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Ghostly Database

_Danforth_ said:
Had a look around my current location (Swindon) and I recall my Readers Digest book of spookiness and mythology lists one for Purton Stoke, not currently on the map. I'll see if I can dig it up...
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Fortean Shelf established, here is the tale from the Reader's Digest 1973 publication, Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain:

"Halfway between Purton and Purton Stoke is a bend in the road called Watkins' Corner. Allegedly, it is haunted by the ghost of a man called Watkins, who was hanged there for a murder to which his father later confessed. As he swung from the gallows, a fearful storm blew up, which so frightened the hangman's horse that it bolted and threw him, breaking the hangman's neck."

I cycled down there to take a look but did not see a ghost :-/

Since Reading was mentioned in the previous post I had a look in the book for Reading, but all the RD could come up with is it's where the yard as a measurement of cloth was standardised - although it does rate the Museum of English Rural Life, which a quick Google confirms is still going strong. Maybe they'd know some spooky tales.
 
That's great - the book name rings a vague bell, probably from when I first read the entry in the RD book and was trying to find out more, but at the time I couldn't locate a copy. Cheers! :)
 
_Danforth_ said:
Since Reading was mentioned in the previous post I had a look in the book for Reading, but all the RD could come up with is it's where the yard as a measurement of cloth was standardised - although it does rate the Museum of English Rural Life, which a quick Google confirms is still going strong. Maybe they'd know some spooky tales.
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The three cases that spring to mind in Reading are "stone tape" style sounds and apparitions associated with the ruined abbey walls, a ghostly horseman heard galloping down the Thames-side track into Caversham and a ghost car spotted several times on Berkeley Road.
Since working in Reading, I've visited each of these locations, but not encountered anything at all spooky.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
The three cases that spring to mind in Reading are "stone tape" style sounds and apparitions associated with the ruined abbey walls, a ghostly horseman heard galloping down the Thames-side track into Caversham and a ghost car spotted several times on Berkeley Road.
Since working in Reading, I've visited each of these locations, but not encountered anything at all spooky.
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If I get time tomorrow, I'll have a ferret in one of the attic book-boxes as I'm fairly sure I've got a 'haunted Berkshire' or two from the late 1980s.
 
How about adding a section got people to submit more locations or corrections. Also to save yourself time you could have it verified by other people. Save you having to go through all the details to confirm its a real sighting/haunting.
 
Jonathan Foster said:
How about adding a section got people to submit more locations or corrections. Also to save yourself time you could have it verified by other people. Save you having to go through all the details to confirm its a real sighting/haunting.
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I think we'd be hard-pressed to determine what's a real sighting and what isn't!

I can see why DrPaulLee might want to remain as the only "editor" as he's put a lot of work into this and may naturally want to retain ownership. But some audience participation, of one sort or another, would indeed be pretty cool :)
 
I think I've put something in the blurb encouraging reader input (?) if not, I'll put one in later on.
 
And indeed, I have received emails from people on this board about new sightings. I received such an email only Tuesday with details of additional Norfolk spectres :)
 
Maybe Jonathan Foster is a fresh-faced youth and expects whizzy Web 2.0 widgets for audience participation, rather than sending the site owner an electronick mail, in the manner of our ancestors :-D

BTW, what about adding the Watkins Corner / Purton Stoke stuff from upthread? ;)
 
And, blowing my own trumpet, I've converted the database to a (very cheap!) Android App. The big difference between this and the web version is that, if you allow it, the app will show your current position, allowing for the quality of the data it has (ie GPS - very accurate, phone mast data etc. - not so accurate). So, you can traverse the country and see if you are near any haunted locations that you might want to visit :)

Its at www.paullee.com/apps
 
I wouldn't say I am freshed faced or a youth, I just no how easy emails can get missed and lost Especially if there are a lot. I work in the IT industry. Specifically for an ISP. So I know how useful web forms can be for collecting and organising data. Its about working smart not harder. It wold give the ability to work more efficiently.
 
Bit of a thread revival but here's an article on some Reading ghosts, just to prove it's not all coffee shops and rock festivals. I'm not sure how many of these have actually been seen, looks more like local legends to me. I've lived here for 17 years now and not heard a single ghost story from anyone local in that time. West Berks, crawling in ghosts but Reading is an paranormal desert.

https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/berkshire-history/ghosts-reading-spooky-monks-phantom-11088378
 
One thing I am working on, is going through "what I have" (God, that sounds so vulgar). I'm checking to see which places have closed down or changed names: a couple are no more than car parks or rubbish piles . This is a huge task. Quite a few pubs have gone, mainly in the North of England sadly.
 
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DrPaulLee said:
One thing I am working on, is going through "what I have" (God, that sounds so vulgar). I'm checking to see which places have closed down or changed names: a couple are no more than car parks or . This is a huge task. Quite a few pubs have gone, mainly in the North of England sadly.
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Ahem Ahem.... smoking ban.... ahem.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Quite a few pubs have gone, mainly in the North of England sadly
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I was in a surviving pub, two months ago - again, very recently, though with no interesting conversation, this time.

Given that there was a lot more space than customers, I made enquiries about the cost of rooms for hire, thinking about a Halloween workshop I had in mind. The woman behind the bar was very animated: she assured me the premises were as haunted as a very haunted place! She waltzed off to serve more lucrative customers and it was hard to capture her attention after.

It's not a pub on any list of haunted premises I have seen but the lady was a bit dizzy and of details there were none! I will be back.

If not for the workshop, the story. :rolleyes:
 
I worry about that: that is, being contacted by locations and being asked to be put on my list simply because they want to drum up trade. I shall have to start putting disclaimers in my write-ups!
 
Just to let you know, yes I am still updating this; I have nearly 5100 locations and I try to add to it every day. I'm also contacting places to see if anything has been reported recently. Most don't reply, and of the ones that do, the majority say "nothing recently" (my criterion was "within the last few years"). However, a few are saying that their ghostly friends are still active and indeed, some places have given me details of hauntings and apparitions that have not been mentioned before.
 
DrPaulLee said:
Just to let you know, yes I am still updating this; I have nearly 5100 locations and I try to add to it every day. I'm also contacting places to see if anything has been reported recently. Most don't reply, and of the ones that do, the majority say "nothing recently" (my criterion was "within the last few years"). However, a few are saying that their ghostly friends are still active and indeed, some places have given me details of hauntings and apparitions that have not been mentioned before.
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Found one in my town that I hadn't heard of, (a piano playing ghost), but one is missing off the map (just down the hill from where the others are listed).
https://www.whitchurchherald.co.uk/...ng-spooky-goings-whitchurch-cottage-now-sale/
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9...4!1s52M6XfwdGP6vnYXNOTzkiQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
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