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Really Strange Ghost Stories

N

News_From_Nowhere

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I'm in the process of researching/collecting some of the stranger ghost stories that are out there and wondered if anyone can think of any that I've missed? I'm looking for stuff that moves away from the traditional apparition of the grey lady etc. and into the realms of real weirdness. So, examples of some of the fairly famous tales I've got so far are:

The Battle of Edgehill (the battle being replayed in the sky afterwards)
Gef the Talking Mongoose
The Phantom Chicken of Highgate
The Butterfly of the Theatre Royal in Bath

Some less famous stories I've come across include that of a completely naked lady ghost who appears by a fireplace in a hotel in Congleton and the apparition of an elderly lady dressed head to toe in a beekeeping suit witnessed in a Sandbach hotel.

Can anyone suggest stories of a similar ilk, famous or otherwise? I want to focus on ghosts/hauntings rather than things like UFOs. I can also give more info about any of the above stories if people are interested.

All suggestions will be gratefully received!
 
The White Horse pub in Cromer, Norfolk has a reported phantom single foot that local tour promoters include on the tour ..
 
The Bell Witch might belong in your collection.

There's another one I recall but haven't been able to track down, about a house where anyone who spends the night is driven insane and/or winds up dead.

I'm sure that description fits a lot of fictional stories, but I think I read this one in a non-fiction book....

EDIT: There was another one, too, about a sailor from the Philadelphia Experiment who appeared in a "ghost" form to his mother or wife or something like that and told them what had happened. I'll have to track that one down.
 
Thanks for the responses, they're all exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Regarding the disembodied foot, I've definitely read a story about a ghostly hand which liked to grab people - I'll have to look it up.

Any more for any more? The phantom chicken of Highgate is a particularly bizarre one, which got me to thinking of other animal hauntings (like the Bath butterfly). There's somewhere quite famous that's supposed to be haunted by the spirit of a gorilla but the name of the place escapes me for the moment.
 
Are you focusing just on England? Or do American stories count, too?

Simple question, but better to be asked now than later....
 
The UK really - I should have said that at the start, sorry! I'd be interested to read any weird stories from elsewhere, but for the purposes of the 'project' I'm focusing on the UK.
 
I have visited both the Congleton and Sandbach locations - the Lion and Swan and the Old Hall, respectively. 8)

No ghosts seen, though. :cry:
 
escargot1 said:
So what is the nature of the 'project'?
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If I can find enough stories, the idea is to write a book. It's in its very early stages though and even if nothing comes of that I'm just a keen paranormal researcher who enjoys the weirder side of weird!

And yes, it's the Lion and Swan in Congleton and The Old Hall Hotel in Sandbach. I've spent many a night investigating both venues but unfortunately haven't seen the naked ghost or the beekeeper!
 
titchagain said:
maybe some of these would be of some use . http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... sc&start=0
Now about the naked women ghost, could i hear some details? for research purposes off course.
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She's said to appear by the fireplace, tending to the fire while wearing nothing but clogs and a smile! The fireplace surrounding is dull of strange carved symbols - it's thought it originated as part of a marital bed designed to aid fertility. Legend has it that the woman in question died after drinking a fertility potion. She's also associated with a brown shadowy apparition seen elsewhere in the hotel, leading her to be called ' The Brown Lady'.
 
drbates, hi ye away forthwith to the Ghost Cats thread!
 
This morning I was hoping to snap the Lion & Swan as we drove past but was thwarted by the traffic diversion. It's the Congleton Food & Drink Festival today. So I sadly didn't get to snap the naked ghost leaning out of the window and waving a poker.
 
I really love ghost books. My very favourite genre of literature. 8)

Bought my brother a copy of a famous railway ghosts book for his birthday last year. He too likes ghosts and we also love trains. Trains, ghosts, what's not to like? :D
 
Thanks for the recommendation gncxx, I'll order a copy. Yes, research wise it's difficult when someone else has already written a quality summation of the story, but I'm hoping to simply use such stories as a starting point for my own research.

I love railway ghosts too escargot1 - especially underground railway ghosts! The London Underground has some wonderfully weird ghost stories associated with it, as you probably know. There was a decent documentary on about it a few years back, it's probably on Youtube now.

Regarding The Lion and Swan, did you happen to see the Great British Ghosts episode it featured on a couple of years ago? They interviewed me for that episode but cut it from the final show unfortunately! Although I did feature on a few other episodes during the two series they did, so I suppose I can't complain too much... :) Haven't been back since as new owners took over who wanted to charge us a ridiculous amount to hire the venue for our investigations/events. Wonderful building though with a rather spooky cellar, including what used to be a nightclub in the 1970s but closed after its owner was murdered. It's still got neon paint on the walls and everything!
 
Don't mention it! I guarantee you'll like it.
 
Oddly enough, I've been doing the opposite sort of thing recently: I have gathered tons of weird UFO/monster/ghost tales near already; now I'm searching for relatively quiet, unremarkable ones, just to keep me (and others, if I publish anything) from thinking every ghost account is as bizarre as POLTERGEIST or as wild as GHOSTBUSTERS.

Still, only recently have I been trying to chart interesting things from ghost stories, so I'll have to review them again to find juicy ones. Here's a bit from Mike Marinacci's Fortean guidebook, Mysterious California about the "Charman" near Ojai, CA:

"Witnesses say he's horribly disfigured: peeling, charred flesh hangs from his skull, and he's barely clothed in seared, disheveled rags. Sometimes even the awful stench of burning flesh precedes him.

"Charman is one of the region's more aggressive phantoms. He's said to hide in the dark woods, coming out to attack people walking the road at night. Back in the 1950s, he allegedly grabbed a young man and tore his jacket off; when the story made the newspapers, Creek Road was jammed with sightseers looking for the gruesome apparition."
 
One of the strangest (without having major "special effects") ghost stories I ever read was called simply "My Story," and it is right here on the FTMB:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... ummy+radio

The detail that particularly struck in my mind was this item about a song on the radio:

one time when I was perhaps 9 or 10, the radio turned itself on.. again not too unusual in that household.. but I was expecting to hear the usual music or news, instead it was playing a terrifying (to me) song about a mummy that came to life and was now searching for someone to kill. I was at first just intriqued with this 'new song', then it became more and more grizzly, as it decribed ripping off peoples heads, dismembering them, etc. I tried to turn it off, but couldn't. Finally I simple left the house, and waited for someone else to return home.
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It seemed to imply that a ghost could not merely speak through electronic media a la phone calls from the dead, but that it could sing a weird-@$$ song (with music?) and otherwise imitate a radio broadcast!

To demonstrate how much this story stuck with me: Years later I was driving in a semi-rural area at night. I think it was near Halloween, though I can't be sure. Anyway, I was receiving stations I couldn't normally during the day, as happens with radios at night. One of the blurry broadcasts that temporarily came into clarity was -- you guessed it -- a song about a mummy planning to come and get you and do all sorts of nasty things!

The first thing I thought of, driving along in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, was "Queek"'s story! I weaved around like a lunatic trying to keep the station in focus, but it faded into static before I could hear the end of the song or find out what station it was or where. I don't even recall where it was on the dial, though I can't believe I didn't try to memorize that.
 
Couple of Iron Maiden numbers that might fit the bill on that song, or maybe something by King Diamond / Mercyful Fate?
 
Perhaps so. I recall thinking at the time that the bit of music I heard was aired near Halloween, obviously for its weird theme, so "Queek's" song might have been a similar, legitimate recording. Unfortunately I'm musically dyslexic: I can hear a song a hundred times and not catch a word of the lyrics, let alone the name of the title or the artist! I must have been listening closely that night.
 
Did we ever find out what genre of music the song was? I'm totally wanting to hear it now. :lol:
 
News_From_Nowhere said:
Thanks for the responses, they're all exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Regarding the disembodied foot, I've definitely read a story about a ghostly hand which liked to grab people - I'll have to look it up.
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Might this be the Hairy Hands of Dartmoor? Supposedly a set of grotesque grabs motorists steering wheels at a treacherous bend and tried to steer them off the road, iirc.
 
The Hairy Hands would have been my first choice - famous enough to have it's (their?) own Wikipedia page here

You also mentioned the ghost of a gorilla; I don't know if this is the one you were referring to - the Yellow Monkey of Drumlanrig Castle

And while Googling for the above I came across this account too on the Express website. There's no way that that isn't odd!

There's also the 'cylindrical figure, like a glass-tube' apparition that was seen by Edmund Swifte and family in the Martin Tower of the Tower of London in 1817.

NOTE: The Swifte / cylindrical apparition sighting has its own thread:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...wer-of-london-cylinder-apparition-1817.65540/
 
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