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The Pink Lady Of Scarborough

JimTheTall

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Feb 25, 2008
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I'm currently researching a local ghost story concerning the pink lady of Bell Mansion, in Scarborough. A Brief outline of the tale states that in 1804 a young lady, Miss Bell, daughter of a York confectioner who was staying in Scarborough at the time, was murdered by a soldier, her body being thrown over the cliffs. The accused was given an alibi and escaped justice. On his deathbed he confessed his crime. The ghost of the young lady now haunts the house her family were staying in the red dress she was wearing at the time of her death.

I have a lot of facts about the crime itself (The name of the young lady is wrong in all retellings of this tale, along with most of the facts.) but the thing I'm interested in is the origins of the ghost story. The earliest reference I have for the story in it's present form is in Jack Hallam's 1976 book 'Ghosts of the North', I have also a reference to her ghost from 1813, but in an awful poem and located at the place of her death rather than the house (several miles away).

If anyone has any earlier references (than the 1976 one), or further information, I'd be interested to hear them.

Jim
 
I remember this tale. I was led to believe that the girls name was Lydia Bell, however, as you have alreay stated most sources get it wrong, feel free to correct me on this. I also read that her Father, Thomas Bell, was a confectioner from York but again, I'm working from memory and might be wrong. The Scarborough Evening Post had a good search facility on its site and I recall several different accounts of sightings of the "Pink Lady", including at least one from the days when Bell Mansion (or the Georgian house at it also known) was used as flats. I don't remember the dates though.
I went in search of the Bell Mansion a couple of years ago at around 5.30 in the morning (I was on holiday and couldn't sleep due to hay fever). It was now a clothes shop and a glimpse of a pink dress in the window gave me quite a start! Good luck in your research, hope you share your findings.
Edit: I just pulled this from the Scarborough News Site, You've probably seen it but here it is any way:

Further ghostly tales




Published on Tuesday 8 April 2008 09:40

Dear Faith Regarding your letter about the ghost of St Nicholas Street (Dear Faith, February 12).


One day in the 1940s I was taken for tea to the address mentioned. The lady and gentleman there told me about an incident involving their little girl: she had gone down from their flat above the shop to the small back garden, then ran back crying that the lady in the long frock wouldn't let her pass. There was no lady when they went to see.




Shortly afterwards, they had an artist staying. He sketched the area and put in a girl in a pink crinoline. When asked why, he didn't know, but the child shouted "That is the lady in the garden."




They were so interested, they had a clairvoyant visit who told them a very similar story to yours. The difference was that the young lady threw herself from the top window, broken hearted when her father still refused to let them marry.


L Lamplugh


East Ayton




Dear Faith


With reference to the story in Dear Faith regarding the haunting of "The Georgian house" in St Nicholas Street, there is a story in the book Scarborough in the 50s and 60s which casts a bit more light on the subject.




The Georgian house was actually called Bell Mansion and built in 1708 for Mr Bell, a York confectioner whose daughter was found murdered below the cliffs in 1804.




I used to rent a flat on the second floor there and it is a fantastic building inside but cannot lay claim to seeing the ghost of Lydia.


Chris Gray


Valley Road




This article from the Evening News in October 1988 has a full description of the ghost of Lydia Bell.




She came from very good stock, her father being a well-to-do York confectioner. Every summer they would visit their Scarborough mansion.


This particular building on St Nicholas Street (adjoining Marshall House) is now called the Georgian Mansion but by rights it should be the Bell Mansion.


It was here in 1804 that Lydia became enamoured with a young officer stationed at the Castle Hill barracks. Her father was very much against this would-be courtship and locked Lydia in her room whilst he and her mother went out for an evening's entertainment.




Being a resourceful child she sought the help of a neighbour who freed her from her imprisonment and off Lydia gaily went dressed in her pink dress – to her death.




She was found the next morning on the south sands, murdered.


The officer was charged and certain people came forward to testify against him, but he was acquitted for lack of evidence. It was many years later that one of the men who had given evidence confessed to the murder on his deathbed.




Whoever the murderer was, the ghost of Miss Bell returned to the family home and its immediate vicinity.




After the Second World War the premises underwent renovation and were turned into flats, with business space forming the ground floor. During these alterations a crane driver had to stay the night in the building, but the next day swore he would never do so again; he avoided giving any reason.




An artist once painted the rear of the house and included in the scene a lady in a pink dress going up the steps. Asked why he had included her, he replied it was the ghost his grandfather often saw when living there. One lady, Mrs Agnes C.... who lived in the house as a child, often saw the ghost of Miss Bell.




The top rooms were converted into a playroom and Mrs C and her cousin, who were playing in these rooms, saw the ghost of Lydia move from one side of the room to the other.




A similar story is told by a lady who as a child lived there in 1950. She had become very upset and ran to her mother complaining that a lady in a pink dress had tried to prevent her from entering the house.




Recently a woman living there said she often heard the rustle of a dress going up the stairs and on one occasion caught Miss Bell having a rest in a chair.
 
Cheers for the reply.

As you can see from the facts supplied the truth is a fickle mistress. If the house was built in 1708 for her father, and she died age 16 in 1804, he deserves a fortean mention for his longevity and late life fecundity! As it happens, I believe the house to belonged to an unrelated Bell family who were ship owners and bankers in Scarborough at the time.

The father, whose name was Joseph, was indeed a confectioner, and was born in York (his father was a joiner of all things). He seemed to make his reputation in Leeds, but had moved back to York by 1793. By 1804 when his daughter was murdered he was not visiting Scarborough, but living there, having a successful shop in the town. He remained in Scarborough until 1808 when he moved to Newcastle, publishing a book in 1817 called Treatise on Confectionary in which he mentions his Scarborough shop, and also claims to have been confectioner to the Prince Regent and the Duke of York.

To the murder itself... Young Miss Bell was in fact called Eleanor (after her paternal grandmother), in all the contemporary reports here is no mention of her being confined to her room, only that she slipped out to avoid detection (her parents didn't know she had even arranged the meeting). In none of the accounts pre the 20th century is there any mention of a pink dress. At the time the population of Scarborough was around 6500, with an additional 5-600 soldiers from the York Volunteers based at the Castle. She was seen walking away with a soldier that evening, but witnesses couldn't positively identify him due to the lateness of the hour. The next day her body was found a few miles down the coast with signs of severe trauma and an attempted rape was assumed, though the coroners inquest held that she had retained her innocence. A soldier was arrested in Malton, tried and acquitted due to lack of evidence, no conspiracy. I initially thought is suspicious that the Soldier was arrested in Malton, until I discovered that the whole of the York Volunteers were stationed there, as they had left Scarborough to return to York that day.

The final part about deathbed confessions appears nowhere other than in the ghost stories It also seems unlikely, as The Bell family would have been in Newcastle, and the murderer (undoubtedly one of the soldiers) would have been in York, so the confession would have little relevance and would have been unlikely to have been reported (and indeed it appears not to have been).

An 1813 book entitled ‘Poetical Sketches of Scarborough’, has, tucked away amongst the now painful doggerel, a poem entitled ‘The Cornelian Party’ which contains a reference to ‘Bellina’s Ghost’ haunting the beach at Cayton, with the following footnote:

‘The Letter D (for death, like the Greek ?) long marked the stone, upon which Miss Bell’s head rested when her corpse was discovered, blooming as in a quiet sleep. It has since been removed, perhaps by tempests.’

So, nine years after the event a fictional ghost appears. Not at the house, but miles away down the beach on the spot of her death. This area was an active location for unloading smuggled spirits and tobacco for many years after the murder, and it would be nice to suppose that a ghost story may be quite useful for keeping prying eyes at bay, but alas I have no evidence for this.

All this does raise the question though, who is the pink lady of Bell Mansion that people have been seeing since at least the 1940s?

Jim
 
The Georgian house was actually called Bell Mansion and built in 1708 for Mr Bell, a York confectioner whose daughter was found murdered below the cliffs in 1804.

Those dates....
 
It's an excellent story and deserves to be more widely known.

If you are in the area, do you have photos of the house?
 
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