Seeking Tales Of Strangeness In Shropshire

[helloSprout]

Hi all!

I'm a long time FT reader, some-time message board lurker, and first-time poster.

I was wondering if any of the members here knew of any Forteana relating to the English county of Shropshire, that they might be willing to share or point me towards: anomalous events, strange deaths, weird histories, folklore, sightings and traditions, the usual stuff!

Specifically, I’m researching the area around Ludlow, and Titterstone Clee, which is Shropshire’s third highest hill and on which my late father worked on a radar station. I’ve already found some a couple of ghost stories (including a possibly debunked poltergeist case) and anomalous earth-events (an unexplained subterranean fire), as well as a well-known and FT-covered instance of a bunch of bees attending a beekeepers funeral, which I’ll post to the appropriate forums as I reckon they might be of interest to people here.

This is all in service of research for a big book I'm currently working on. It’s partly about growing up in South Shropshire, partly about my father’s recent illness and passing, and partly about the history of the area. I should say the book isn’t explicitly Fortean in nature (it’s a memoir, if anything) but the themes of the whole thing are kind of Fortean: life, death, history, nature, memory, and place, all of which I feel very much weave in and out of the interests of this community.

If you’re interested in the book itself, which I’m self-publishing in instalments, I’ve posted about it in the Announcements forum, as I reckon that's a more appropriate home for it.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

S

EDIT: added link to post in Announcements forum

 

[EnolaGaia]

Have you already searched the forums - e.g., for postings relating to the specific place names?

 

[Frideswide]

If you are willing to consider modern resonances - stories which may or may not have been current before they were published in fiction - then have a look at the Merrily Watkins books. There's one set entirely in Ludlow and U'm pretty sure at least one of the ghosts/things woven in existed before the book.

 

[henry]

zebra cat springs to mind ... ghost pony from the past ?

 

[helloSprout]

@EnolaGaia I had been doing this, yes, but before the board moved, so this is a timely reminder to get back on it! Thanks!
@Frideswide that's a good tip, thank you. I've been trawling through old non-fiction books, but hadn't considered that relationship before.
@henry well that's just intriguing... I did find a newspaper report about a team of farmers and an RSPCA officer trying to capture a wild pony with a tin can stuck on its hoof, which was roaming the peaks of Titterstone...

 

[Frideswide]

@helloSprout

I am fascinated by the process of myth creation and the relationship between created and believed and (possibly) emerged. For an extreme example, consider the Slender Man events and trial.

 

[Junopsis]

@helloSprout

For an extreme example, consider the Slender Man events and trial.

As someone who was on SA when that happened, let me tell you, it's utterly trippy how something so normal as a creative exercise can so quickly become a society-wide story trope. I didn't contribute much, but it was glorious.

 

[Gloucestrian]

Nothing Fortean to add, though that area is of interest to me also. In case you haven't read it one of Ellis Peters Cadfael novels is set mainly around that area - The Virgin in the Ice.