Wisbech

[Paul_Exeter]

Have only driven past Wisbech the once and that was on a glorious summer's day. For someone who has lived almost all of their life amongst the hills of Devon and Cornwall I found the unrelenting flatness landscape to be 'alien' but not in a bad way. So I was intrigued to hear a police detective on C4's "24 Hours in Police Custody" say she always ensured she had a full tank of fuel when heading out to Wisbech as the place was so isolated and the road across the Fens so "spooky" at night she didn't want to get stranded out there:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/24-hours-in-police-custody/on-demand/73855-013

So I looked it up on Google maps and she wa right, Wisbech seems so isolated out there amongst the Fenland. I imagine in the past those lonely Fens would have been host to the will-o'-the wisp phenomena and it was enough to get my Fortean senses tingling and so would lovey to hear any accounts of high-strangeness, hauntings and UFOs etc.

Found this:

A ghost on Wisbech High Street..?​

Ghostly Goings-On at No 23 High Street​

This newspaper cutting dating from the 1960s was kindly shown to me by Christine Tysterman (formerly Cook) who used to live at No 24 High Street when it was Cooks Butchers. The story relates to events at No 23 High Street which was then Continental Shoe Repairs and is now Simply Sweet Bakery and Coffee Shop. As the clipping is very small, the full article is reproduced below:

“Strange happenings up above scare shop staff”​

“Wisbech High Street is gay with Christmas decorations and noisy with shoppers at this time of the year. But those thronging this busy thoroughfare can hardly be aware that behind a window which looks down on the lights, tinsel and Christmas trees there have been happenings so strange and inexplicable that the staff of the shop below have become very frightened people.
It was several months ago that those working on the premises of Continental Shoe Repairs first began to hear unusual noises in the shop.
There were footsteps on stairs at the rear of the premises which are never used and in rooms above the shop.
When the staff went to investigate they could find no one there as the manager, Bill Hyam, said yesterday, the footsteps always seemed to be one step ahead.

LIGHTS CAME ON​

At first Mr Hyam paid little attention to these noises, but when other things started to happen he began to sit up and take notice.
A wireless in the shop was switched on and off when no one was near it, and lights which were turned off, when the staff left the premises at night, were on when they returned in the morning.
To put an end to this, My Hyam removed the plugs, but this made no difference – the lights still came on in the middle of the night.
“Even when this was happening, I still tended to make a joke out of it” Mr Hyam said “but I ceased to think it was funny when a drill was torn out of my hands”.
When that happened, Mt Hyam thought he had seen enough for one day amd closed the shop. “I never used to believe in poltergeists, but I am convinced that we have one here” he said.

FOOTSTEPS​

The staff went home, but long after they had gone, assistants in the shop next door heard the sound of footsteps coming from Continental Shoe Repair s.
Mr Hyam said that these unusual activities usually reached their height when there was a full moon, but in recent days they had attained a new peak.
He sought to solve the mystery by sprinkling flour on the floor of the top floor room. But far from finding a solution, he managed only to deepen it.
Within a few days of the flour being put down, there appeared in it five footprints, well away from the door, leading from a window to a fireplace. All of the prints are of a bare right foot belonging to either a child, or more probably, a small woman. There was not a single left footprint. In addition to the prints there are parallel scratch marks in the flour.


https://www.highstreetwisbech.org.uk/content/new-contributions/ghost-wisbech-high-street

 

[Floyd]

Have only driven past Wisbech the once and that was on a glorious summer's day. For someone who has lived almost all of their life amongst the hills of Devon and Cornwall I found the unrelenting flatness landscape to be 'alien' but not in a bad way. So I was intrigued to hear a police detective on C4's "24 Hours in Police Custody" say she always ensured she had a full tank of fuel when heading out to Wisbech as the place was so isolated and the road across the Fens so "spooky" at night she didn't want to get stranded out there:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/24-hours-in-police-custody/on-demand/73855-013

So I looked it up on Google maps and she wa right, Wisbech seems so isolated out there amongst the Fenland. I imagine in the past those lonely Fens would have been host to the will-o'-the wisp phenomena and it was enough to get my Fortean senses tingling and so would lovey to hear any accounts of high-strangeness, hauntings and UFOs etc.

Found this:

A ghost on Wisbech High Street..?​

Ghostly Goings-On at No 23 High Street​

This newspaper cutting dating from the 1960s was kindly shown to me by Christine Tysterman (formerly Cook) who used to live at No 24 High Street when it was Cooks Butchers. The story relates to events at No 23 High Street which was then Continental Shoe Repairs and is now Simply Sweet Bakery and Coffee Shop. As the clipping is very small, the full article is reproduced below:

“Strange happenings up above scare shop staff”​

“Wisbech High Street is gay with Christmas decorations and noisy with shoppers at this time of the year. But those thronging this busy thoroughfare can hardly be aware that behind a window which looks down on the lights, tinsel and Christmas trees there have been happenings so strange and inexplicable that the staff of the shop below have become very frightened people.
It was several months ago that those working on the premises of Continental Shoe Repairs first began to hear unusual noises in the shop.
There were footsteps on stairs at the rear of the premises which are never used and in rooms above the shop.
When the staff went to investigate they could find no one there as the manager, Bill Hyam, said yesterday, the footsteps always seemed to be one step ahead.

LIGHTS CAME ON​

At first Mr Hyam paid little attention to these noises, but when other things started to happen he began to sit up and take notice.
A wireless in the shop was switched on and off when no one was near it, and lights which were turned off, when the staff left the premises at night, were on when they returned in the morning.
To put an end to this, My Hyam removed the plugs, but this made no difference – the lights still came on in the middle of the night.
“Even when this was happening, I still tended to make a joke out of it” Mr Hyam said “but I ceased to think it was funny when a drill was torn out of my hands”.
When that happened, Mt Hyam thought he had seen enough for one day amd closed the shop. “I never used to believe in poltergeists, but I am convinced that we have one here” he said.

FOOTSTEPS​

The staff went home, but long after they had gone, assistants in the shop next door heard the sound of footsteps coming from Continental Shoe Repair s.
Mr Hyam said that these unusual activities usually reached their height when there was a full moon, but in recent days they had attained a new peak.
He sought to solve the mystery by sprinkling flour on the floor of the top floor room. But far from finding a solution, he managed only to deepen it.
Within a few days of the flour being put down, there appeared in it five footprints, well away from the door, leading from a window to a fireplace. All of the prints are of a bare right foot belonging to either a child, or more probably, a small woman. There was not a single left footprint. In addition to the prints there are parallel scratch marks in the flour.


https://www.highstreetwisbech.org.uk/content/new-contributions/ghost-wisbech-high-street

So the presence of the young lad seems to have started it?

 

[Herr Cloaca]

That place is a right shit hole. All of Fenland is. Nasty, desolate, windswept. The locals and backward and have webbed feet.

I believe the local museum has Kasper Hauser's penknife.

 

[Mythopoeika]

That place is a right shit hole. All of Fenland is. Nasty, desolate, windswept. The locals and backward and have webbed feet.

I believe the local museum has Kasper Hauser's penknife.

Well, that's a little unfair. But Wisbech is a bit of a dive, yes.

 

[Herr Cloaca]

I regularly visited a customer there, an old bloke and his wife who lived in a bungalow on Elm High Road. His doctor had diagnosed him with depression. Well, not surprising if you live in the middle of nowhere.
This couple knew Tony Martin and considered him to be a decent bloke.

 

[Herr Cloaca]

Come to think of it, I saw my first crop circle just off the A47 South Brink some time in the 1990s.

 

[Floyd]

This couple knew Tony Martin and considered him to be a decent bloke.

Tony Martin?

While the case was pending, Fearon was recalled to jail after being charged with the theft of a vehicle while on probation following a conviction for dealing heroin.

Fred Barras, the dead youth, had already been convicted of a total of 29 offences by the time of his death at the age of 16, including seven convictions for theft and six for fraud. He had been sentenced to two months in a young offenders' institution for assaulting a police officer, theft and being drunk and disorderly. On the night he was killed, Barras had just been released on bail after being accused of stealing garden furniture.

The only bad thing about Martin was that he didn't get both of the stealing scum.

 

[Yithian]

Tony Martin?

While the case was pending, Fearon was recalled to jail after being charged with the theft of a vehicle while on probation following a conviction for dealing heroin.

Fred Barras, the dead youth, had already been convicted of a total of 29 offences by the time of his death at the age of 16, including seven convictions for theft and six for fraud. He had been sentenced to two months in a young offenders' institution for assaulting a police officer, theft and being drunk and disorderly. On the night he was killed, Barras had just been released on bail after being accused of stealing garden furniture.

The only bad thing about Martin was that he didn't get both of the stealing scum.

Forteana.

 

[John Fairclough71]

The fens are quite spooky. I remember thinking so whenever I have travelled through them. All those drainage ditches, sluice gates etc. I imagine they are even spookier at night by an order of magnitude.

They are not unlike the Lancashire Coastal Plain, location of our humanoid sighting in Rainford. Pleasant to walk around during the day but more than a little bit creepy after dark.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

The fens are quite spooky. I remember thinking so whenever I have travelled through them. All those drainage ditches, sluice gates etc. I imagine they are even spookier at night by an order of magnitude.

They are not unlike the Lancashire Coastal Plain, location of our humanoid sighting in Rainford. Pleasant to walk around during the day but more than a little bit creepy after dark.

There is a bit of footage they show in the titles (iirc) of a deep Fenland drainage channel/river in the winter and it just looks so menacing to me, slip into it and you'll end up in the Wash (well, what's left of you)

 

[John Fairclough71]

That's what I thought, too!

I recall getting the train from Norwich to Great Yarmouth about 20 years ago. It was in late October. The journey out was in daylight and I had a good view of the very flat landscape with its drainage ditches and the remains of windmills etc.

The journey back was in the dark. I can't quite explain it but it felt quite unnerving as the train made its way through the utterly desolate landscape. Even the stations felt like nothing more than halts in the middle of nowhere.

I think some of those stations in East Anglia are amongst the least used in the country. Hoscar, on the West Lancashire Plain, is another.

 

[DrPaulLee]

There aren't many train stations in Norfolk; they were closed due to Dr Beeching or (in the case of Lynn to Hunstanton) because of the lack of financial viability.
I wish some of those stations did exist. Getting to some of the smaller towns is very difficult and the buses leave a lot to be desired. Where I live the last one is at 8pm!

 

[bugmum]

That place is a right shit hole. All of Fenland is. Nasty, desolate, windswept. The locals and backward and have webbed feet.

I believe the local museum has Kasper Hauser's penknife.

For those of us born and brought up in the Fens, they're haunting, spacious and beautiful in their own way. Despite the fact that I have lived in Devon for over a quarter of a century and love the county to bits, the view over the Fen can still bring you down to earth, magnificent sweeping skies , fields rippling in the breeze, velvet night skies.

Just saying.

 

[Sollywos]

I recall getting the train from Norwich to Great Yarmouth

Ah now @John Fairclough71 that takes me back, waiting on Ipswich station for my train home in the late sixties. I wasn't going all the way to Yarmouth The train was frequently late although not by much to be fair.

'Bing Bong!Bing Bong!

The train approaching platform 2 is the delayed service to Yarmouth Vauxhall calling at Stowmarket, Diss, Norwich, Brundall, Lingwood, Acle and ... Yarmmouth Vauxhall.'

The flat bit from Acle to the onwards is the Broads National park and although you could say it was similar in feel to the Fenlands they are not quite the same being formed in different ways.

I agree the flatness of the fens and even the broads can be a bit scarey /eerie at nighttime especially when the mist is rising or when it's moonlit and many crime writers exploit this!

Hello @bugmum I'd been considering alerting you to this thread so you could come and defend the place of your birth!

Although those wetlands are spooky I actually feel something more akin to panic in the flatlands of the Breckland area around Thetford and Watton especailly when walking down the street and all you can see are the houses on either side. And all those forestry commision trees in their regimented lines!! I'd feel tempted to climb one of those fire look out platforms!

 

[John Fairclough71]

I agree there is a beauty to the Fens - but I find it an eerie sort of beauty.

 

[bugmum]

I agree there is a beauty to the Fens - but I find it an eerie sort of beauty.

Which is right up the street of some of us weirdos.

 

[PeteByrdie]

I live near the fens and the work I used to do frequently took me into and across the fens. They are magnificent, spooky, grubby, barren, and more. Thunderstorms seen across the unobstructed skies of the fens are great. The openness somehow makes the landscape less inviting. I don't know why, but I dislike almost all the towns in the area. There's something off about them all. I've been to many charming remote town around Britain, and rarely got the same feeling.

It's not just the flatness. I've spent plenty of time in Norfolk, including on the broads (my family has a boat there, and we've been holidaying there since I was very young), and even its flattest areas seem lovely to me. The fens feel like a separate world. When I've been right out there on a lonely road and looked around, I've thought it's a bit like being a little Hornby person surrounded by other Hornby models and landscapes on a big round tabletop.

Having said all of that, I've encountered relatively few actual fortean reports from the region. I often wonder, though, how very different the Fens would have been before being drained.

Personally, perhaps because of having grown up in a relatively flat area, I've always preferred hills and mountains. Until parkinsons made walking up and down gradients a challenge, I'd have taken North Yorkshire or Scotland over the fens any time. But I used to work with someone who had been born and raised in the west country who liked the openness of the fenland landscape.

 

[Frideswide]

For those of us born and brought up in the Fens, they're haunting, spacious and beautiful in their own way. Despite the fact that I have lived in Devon for over a quarter of a century and love the county to bits, the view over the Fen can still bring you down to earth, magnificent sweeping skies , fields rippling in the breeze, velvet night skies.

Just saying.

I spent several years in Lincoln and so am familiar with the lincolnshire fens. My grandfather was a Vicar and a locum across the diocese. I used to go out with him on Sundays and for fen country trips my grandma would check the weather forecast and provide a packed lunch for anything other than bright sun. I love the fen country, the sky, the different soundscape when there's no mountains echoing back at you, seeing the weather coming and going, the light, the light, the light!

 

[XBergMann]

That place is a right shit hole. All of Fenland is. Nasty, desolate, windswept. The locals and backward and have webbed feet.

I believe the local museum has Kasper Hauser's penknife.

I grew up in the Fens but the other side nearer Soham and Newmarket.

Yes it is flat and the wind can be very scary and.noisy with a howling sound in the autumn and winter.

Plenty of old churches, castle ruins and even a nice Cathedral at Ely.

I never saw any scary ghosts though.

There is a feeling of ancient history and the endless march of time leaving the Fens unchanged over the centuries. Although that is only if you go really rural in an attempt to commune with what's left of Pan.

Just checked and I don't have webbed feet which is a relief.

 

[catseye]

Isn't a lot of the 'spookiness' that people feel on the Fens just an absence of any signs of humanity? We are so unused to staring out across countryside and not seeing lots of little settlements, roads, cars, chimneys etc, that any landscape where you can look out as though into a fog and see no lights and no signs of habitation perhaps feel 'spooky'.

 

[Frideswide]

Isn't a lot of the 'spookiness' that people feel on the Fens just an absence of any signs of humanity? We are so unused to staring out across countryside and not seeing lots of little settlements, roads, cars, chimneys etc, that any landscape where you can look out as though into a fog and see no lights and no signs of habitation perhaps feel 'spooky'.

That is /really/ interesting. When I look at fen country I see a manufactured landscape. Almost totally made by humans, piecemeal and large scale together.

 

[XBergMann]

That is /really/ interesting. When I look at fen country I see a manufactured landscape. Almost totally made by humans, piecemeal and large scale together.

Yes you are correct but the big drainage dykes were built hundreds of years ago and now look like they have always been there.

Sometimes when I was a boy I used to ride.my bicycle out towards Upware from Burwell and enjoy the solitude.

There are areas where there is zero sign of humans (apart from a planted wheat field maybe).

Sure there is a road but it is very old and mainly used by farm machinery but no houses or cars or farm buildings anywhere.

I used to love those places, me alone in my own private wilderness almost a feeling that the ground and sky and flora around are communicating with me and me with them. I write almost a feeling because I do not speak that language.

I have never had that feeling anywhere else but I remember it clearly like the taste of once loved but now discontinued chocolate bar.

Bit hard to describe but much to my suprise the Google street view bicycle has been through the area.

I remember riding the road pictured on my bicycle almost 50 years ago, it looks exactly as I remember it even though the photo was taken 35 years later.

When there are no people around and no signs of people the landscape, trees, plants, sky etc seem to develop a persona and identity of their own coalescing into an almost recognizable sense of being while at the same time it's just trees and sky.

 

[Sabresonic]

Thats mad as I'm on Season 3 of Tales of The Unexpected and I'm sure episode 1 called The Flypaper was filmed in Fenland with the Ely Cathedral in the background.
BTW the episode was brilliant but subject was well

 

[maximus otter]

Yes you are correct but the big drainage dykes were built hundreds of years ago and now look like they have always been there.

Sometimes when I was a boy I used to ride.my bicycle out towards Upware from Burwell and enjoy the solitude.

There are areas where there is zero sign of humans (apart from a planted wheat field maybe).

Sure there is a road but it is very old and mainly used by farm machinery but no houses or cars or farm buildings anywhere.

I used to love those places, me alone in my own private wilderness almost a feeling that the ground and sky and flora around are communicating with me and me with them. I write almost a feeling because I do not speak that language.

I have never had that feeling anywhere else but I remember it clearly like the taste of once loved but now discontinued chocolate bar.

Bit hard to describe but much to my suprise the Google street view bicycle has been through the area.

I remember riding the road pictured on my bicycle almost 50 years ago, it looks exactly as I remember it even though the photo was taken 35 years later.

When there are no people around and no signs of people the landscape, trees, plants, sky etc seem to develop a persona and identity of their own coalescing into an almost recognizable sense of being while at the same time it's just trees and sky.

View attachment 82268

maximus otter

 

[catseye]

That is /really/ interesting. When I look at fen country I see a manufactured landscape. Almost totally made by humans, piecemeal and large scale together.

Ah, but I said signs of human habitation, not signs of human activity. I know it can be eerie up on the moors at night, if you look in one direction there are no lights, no villages, nothing but miles and miles of...nothing. And most of us are used to seeing signs of life, it can be disturbing to feel that you are the only person for miles (and no one would hear you scream...)

 

[PeteByrdie]

That is /really/ interesting. When I look at fen country I see a manufactured landscape. Almost totally made by humans, piecemeal and large scale together.

Quite right. There's an portion of Flag Fen in Peterborough that's supposed to emulate what the fens were like before drainage. No wonder they needed stilts.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Quite right. There's an portion of Flag Fen in Peterborough that's supposed to emulate what the fens were like before drainage. No wonder they needed stilts.

All the houses and walkways were on stilts. It's a fascinating place.