Paul_Exeter
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 3,900
I've just finished 'Ghosts of Cannock Chase' by Lee Brickley. I have also read his previous Cannock Chase book 'UFOs, Werewolves & The Pig-Man'. In many ways, Lee has picked up researching the undoubted plethora of high strangeness at Cannock Chase from where another local researcher, the prolific author Nick Redfern, left off.
In this ghost book there are some quite vivid ghost encounters Lee claims to have received from local people, including ghosts that physically shout at passers-by, Roman soldiers racing ghostly chariots as viewed from a hotel window and a pack of terrifying black dogs that chased and actually bit a off-road cyclist before vanishing. So some quite serious stuff.
There was also the ghost at Cannock Station. This is of a man in a long coat and pork pie hat who has been seen by "many" witnesses loitering in the shadows at the end of Platform 1 and is believed to be the ghost of a man who committed suicide there "many years ago". The ghost is alleged to have rushed at a woman who got too close, causing her to fall onto the tracks and to have to be rescued by a fellow passenger. However, when I researched the history of Cannock Station I discovered that the original station was closed by BR in the 60s and subsequently a new station rebuilt in 1989 in a different location, with the remains of the old station still partly visible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannock_railway_station
Given that pork pie hats were in fashion long before the 60s, this raises the question of why the ghost is haunting the new station and not the old...? If the suicide was in fact after 1989 then would there not be more information on who he was, rather than someone who died "many years ago"...?Also, I wouldn't much fancy falling off a railway platform onto the steel. concrete and stone ballast below, I'm surprised she was not badly injured.
So I am not saying I disbelieve Lee or his witnesses, but I am surprised a local man evidently was not aware that the old station no longer existed. So I'm putting it out there to the author if he reads these forums and to other Forteans who might be able to shed light on this haunting, or indeed any of the others, thanks...!
In this ghost book there are some quite vivid ghost encounters Lee claims to have received from local people, including ghosts that physically shout at passers-by, Roman soldiers racing ghostly chariots as viewed from a hotel window and a pack of terrifying black dogs that chased and actually bit a off-road cyclist before vanishing. So some quite serious stuff.
There was also the ghost at Cannock Station. This is of a man in a long coat and pork pie hat who has been seen by "many" witnesses loitering in the shadows at the end of Platform 1 and is believed to be the ghost of a man who committed suicide there "many years ago". The ghost is alleged to have rushed at a woman who got too close, causing her to fall onto the tracks and to have to be rescued by a fellow passenger. However, when I researched the history of Cannock Station I discovered that the original station was closed by BR in the 60s and subsequently a new station rebuilt in 1989 in a different location, with the remains of the old station still partly visible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannock_railway_station
Given that pork pie hats were in fashion long before the 60s, this raises the question of why the ghost is haunting the new station and not the old...? If the suicide was in fact after 1989 then would there not be more information on who he was, rather than someone who died "many years ago"...?Also, I wouldn't much fancy falling off a railway platform onto the steel. concrete and stone ballast below, I'm surprised she was not badly injured.
So I am not saying I disbelieve Lee or his witnesses, but I am surprised a local man evidently was not aware that the old station no longer existed. So I'm putting it out there to the author if he reads these forums and to other Forteans who might be able to shed light on this haunting, or indeed any of the others, thanks...!