Kooky Kent

[Stormkhan]

Local hearsay says Reculver Towers is haunted but most old ruins have spook legends associated with them.

 

[Boulters_Canary1]

Local hearsay says Reculver Towers is haunted but most old ruins have spook legends associated with them.

The Reculver babies - alleged human sacrifice victims whose cries can still be heard on dark nights.......... :shock:

Margate theatre is supposed to be haunted. Folk band Show of Hands had some strange experiences there on tour last year (Instruments going out of tune, plugs coming out, volume controls being mysteriously fiddled with) - perhaps they'll write a song about it.

 

[Skeletonmaster]

I've heard the same story about Reculver Towers. I used to live a couple of miles down the road (Herne Bay), and it's pretty eerie place even on a nice day. Have you ever seen "The Medusa Touch"? a scene or two were filmed near there.

My mother was born and brought up in Kent, and probably knows more about the place then me. She also told me a couple of tales about Aylesford Priory. I'll ask her when I see her next and post the results here.

 

[Skeletonmaster]

Yithian, I've just remembered another place you might want check out; Cobham Mausoleum (in the grounds of Cobham Hall, I believe) I remember my mum telling me about that, can't remember a thing about it, but if I do find anything I'll post it here.

 

[Skeletonmaster]

...........remembered something else; Dode Church (near Luddesdown). I tried putting it into Google to see what would come up. Apparently it's about 900 years old and is all that remains of a lost medieval village (it was apparently wiped out during the Black Death). There's supposed to be a "sacred spring" in the churchyard, dating from a pagan temple that stood there before the church. Could be worth checking out...........hope this helps!

 

[Yithian]

Yithian, I've just remembered another place you might want check out; Cobham Mausoleum (in the grounds of Cobham Hall, I believe) I remember my mum telling me about that, can't remember a thing about it, but if I do find anything I'll post it here.

I'd forgotten about this thread (and i'm certainly not responsible for the title!), thanks, when i get more time i'll do some googling on Cobham Mausoeum. 8)

 

[Darkdreamer]

2 strange tales from the Medway towns....

Hi, I grew up in the Medway towns, and although I was away for a long time I am now back for my sins!

Anyway when i was growing up, their are 2 stories which I am having trouble tracing info on.

The first is that I was told by a school friend that his Mum had seen in the papers that a UFO had crashed into the river Medway. It would have been in the 60's or the 70's I think if it happened at all, he did have a creative imagination! If anyoes have info on this though do let me know.

The second has a bit more basis in fact. I have a cutting from the Evening Post, which was the local rag at the time, since swallowed by the Kent messenger group I think. The story is a speculative story about a hungarian prince who was killed in a mugging at Gads Hill and buried in Rochester Cathederal. The cutting says that the tomb has since been lost, walled up, and made reference to the Prince was related to the Dracul family, so you can imagine the headline. " Is Dracula buried in Rochester Castle?".....

If anyone has any info on either of these or any more stories from around Kent please let me know....

 

[Darkdreamer]

Cobham Mausoleum

Just saw the thread about Cobham Mausoleum. I grew up near it and visited it regularly, I even slept in it one night!

It was built on the grounds of the Lord Darnley's estate, who's house is Cobham Hall, now a posh girls school. It was never used as the bishop of rochester wouldn't consecrate it as he wanted the family members to be buried in the cathederal, and so get the money tooo!

Another very interesting little tomb, in the woods near the Mausoleum is Lord Darnleys Toe's Tomb. It is in the middle of a group of yew trees hidden off the track leading up to the Mausoleum if you are walking from Strood or Cuxton. The story goes that either some of the Lord's foresters, or farmers, depending on the version, where cutting trees or bailng hay, and he wasn't happy with it. He decided to show them how to do it, and took the axe/pitchfork and in swinging it missed and chopped of his toe. He then died of Tetinus, but his toe was buried where it fell...

 

[cassandra78]

Ahh the Theatre Royal ghost. He popped up in front of me during one of our end of year college performances of Equus. He made it very difficult to concentrate, it's not what one needs when one is trying to act daaahrling.

 

[Rosebud]

Hi, this is my first post and I am not sure if this belongs here so feel free to move it if it doesn't.

I live near Folkestone and whenever we drove down the A260 past J13 of the M20 there was a particular hill which my small Grand-daughter would insist had a castle on it. The rest of us could see nothing but she always pointed it out and wanted to go and see it. This went on for several years.

I asked around and the name of this place is Castle Hill.

From Wikipedia:
“Folkestone Castle stood on a spur of the North Downs to the north of the town of Folkestone, Kent (grid reference TR214380).
This was Norman castle on a natural mound which was in existence in the late 11th and 12th centuries. It was excavated in 1878 by Augustus Pitt Rivers and this has been claimed to be the first excavation of a medieval site in Britain using scientific methods...”

 

[Mythopoeika]

Fascinating!
She actually saw this castle?

 

[Rosebud]

Yes, she would point and say things like "look at the castle, can we go there?" This began when she was about three, in 2003, and carried on until 2006/7.
Obviously she wasn't too articulate but was adamant that it was there and thought we were teasing her by saying we couldn't see it. This happened on at least half-a-dozen occasions with various family members in the car.

Now I come to think of it, she stopped mentioning it around the time of the first earthquake in April 2007.

 

[IngressInvestigator]

Ingress Abbey

Snip

The site is supposed to be cursed, it will never pass through more than two generations. It is true that there are no records of the estate passing from any further than father to son.

I spend a lot of time at Ingress Abbey and can attest to various strange activity including not only electrical interference and various Moises but also apparitions and poltergeist activity

 

[JamesWhitehead]

various Moises

Jewish area?

 

[IngressInvestigator]

Oops - "Noises"!

 

[Matthew1034]

Hi All, been a while since I posted here. I'm looking for some information on the "Hythe Mothman". I've done a search, but can only find a passing reference on the first page of this thread.

A few google searches have turned up the link on the mysterious universe site above and a few other references but they all seem to run in circles referring back to each other.

I don't have access to the author's books linked in these sites but I am certain I read a report about this (probably linked from this very forum) in a local paper - likely the Kent Messenger that differed somewhat from the websites I've been able to find, but I've had no joy in their archives. For what it's worth the article focused very much on the witnesses credibility, mainly focusing on discrediting him. As I recall he was out celebrating that night and was none too sober.

Can any of you point me in the direction of further posts about this topic? Or, even better the news article I'm talking about?


Kind Regards
Matthew

 

[Spookdaddy]

Nothing to add on the Hythe Mothman, I'm afraid, but I own rather a quirky book on Kent which is definitiely worth flagging up on this thread. Quoting myself from the Celebrity Ghosts thread:

...I recently read David Seabrook's, All the Devils Are Here - a rather strange, rambling, arch (and highly recommended) book about Kent which covers everything from Dadd to Dickens, Haw-Haw to Mosley and The 39 Steps to The Waste Land.

Denizen of Deal and enthusiastic friend of Dorothy, Charles Hawtrey gets a mention. As does the suggestion that he might be haunting his old, and now Blue-Plaqued (which must have made some of the blue-rinses blue in the face), house.

The current owners, Peter and Barbra Stevens, agreed. 'I think we've got ghosts in the house. We went away to France and when we returned bottles of wine we had left in boxes in the cellar were all laid out in neat rows. My husband was also inexplicably locked in a cupboard...

I can imagine the poor drunken sot's shade staring longingly at rows of booze - but, Charles Hawtrey, locking someone in the closet? Or do ghosts have a sense of irony?

A thoroughly enjoyable book - the kind of rattlebag of oddness I like the best: strange, quirky, compelling and beyond category.

Seabrook also wrote Jack of Jumps - another compelling book, this time about the so called 'Nude Murders' which plagued West London in 1964/65. To quote myself, again (sorry, getting lazy in my middle age):

...Jack of Jumps, by David Seabrook. This got some unfavourable reviews. It's certainly somewhat gratuitous, the slightly Ellroyesque style sometimes grates and the attempts at hardboiled humour do occasionally fall flat, but I think it's still a thoroughly interesting read if simply for the rather grim and sickly light it throws on 60's London...

(From the Suggestions for a good read, thread.)

I recently reread the latter book - and actually preferred it second time around.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...and (I'd forgotten until I started rereading this last week) Fortean Times gets a mention, in a way which suggests Seabrook may be a reader.

I'd also forgotten quite how engrossing this is: Mosley and Haw-Haw, Audrey Hepburns's Fascist parents and Nazi spies in Broadstairs; Charles Hawtrey; John Buchan and The Thirty Nine Steps; TS Eliot's Margate connection; The Mystery of Edwin Drood. And - it goes without saying - Richard Dadd.

An old Guardian review of the book here.

(I've also been rereading WG Sebald's, The Rings of Saturn, at the same time. The latter is East Anglia based, but it's struck me how similar the two books are in many ways: Seabrook's book reads like the more worldly, gossipy, tabloid reading, not averse to the odd bust up in the pub - possibly once did a bit of time for shoplifting - little brother of a gentler, more self-consciously academic and sensitive - just let me sit down while I have a bit of a sigh - oh, the smell of bonfires on an autumn morning makes me think of Stendhal, sibling. I love both.)

 

[Spookdaddy]

My grandfather - a northerner by choice, originally from a Medway seafaring family - once told me about exploring the derelict and semi-demolished Jezreel's Tower in Gillingham way back, in the days leading up to WW1.

I hadn't thought about it for years, but this thread nudged me to have a look.

Now, I like a bit of old masonry, but that was one ugly building - uglier than a bag of spanners, in fact. Not heartbroken to see that one go - I'm not sure that it wasn't designed just to be demolished.

Wiki article on Jezreel's Tower, here.

 

[Matthew1034]

I used to live at the bottom of Jezreels Road in the mid 90s. I always thought it was such a shame the tower was knocked down, could have been a good tourist attraction.

On another note, has anyone got any information on graves in Cobham Woods? I'm not talking about the Mausoleum, but I distinctly remember visiting a grave site in Cobham Woods (I think there were three graves in total) separate and distinct from the mausoleum. Googling only brings up the Mausoleum and I don't know who was buried there so I can't narrow it down further.

 

[Matthew1034]

On another note, has anyone got any information on graves in Cobham Woods? I'm not talking about the Mausoleum, but I distinctly remember visiting a grave site in Cobham Woods (I think there were three graves in total) separate and distinct from the mausoleum. Googling only brings up the Mausoleum and I don't know who was buried there so I can't narrow it down further.

Sorry to bump my own post but I knew I wasn't imagining things, I finally found some images:

http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14314.15

Seems it wasn't a grave though, but a monument to a toe:

Not far from the Darnley Mausoleum, hidden away in the woods, are the ruined remains of the Toe Monument.

In 1835 the 5th Earl of Darnley severed his toe with an axe, while showing off. He died four days later of lockjaw. Lady Darnley had the "Toe Monument" erected on the spot of the accident. The monument has since been destroyed by vandalism but remains of the brickwork base are still visible and three of the eight funerial yew trees, planted around the base, still survive.

http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14314.30

 

[Spookdaddy]

...In 1835 the 5th Earl of Darnley severed his toe with an axe, while showing off. He died four days later of lockjaw. Lady Darnley had the "Toe Monument" erected on the spot of the accident...

Which, given what Richard Dadd did to his, erm, dad, also in Cobham Park, might suggest that it's not a place you want to be while playing around with sharp objects.

 

[Frideswide]

Seems it wasn't a grave though, but a monument to a toe:

fascinating Matthew1034 - and thank you for updating.

 

[TheShrikeOoO]

I have been to Lord Darnley's Toe's Tomb on many occasions in my youth. It is not far from the Mausoleum. It is about half a mile from there walking towards Strood, just down a turning to the right that will take you to Cuxton. I haven't been there for some time but it was situated in a grove of Yew Trees and appeared as an oblong plinth. Quite funny that the Darnley's couldn't be buried in the Mausoleum as Rochester Diocese wanted them buried in the Cathedral, so wouldn't consecrate it; but that one of the Lord Darnley's managed to get at least a bit of himself buried on his Estate.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Apropos of not very much.

As a teenage soldier during the General Strike of 1926, my previously mentioned grandad was stationed with one other man - A WW1 veteran - to guard an old Medway fort which was being used as an ammunition store. They had two rounds of ammunition each with which to fight off the imminent Bolshevik swarm - the ammunition dump had several million more, but they were threatened with courts-martial should they have been tempted to replenish their stock at any time during the assault.

Apparently at one time Engel - or Marx (I forget which) - believed that the worldwide Socialist revolution would start in Great Britain, and were mystified when no-one seemed much interested. Clearly they missed the fact that we were all too busy appearing in Monty Python sketches.

 

[Matthew1034]

Apropos of not very much.

As a teenage soldier during the General Strike of 1926, my previously mentioned grandad was stationed with one other man - A WW1 veteran - to guard an old Medway fort which was being used as an ammunition store. They had two rounds of ammunition each with which to fight off the imminent Bolshevik swarm - the ammunition dump had several million more, but they were threatened with courts-martial should they have been tempted to replenish their stock at any time during the assault.

Apparently at one time Engel - or Marx (I forget which) - believed that the worldwide Socialist revolution would start in Great Britain, and were mystified when no-one seemed much interested. Clearly they missed the fact that we were all too busy appearing in Monty Python sketches.

This sounds fascinating, do you have anymore details?

 

[rynner2]

As a teenage soldier during the General Strike of 1926, my previously mentioned grandad was stationed with one other man - A WW1 veteran - to guard an old Medway fort which was being used as an ammunition store. They had two rounds of ammunition each with which to fight off the imminent Bolshevik swarm - the ammunition dump had several million more, but they were threatened with courts-martial should they have been tempted to replenish their stock at any time during the assault.

There is a fort at the eastern end of the Isle of Grain, called Grain Fort or Grain Tower. It's opposite Sheerness, and not long ago it was put up for sale by a London builder. We had a thread on it, and I suggested we club together and buy it as a Fortean HQ! But can I find that thread now? Can I heck!

 

[Daenarys]

There is a fort at the eastern end of the Isle of Grain, called Grain Fort or Grain Tower. It's opposite Sheerness, and not long ago it was put up for sale by a London builder. We had a thread on it, and I suggested we club together and buy it as a Fortean HQ! But can I find that thread now? Can I heck!

Are you meaning this post?

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/the-lone-coastguard.53104/page-112#post-1445059

From what I could work out from your post, it might be right?

 

[Daenarys]

Hi All, been a while since I posted here. I'm looking for some information on the "Hythe Mothman". I've done a search, but can only find a passing reference on the first page of this thread.

A few google searches have turned up the link on the mysterious universe site above and a few other references but they all seem to run in circles referring back to each other.

I don't have access to the author's books linked in these sites but I am certain I read a report about this (probably linked from this very forum) in a local paper - likely the Kent Messenger that differed somewhat from the websites I've been able to find, but I've had no joy in their archives. For what it's worth the article focused very much on the witnesses credibility, mainly focusing on discrediting him. As I recall he was out celebrating that night and was none too sober.

Can any of you point me in the direction of further posts about this topic? Or, even better the news article I'm talking about?


Kind Regards
Matthew

Maybe you need a copy of the book that is reviewed here? http://monsterusa.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/paranormal-kent-available.html

If nothing else, maybe you could try to contact the author, see if he can help you?

 

[rynner2]

Are you meaning this post?

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/the-lone-coastguard.53104/page-112#post-1445059

From what I could work out from your post, it might be right?

Yes, well done! (None of the keywords I tried found it!)