Schrodinger's Zebra
And a dandelion dies in the wind
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Zero movement from the 'figure', I note.
titch
Justified & Ancient
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really? its a long time since a read her book but i cannot recall shouting out "OOOOHH FFS YOU ARE JUST MAKING STUFF UP" like i normally do when reading a "true ghost stories" book
CuriousIdent
Not yet SO old Great Old One
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Well this is a mildly disturbing nostalgic memory from my late teens. Loved Fortean TV. And this is one which I remember vividly. Thanks for the expansion of information about the area, Yith. Intriguing to know that each of these locations is so close to each other. Especially Bluebell Hill.
ghughesarch
Devoted Cultist
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But looking at the map, the 4.5 / 5 miles or so from the stables to Bluebell Hill would, in other directions, take in the whole of Maidstone, Leeds Castle, a couple of dozen historic villages, etc etc. All of which probably are bursting with local hauntings and legends.
The problem with any spooky site in most of Britain is that there are going to be lots of others within a (by national standards) fairly short distance, and it's unlikely that there are any links between them.
And the association of the (possibly mediaeval but equally possibly made up in the 19th century) Pilgrims' Way with a figure looking a bit like the chap off the Quaker Oats box is completely spurious - two different sorts of pilgrim, a couple of centuries apart (with diametrically opposed theological views).
CuriousIdent
Not yet SO old Great Old One
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I guess it depends upon what you believe people are actually seeing at these locations. I've spoken elsewhere on here that while I don't necessarily believe in 'ghosts' in the 'spirit' sense I do find it fascinating that in certain geographic locations a significant number of people will sometimes experience something which they later discover others having also experienced - sometimes years, decades, even centuries apart.
Namely seeing something which gets attributed as a 'ghost' but often simply seems to be a figure performing a specific sequence or series of actions, which multiple people seem to attest to having also witnessed.
We see that in multiple accounts from Bluebell Hill, from the A15 Lincolnshire road ghost and seemingly (plausibly) this chap on horseback here.
I personally believe that while it would be impossible to quantify *why* all those people have seen 'a ghost' on a road my gut feeling is that rather than some kind of notion of restless spirits actually being in-play here there is plausibly something in the local geography at these sites which is causing people to see something which happened decades earlier - replayed like a moment of film repeated. Like somehow an echoed moment in time has been recorded by the landscape, and under some unknown set of circumstances is occasionally replayed by means unknown.
I often wondered if the occurrences reported for the A15 road ghost weren't in some way related to the wavelength of broadcasts from nearby RAF Cranwell, for example. That the introduction of radio signals from there might occasionally be triggering something.
The Yithian's own experience in the area above (while it didn't conjure any spectral horses or riders) was described as a "a slight hum and the car vibrated noticeably" for 6-7 minutes. It's also been speculated on other threads where Bluebell Hill has been discussed as to whether power lines or radio signals in that area could perhaps be connected to the experiences which others have had.
I don't offer up any cast iron explanations here, of course.
But I do think that their might be *something* which connects cases like these. Something currency unexplainable. It's what makes them of Fortean interest in the first place.
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- East of Suez
I guess it depends upon what you believe people are actually seeing at these locations. I've spoken elsewhere on here that while I don't necessarily believe in ghost in the 'spirit' sense I do find it fascinating that in certain geographic locations a significant number of people will sometimes experience something which they later discover that others have also experienced sometimes years, decades, even centuries apart.
Namely seeing something which gets attributed as a 'ghost' but often simply seems to be a figure performing a sequence of actions, which multiple people seem to attest to having also witnessed.
We see that in multiple accounts from Bluebell Hill, from the A15 Lincolnshire road ghost and seemingly (plausibly) this chap on horseback here.
I personally believe that while it would be impossible to quantify why all those people have seen 'a ghost' on a road my gut feeling is that rather than some kind of notion of restless spirits actually being in-play here there is plausibly something in the local geography at these sites which is causing people to see something which happened decades earlier replayed like a moment of film repeated. Like somehow an echoed moment in time has been recorded by the landscape, and under some unknown set of circumstances is occasionally replayed by means unknown.
I often wondered if the A15 road ghost wasn't in some way related to the wavelength of broadcasts from nearby RAF Cranwell, for example. That the introduction of radio signals from there might occasionally be triggering something.
The Yithian's own experience in the area above (while it didn't conjure any spectral horses or riders) was described as a "a slight hum and the car vibrated noticeably" for 6-7 minutes. It's also been speculated on other threads where Bluebell Hill has been discussed as to whether power lines or radio signals in that area could perhaps be connected to the experiences which others have had.
I don't offer up any cast iron explanations here, of course.
A very good post (because I agree with most of it
)I've long subscribed to the view that very often we are looking at raw data that seems anomalous to the mind and so is interpreted in a number of different ways according to each viewer's own subjective beliefs, biography and predispositions.
Interestingly, my other odd experience in that area is on of an old road that runs alongside the motorway near Boarley. The old, now parallel road decends steadily to reach a T-junction the left-turn of which takes it beneath said motorway which crosses a bridge. Owing to the lay of the land, there seem to be several points along the final 100 yards that give the impression of a long left curve ahead (actually a different road), the junction, the low wooden fence and the intervening field all being obfuscated by a dip in the land.
One night, I was in the middle section of the backseat and neither I nor anybody else in the car realised the actual nature of the road ahead. We were all tired and nobody was talking; only the radio was droning in the background as radios do late at night. Fortunately the driver suddenly saw a glimpse of the turn as the road beneath is rose for a second, and he did an emergency stop at the last possible moment, the front wheels skidding into the far curb with a mercifully gentle bump.
I offer this not as a 'Fortean' event (as far as I view it), but more the kind of event that other of other dispositions in other eras might conceivably have beem interpreted as 'non-normal' (a 'shifting road' perhaps). Add enough anomalous data to one area and you have the kind of area in which the tales multiply and grow in the telling; before you know what's going on, you're the next Pluckley.
escargot
Disciple of Marduk
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A very good post (because I agree with most of it
I've long subscribed to the view that very often we are looking at raw data that seems anomalous to the mind and so is interpreted in a number of different ways according to each viewer's own subjective beliefs, biography and predispositions.
Interestingly, my other odd experience in that area is on of an old road that runs alongside the motorway near Boarley. The old, now parallel road decends steadily to reach a T-junction the left-turn of which takes it beneath said motorway which crosses a bridge. Owing to the lay of the land, there seem to be several points along the final 100 yards that give the impression of a long left curve ahead (actually a different road), the junction, the low wooden fence and the intervening field all being obfuscated by a dip in the land.
One night, I was in the middle section of the backseat and neither I nor anybody else in the car realised the actual nature of the road ahead. We were all tired and nobody was talking; only the radio was droning in the background as radios do late at night. Fortunately the driver suddenly saw a glimpse of the turn as the road beneath is rose for a second, and he did an emergency stop at the last possible moment, the front wheels skidding into the far curb with a mercifully gentle bump.
I offer this not as a 'Fortean' event (as far as I view it), but more the kind of event that other of other dispositions in other eras might conceivably have beem interpreted as 'non-normal' (a 'shifting road' perhaps). Add enough anomalous data to one area and you have the kind of area in which the tales multiply and grow in the telling; before you know what's going on, you're the next Pluckley.
Yup, I've heard many tales of dangerous points like that on roads.
Edit - was interrupted at work!
Road layouts can certainly contribute to accidents; where the bends are deceptive or the lighting is inadequate, for example.
We were cycling in rural Yorkshire last year, downhill approaching a T-junction, where there seemed to be a street light in the middle of the road.
I decided it must be a traffic island and positioned accordingly, to find when closer that it was across the junction.
I bet other road users have been caught out like that. Could be dangerous.
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