Spectral Show

[_Lizard23_]

Wonderful story!

Dream or not, the banging and swinging doors suggest to me that you were being called to watch, that, rather than it being a simple timeslip, haunting or replay, the building maybe somehow had something it wanted to communicate, just as it might have been trying to draw in jeff544 with its alluring atmosphere that kept him there longer than he thought .....

For a classic ghost story I'd want an opening night tragedy or something - seeing as rynner's CSI'd the time frame maybe a bit of research into the theatre's history might yield some spoooky results ....

 

[escargot]

Just want to say what a great story! Been a while since there's been such a unique tale on IHTM. Maybe if you had sat and watched the show you would have been trapped in that time and would have been just another missing person as far as everyone was concerned. Any attempt to explain that you were from the future would hve seen you derided and ignored (or commited to an asylum) and we'd be reading about you in the Fortean times as a strange man who lived in late Victorian England who swore he was from the future and possesed an uncanny knowledge of things to come?

Sounds a bit H. G. Wells to me.

 

[jeff544]

Just want to say what a great story! Been a while since there's been such a unique tale on IHTM. Maybe if you had sat and watched the show you would have been trapped in that time and would have been just another missing person as far as everyone was concerned. Any attempt to explain that you were from the future would hve seen you derided and ignored (or commited to an asylum) and we'd be reading about you in the Fortean times as a strange man who lived in late Victorian England who swore he was from the future and possesed an uncanny knowledge of things to come?

:shock: I find that prospect more disturbing than the original account.

 

[tilly50]

Back in Liverpool. My other half was working late on the 4th floor of the India Buildings, it was winter time and so it was dark outside. This would be in the mid to late 80's (about 1985).

He knew he was on his own as he had arrived late in the building so that he could get on with a back-log of paper work without any interuptions. He often did this and the security men knew about his working on the 4th floor and so would leave the corridor lights on when they saw him arriving for the evening.

They would always joke about the lifts being haunted and going up and down of their own accord. My husband would just smile as he did not believe in the paranormal.

That evening however gave him cause to re-think. He was working at his desk in an alcove with his back to the main office door. He was quite startled when someone touched his shoulder and announced " You should really leave the building Sir, it won't be safe once the bombing starts. You had best use the near stairway."

Looking up he saw an elderly man in what he thought was a boiler suit and an old tin hat. he thought that he was one of the security men trying to wind him up for a bit of fun. Then he had another thought that this man might be an intruder, whatever the case he decided to leave as suggested. The corridor was in darkness and not wanting to be in the dark with this odd stranger he made for the stairway that ran down to the left of his office, as this would be easier than going through all the doors to get to the lifts.

The stairs had windows down one side and looking through them my husband was worried to realise that there were no visable street lights. He hurried down to the ground level and when he reached the mezzanine he found that lights were on as normal inside the building and the orange glow of the street lights showed through the windows as usual. He found a security guard to let him out and mentioned the old chap who told him to leave. The security guard was nonplussed to say the least and thought that my husband was joking.

The whole eent put him off working late. He said that he did not want to be alone in the office if there was "a loony" prowling about. Non of the other staff in the office had similar experiences although no one would use the lifts after dark.

 

[GNC]

Ooh, that's a good story! I take it there was bombing near this building during the Second World War, yeah?

I wonder what would have happened if he'd taken the lift down that night?!

 

[_Cobh_]

Great story Tilly!
I'm convinced the buildings around the Pier Head are heaving with 'The Others'.
When I worked there, the old docks were still derelict (as they would have been when your husband was working that night) and it was mind blowing to look at those vast empty buildings, once crawling with sailors and workers, and to think there was no life at all in any of them apart from maybe a few rats. I think that affected me that night I stayed over.

It does seem likely to me that a kindly old ghost was concerned about your husband's welfare when the bombs started falling, doing his job still after all that time!

 

[gman72]

That's a good one , Tilly. A more conventional ghost tale as compared to my timeslip, but a good spooky story none-the-less.
Has anyone got any good timeslip stories?

 

[rynner2]

Timeslips?

Over half a dozen threads, if you search for Timeslip* in the title

(Four are in IHTM)

 

[_Cobh_]

Has anyone got any good timeslip stories?

I remember one about a man going into a shop that didn't exist but had been on that spot some dozen years or so earlier. He also recalled seeing an 'old-fashioned' post office van or something, before going into the shop. Later the shop was gone. I'm trying to find it for you as I may have got some of the facts wrong and it's quite a good one!

Someone else may know the story and find it first but I'll keep looking anyway.

 

[MsPix]

Has anyone got any good timeslip stories?

I remember one about a man going into a shop that didn't exist but had been on that spot some dozen years or so earlier. He also recalled seeing an 'old-fashioned' post office van or something, before going into the shop. Later the shop was gone. I'm trying to find it for you as I may have got some of the facts wrong and it's quite a good one!

Someone else may know the story and find it first but I'll keep looking anyway.

You'll find it in Joan Forman's "The Mask of Time" (1978 or 79), Jenny Randles cites Joan Forman in "Time Travel: Fact, Fiction and Possibility".

The "Mask of Time" is a pretty good collection of time slip cases, if you can get hold of a copy.

 

[_Cobh_]

Found it! And it was in Liverpool too...thought it was but couldn't remember the facts:

If a Merseyside policeman by the name of Frank was asked, he may have an entirely different opinion on the subject of time.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in July of 1996, Frank and his wife, Carol was visiting Liverpool's Bold Street area for some shopping. At Central Station, the pair split up; Carol went to Dillons Bookshop and Frank went to HMV to look for a CD he wanted. As he walked up the incline near the Lyceum Post Office/Café building that lead onto Bold Street, Frank suddenly noticed he had entered a strange "oasis of quietness."

Suddenly, a small box van that looked like something out of the 1950s sped across his path, honking its horn as it narrowly missed him. Frank noticed the name on the van's side: "Caplan's." When he looked down, the confused policeman saw that he was unexpectedly standing in the road. The off-duty policeman crossed the road and saw that Dillons Book Store now had "Cripps" over its entrances. More confused, he looked in to see not books, but women's handbags and shoes.

Looking around, Frank realized people were dressed in clothes that appeared to be from the 1940s. Suddenly, he spotted a young girl in her early 20's dressed in a lime-colored sleeveless top. The handbag she was carrying had a popular brand name on it, which reassured the policeman that maybe he was still partly in 1996. It was a paradox, but he was relieved, and he followed the girl into Cripps.

As the pair went inside, Frank watched in amazement as the interior of the building completely changed in a flash to that of Dillons Bookshop of 1996. The girl turned to leave and Frank lightly grasped the girl's arm to attract attention and said, "Did you see that?"

She replied, "Yeah! I thought it was a clothes shop. I was going to look around, but it's a bookshop."

It was later determined that Cripps and Caplan's were businesses based in Liverpool during the 1950s. Whether these businesses were based in the locations specified in the story has not been confirmed.

http://uforeview.tripod.com/timeslips.html

 

[_Cobh_]

You'll find it in Joan Forman's "The Mask of Time" (1978 or 79), Jenny Randles cites Joan Forman in "Time Travel: Fact, Fiction and Possibility".

The "Mask of Time" is a pretty good collection of time slip cases, if you can get hold of a copy.

Thanks for the recommendation. I love Timeslip stories

 

[MsPix]

Hi _Cohb_,

I think that is in one of Jenny Randles books, but the one I was thinking about in "The Mask of Time", was in East Anglia, where a chap was in an arcade of shops and noticed a rather old fashioned looking stationers. He'd been trying to get hold of some cellophane envelopes, the type that stamp collectors used to use, and in the 1960s these were becoming harder to find. He thought that an old family business might still stock them. Inside the shop didn't look like it had been touched for around 50 years. The girl at the counter was dressed in rather old-fashioned style, but being the era it was, he just assumed it was the latest trend drawing on styles from earlier in the century

The shop did stock the envelopes. He bought quite a few and was amazed how cheap they were. The girl looked at the coins a bit strangely, but said nothing.

A few weeks later he was back in town, and thought he'd get some more of the envelopes. However, there was no sign of the shop. He asked at another shop: they said that they'd been there for many years and they'd never seen a shop of that description. IIRC the arcade had suffered bomb damage in WWII and been partly rebuild.

He was quite baffled by this and went away. Shortly afterwards he took out the cellophane envelopes that he'd bought. They'd looked new when he bought them, but now they were yellowed and brittle as though they were decades old.

I've done this from memory, as the book seems to be hiding at the moment. So I may not have all the details right.

 

[gman72]

Hi _Cohb_,

I think that is in one of Jenny Randles books, but the one I was thinking about in "The Mask of Time", was in East Anglia, where a chap was in an arcade of shops and noticed a rather old fashioned looking stationers. He'd been trying to get hold of some cellophane envelopes, the type that stamp collectors used to use, and in the 1960s these were becoming harder to find. He thought that an old family business might still stock them. Inside the shop didn't look like it had been touched for around 50 years. The girl at the counter was dressed in rather old-fashioned style, but being the era it was, he just assumed it was the latest trend drawing on styles from earlier in the century

The shop did stock the envelopes. He bought quite a few and was amazed how cheap they were. The girl looked at the coins a bit strangely, but said nothing.

A few weeks later he was back in town, and thought he'd get some more of the envelopes. However, there was no sign of the shop. He asked at another shop: they said that they'd been there for many years and they'd never seen a shop of that description. IIRC the arcade had suffered bomb damage in WWII and been partly rebuild.

He was quite baffled by this and went away. Shortly afterwards he took out the cellophane envelopes that he'd bought. They'd looked new when he bought them, but now they were yellowed and brittle as though they were decades old.

I've done this from memory, as the book seems to be hiding at the moment. So I may not have all the details right.

I actually believe that this story took place in my home town. I've heared it before and I believe it was my mum that told me it when I was a kid. We have the "Rows" in my town which you may or may not have heared of. They are basically really narrow alleys that used to be lined with dwellings in medievil times. The rows actually helped to decimate the towns population from black plague during medievil times as people lived in such close proximity ( it is said that you could shake hands with the person that lived opposite you from your bedroom window) that the disease spread like warm butter through the people. Anyway, I digress.
The market Row has been a shopping arcade for as long as I can remember with the shops in very close proximity to each other. I feel certain that the above story actually happened in the Market Row.

 

[_Cobh_]

Hi _Cohb_,

I think that is in one of Jenny Randles books, but the one I was thinking about in "The Mask of Time", was in East Anglia, where a chap was in an arcade of shops and noticed a rather old fashioned looking stationers. He'd been trying to get hold of some cellophane envelopes, the type that stamp collectors used to use, and in the 1960s these were becoming harder to find. He thought that an old family business might still stock them. Inside the shop didn't look like it had been touched for around 50 years. The girl at the counter was dressed in rather old-fashioned style, but being the era it was, he just assumed it was the latest trend drawing on styles from earlier in the century

The shop did stock the envelopes. He bought quite a few and was amazed how cheap they were. The girl looked at the coins a bit strangely, but said nothing.

A few weeks later he was back in town, and thought he'd get some more of the envelopes. However, there was no sign of the shop. He asked at another shop: they said that they'd been there for many years and they'd never seen a shop of that description. IIRC the arcade had suffered bomb damage in WWII and been partly rebuild.

He was quite baffled by this and went away. Shortly afterwards he took out the cellophane envelopes that he'd bought. They'd looked new when he bought them, but now they were yellowed and brittle as though they were decades old.

I've done this from memory, as the book seems to be hiding at the moment. So I may not have all the details right.

Oooooh I like that one, thanks for posting it MsPix! The curious thing about that one, for me, is that the envelopes had aged.... I'm still trying to get my head around that part, and what it implies about time travel.

 

[gman72]

Oooooh I like that one, thanks for posting it MsPix! The curious thing about that one, for me, is that the envelopes had aged.... I'm still trying to get my head around that part, and what it implies about time travel.

Oh, I don't know. With the way the postal service can be these days there is actually quite a lot of envelope aging going on.

 

[_Cobh_]

Especially those full of gold (see the stupid tv adverts thread!)

 

[Moooksta]

And it was in Liverpool too...

And it was in Liverpool too

:shock:

There was another time slip story set in Liverpool I recall told in FT sometime in the last half of 1999. Can't remember the number but can remember telling it to someone from Liverpool who I knew during that period.

It may have been a letter or an IHTM and all I can recall was that it was set quite central near the train station I think and that it was also recent at the time of my reading, within the last six months of its printing. Anyone keep their old FTs who might check?

Wonder if there's some sort of crack...in time in central Liverpool?

Excellent tales.

mooks out

EDIT ONCE FOR SCOTTISH TO ENGLISH TRANSLATION

 

[JamesWhitehead]

It's Bold Street, Liverpool, so not so far from the station.

This page has the details

It was in the old Unexplained part-work, I think and I gave it a passing mention recently on a thread about local hauntings.

I did once spend the night on a bench in the vicinity - missed the last train - but all I saw were some scallies breaking into a shop.

 

[Moooksta]

Gman you should find someone who can hypnotise you and attempt a past life regression. Maybe you actually visited the theatre in a past life and you, returning to it in this life, kick started the event.

In some of the excellent stories that James (ty) supplied the people experiencing a time slip could have visited the area in the past in their own life time and maybe by revisiting it and recalling the image of it in the past they kick started the time slip event that only they can see.

James (or indeed anyone) has anyone heard from Para.science since they started the investigation of the Bold Street Time Slips or have they just "gone"?

mooks out

 

[gman72]

Hypnosis has been attempted on me twice before. Once in a seaside show and once by a professional Hypnotist and neither attempt was successful. Apparently you have to want to be hypnotised... :? whatever that means, I certainly had an open mind to it but it didn't work. I would love to be regressed, if only to see which famouse historical figure I once was. Seriously, though, when it come to regression I always had an internal inkling that I was someone who never had to work for a living and was waited on hand and foot but I have no idea who that might have been.

 

[_Cobh_]

Re: And it was in Liverpool too...

And it was in Liverpool too

:shock:

There was another time slip story set in Liverpool I recall told in FT sometime in the last half of 1999. Can't remember the number but can remember telling it to someone from Liverpool who I knew during that period.

It may have been a letter or an IHTM and all I can recall was that it was set quite central near the train station I think and that it was also recent at the time of my reading, within the last six months of its printing. Anyone keep their old FTs who might check?

Wonder if there's some sort of crack...in time in central Liverpool?

Excellent tales.

mooks out

EDIT ONCE FOR SCOTTISH TO ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Wow - I have never come across those before. I was born and raised in Liverpool so know the areas being described. So many around Bold Street! I'll have to wrack (sp?) my brains now and see if I can recall any weirdness around that area

Re Your translation from Scottish - Perhaps we should have a special thread where we all post in our own dialect? I'd enjoy that.... no need to translate from Scouse

 

[JamesWhitehead]

" . . . has anyone heard from Para.science since they started the investigation of the Bold Street Time Slips or have they just "gone"?"

One of those sites that starts with grand ambitions and goes quiet. It did give a concise account of the tales that are told so I quoted it. I noted the name on there of Tom Slemen cited uncritically. So buyer beware! :?

 

[rynner2]

Today I started reading a detective story set in 1863. On the very first page I found a mention of an "Argand gas light with its circular flame and incandescent mantle"....

So was the stuff I posted a few pages back about gas mantles in error? If so, the dating I suggested was several decades out.

However, Wiki has this to say about Argand Lamps:

The Argand lamp was invented and patented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. It greatly improved on the home lighting oil lamp of the day by producing a light equivalent to about 6 to 10 candles. It had a circular wick mounted between two cylindrical metal tubes so that air channeled through the center of the wick, as well as outside of it. A cylindrical chimney, in early models of ground glass and sometimes tinted, surrounded the wick, steadying the flame and improving the flow of air. It used a supply of good liquid oil, such as spermaceti whale oil as the fuel. This was supplied by gravity feed from a reservoir mounted above the burner. Aside from the improvement in brightness, the more complete combustion of the wick and oil required much less frequent snuffing (trimming) of the wick.

etc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argand_lamp

So the Argand lamp was an oil lamp, not a gas lamp, and therefore didn't use a mantle, so my earlier conclusions still hold.


Unless, of course, the OP was mistaken about the lamps being gas... :shock:

Could they have been oil lamps? Without detailed knowledge of earlier technologies, it might be easy to jump to a false conclusion.

(The only thing I'm fairly sure of is that the author of my whodunnit has got his facts wrong! )

 

[gman72]

As far as i'm aware they were gas lamps, at least that's what everyone always refered to them as. I'm reasonably certain they were not oil lamps... however on a not entirely unrelated note, a secret room hidden in one of the frontal towers of the theatre was discovered and opened when the place was being refurbished around 1995 whilst I still worked there. I was lucky enough to be one of the few people allowed to go in - thanks to my dad - and see an ancient and thankfully redundant heating system called a Mercury ball. The room was full of old fashioned tools hanging up and some newspapers in there were dated from the 30's. In the middle of the room was a huge central pillar supporting a massive glass globe filled with mercury. Off this globe many glass pipes extended out into the walls and there was also a hulking, rusty control box. It was a very strange set up indeed. The local council sealed off the room and men in special protective clothing disposed of the heating system and all of the mercury.
Just another odd little story concerning this strange place.

 

[rynner2]

Wow! A mercury ball sounds like a serious environmental accident waiting to happen!

New to me.

 

[gman72]

Well if anyone can shed any info on the Mercury Ball heating system it may or may not provide some info on dating the time slip.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I am wondering if the strange Mercury Ball and glass tubes were for lighting rather than heating? :?:

 

[thenumenorian]

time slip story

here's a cool time slip story for you. allegheny city was across the river from pittsburgh and it was quite the fashionable place to live, huge victorian mansions, gaslights on tree lined streets.... a family built a double mansion, the father lived in one half, the daughter, her husband and daughter in the other. the german nanny was responsible for looking after the child. one day, she fell asleep while on duty and the child fell to her death from the the top of a skylight area above the massive stairway. Its now part of allegheny county community college, and several times work was stopped while the workmen looked for a child that was reported seen climbing the staircase. the time slip happened after the renovations were completed, and a college employee looked out the window on bright summer day, to see the street as it appeared in the 1880's...she looked out onto a beautiful fall day and saw the image of a woman in victorian clothing clinging to the iron gate that separated the two mansions, that the grieving grandfather had erected to "keep his daughter out." he held her responsible for the death of the his granddaughter. the iron gate is still there, but the woman and the scene vanished after the college employee looked away and then back. allegheny city is now called the north side of pittsburgh and there are many ghost stories about this reclaimed victorian neighborhood. another time slip is the vision of a boy on a high wheeled bike, seen from the parlor window of another restored mansion by many successive generations of residents. are these things ghosts or do we see into the past?

 

[SHAYBARSABE]

Wow! A mercury ball sounds like a serious environmental accident waiting to happen!

Well, it is, of course. Many cities ban mercury-vapor lamps, now.

However, the theater may have had a mercury-arc lamp or two for special effects.

That would make the date around 1915.