• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Ghosts in the Bristol area

A

Anonymous

Guest
Bristol Hauntings

Hi, does anyone know of ny hauntings in Bristol? I am researching the area for a book. I cannot mention the publisher name.

Thanks
 
Remember a tv prog. which investigated a haunted cinema in Bristol, but sadly not the name. Supposed to be haunted by a previous projectionist. It shouldn't be hard to find which one, but I expect you could do with more recent and pref. unpublished stuff. Any ghost hunters around Bristol?
 
The Kings Cinema in Old Market (now occupied by the City Council's Housing Dept) had a haunted level - apparently even now there's a very cold spot in one of the rest areas (seem to remember something about a suicide from the balcony).

The Theatre Royal has long been haunted by the ghost of Sarah Siddons, the celebrated actress (shadowy figure glimpsed by generations of actors and techies).

Either the Cathedral or the Lord Mayor's Chapel is haunted (if not both), as is the Llandogger Trow (IIRC), The Naval Volunteer, and pretty much every other old central pub.

Duchess Lake in Purdown was supposed to have the ghost of the eponymous Duchess re-enact her drowning on some date in December every year; Hanham Abbots had the classic Black Monk (or poss monks); Over Court (near Cribbs Causeway) was haunted by yet another suicidal gentle-woman; in the 19th Century there was a Black Dog seen a few times at Flowers Hill (or somewhere Brislington/Stockwood way); and St Annes Wood has a Holy Well and possibly attendant Genus Loci (see Shadowman thread on IHTM for more details).

I'm sure more will come to me :).
 
Hi, I happened to have researched the haunted cinema with newspaper articles as well. the cinema is actually the Odeon on Broadmead!

Thanks for the posts.

I'm not a ghosthunter, though I have researched plenty of places in Bristol and have made a site..
 
Yes, the Odeon was excorcised by none other than Lionel Fanthorpe.

What I'm saying is that the Kings Cinema (now Kings House) was, or is, haunted too.
 
I was brought up in Bristol but have not lived there for a long time, but I know that the monument on top of the grassy hill alongside the M32 is haunted by a young girl on horseback who died trying to ride down said slope. The horse slipped killing them both.
And, to the right of the monument is the old mental asylum which has recently been converted into apartments. A friend of mine told me that the apartments are not selling because one of the builders let slip that they had found various "torture" type equipment in the basement (he probably meant electro-shock therapy tools etc). I dont know how true that is, it may be a new UL. Would be interesting to know tho. Its a pretty imposing building and until recently it was a grim and rather depressing grey. Its now a grim yellow.
 
The Good Ghost Guide lists a few:

All Saints Church: A black-robed monk.

The Cathedral : A grey-robed monk (maybe his habit faded in the wash ;) )

Leigh Woods at Clifton Gorge : Isambard Kingdom Brunel, apparently. Also "weird screams" heard, and there's mention of dogs showing fear in the woods.

Llandoger Trow : A lame boy, heard dragging his leg across the floor, and occasionally sighted carrying a white bucket.

Pembroke Road : Site of a gibbet, and haunted by the figure of (good one, this) a dwarf beggar named Jenkins Protheroe, who was executed for murder in 1783

It also mentions the horse-riding duchess of Purdown, as described by Stu above, though the book claims she met her end when she was struck by lightning!

There's also a Bristol Ghost Club, though their website is down at the moment. There's a promise that there's some content "coming soon", so they could be good for a few more hauntings, so long as they're not of the orb-obsessed persuasion...
 
Hi all

This is my first post here although ive been an FT reader for many years.
I am just wondering if any of you guys could recommend and sites around the Bristol/ North Somerset area that me and my partner could go and check out? I'm avoiding using the word investigate as we wouldn't be able to do much more other than just be there and maybe take some pics.

I'm looking really for out door places like hunted woods or graveyards the kind of place we wouldn't need to bother getting permission to be.

Many thanks

Matt
 
Hi Matt,
I'm afraid I can't help you out; I just saw your post sitting there alone and forlorn and didn't want you to think people were ignoring you :) Maybe there's just not a lot of board members around Bristol?
 
Ghosts in Bristol Area

Matt

Not outside, the corner of Princess Victoria Street and The Mall in Clifton. Lloydstsb, used to be a restaurant called Maxwells. Some strange things happened there. Chairs moving, salt poured on all the tables.

Might be worth finding out if they have had any funny experiences since it was changed to a bank. Though they might be thinking your casing the joint.

Cadbury Castle Iron Age Hill fort.
 
That's a new one on me, a a restaurant turning into a bank. I thought it was the other way round these days.
 
Number_6_uk said:
Maybe there's just not a lot of board members around Bristol?
Click to expand...
There's a few of us (me included) - I've been away a couple of weeks. Will post back later when I have more time :).
 
I am from Bristol originally, although moved away many moons ago but I do recall a famous ghost story involving a girl on a horse.
As you come off the M4 onto the M32 heading into Bristol, on the right hand side is a grassy hill with a crumbling memorial on it. The memorial is there for a girl who rode her horse down the hill, the horse slipped and fell and both died. I remember my dad telling me that people had seen her riding down that hill afterwards.
And of course the same hill houses the old lunatic asylum, the name of which escapes me now, which is now 'apartments'. You can't miss it - it is bright yellow!
I will ask my dad to give me some more stories from the area.
 
EvilPumpkin said:
I am from Bristol originally, although moved away many moons ago but I do recall a famous ghost story involving a girl on a horse.
As you come off the M4 onto the M32 heading into Bristol, on the right hand side is a grassy hill with a crumbling memorial on it. The memorial is there for a girl who rode her horse down the hill, the horse slipped and fell and both died. I remember my dad telling me that people had seen her riding down that hill afterwards...And of course the same hill houses the old lunatic asylum, the name of which escapes me now,
Click to expand...
"The Duchess". It's called Duchess Hill, and the monument's apparently to her memory. The former asylum (Stoke Park) was prior to that an inhabited folly, itself supposedly full of various hauntings. Interesting sidebar - at the top of Duchess Hill there's a big BT microwave relay tower, built about 40 years ago - when it became operational apparently the reports of ghostly stuff went down very rapidly, but some patient behaviours became more pronounced.

I do wonder who bought apartments in the place!

More to add when I'm not supposed to be working...
 
Matt,
Why not hop over the Severn Bridge to the Welsh border and spend a night in St Briavel's castle? It's a youth hostel nowadays, but it has a long history and its fair share of ghosts.
I spent a night there a few years back - woke in the night to find my bed shaking violently. Lots of fun! One of the rooms even has an oubliette in it, for extra creepiness.
 
An oubliette in a youth hostel? :shock:
 
A39 - Cossington/toll road

This story can be found in the book "True Ghost Stories" - Vivienne Rae-Ellis. I am not going to retype the whole the story.

Basically Haunted road on the A39, situated near to a minor road to Cossington. There is a toll house near to the spot. Mentions two mysterious cars, with headlights approaching them at speed. At the same time a man wearing a long brown coat runs across road heading towards the minor road. Thinking he has been knocked down by the cars. They brake, look in the rear mirror. No man prostrate on the road and no cars. They give the date 28th April 1981 for the paranormal experience. Around about 9:30pm.

Apparently they returned a year later. Same thing happened at approx 9:40pm. Though this time, they seemed to have taken the place of one of the cars. Sounds pretty bizarre. Have always wanted to check this out on the anniversary.


http://maps.google.com/?t=h&layer=c&cbl ... urce=embed
 
I haven't forgotten - am compiling a bit of a list, will prob post Fri or Sat. Time not on my side this week!
 
A paperback,"Haunted Bristol", was published by Tempus Publishing in Stroud about 7 years ago. You might be able to pick it up on Fleabay, or may even still be for sale.

Not surprisingly, the oldest part of town, around Corn Street and the site of the market, seem to have a few reports of ghostly monks etc. Individual buildings, such as The Llandoger Trow pub and the Bristol Old Vic, both on King Street, famously have their own ghosts.

Outdoors, Leigh Woods opposite the Suspension Bridge is aledgedly haunted by Brunel, and the woods at Brockley Combe, and nearby Brockley Court, lay claim to having no less than 7 ghosts wandering about!
 
Thank you kindly for all the replys guys!
Ah I didnt know brockley combe was haunted i'll have to look into that, if i remember rightly the court at brockley is haunted by a disembodied head of a monk?
 
Re: Ghosts in Bristol Area

bobandterry said:
...Not outside, the corner of Princess Victoria Street and The Mall in Clifton. Lloydstsb, used to be a restaurant called Maxwells. Some strange things happened there. Chairs moving, salt poured on all the tables...
Click to expand...

That's reminded me of a story I was told by an old acquaintance who'd been a roadie for years.

During a quiet period (I think it was sometime in the mid 80's) he'd helped a mate run a restaurant not that far from Bristol, but out in the sticks somewhere (I don't remember exactly where). The building was out on it's own, and on a hill, and I have a feeling it was some sort of landmark.

Anyway, he told me that virtually every time they arrived to open up, the chairs - which they put up on the tables overnight as part of the clean-up, had all been returned to the ground. There was other stuff as well, the details of which I don't recall.

I do remember him telling me that they'd got used to the strangeness and it didn't really bother them, the only time it really scared him being one evening when it didn't wait untill they were gone for the night; he finished putting up the chairs, did a few other bits and pieces, went to wash his hands and returned around half a minute later to find all the chairs - dozens of themn - back on the floor.
 
Re Brockley Combe. I remember my mate during a school lesson in the 80s showing me a photo, which he took during a ghost hunting excercise at Brockley. It was kind of interesting...from my frazzled memory it seem to be a glowing light by a wall.
 
Bristol Ghosts

I too moved from Bristol many moons ago. My mother used to say that there was a ghost bus which would come down the main road in Southmead. We used to wait at a stop on the same side as the hospital, to catch the bus into town, and you could see it coming down the road but it never got to the bus stop.
 
Haarp said:
Mythopoeika said:
An oubliette in a youth hostel? :shock:
Click to expand...
Sorry - What is one of those ?
Click to expand...

A deep hole in the floor of a castle into which you throw the prisoners you just wanted to forget (the word is derived from the French for 'forget')

The idea was that they starved to death, out of sight (but probably not out of earshot...) Being thrown down a 10ft hole might accelerate the dying process a little too.
 
Hi all
And thanks again for the interesting reply's. I wondering if the folk that are local would be interested in a bit of local research and investigation. Ive tried contacting local ghost groups and they either don't accept new members or they are just companys offering a spooky night out.

So I thought I'd see if I could find a few like minded folk locally to me who would be interested in meeting up for a chat over a drink and see where might take us?

Best Wishes

Matt
 
Local to you?
Where do you live? According to your profile, you live in a time zone that is GMT+3...
 
Sorry by local to me I mean the Bristol area, Clue was in the title of the thread ;) :D
 
Hey Matt, I'm just down the road from Bristol in Weston-super-Mare. I guess by "local ghost groups" you mean the Bristol Ghost Hunting group which I also approached a year or two ago and they basically told me to get lost as it was a closed group, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I'd be well up for some ghostly investigations in the area, just drop me a line if you wanna meet for a pint sometime to discuss, I'm sure there must be others who'd fancy it as well, safety in numbers and all that. Cheers!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top