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Phantom Hitchhikers & Road Ghosts

I've not posted any experiences on here before so here goes. This one was relayed to me by my father and happened in the mid to late 1970's.

He was driving home from a party late at night and to the best of my knowledge he hadn't been drinking. The event occurred somewhere between Bridgnorth and Ludlow although I'm not sure exactly where (I'll press him for further details next time I see him).

As he approached a slight bend in the road, what he described as "a figure wearing a striped shirt" emerged from the hedgerow into the path of the car. He slammed on the brakes and braced for an impact. He recalled that he both heard and felt an impact before hearing the figure roll up over the top of the vehicle. Once he'd composed himself he exited the car and prepared for the worst but could find no trace of a person in the vicinity, nor any damage to the car. Furthermore the hedgerows were thick with no gap from which a person could have emerged.

He was so convinced he'd hit someone that upon arriving home he made my grandfather drive back to the spot with him to help him search the area. They found nothing. I believe that he discovered when recounting the story that somebody had been knocked down and killed along that stretch of road some years previously and that other people had encountered similar experiences. There are a fair few ghost stories associated with the south Shropshire area but I've unfortunately never found any similar accounts mentioned.

I have more experiences from relatives along with a couple of personal experiences which I'm sure I'll get around to posting up at some point.
 
Tim451 said:
I've not posted any experiences on here before so here goes. This one was relayed to me by my father and happened in the mid to late 1970's.

He was driving home from a party late at night and to the best of my knowledge he hadn't been drinking. The event occurred somewhere between Bridgnorth and Ludlow although I'm not sure exactly where (I'll press him for further details next time I see him).

As he approached a slight bend in the road, what he described as "a figure wearing a striped shirt" emerged from the hedgerow into the path of the car. He slammed on the brakes and braced for an impact. He recalled that he both heard and felt an impact before hearing the figure roll up over the top of the vehicle. Once he'd composed himself he exited the car and prepared for the worst but could find no trace of a person in the vicinity, nor any damage to the car. Furthermore the hedgerows were thick with no gap from which a person could have emerged.

He was so convinced he'd hit someone that upon arriving home he made my grandfather drive back to the spot with him to help him search the area. They found nothing. I believe that he discovered when recounting the story that somebody had been knocked down and killed along that stretch of road some years previously and that other people had encountered similar experiences. There are a fair few ghost stories associated with the south Shropshire area but I've unfortunately never found any similar accounts mentioned.

I have more experiences from relatives along with a couple of personal experiences which I'm sure I'll get around to posting up at some point.
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No damage to the car then?
 
Tim451 said:
(I'll press him for further details next time I see him).

As he approached a slight bend in the road, what he described as "a figure wearing a striped shirt" emerged from the hedgerow
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Can you ask him if he remembers whether they were vertical or horizontal stripes please?

My reason for asking is that horizontal stripes invoke images of escaped convicts to me. Or Frenchmen. At any rate it might be relevant.
 
David Plankton said:
Can you ask him if he remembers whether they were vertical or horizontal stripes please?

My reason for asking is that horizontal stripes invoke images of escaped convicts to me. Or Frenchmen. At any rate it might be relevant.
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My ex used to aver that only vertical lines were stripes. Horizontal ones were hoops.
 
Over the years Mr Zebra and I have had a few instances of cars which were behind us one minute, and then nowhere to be seen the next... now, the most logical rational explanation is that the car turned off and we didn't notice. And that probably is the explanation, most of the time.

But it's those times on quiet, country roads where there are no turn-offs, no lay-bys, nowhere for the car to go (or on a quiet-ish motorway miles from any exits, as was once the case). We are both observant drivers but sometimes, one does wonder about these things because in a scant few cases, it does seem somewhat inexplicable.


Also; if we're out driving and a "vintage" car passes us from the opposite direction, we both - invariably - check the rear-view mirrors to make sure the car can still be seen driving off into the distance, and hasn't just vanished, phantom-like...

:)
 
Ride, Ride a tv play from 1970 on the phantom hitch hiker trope. Stars a young Susan George and Susan Gaunt looking very saucy. Could well be the first tv treatment of the subject. Stumbled on it quite by accident whilst trying to find something else. Never even heard of this one before.
 
lordmongrove said:
Ride, Ride a tv play from 1970 on the phantom hitch hiker trope. Stars a young Susan George and Susan Gaunt looking very saucy. Could well be the first tv treatment of the subject. Stumbled on it quite by accident whilst trying to find something else. Never even heard of this one before.
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That's the bloke from Rentaghost, Fred Mumford.
 
lordmongrove said:
Ride, Ride a tv play from 1970 on the phantom hitch hiker trope. Stars a young Susan George and Susan Gaunt looking very saucy. Could well be the first tv treatment of the subject. Stumbled on it quite by accident whilst trying to find something else. Never even heard of this one before.
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Not going to ask why you were searching online for videos containing ride, ride!
 
escargot said:
A road ghost

A few miles from my home is Northwich, a spooky li'l town. I used to work there and collected many ghost stories.

One was about a local stately home, currently a posh hotel. I spent a happy afternoon being well spooked by first-hand accounts of ghostly goings-on which were firmly supressed, under threat of the sack, by the management.

Next morning in the doctor's waiting room I picked up a glossy mag, Cheshire Life possibly, with a long, beautifully illustrated article about said pile!
Minus any mention of ghosts, naturally.

The local road ghost appeared to couple of sensible young men of my acquaintance. Just outside Northwich, they suddenly noticed, too late to swerve, an old chap with a little dog on a lead, and to their horror the car ran them both over.

Of course they stopped, jumped out and searched the road for half an hour or more - nothing to be seen. Considerably shaken, they continued on their way. On the way back, at the same spot, exactly the same thing happened!

This time the driver revved up and left at speed, not daring to stop.
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Hi Escargot, sorry I know it's donkey's years since this post but which road was the old fella and his dog seen?
 
One of my favourite accounts in this area is that of Roy Fulton, the Bedfordshire-based carpet fitter who was on his way back from a job one dark, wintry evening when he stopped to pick up a young guy ahead in the road. I always wondered if there were any similar accounts before his experience (or indeed any subsequently) - either way, it's a brilliantly told story!

 
lordmongrove said:
Ghost hunting with Ruth Roper Wylde. Contains creepy road ghost story at the end.
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It's certainly a very interesting account - her conflict between wanting to get the hell out of there and to go back and investigate is certainly relatable, I should think, to anyone who's seen anything 'weird'.

The whole episode is well worth a listen, with a few great stories sprinkled throughout. I particularly enjoyed the story of the teenage boys who spotted something in the road on a drive last month!
 
If any of you have Netflix I recommend the fourth episode (new series 2) of Unsolved Mysteries. It's about the 2011 Tohohu tsunami that hit Japan. It's very interesting and rather touching.

But relevant to this thread in particular is about half way through - stories of cab drivers picking up phantom hitchhiker style passengers. They stick the meter running and drive to the destination (so one assumes these passengers are meant to have spoken). But then no-one's in the back seat and the poor cab drivers have to pay out of their own pockets...! But (according to the programme, and the sociologist who's been collecting these post-tsunami stories) many cab drivers are not bothered if it happens again, because they have lost loved ones too, and they're helping some of the other people who died.

It's interesting because some things are seemingly more culturally specific to people's beliefs in Japan. But some things seem more universal. I suppose phantom hitchhikers just need 1) person driving a vehicle of some sort and 2) to disappear mysteriously, with optional 3) to be proven to be dead and therefore a spirit of a particular person. Which is something that could happen pretty much anywhere (c.f. the Irish horse and cart version I found elsewhere).

Anyway I recommend. (Btw I loved Roy Fulton's account in the video above. Superb find, thank you NDG).
 
Eponastill said:
If any of you have Netflix I recommend the fourth episode (new series 2) of Unsolved Mysteries. It's about the 2011 Tohohu tsunami that hit Japan. It's very interesting and rather touching...
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That's an interesting series, if a bit of a mixed bag - a load of True Crime mysteries with one paranormal episode somewhat incongruously chucked in.

Still, I think they do a pretty good job of it compared to many similar things, although, inevitably, the information is somewhat partial - and definitely biased in the direction of the woo. (There's a particular episode in the previous series which covers a story I've been interested in for years - as well as its place within a wider context of similar cases; further information than that included in the programme has the odd, but I find quite common, effect of both elucidating and making stranger. But that may just be the result of my attitude to the weird - which is that you don't really need weird, because normal is well weird enough to start with.)

I'm actually saving the tsunami episode until last.
 
Eponastill said:
If any of you have Netflix I recommend the fourth episode (new series 2) of Unsolved Mysteries. It's about the 2011 Tohohu tsunami that hit Japan. It's very interesting and rather touching.

But relevant to this thread in particular is about half way through - stories of cab drivers picking up phantom hitchhiker style passengers. They stick the meter running and drive to the destination (so one assumes these passengers are meant to have spoken). But then no-one's in the back seat and the poor cab drivers have to pay out of their own pockets...! But (according to the programme, and the sociologist who's been collecting these post-tsunami stories) many cab drivers are not bothered if it happens again, because they have lost loved ones too, and they're helping some of the other people who died.

It's interesting because some things are seemingly more culturally specific to people's beliefs in Japan. But some things seem more universal. I suppose phantom hitchhikers just need 1) person driving a vehicle of some sort and 2) to disappear mysteriously, with optional 3) to be proven to be dead and therefore a spirit of a particular person. Which is something that could happen pretty much anywhere (c.f. the Irish horse and cart version I found elsewhere).

Anyway I recommend. (Btw I loved Roy Fulton's account in the video above. Superb find, thank you NDG).
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No problem. It's one of my favourite accounts, although there doesn't seem to be a huge amount about it online.

The best write-up I've found re: the case is here (an article on Ghost Walk Brighton). The article expands, a little, on Roy's telling of the story in the clip above. He reported the incident to the police, who had been informed of similar incidents on the same stretch of road (would be interested to hear more of those).

N.B - There are a few decent road ghosts in the link provided. The final story ('If I exist, who am?') is particularly baffling!
 
NomDeGuerre said:
One of my favourite accounts in this area is that of Roy Fulton, the Bedfordshire-based carpet fitter who was on his way back from a job one dark, wintry evening when he stopped to pick up a young guy ahead in the road. I always wondered if there were any similar accounts before his experience (or indeed any subsequently) - either way, it's a brilliantly told story!

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Wow this has stirred my mind. Thanks for posting

I first came across this story in the early 1980’s, whilst reading a book my eldest brother owned about ghosts.

When my brother flew the nest I inherited his book collection, and still have the same Ghost book. Here it mentions Mr Fulton driving to the scene of the PHH event after a darts match.

What immediately sprung to my mind is how many pints had he drunk at that darts match..?

Still a classic road ghost tale though.

1603458353261.jpg
 
Eponastill said:
If any of you have Netflix I recommend the fourth episode (new series 2) of Unsolved Mysteries. It's about the 2011 Tohohu tsunami that hit Japan. It's very interesting and rather touching...
Click to expand...

Watched last night - and I agree on both points.

Also, what a blessed relief it is to see a religious man state that his deity is more likely to give him a pat on the back, than get angry with him, for giving more import to what is most likely to assist those seeking help from him, than to religious doctrine.

Give that man a place in heaven.
 
Spookdaddy said:
Watched last night - and I agree on both points.

Also, what a blessed relief it is to see a religious man state that his deity is more likely to give him a pat on the back, than get angry with him, for giving more import to what is most likely to assist those seeking help from him, than to religious doctrine.

Give that man a place in heaven.
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Thoroughly enjoyed it myself. Had all but given up on Unsolved Mysteries but that was a good episode.
 
On Friday 4th of December 2020 Jackie Tonks and I were driving along the road that links Newport Pagnell to the village of North Crawley. It was around ten thirty at night. The North Crawley road becomes Brook End then becomes High Street and finally Crawley Street. We were about a mile beyond North Crawley on the Crawley Street area of the road. We had turned around and started to drive back towards North Crawley.
Suddenly a strange sensation passed through the car. The sensation seemed to 'enter' the car from the right effecting Jackie, who was driving. It was a cold, prickling feeling like standing next to a big open meat freezer crossed with pins and needles. Jackie felt it in her legs and side then it hit the right side of my face then crawling around my scalp, neck and finally to my left cheek. Imagine an ice cold pins and needles but with a dragging sensation as if something was moving over us. It lasted about twenty seconds. It was as if something moved through the car and us.
Jackie switched the interior light on and we both looked on the back seat. There was nothing there. We turned around and drove back through the area but the sensation did not repeat itself.
Jackie later told me that she was badly frightened and that she felt that something was in the car with us for a while. She confessed she nearly screamed and burst into tears. She said it was one of the most frightening things she had experienced and she had survived the Nepalese earthquake.
I felt no sensation of fear just the weird physical feeling of the ice cold prickle.
I make no claim that this was a 'ghost' (whatever they may be) or anything paranormal. I'm just reporting what happened. Jackie was effected for some time afterwards.

Ruth Roper Wylde claims to have encountered a frightening figure along the road.
 
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