if he had any idea who or what the thing was that he had witnessed and he just said that it was a person, although white in appearance and did not look like a solid corporeal body.

It's anyone's guess who this shade was in life. Crewe is an old Victorian rail town, so it could have been one of the many hundreds of rail workers living in the town in the 1800s.

However, my brother did a little research and discovered that there used to be a pub not far from where the spectre was seen.

Apparently this pub took a direct hit from a Luftwaffe bomb during an air raid in WWII and a number of people were killed.

The pub was not far from the railway line, a dangerous place in wartime as Hitler tried to smash Britain's rail infrastructure with nightly air raids.

Perhaps the ghost was a drinker who was lost in the bombing, desperately trying to find their way home. My brother still remains puzzled 60 years on.

 

[Floyd]

Seen on Facebook -

I have another true ghost story to share, however this wasn't experienced by me.

This account took place in Crewe in the 1960s and concerns a supernatural experience that my older brother had.

He has recounted this story to me several times over the years and I have always been fascinated by it.

My brother and his friend were walking home from Crewe train station late one night and had walked towards town down Mill Street then under the iron railway bridge and onto Oak Street.

Feeling a little tired they stopped for a rest on a bench opposite where the former tax office building now stands (I think this is now occupied as a day nursery).

This is next to a railway bridge and back then the tax office building was still under construction and was still a building site.

My brother told me that there were a number of pallets of bricks and other building materials on site.

While resting on the bench, my brother spotted a newspaper blowing in the wind along the street in their direction.

He said that the weird thing was that this newspaper moved with purpose, and appeared to move around the pallets of bricks before getting closer to them.

Then, when the 'newspaper' was opposite them over the road it suddenly elongated and formed the figure of a person before their eyes.

My brother said that the odd thing was that he wasn't scared, more fascinated than anything.

He turned to his friend to discover that he'd ran away as fast as his legs would carry him and my brother then decided to run and find him, although he said he wishes that he'd stayed a while longer.

I asked him if he had any idea who or what the thing was that he had witnessed and he just said that it was a person, although white in appearance and did not look like a solid corporeal body.

It's anyone's guess who this shade was in life. Crewe is an old Victorian rail town, so it could have been one of the many hundreds of rail workers living in the town in the 1800s.

However, my brother did a little research and discovered that there used to be a pub not far from where the spectre was seen.

Apparently this pub took a direct hit from a Luftwaffe bomb during an air raid in WWII and a number of people were killed.

The pub was not far from the railway line, a dangerous place in wartime as Hitler tried to smash Britain's rail infrastructure with nightly air raids.

Perhaps the ghost was a drinker who was lost in the bombing, desperately trying to find their way home. My brother still remains puzzled 60 years on.

I wonder if this was the pub (where Tile Giant is now- on the corner of Oak and Mill streets);

 

[escargot]

As I already knew, when I asked local history buffs they reminded me that no pubs in the town were bombed. The nearest one was in a nearby village and it only sustained minor damage.

So this is a yarn.