Chew Valley
Location: B3114, Chew Valley Lake, off A368, 6 miles ENE of Cheddar (Somerset)
Date/Time: 5 June 1999 (Pugh/Gunning). MAP
A number of sightings of a ghostly lady near Chew Valley Lake prompted an appeal by a local history society for people who had seen her to get in touch. As a result, several people contacted Jacqui Salter of the Compton Martin History Society, who set up a meeting with West Harptree History Society - a group who had recently run a workshop about Moreton, the village that was flooded when the lake was created.
Attending the meeting were Chris Pugh, his daughter, and partner Wendy Gunning, who were heading for home at Blagdon from the direction of Chew Stoke, when they narrowly missed hitting a woman who was crossing the road at Heron's Green.
"I had my main beam on but had no reaction from her, even though I flashed the lights at her," said Mr Pugh. The woman, whom they missed 'by about four feet', had long wavy hair and was dressed in a three-quarter-length gown and a linen cape-style dress with a hood.
A party of five people (who were also coming from the direction of Chew Stoke) - two adults, a Mr and Mrs Court, their daughter Nicola, and two of her friends, Maria and Louise Stuckey, whom they were driving home from a party - saw her at walking along the left verge by the old council yard at Kingshill Lane. The girl, estimated to be around 14 years of age, was "solid but greyish and misty", and was wearing a mid-calf Victorian-style dress and hob-nailed boots. Her hair was long and she was walking along with her hands behind her back.
Yet another witness that night was hairdresser Carol Gillen, who was travelling home in the same direction, had to slow down to let her cross the road. "She had on a long, heavily embroidered Victorian style dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves. They were billowing back with the breeze and the whiteness of her dress was very bright, as if electric.
"Her hair was loose, very thick, longish to the top of her shoulders and blowing off her neck." She walked across the road with a "confident stride", taking no notice of the approaching car - prompting the realization afterward that she must have been a ghost.
Local legend has it that the ghost is that of a young girl named Catherine Brown who drowned at Stratford Mill at the turn of the Twentieth Century, and whose former home and grave lie beneath the surface of the reservoir that flooded the valley in 1956.
Source(s): 'New sightings of 'Lady of the Lake', by Ros Anstey, Standard & Guardian, 9 September 1999; 'Ghostly Goings-on Down by the Lake', by Andrew Jefferson, Bristol Evening Post, 9 September 1999 - both sourced from News Search West via Televisual's on-line news archive.
Update: Chew Valley's ghost girl was featured on London Weekend Television's Britain’s Most Terrifying Ghost Stories (broadcast 23 November 2001, and narrated by Ian McShane).
On 5 June 1999, Chris Pugh, with his girlfriend Wendy Gunning and his daughter Sam, were returning home from Bristol past the lake on the B3114.
"Just as I got to the brow of a small hill," said Chris, "I could see a triangular light at the end of the cats’ eyes. And just as I approached it, Wendy looked up and she said: "Pughie, Pughie. Look out!"
"And I said, 'I know. I’ve seen it.'"
As they drew closer to the object, a lady just appeared from the middle of the road, and drifted very slowly in front of the car.
"I can remember distinctly that she had long wavy hair that looked sort of greasy, or even wet. I was convinced that it wasn’t a human being - it was something supernatural."
"What is it? What could it be? And then, the next thing you think ‘crikey’, that is is a ghost - and I just knew it," commented Wendy.
Mr Pugh pulled into a pub car-park just adjacent to the lake, and phoned the police, who responded by searching the area, but found nothing. It was a week later that Chris replied to an ad in a local paper asking for people who had seen strange things at the lake, and arranged to attend a meeting at local historical society to discuss the ghostly girl.
"There were about 12 people in total - which was amazing because all of them recorded almost the same information when asked a series of questions. Yet there was no collaboration because no-one knew each other before that night," said Chris.
One of those witnesses was Carol Gillen, who watched the girl proceed slowly up the lane, attired in only a dress despite the miserable weather conditions.
"I was thinking ‘Stupid cow - what’s she doing out at this time of night? Just with a dress on. And that was when I realized that she was a ghost.
"I started asking around the local village where I lived if there was anybody that knew anything about a girl out on the lake road. Then I found a lady that had a book [Old North Somerset, by Alan Holt] of stories about neighbouring villages. came across a passage in the book about a girl called Catherine Brown that lived at Stratford Mill - which now is Chew Valley Lake - and the story goes that she’d actually drowned in the moat. And she was only a young girl. So I just surmised that this was who it could have been."
According to legend, Catherine Brown disappeared one day at the turn of the century. She was found drowned the next morning. Yet her mother claimed to have seen her the previous night climbing the stairs soaking wet [but apparently didn't check on her welfare, or attempt to question her about her condition].
"Somewhere there’s got to be a grave," said Carol. "And I would love to think that she’s here. And I think until I’ve actually gone right to the end of the story, I won’t be satisfied. But I will find out. And hopefully, it is Catherine Brown."
