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Stocksbridge Bypass Ghost

evilsprout

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Lots of Yorkshire types in here so someone might know this...

...anyone heard owt recently of the ghosts that haunt the Stocksbridge bypass in northern Sheffield (and just a stonesthrow from where I live)? A good few years ago there were loads of sightings of a shadowy monk that appeared in people's cars, and dancing children seen in quarry. It was even on "Strange But True" with Michael Aspel. Not heard anything about it recently, though.
 
I've got the book of that series but nothing more recent, Sprout.

I do remember the show with the tale of policemen being freaked.

Looking at their photos, I think the feeling may have been reciprocal
and maybe the jogging monk fled.

There were also phantom children seen dancing under the pylons.

Oh and decaying flesh smells. Nice. :eek:
 
Well I do know of someone who mischievously hired a monk outfit and went walking on the bypass, but this was after the original speight of sightings.

I remember once going along there, seeing a fella in a hood walking by the side of the road... was scary for a minute until I realised the hooded cowl was actually a parka...
 
I still have on video the episode of 'strange but true' from the first series in 1994 which covered this story.

It was also covered on ghosthunters on discovery.

It was one of the most convincing ghost stories I have heard as there were so many witnesses.

But I am puzzled about why so many ghost sightings happen within the vacinity of these electricity pylons, are they something to do with it?? do they cause people to hallucinate??
 
Aw, this brings the memories back. My first letter to FT was on this subject.
I remember the first stories well, as me Dad worked for the council at the time and heard all the rumours as the news broke.

I can't help noticing something though; was it Colin Wilson who pointed out that if people see a cowled figure, they immediately search the history of the area for something vaguely monastic? Some of the details of the 'legend' seem very tenuous.

Cowled figures crop up so often and in such odd circumstances that I think they nearly deserve to be treated as a crypto-zoology phenomena. It seems that they always seem to crop up in cases which are a bit more out of the ordinary then normal; there's sometimes a UFO or an ABC thrown in there as well. Or, on the rare occasions that they speak, it ain't medieval latin, but some freaky UFO-naut psychobabble, e.g. "I-don't-think-we-will-go-this-way-tonight" from one case in Somerset (I think).

Thoughts? I've been over the by-pass loads of times in the hope of catching a glimpse. Not a thing. Those fairy children things always put the wind up me most of all though, so perhaps it's just as well.
 
Here's something funny!
I recently made a monk's outfit for a neighbour who was going to a mediaeval wedding. It looked super, with a most convincingly spooky and voluminous cowl which covered his head and hid his face menacingly. Since then, several people have asked to borrow it, with the express intention of capering around at night to scare others! So if there's a new sighting of a ghostly monk in south Cheshire, blame me.
 
by eck! I remember this one too being a sheffielder in exile.
I remember reading somewhere that the ghosts and eerir happenings had been put forward as a possible cause for all the road traffic accidents on the bypass. It's a road i've driven many times and i could never understand why there were always so many fatal accidents....
 
The Stocksbridge Bypass ghost appeared as recent as January 1st 1999, a couple in a car claimed the monk passed through their car, nearly causing it to crash. This took place six months after a local "psychical" society publically showed the monk, "the light".

The original sightings by the policemen etc resembled folklore tales. When the policemen saw the ghosts of the "children" they were dancing in a circle in a mist, similar to sightings of fairies in previous centuries.

I believe in the mid-seventies (another) policeman saw in a field a bunch of strangely dressed people dancing in a circle in mist.

Maybe folklore continues to be passed on through the generations...
 
On 'Look North' tonight, there was a piece about a fatal accident on the Stocksbridge bypass. Apparently 22 people have been killed on the road since it opened in 1988, and the piece described it as a 'Killer Road'. Apparently the road layout is blamed for the numbers of accidents.

Its easy to see how the events prior to the road opening, coupled with its deserved sinister reputation could lead to all sorts of rumours. Also perhps making people driving the road more prone to believing they've seen something nasty in the headlights.
 
Channel 4/5 had a program on it in january where they looked at causes of the accidents, often due to bad weather and lorries speeding. No mention of ghosts though.............
 
My own observation: the by-pass is a sodding awful bit of road, designed by gimps for people who want to accidentally drive on the wrong side of the road.

Perhaps the spooks are attracted by the accidents as opposed to vice-versa?
 
There is a bunch of stuff on hooded figures at the road side in Paul Deveraux' Haunted land - I think there is a chapter of it on the FT site somewhere and it may be the relevant one.
 
A couple of my old work colleagues live in Stocksbridge. One of them mentioned the pretty chinese lanterns at a nearby wedding. A couple of days later, there was a report in The Star about UFO's over Stocksbridge...
 
Something I've just posted on the Sprinting Spooks? thread which bears repetition here:

Just found this little doc on the subject of he Stocksbridge by-pass incidents on YouTube.

I hadn't seen it before, although I was aware of the incidents related by Dick Ellis, who I have to say makes a very convincing witness (as, it's fair to say, do all the other witnesses in this particular programme)...
 
The Haunted Bypass.

One of the Ghost Hunters series from the mid-nineties. It contains some witness interviews, though I'm not sure it casts much light on the mystery. :confused:

Thanks for that. This is a documentary I've linked to before - but the links have since broken. Although a relatively short documentary, a couple of the stories are covered in more detail than I've been able to find in any other source. And one or two don't seem to appear elsewhere at all (or at least only appear elsewhere in a form which suggests that this documentary is the source.)

A fascinating sequence of events.
 
I'll be driving from Manchester to Scarborough with Escet next week so may fiddle the route to take in the infamous bypass!
 
Dr David Clarke's Page on the Stocksbridge Case is Probably the Best of Many Online.

I had seen it before but scroll down the page to the last comment added in July this year. :rofl:


may fiddle the route to take in the infamous bypass!

I have never had cause to drive over to Sheffield, though every time the case is mentioned I think I should make the effort one day. I am slightly discouraged by the reputation of the road as a dangerous one. Distractedly gaping at pylons for a sight of phantom sprogs might be unwise. The A628 from Manchester passes through the Longdendale Valley before crossing the moors to fork onto the A616, which presumably is the bypass.

Longdendale is, of course, celebrated for its mysterious lights and phantom aircraft. I see it is also home to the town of Hadfield, better known as the location* that plays Royston Vasey! :eek:

Edit:

I originally said it was the inspiration for Royston Vasey. That distinction belongs to Alston in Cumbria!

I'm glad I checked the page as it reminded me of this:
"In the first television series of The League of Gentlemen a construction company called PQ Construction threatens the isolation of Royston Vasey by building a "New Road" near the Local Shop"
The building of the Stocksbridge Bypass is said to have marked the start of a wave of strange events, though as Clarke notes, there was monk-related folklore in the region.
 
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Perhaps the spooks are attracted by the accidents as opposed to vice-versa?

now THIS is an unsettling and fascinating thought....

has there been a suggestion that the sightings are oif the people who dies?
 
Dr David Clarke's Page on the Stocksbridge Case is Probably the Best of Many Online.

I had seen it before but scroll down the page to the last comment added in July this year. :rofl:




I have never had cause to drive over to Sheffield, though every time the case is mentioned I think I should make the effort one day. I am slightly discouraged by the reputation of the road as a dangerous one. Distractedly gaping at pylons for a sight of phantom sprogs might be unwise. The A628 from Manchester passes through the Longdendale Valley before crossing the moors to fork onto the A616, which presumably is the bypass.

Longdendale is, of course, celebrated for its mysterious lights and phantom aircraft. I see it is also home to the town of Hadfield, better known as the location* that plays Royston Vasey! :eek:

Edit:

I originally said it was the inspiration for Royston Vasey. That distinction belongs to Alston in Cumbria!

I'm glad I checked the page as it reminded me of this:
"In the first television series of The League of Gentlemen a construction company called PQ Construction threatens the isolation of Royston Vasey by building a "New Road" near the Local Shop"
The building of the Stocksbridge Bypass is said to have marked the start of a wave of strange events, though as Clarke notes, there was monk-related folklore in the region.

Fortean Times covered Longdendale way back probably 15 years? Wasn't there a giant slug creature that crossed the road?
 
Dr David Clarke's Page on the Stocksbridge Case is Probably the Best of Many Online.

I had seen it before but scroll down the page to the last comment added in July this year...

Yes...that guy either leads a very interesting life - or he has way too much time on his hands (and possibly needs to seek professional help.)

However, also in the comments section a tantalising follow up from Mick Lee - the MD of the security firm, who is interviewed in the documentary.
 
I visited Stocksbridge today! Oh, the things I saw, the tales I could tell! The things that menaced me in a field of pylons, the sounds that startled me from a gothic tower. I have seen the colour of the stones that leached the life from the town and I have seen the colour of their faces and their nails!

I have been up Nanny Hill* and also seen her dark side. I have peered into the recesses of the graves in her womb.

I may write it all up later, when I've had a poo. Meanwhile, the things, the things! :eek::eek::eek:





*Don't even dream of doing the Benny joke. Some things should be held scared. :p
 
nice one JamesWhitehead!
 
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