Phantom Battles & Battlefield Ghosts

SimonBurchell

SimonBurchell

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Sep 15, 2001
Messages
3,705
Location
Somewhere in the labyrinth
It occurred to me earlier that we don't seem to have a dedicated thread for battlefield ghosts and phantom battles, and posts are scattered through other ghost threads, the timeslip thread and elsewhere. The Battle of Edgehill was reportedly replayed in the sky, such that participants in the battle could recognise some of the people in the replay. The reports of the phantom battle were famously investigated by a Royal Commission sent by King Charles, who verified the claims. The Battle of Naseby was also meant to have been replayed. Although local ghost books regurgitate these phantom English Civil War battles, a cursory glance online showed no recent reports - it appears to be something that has entered into local folklore but is not active. I know forum members have posted about American Civil War battlefields too.

So have at it! I'd be especially interested to hear of actual modern accounts, rather than "every [insert date here] the battle is said to be replayed out at midnight". Yawn.
 
Last edited:
I know they're both English Civil War battles and may have grown in the retelling, but the two accounts that sprang immediately to mind were:
Basing House: a royalist stronghold that was reduced to ruins by Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army in October 1645. Sounds of battle, the smell of gunpowder and even the apparition of the warty one himself have been reported.

basing.gif


St. Lawrence’s church in Alton: in 1643, a small contingent of Royalist troops held out in the church, but were eventually overwhelmed by Parliamentarian forces who pitted the building with musket shot. The church has borne the scars of the battle ever since, including musket holes in the great door. Again, sounds of battle and the cries of dying men have been reported here.

Alton.gif
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
I know they're both English Civil War battles and may have grown in the retelling, but the two accounts that sprang immediately to mind were:
Basing House: a royalist stronghold that was reduced to ruins by Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army in October 1645. Sounds of battle, the smell of gunpowder and even the apparition of the warty one himself have been reported.

View attachment 84017

St. Lawrence’s church in Alton: in 1643, a small contingent of Royalist troops held out in the church, but were eventually overwhelmed by Parliamentarian forces who pitted the building with musket shot. The church has borne the scars of the battle ever since, including musket holes in the great door. Again, sounds of battle and the cries of dying men have been reported here.

View attachment 84018
Click to expand...
I do like Alton church, it is a beautiful old building, but every time I'm in it, I think how it was once the scene of pitched battle, with desperate hand-to-hand fighting during the last stand.
 
Just wondering why the ghost battles seem to have very tight and fairly recent timescales. Where are the ghosts of the Battle of Stamford Bridge? Or Hastings? If we can have Roman ghosts then why not Viking or Norman ones?
 
SimonBurchell said:
I do like Alton church, it is a beautiful old building, but every time I'm in it, I think how it was once the scene of pitched battle, with desperate hand-to-hand fighting during the last stand.
Click to expand...
Walking back from the Alton winter beer festival, it was very cold and the wind was making itself known as I crossed St. Lawrence’s churchyard. I could almost imagine the cries of dying Royalist soldiers. I was tempted to pop into the nearby 8 Bells for "one for the road", but didn't want to miss my train home.
 
catseye said:
Just wondering why the ghost battles seem to have very tight and fairly recent timescales. Where are the ghosts of the Battle of Stamford Bridge? Or Hastings? If we can have Roman ghosts then why not Viking or Norman ones?
Click to expand...
Think I've speculated on this somewhere. Civil wars may attract more ghosts as perhaps people end up fighting relatives (?) The American Civil War seems to attract a lot of ghosts as does the English Civil War. However why not then the wars of the Roses or the Matilda/Stephen dispute?
I don't know of any battlefield re enactments of WW1 or WW2 it's mainly airfield ghosts. You'd think the Ardennes, Somme, Normandy beaches, Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbour, Kursk, Stalingrad, etc. would be very active.
 
Tunn11 said:
Think I've speculated on this somewhere. Civil wars may attract more ghosts as perhaps people end up fighting relatives (?) The American Civil War seems to attract a lot of ghosts as does the English Civil War. However why not then the wars of the Roses or the Matilda/Stephen dispute?
I don't know of any battlefield re enactments of WW1 or WW2 it's mainly airfield ghosts. You'd think the Ardennes, Somme, Normandy beaches, Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbour, Kursk, Stalingrad, etc. would be very active.
Click to expand...
And then what about non-battle related massacres? The Harrying of the North pretty much killed anyone alive in the north of England. That must have been traumatic, particularly when anyone not killed by the soldiers died of starvation.
 
The excellent UK Paranormal database is a favourite haunt of mine (geddit?!) and has a section on battlefield ghosts. There are 102 entries and many are "date unknown" but a few are more specific:

Sounds of Battle​

Location: Cotgrave (Nottinghamshire) - Colston Gate, open road flanked by fields
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 10 February 1994, 02:00h
Further Comments: Two friends were walking through the area on a cold frosty morning. There was a sudden gust of wind, followed by the sounds of shouting, horses galloping, and the clash of swords. Both witnesses were scared by their encounter.

Sounds of a Running Battle​

Location: Derby (Derbyshire) - Alvaston area, near the castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century and 2009
Further Comments: Three girls reported listening to the sounds of a small battle here in the early twentieth century - gunfire, galloping horses, and men shouting. Four people also heard the sounds while out late at night during the 1980s, and two brothers passing through the area in 2009.

Marching​

Location: Hardknott Pass (Cumbria) - Roman Fort
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 08 May 2007, 12:30h
Further Comments: While exploring the empty ruins of the Roman Fort, two people heard marching. One of the couple reported it sounded like boots on a hard surface, even though the area is covered in grass. The footsteps lasted no more than twenty seconds before fading away.

And a possible D-Day time slip?

Overlord​


Location: Portland (Dorset) - Unstated public gardens
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: May 1976
Further Comments: While walking his dog early one quiet May morning, Mr Murphy suddenly found himself surrounded by tanks, jeeps and American soldiers walking around. Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, the scene vanished, leaving both Murphy and his dog shaking. The witness speculated that he had fleetingly witnessed soldiers making final preparations for the D-Day landings.

battlefields.php
 
I've mentioned this before: in one of my books there's an account of campers sleeping on the site of the Battle of Edgehill on the anniversary being woken in the early hours by the sounds of desperate hand-to-hand fighting all around them.

I'll see if I can dig the book out.
 
Here's an Our Warwickshire article about ghosts associated with the battle. The annual re-enactment aspect of the haunting seems to be well-established.

GHOSTLY HAPPENINGS AFTER THE BATTLE OF EDGEHILL
The secondary school which I attended, Kineton High, was in sight of Edgehill, where the first major battle of the British Civil War was fought.

A story used to go around October time, during the Michaelmas Term, about how if you went up there around midnight on the 23rd October (the anniversary of the conflict), then you would see a ghostly re-enactment of the battle.
Click to expand...
 
It would also be interesting to read of any accounts of phantom battles being fought somewhere that was believed to have been the site of a battle but the actual site subsequently being proven to be elsewhere.

I think the Battle of Hastings was actually fought somewhere up near a roundabout rather than as previously thought in the ground of the abbey? Could be wrong about that though, but I know that modern scholarship and archaeology has caused a few battle sites to have been identified other than where they were believed to have been.
 
catseye said:
It would also be interesting to read of any accounts of phantom battles being fought somewhere that was believed to have been the site of a battle but the actual site subsequently being proven to be elsewhere.

I think the Battle of Hastings was actually fought somewhere up near a roundabout rather than as previously thought in the ground of the abbey? Could be wrong about that though, but I know that modern scholarship and archaeology has caused a few battle sites to have been identified other than where they were believed to have been.
Click to expand...
This has happened with other grisly sites too, notably the traditional location of the execution block where Anne Boleyn and others were beheaded. While there's a big modern memorial there, some historians believe executions were performed elsewhere such as the nearby military parade ground.

Poor Anne is definitely buried in the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula along with other beheaded nobles.

Here is an interesting page from the Tudor Chest website about Anne's remains being found during the Chapel's restoration in the 1870s.

The exhumation of Anne Boleyn and restoration of the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula
One of the biggest issues was that the floor of the church was in a very bad way, making the whole building unstable.

The decision was taken to relay the pavement which had sunk in several places and to also provide greater insulation and comfort for the chapels parishioners.

Hundreds of bones were found once the pavement had been lifted, all scattered together, probably done so to make room for more human remains.

Queen Victoria ordered that "the greatest care and reverence should be exercised in this removal", which was carried out.

The bones that were found were labelled and reburied in the Tower crypt.
Click to expand...

Techy and I have visited the Chapel and looked at Anne's memorial.
 
The Battle of Towton was the bloodiest battle in English history with an estimated 28,000 deaths but I never hear much about it. People have allegedly seen ghosts there, though (I had a google).

A man also thinks a horse and rider ghost were captured on a photo several years back

They were there ghost hunting and The Daily Mirror article here

(Grainy photos are just a general bane!)

E.T.A.

Trying to post an image but it won’t. It’s in the article.
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
The Battle of Towton was the bloodiest battle in English history with an estimated 28,000 deaths but I never hear much about it. People have allegedly seen ghosts there, though (I had a google).

A man also thinks a horse and rider ghost were captured on a photo several years back

They were there ghost hunting and The Daily Mirror article here

(Grainy photos are just a general bane!)

E.T.A.

Trying to post an image but it won’t. It’s in the article.
Click to expand...
Here you go.
I can see why they thought it looked like the upper portions of a man on horseback, but likely just pareidolia from shadows:

ghost.gif
 
From that grainy blow up, it looks exactly like my face wearing a set of horns and beaming at the camera.

I am NOT haunting Towton battlefield. Not to my knowledge, anyway.
 
catseye said:
And then what about non-battle related massacres? The Harrying of the North pretty much killed anyone alive in the north of England. That must have been traumatic, particularly when anyone not killed by the soldiers died of starvation.
Click to expand...

Glencoe is meant to have an "atmosphere" but compared to the harrying of the north it was pretty tame.
 
catseye said:
It would also be interesting to read of any accounts of phantom battles being fought somewhere that was believed to have been the site of a battle but the actual site subsequently being proven to be elsewhere.

I think the Battle of Hastings was actually fought somewhere up near a roundabout rather than as previously thought in the ground of the abbey? Could be wrong about that though, but I know that modern scholarship and archaeology has caused a few battle sites to have been identified other than where they were believed to have been.
Click to expand...
Strangely enough I'm reading about that at the moment. There are three different sites that have been propsed all fairly near each other but no physical evidence (Arrowheads, bones, etc.) AFAIK for any of them. I haven't finished the book yet but I'm not entirely convinced, Wlliam was meant to have put the high altar of the Abbey at the spot Harold died. The inscription reads:

"The Traditional Site of
The High Altar of Battle Abbey
Founded to Commemorate
The Victory of Duke William
On 11 October 1066
The High Altar Was Placed to Mark
The Spot Where King Harold Died."

I'm guessing that any haunting would be close enough to the battle site whichever one was correct. There would have been a degree of pusuit and scuffles afterwards.
 
Tunn11 said:
Strangely enough I'm reading about that at the moment. There are three different sites that have been propsed all fairly near each other but no physical evidence (Arrowheads, bones, etc.) AFAIK for any of them. I haven't finished the book yet but I'm not entirely convinced, Wlliam was meant to have put the high altar of the Abbey at the spot Harold died. The inscription reads:

"The Traditional Site of
The High Altar of Battle Abbey
Founded to Commemorate
The Victory of Duke William
On 11 October 1066
The High Altar Was Placed to Mark
The Spot Where King Harold Died."

I'm guessing that any haunting would be close enough to the battle site whichever one was correct. There would have been a degree of pusuit and scuffles afterwards.
Click to expand...
I did consider that minor skirmishes would have taken place beyond the main battlefield, but would think that any hauntings would be where the main battle took place, considering that most of the country would have seen minor fights at one time or another.

And the 'high altar being placed where Harold died'...mmm. I doubt very much that anyone marked the spot at the actual time, plus all the argy-bargy and routing and general fuss meant bodies might well have been moved about a lot. I think the high altar might well have been placed somewhere it was convenient to build rather than the exact point at which Harold dropped. Unless someone had the foresight to mark the place in a significant way right at the second he died, I think it might be a combination of guesswork and finding a nice, level site...
 
catseye said:
I did consider that minor skirmishes would have taken place beyond the main battlefield, but would think that any hauntings would be where the main battle took place, considering that most of the country would have seen minor fights at one time or another.

And the 'high altar being placed where Harold died'...mmm. I doubt very much that anyone marked the spot at the actual time, plus all the argy-bargy and routing and general fuss meant bodies might well have been moved about a lot. I think the high altar might well have been placed somewhere it was convenient to build rather than the exact point at which Harold dropped. Unless someone had the foresight to mark the place in a significant way right at the second he died, I think it might be a combination of guesswork and finding a nice, level site...
Click to expand...
Although the person who done him in probably was quite proud of his achievement and may have mentally, or physically, marked the spot for future gloating.
 
SimonBurchell said:
Although the person who done him in probably was quite proud of his achievement and may have mentally, or physically, marked the spot for future gloating.
Click to expand...
I don't know if, in the heat of battle, there would be any way of marking the spot though. You stick in a sword or halbard and someone's only going to come along and go 'what's this bloody good sword doing stuck in here? I'm having that!'. The ground is going to be rutted and kicked up from the fighting, anything you put down is going to be moved or covered up. Which is why I am wary of any 'the exact spot' claims. I mean, I can't even remember where I planted my narcissus bulbs in my garden, and that's a small garden and it was only a few weeks ago, and that's without hundreds of mounted people hurtling around over the top.
 
The Royal Commission report is mentioned so often I wonder if anyone has verified it. This was posted on Facebook a few weeks ago by Peter McCue:

"Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Edgehill, the first major clash of the English Civil War. The battle was fought near Kineton in Warwickshire in 1642. Some weeks later, a couple of pamphlets claimed that there’d been apparitional replays of the battle in the area, and that representatives of the king (Charles I) had witnessed the ghostly proceedings. But the two pamphlets gave somewhat conflicting accounts of what had supposedly happened.
Many authors have referred to this case, seemingly taking it for granted that the alleged events truly occurred. However, some years ago, a colleague (Dr Alan Gauld) and I took a close look at it, and found no convincing evidence that the events described in the pamphlets had really occurred."

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1936672080094475/search/?q=edgehill
 
catseye said:
I don't know if, in the heat of battle, there would be any way of marking the spot though. You stick in a sword or halbard and someone's only going to come along and go 'what's this bloody good sword doing stuck in here? I'm having that!'. The ground is going to be rutted and kicked up from the fighting, anything you put down is going to be moved or covered up. Which is why I am wary of any 'the exact spot' claims. I mean, I can't even remember where I planted my narcissus bulbs in my garden, and that's a small garden and it was only a few weeks ago, and that's without hundreds of mounted people hurtling around over the top.
Click to expand...
But probably "on that ridge" as opposed to 200ft away. Harold's body was pretty hacked up IIRC his "thigh" cut off (probably as a souvenir) and the body only identified by Edith Swan Neck his mistress. (Don't know if she identified the "thigh" as well!) I think the orientation of the battle may have been a bit different but it wouldn't have been a great distance from the site of the Abbey. The lack of any convincing archaeology at any site is a bit strange though.

On the plaque though I can't help but think of Spike Milligan on HMS Victory. "There's a plaque on the deck that reads "Nelson fell here." I'm not bloody surprised I fell over it as well."
 
Time Team's conclusion about the location of the Battle of Hastings was that it took place in the location of a latter day roundabout. Unfortunately it is not on YouTube, but a rebuttal is at

I visited Battle Abbey and the battlefield as part of a residential weekend at Pyke House (the course was about ghosts and had Andrew Green as the main guest with Alan Murdie presiding). We had one of the guides from the Abbey to give us a tour of the battlefield and he said that archaeologically, nothing has been found there. He says that they
believe that the soil is so acidic that any remains have probably been dissolved away. If he means human remains, I can believe this, but other artefacts - I'm doubtful.
 
Last edited:
During the American Civil War Tennessee was a no man’s land being between the North and South which brought about huge battles such as Shiloh, Franklin, Nashville, Chattanooga, and us which is Stones River.

Our battlefield was voted the most haunted because nobody wanted to fight because of Christmas and New Year’s, but President Lincoln gave the order to fight and 25,000 men died in two days.

Today residents that set next to the battlefield claim ghosts walk in that area all the time.

The Park Service Rangers also claims ghost sightings.

Source:
https://www.wkrn.com/special-report...unt-stones-river-battlefield-in-murfreesboro/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top