Legs With No Body, Running Along The Road

[User7597]

For me the salient points are:

*You had a suspicion at the time that the man reading the paper had something to do with it (and the phenomenon finished after he had hastily left). Our first hunches are often correct.

* The `foot` was not behaving like an ordinary foot - but wriggling about like `a dog on a leash` (i.e drawing attention to itself).

* It was sufficiently physical to cause someone - a woman - to move their own foot away from it.

* This happened on October 31st - Halloween, a day which I understand Americans take really quite seriously and which is a time of general pranksomeness and tricks.

* Foot puppets are a thing:

So - as a provisional solution - the details need fleshing out (no pun!) - I am going to propose that the gentleman with the newspaper instituted some sort of seasonal prank using his own foot disguised as a woman's foot.

I have thought this too but he would have needed to have three legs, because I looked under the seat as it was happening and I could see both his feet in black shoes as the weird leg was moving about. And he was also sitting upright. To be able to reach under the seat in front you would have to slide down on to your lower back to get your leg under the seat. Or have an incredibly long leg.

Also, if someone was moving their foot at the speed it was going you would have body movement. His upper body was not moving.

 

[Zeke Newbold]

Hmmmm. There could be ways round all of that. Perhaps he was some sort of street magician - and magicians pride themselves in achieving the seemingly impossible through sheer ingenuity. The newspaper might have acted as a sort of shield hiding what he was up to.

As regards to him having `three legs` Rod Hull of Rod Hull and his Emu* fame had `three arms` ie one of them was false:

There is also a possibility that other people in the Metro were helping him in some way. Remember - you saw this sometime ago and only for `about a minute` - there may well have been some details which are lost to you, or not fully remembered.

I know this explanation might seem a bit overelaborate - but otherwise what are we to believe? That a woman's leg was half in one universe and half in another and wriggling about like a mad thing?

I'm open to parallel universes and such like, but that's just silly.

*British enttertainer from the seventies. His entire act focused around a manic emu puppet which attacked and bothered people in public places.

 

[Steven]

Damn, Emu's not real. My innocence is shattered.

 

[User7597]

Hmmmm. There could be ways round all of that. Perhaps he was some sort of street magician - and magicians pride themselves in achieving the seemingly impossible through sheer ingenuity. The newspaper might have acted as a sort of shield hiding what he was up to.

As regards to him having `three legs` Rod Hull of Rod Hull and his Emu* fame had `three arms` ie one of them was false:

There is also a possibility that other people in the Metro were helping him in some way. Remember - you saw this sometime ago and only for `about a minute` - there may well have been some details which are lost to you, or not fully remembered.

I know this explanation might seem a bit overelaborate - but otherwise what are we to believe? That a woman's leg was half in one universe and half in another and wriggling about like a mad thing?

I'm open to parallel universes and such like, but that's just silly.

*British enttertainer from the seventies. His entire act focused around a manic emu puppet which attacked and bothered people in public places.

It's all really silly. It's a bit annoying that it happened on Halloween actually. Like one massive piss take.

When we got to the party we were going to I was so excited I told everyone what we had seen and I think they just thought I was pulling their legs (pun intended).

I look back and wish I had done things differently. At the time I was really tempted to just walk up to the seat and look under it properly, but I didn't want to look like a nutter. And I wish I had written down what happened at the time because I know how memory becomes warped over time.

I don't really think parallel universes are an explanation, but I also don't think a man smuggling a fake foot on a stick on to the Metro, or having a really long woman's leg is an explanation either.

 

[brownmane]

I look back and wish I had done things differently. At the time I was really tempted to just walk up to the seat and look under it properly, but I didn't want to look like a nutter. And I wish I had written down what happened at the time because I know how memory becomes warped over time.

And isn't this what most of us do when seeing something very odd? We are so taken aback by the oddness, we don't think beyond the experience as it's happening. We have no easy frame of reference as to how to react.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Another ghost without an upper body:

Legs​

Location: Newcastle upon Tyne (Tyne and Wear) - 13 Grey Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Cleaning staff reported this building to be haunted by a ghost of which only the bottom half could be observed; one member of the team fled after encountering the entity.

https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/recent/index.php

 

[MorningAngel]

It’s very odd. It’s like ghosts without faces. Why are only parts of them seen? I can understand the bottom missing if the lay of the land has changed.

 

[AnonyJ]

I wonder if there is a concurrent phenomenon - that of seeing just the top half of a humanoid figure, just floating along...?

 

[Stormkhan]

Isn't that usually taken as a sign of the 'ground level' of the spook being different to the current one?

 

[Steven]

Isn't that usually taken as a sign of the 'ground level' of the spook being different to the current one?

To be honest, mate, I'm struggling to think of a reasonable alternative reason to ^that^ for these strange sights.

 

[SimonBurchell]

Isn't that usually taken as a sign of the 'ground level' of the spook being different to the current one?

Although that is usually taken to be the case, I often get the feeling it is just an assumption. The fact that we get sightings of disembodied legs etc. makes me doubt that it is always genuinely the case, unless there is definite architectural/archaeological evidence to support it. Sometimes it is just a lazy assumption.

 

[escargot]

And isn't this what most of us do when seeing something very odd? We are so taken aback by the oddness, we don't think beyond the experience as it's happening. We have no easy frame of reference as to how to react.

Can relate. Last year for example, when Techy found his cafe fork bent at right angles after he'd been eating with it, he showed me and just bent it back again.
We didn't even take a photo. Why on earth not?

I asked the staff about any bent forks and learned that while they'd noticed this happening, it was put down to the dishwasher somehow malfunctioning.

On the other hand when a ghost once apparently walked behind me and two others and into a pantry at work, I did rush into the pantry to look for it and establish that nobody was in there.
We weren't being pranked. I was absolutely delighted.

 

[queenofwands]

My sister had the opposite experience a few years ago. She was having a pub lunch with a friend ,when she caught a movement out the corner of her eye. A woman with no legs below the knee walked past her , vanishing just before reaching the door.
My sister said she was wearing a navy blue three quarter length coat ,with patch pockets and the collar turned up. She had brown hair , in a princess Diana style and looked to be in her 50's . She had a very determined look on her face, like she was on a mission . My sister noted that although she could see that the coat was navy and the hair was brown , the colours looked, kind of muted, compared to the rest of the surroundings.

She asked one of the bar staff if the pub had a ghost and the bar person replied , yes, describing exactly the woman my sister had seen. Apparently she has made regular appearances to both staff and customers alike.

The pub is called The Angel, in Beverly , East Yorkshire

 

[escargot]

My sister had the opposite experience a few years ago. She was having a pub lunch with a friend ,when she caught a movement out the corner of her eye. A woman with no legs below the knee walked past her , vanishing just before reaching the door.
My sister said she was wearing a navy blue three quarter length coat ,with patch pockets and the collar turned up. She had brown hair , in a princess Diana style and looked to be in her 50's . She had a very determined look on her face, like she was on a mission . My sister noted that although she could see that the coat was navy and the hair was brown , the colours looked, kind of muted, compared to the rest of the surroundings.

She asked one of the bar staff if the pub had a ghost and the bar person replied , yes, describing exactly the woman my sister had seen. Apparently she has made regular appearances to both staff and customers alike.

The pub is called The Angel, in Beverly , East Yorkshire

@DrPaulLee might like this.

 

[DrPaulLee]

Thanks @escargot . If you see anything else ghostly please tag me, I'm not on here much these days.

 

[escargot]

Thanks @escargot . If you see anything else ghostly please tag me, I'm not on here much these days.

Always.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

My sister had the opposite experience a few years ago. She was having a pub lunch with a friend ,when she caught a movement out the corner of her eye. A woman with no legs below the knee walked past her , vanishing just before reaching the door.
My sister said she was wearing a navy blue three quarter length coat ,with patch pockets and the collar turned up. She had brown hair , in a princess Diana style and looked to be in her 50's . She had a very determined look on her face, like she was on a mission . My sister noted that although she could see that the coat was navy and the hair was brown , the colours looked, kind of muted, compared to the rest of the surroundings.

She asked one of the bar staff if the pub had a ghost and the bar person replied , yes, describing exactly the woman my sister had seen. Apparently she has made regular appearances to both staff and customers alike.

The pub is called The Angel, in Beverly , East Yorkshire

Just love this kind of report. A bit about the history of the pub:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1160195

When Harry Martinndale saw those York cellar Roman soldiers were not visible below the knees it was postulated that this was because Roman York was at a lower level (and it was later discovered they were on the path of a Roman road). Could the floor level of the Angel have changed when its as rebuilt and this ghost woman dated back to before 1850? (not sure where this leaves the Princess Diana haircut though).

Perhaps I am slightly pushing it here when I mention that Diana herself visited Beverley;

https://library.eastriding.gov.uk/documents/10158/60401/Royal+visits+to+East+Riding+of+Yorkshire.pdf/54b5f32c-670b-4c95-ac0f-01b81f1e06ee#:~:text=In September 1988 Princess Diana,open a new Maternity wing.

Could she have popped in for a swift half...?

 

[catseye]

I can understand the logic around the bottom half of an entity not being visible (floor/ground level having been raised since their days in the land of the living), but where does this leave the 'invisible top half'? We aren't supposing that the sky level has been lowered, are we?

 

[queenofwands]

Just love this kind of report. A bit about the history of the pub:

View attachment 75273

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1160195

When Harry Martinndale saw those York cellar Roman soldiers were not visible below the knees it was postulated that this was because Roman York was at a lower level (and it was later discovered they were on the path of a Roman road). Could the floor level of the Angel have changed when its as rebuilt and this ghost woman dated back to before 1850? (not sure where this leaves the Princess Diana haircut though).

Perhaps I am slightly pushing it here when I mention that Diana herself visited Beverley;

https://library.eastriding.gov.uk/documents/10158/60401/Royal+visits+to+East+Riding+of+Yorkshire.pdf/54b5f32c-670b-4c95-ac0f-01b81f1e06ee#:~:text=In September 1988 Princess Diana,open a new Maternity wing.

Could she have popped in for a swift half...?

I'll ask my sis , if she knows more about the history of the pub. and if it has been altered structurally at some point. She doesn't live there , but in a town not too far away , her friends might know more , if she doesn't.
She did say the woman looked to be from the 1980's , by her hairstyle and coat.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

I'll ask my sis , if she knows more about the history of the pub. and if it has been altered structurally at some point. She doesn't live there , but in a town not too far away , her friends might know more , if she doesn't.
She did say the woman looked to be from the 1980's , by her hairstyle and coat.

She stated the colours were "muted" and remembering '80s fashion I wonder if she was wearing knee length boots of a colour just to muted to be visible in the lighting conditions within the pub 40-odd years later?

Anyway, great experience, I'm quite jealous...!

 

[queenofwands]

@Paul_Exeter

My sister did say that the woman looked to be in her 50's and had brown hair, so I don't think the ghost is Diana. From what you posted , it seems she did visit the town in 88 , though. However, Diana would have been very young then and my sister saw a much older woman. The Diana hairstyle was very popular , back then and a lot of women copied it.
I remember reading somewhere, that these kinds of sightings are not ghosts or spirits , as such , but more like a playback of a past event that has somehow recorded itself into the surroundings/atmosphere . I think it was a book by Tom Lethbridge , who did a lot of research into these sorts of things. He felt that these apparitions can be seen when an event took place in the past that aroused strong emotion and in a place where there was water . Perhaps there is an underground stream , or something nearby.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

@Paul_Exeter

My sister did say that the woman looked to be in her 50's and had brown hair, so I don't think the ghost is Diana. From what you posted , it seems she did visit the town in 88 , though. However, Diana would have been very young then and my sister saw a much older woman. The Diana hairstyle was very popular , back then and a lot of women copied it.
I remember reading somewhere, that these kinds of sightings are not ghosts or spirits , as such , but more like a playback of a past event that has somehow recorded itself into the surroundings/atmosphere . I think it was a book by Tom Lethbridge , who did a lot of research into these sorts of things. He felt that these apparitions can be seen when an event took place in the past that aroused strong emotion and in a place where there was water . Perhaps there is an underground stream , or something nearby.

@queenofwands Would be great if she could get another witness from the pub staff to state what they have seen for corroboration, they could remain anonymous, and maybe submit this one to the UK Paranormal Database:

https://www.paranormaldatabase.com

Anyway, it cheered me up on a rainy day

 

[queenofwands]

She stated the colours were "muted" and remembering '80s fashion I wonder if she was wearing knee length boots of a colour just to muted to be visible in the lighting conditions within the pub 40-odd years later?

Anyway, great experience, I'm quite jealous...!

There was nothing visible below the knee , so no clue about the boots , but my sister had had a few of these types of sightings.
She was in a local pub one new years eve and it was packed. She noticed a man carrying a pint making his way toward the table she was sitting at. At first , she marvelled at the fact that he was making his way through the crowd very easily and was not being jostled around , like everyone else. She wondered how he managed to keep his pint steady and not spill anything .
He looked as though he was about to sit down next to her , and she was just about to tell him that the seat was taken (her partner was at the bar , getting served) when he just vanished. She said his hair was bril cremed and combed back and he was wearing a de mob suit. She later asked the landlord about it and was told they were aware of this man and to never mention it to his wife as it absolutely terrified her .

She once saw a woman's hand on her bed . Just the hand and part of the cuff of a lacey , victorian ,ladies nightgown . She lived in a victorian house at the time.
Another sighting she had was of a cat . A calico cat that appeared in her house one day. She wondered how it had got in and if it perhaps belonged to a neighbour, or something . She looked at it and it looked at her , then just vanished . She never saw it again.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

There was nothing visible below the knee , so no clue about the boots , but my sister had had a few of these types of sightings.
She was in a local pub one new years eve and it was packed. She noticed a man carrying a pint making his way toward the table she was sitting at. At first , she marvelled at the fact that he was making his way through the crowd very easily and was not being jostled around , like everyone else. She wondered how he managed to keep his pint steady and not spill anything .
He looked as though he was about to sit down next to her , and she was just about to tell him that the seat was taken (her partner was at the bar , getting served) when he just vanished. She said his hair was bril cremed and combed back and he was wearing a de mob suit. She later asked the landlord about it and was told they were aware of this man and to never mention it to his wife as it absolutely terrified her .

She once saw a woman's hand on her bed . Just the hand and part of the cuff of a lacey , victorian ,ladies nightgown . She lived in a victorian house at the time.
Another sighting she had was of a cat . A calico cat that appeared in her house one day. She wondered how it had got in and if it perhaps belonged to a neighbour, or something . She looked at it and it looked at her , then just vanished . She never saw it again.

So the big question might be is she attuned to the 'stone tape' or whatever or simply an observant person who notices these things?

Well, I personally know two separate witnesses to a ghost cat and there are more than a few credible pub ghosts that have been reported over the years. When it comes to ghosts I am a believer and twice had my own pub experience of applause and chatter coming from a locked and empty hall:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/empty-building-felt-full-of-people.70763/#post-2293088

I may have one an experience in a similar vein to your sister. My employer operates a subsidised bus pass scheme and I frequently took the bus to and from home (until last year when I changed locations). It would have been Autumn or Winter 2021 and I was sitting on the right hand side of the bus and to my left was the first double seats and then in front of them a row of three fold down seats that faced me. As we got moving I noticed an old chap in a brown overcoat sat on one of the fold down seats and he was chatting away to an elderly lady sat alone on the those first double seats. He was sat at a right angle to her and so turned to this right to face her and yet she still seemed completely oblivious of him.

We made our way past the industrial estates on the edge of Truro (Threemilestone) and towards Greenbottom where the road crossed the railway and still he was chatting away to her and she still seemed oblivious, not even annoyed or fed up, just sat there as if she couldn't hear or see him. I then focused on my phone to check for any late emails and when I looked back she was still sat there but he was gone...!

There are a couple of minor request stops between Threemilestone and Greenbottom/Chacewater that usually see a student or two exit the bus and the rational explanation is that he got off whilst I was focused on my phone. But it was odd, especially the way she just blanked him and yet he carried on chatting away and I had that immediate, "Have I just seen ghost?" reaction when I realised he wasn't there. To this day I kick myself for not staying focused on this old man and the oblivious woman. I don't ever recall seeing him again but to be fair there are buses every 20/30 minutes on that route (T1/T2).

tl;dr: old man got off my bus when I wasn't looking or was a ghost

 

[queenofwands]

So the big question might be is she attuned to the 'stone tape' or whatever or simply an observant person who notices these things?

Well, I personally know two separate witnesses to a ghost cat and there are more than a few credible pub ghosts that have been reported over the years. When it comes to ghosts I am a believer and twice had my own pub experience of applause and chatter coming from a locked and empty hall:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/empty-building-felt-full-of-people.70763/#post-2293088

I may have one an experience in a similar vein to your sister. My employer operates a subsidised bus pass scheme and I frequently took the bus to and from home (until last year when I changed locations). It would have been Autumn or Winter 2021 and I was sitting on the right hand side of the bus and to my left was the first double seats and then in front of them a row of three fold down seats that faced me. As we got moving I noticed an old chap in a brown overcoat sat on one of the fold down seats and he was chatting away to an elderly lady sat alone on the those first double seats. He was sat at a right angle to her and so turned to this right to face her and yet she still seemed completely oblivious of him.

We made our way past the industrial estates on the edge of Truro (Threemilestone) and towards Greenbottom where the road crossed the railway and still he was chatting away to her and she still seemed oblivious, not even annoyed or fed up, just sat there as if she couldn't hear or see him. I then focused on my phone to check for any late emails and when I looked back she was still sat there but he was gone...!

There are a couple of minor request stops between Threemilestone and Greenbottom/Chacewater that usually see a student or two exit the bus and the rational explanation is that he got off whilst I was focused on my phone. But it was odd, especially the way she just blanked him and yet he carried on chatting away and I had that immediate, "Have I just seen ghost?" reaction when I realised he wasn't there. To this day I kick myself for not staying focused on this old man and the oblivious woman. I don't ever recall seeing him again but to be fair there are buses every 20/30 minutes on that route (T1/T2).

tl;dr: old man got off my bus when I wasn't looking or was a ghost

Great story! It's a pity you didn't start up a conversation with the lady , If only to establish if she was deaf or ignorant , or just wanted to be left in peace . If she was the chatty sort, she probably didn't see or hear the old man and he probably was a spirit !

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Great story! It's a pity you didn't start up a conversation with the lady , If only to establish if she was deaf or ignorant , or just wanted to be left in peace . If she was the chatty sort, she probably didn't see or hear the old man and he probably was a spirit !

I know, it seems we all look back on these events and think "Why didn't I...?". The First Kernow Tinner double-decker buses are pretty loud when you sit downstairs (road noise etc) and I couldn't hear everything he was saying but the gist seemed to be the usual "Do you remember when X?" and "Can't believe the cost of things nowadays" reminiscing that elderly people seem to do a lot of on buses.

 

[Steven]

Why is it, we think, that movement can appear so strange when it comes to such sightings? Granted the influence of some modern films - with their depiction of ghosts either sped-up or moving in a stop/start way - don't help.

As it happens, I went out about 2am last night and had to negotiate that 'haunted' lane I've mentioned in earlier posts. In the distance were two figures whose features I couldn't make out, and they seemed to taking a few steps forward and then back, again and again. I didn't feel threatened, no matter who or what these might have been, but I was unnerved enough to take a different and much longer route. It was basically their movement - which seemed more pointlesss/senseless than eerie - which made me turn back.

And so I wondered, with a view to 'blaming' my own state for this apparent sighting rather than immediately claiming it was a haunting of sorts, what might be common factors in such incidents: tiredness? Night? Darkness? In other words, the possible effects of all or some of these upon the brain? Or something so seemingly strange that blaming our own states of being or mind is just as much a silly and essentially comforting reaction as is perhaps naively thinking that ghosts are a not-uncommon feature of our lives (an attitude which leaves one open to the criticism that what we actually seek, when we believe in ghosts, is the consolation that death is not the end).

 

[queenofwands]

Why is it, we think, that movement can appear so strange when it comes to such sightings? Granted the influence of some modern films - with their depiction of ghosts either sped-up or moving in a stop/start way - don't help.

As it happens, I went out about 2am last night and had to negotiate that 'haunted' lane I've mentioned in earlier posts. In the distance were two figures whose features I couldn't make out, and they seemed to taking a few steps forward and then back, again and again. I didn't feel threatened, no matter who or what these might have been, but I was unnerved enough to take a different and much longer route. It was basically their movement - which seemed more pointlesss/senseless than eerie - which made me turn back.

And so I wondered, with a view to 'blaming' my own state for this apparent sighting rather than immediately claiming it was a haunting of sorts, what might be common factors in such incidents: tiredness? Night? Darkness? In other words, the possible effects of all or some of these upon the brain? Or something so seemingly strange that blaming our own states of being or mind is just as much a silly and essentially comforting reaction as is perhaps naively thinking that ghosts are a not-uncommon feature of our lives (an attitude which leaves one open to the criticism that what we actually seek, when we believe in ghosts, is the consolation that death is not the end).

what you just described would unnerve any sane person. Any figure , wether flesh and blood or not , acting strangely in a dark , quiet road in the wee hours , is best avoided. You did the right thing in taking the longer route

 

[queenofwands]

You could have

Why is it, we think, that movement can appear so strange when it comes to such sightings? Granted the influence of some modern films - with their depiction of ghosts either sped-up or moving in a stop/start way - don't help.

As it happens, I went out about 2am last night and had to negotiate that 'haunted' lane I've mentioned in earlier posts. In the distance were two figures whose features I couldn't make out, and they seemed to taking a few steps forward and then back, again and again. I didn't feel threatened, no matter who or what these might have been, but I was unnerved enough to take a different and much longer route. It was basically their movement - which seemed more pointlesss/senseless than eerie - which made me turn back.

And so I wondered, with a view to 'blaming' my own state for this apparent sighting rather than immediately claiming it was a haunting of sorts, what might be common factors in such incidents: tiredness? Night? Darkness? In other words, the possible effects of all or some of these upon the brain? Or something so seemingly strange that blaming our own states of being or mind is just as much a silly and essentially comforting reaction as is perhaps naively thinking that ghosts are a not-uncommon feature of our lives (an attitude which leaves one open to the criticism that what we actually seek, when we believe in ghosts, is the consolation that death is not the end).

ended up in a scenario like this , lol

 

[Steven]

Curiously, I've never believed that the lane is haunted, simply because a) I've walked it for many years and even in the depths of night precious little has happened, and b) the local story about the alleged haunting is unfortunately 'picturesque'; similar to the clichéd stories about ghosts of lock-keepers holding lanterns before them (as mentioned in another thread).