otherworld north east research society journal volume iii, 2009

OTHERWORLD NORTH EASTResearch Society Journal

VOLUME III, 2009

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Otherworld North East Research Society Journal

Volume III: 2009

This volume is a collection of website articles originally posted on the Otherworld NorthEast website between 2007-2009. This collection was produced in 2013. Edited by TonyLiddell.

http://www.otherworldnortheast.org.uk

Otherworld North East Research Society Journal Volume II © Otherworld North East2013. All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, stored orintroduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the priorpermission of Otherworld North East.

The Otherworld North East Research Society (OWNE) is a not-for-profit investigation andresearch association whose aim is to collate and examine the physical evidence for ghostsand other alleged supernatural occurrences with an objective eye. The Society is not anentertainment-based business, and do not run commercial ghost walks, nights or othersimilar events: we are not ghost-hunters, instead we simply seek to examine any physicalevidence brought forward that is commonly perceived to belong to alleged supernaturalphenomena. Otherworld North East was founded in August 2003 and is based in the NorthEast of England (though the Society has and will investigate outside of this area), withcurrent investigative members based in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durhamand Teesside.

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Volume III, Journal 2009

Contents

1. The History of Wallington Hall by Sheila Convey 3

2. The Schooner Hotel & the History of Alnmouth by Tony Liddell 14

3. Poppies for Remembrance by Sheila Convey 19

4. The History of the Titanic by Tardis Smith 23

5. The Quayside Shaver by Chris Clennell 28

6. The Body Snatchers by Sheila Convey 30

7. Automatic Writing and the Strange Case of Glastonbury Abbey by Sheila Convey 34

8. Ghosts of Ettington Park by Sheila Convey 38

9. The Marquis of Granby by Sheila Convey 40

10. Phantom Armies by Sheila Convey 42

11. Ghosts of RSS Discovery by Sheila Convey 45

12. St. Cuthbert’s Ghost by Sheila Convey 47

13. The Epworth Poltergeist by Sheila Convey 48

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Otherworld North East

14. An Introduction to Spontaneous Human Combustion by Tony Liddell 50

15. Crisis Apparitions by Sheila Convey 53

16. John Green’s Ghost by Sheila Convey 56

Bibliography 57

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1. The History of Wallington HallBy Sheila Convey

WALLINGTON HALL IS A GRADE I listed country house situated along theWansbeck valley some twelve miles to the west of Morpeth and approximatelysixteen miles northwest of Newcastle upon Tyne. It lies a mile from the village

of Cambo in Northumberland and was built in 1688 on the site of a medieval tower andbastle. It has an 18th century park and a wooded garden of 100 acres. The full extent ofthe land stretches to 13,000 acres. It became associated with three of the greatest Britishhistorians, G. M.Trevelyan, George Otto Trevelyan and George Macaulay. The NationalTrust house and collections manager at Wallington described it as "the jewel in the crownof Northumberland." Centuries of Border wars meant that the building of grand countryhouse in the county never reached the level it did in calmer, safer parts of England so thatmakes Wallington a rarity.

Wallington Hall 2005, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

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John Grey, who took the local name De Wallington, owned the castle at Wallington in1326. His son Robert de Wallington had one daughter, Johanna, who was his sole heir. Shemarried William de Strother. By 1352 it was in the hands of Alan de Strother, a powerfulnorth-country landowner who was a friend of Chaucer at the court of Edward III. Alan deStrother became High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1356-57. Sir John de Fenwick cameinto it in the reign of Henry IV through his marriage to an heiress of the Strothers. TheFenwick family were a well-known clan found on both sides of the border betweenEngland and Scotland. They were involved in the border fighting during Tudor times.When the peace of the borders looked to be in sight in the 16th century they added ahouse to the castle. The Border Survey in Henry VIII’s reign described Wallington as “astrong tower and stone house in good reparacions.”

Parts of the cellars under the eastern and southern fronts of the present house are all thatremain of the castle. There are still several large doorways hinged for gates, vaultedceilings and narrow windows. There is also a well, which was for the supply of water whenthe moss-troupers were around.

There is little to be seen of the 16th century Fenwick house apart from the panelling of asmall attic, the oak banisters of a staircase and the lead water pipes down the walls. Theseare decorated with the heads of cherubs and several still have the Fenwick arms overthem, with their crest of a phoenix, which was intended as a pun on their name.

Sir John Fenwick (1645-1697) succeeded his father to become 3rd Baronet in 1676. He wasmarried to Mary (d. 1708), daughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle. Loyalty to theStuart cause had cost the family its high standing and Sir John was no exception. He wasa professional soldier who held the rank of major general in 1688 and was a Member ofParliament for Northumberland from 1677 to 1687. He was a Jacobite who had spent timein prison since 1689 under suspicion of treason. He was implicated in the assassinationplot of 1696, the last attempt to restore James II to the throne. The plan was to shoot KingWilliam III as he went hunting in Richmond Park. It was his habit to leave KensingtonPalace every Saturday morning in a coach accompanied by the court who then made theirway back to London. He returned alone at dusk six hours later. They planned to attackwhen the coach, with the King in it left the ferry that was used to cross the Thames. Itentered a narrow lane leading up from the river and this is where they planned to kill him.

The conspiracy came to light but it is unsure who betrayed them. Twenty people werearrested but William of Orange really wanted to get his hands on John Fenwick who hedisliked immensely because of Fenwick’s consistent plotting.

A man called Peter Cook gave evidence that implicated Fenwick. He informed theGovernment of meetings that had taken place where details of a French invasion hadbeen discussed and where Fenwick had been present. The Earl of Aylesbury, the LordsMontgomery, Russell and Brunell were also mentioned. They were all sent to The Tower.Fenwick protested his innocence vehemently but was convicted. He tried to delay

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proceedings and asked Parliament if he could speak to the King personally. They agreedbut it proved of little use although he did manage to delay his execution until January 281697 when he was beheaded. He died proclaiming his loyalty to James. He was convictedof High Treason and had to forfeit his goods to the State. William of Orange was entitledto a share and chose Fenwick’s favourite horse, White Sorrel, which was his top racehorse.Sir John was said to be the first to produce a pure bred British racehorse and part of thegrounds at Wallington was laid out to exercise his thoroughbreds. Apparently KingWilliam took great delight in owning the horse because of the great animosity betweenthe two men. By a strange twist of fate the King was riding Sorrel through Hampton Courtin February 1702 when the horse stumbled on a molehill. William was thrown off andbroke his collarbone. Pleurisy and pneumonia set in and he died. Many saw this as wildjustice and the Jacobites’ secret toast was to “the little gentleman in black velvet.”

Financial problems caused by spendthrift ways had forced Sir John Fenwick to sell mostof the family estates, including Wallington Hall to Sir William Blackett in 1684. He was paid£4,000, which was little more than a year’s rental and an annuity of £2,000 per year forhimself or his wife if she survived him. He had no children to pass the estates on to as histhree sons and one daughter had all died young.

Sir William Blackett demolished the home of the Fenwick family and in 1688 began to buildthe house, which stands, its exterior almost unchanged today, using the blocks of stonefrom the old castle. Sir Charles Trevelyan said: “Sir William was not a man to dawdle orhesitate. He at once pulled down the castle at Wallington and the Tudor dwelling attachedto it, and erected on the site a residence on the model of a great French chateau, standingalmost exactly square to the points of the compass, with four equal faces, each of them120 feet in length.”

Sir William Blackett’s father was a merchant in Newcastle and had made a fortune fromcoal and lead mining as well as property. When he died in 1680 he left one fortune to hiseldest son Edward, who built the Newby estate near Ripon. William was his third son andhe inherited another fortune, which allowed him to buy and re-build Wallington. He wasmayor of Newcastle in 1683, made a baronet in 1684 and elected MP in 1685. He was HighSheriff in 1689 and MP again in 1698. His heavy involvement in Newcastle life probablyexplains why the family kept a house there in Anderson Place (between Grey Street andPilgrim Street). It was said to be the grandest house in Newcastle and the family lived in ituntil 1783. It was where Charles I lived for a year when he was in the custody of the Scots.By comparison Wallington was at first considered a modest house, more of a shootinglodge than a mansion as its interior was unpretentious and is interior probablyuncomfortable. According to Sir Charles Trevelyan, “The Blackett house was of severesimplicity, inside and out. The one decorative feature breaking its exterior lines was thefront door on the north side. This simple, strong entrance is now the back door. Within,the rooms as originally planned were undecorated, and opened inconveniently one intoanother.”

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After Sir William’s death in 1705 the house passed to his son, also William, (1690-1728)when he was aged sixteen. He was Mayor of Newcastle from 1710 until his early death. Hewas a closet Jacobite but when the 1715 rising came about he went to ground and lostmany friendships and the respect of fellow conspirators. Sir Charles Trevelyan describedhim as ‘a politician of a poor stamp’. He said: “ He talked Jacobite gossip; he drankJacobite toasts-a great many more than were good for him; but in 1715, when LordDerwentwater and other country gentlemen of Northumberland who were faithful to theStuarts set their lives and their estates to hazard and assembled in arms to the highwatershed which overlooks Wallington from the west, Sir William Blackett slunk away tohis brother-in-law in Yorkshire and left his braver comrades and neighbours in the lurch.”He was renowned for revelry. It is said that his guests were barely conscious during theweeklong parties he held at Wallington. Men were employed to drag or carry those thatfell over or rolled under tables in their drunkenness to the attics where straw was laid out.In the morning they would be turned out to the horse trough in the inner courtyard andgiven a dip in the cold water and a change of clothes before resuming the festivities. SirWilliam married Barbara Villiers, daughter of the Earl of Jersey in 1723. The wedding wentdown in history because of the rowdy scenes at Hexham. They lit bonfires on ShaftoeCrags and Shaftoe Vaughan, the owner of East Shaftoe Hall allegedly had the Devil’sPunchbowl enlarged and filled with wine to toast the newly weds. The marriage did notproduce any children but Sir William had an illegitimate daughter called Elizabeth Ord(1711-1759).

Despite his dissolute ways his funeral in 1728 was said to be the largest in living memorywith 1,086 people escorting him to St Nicholas’s Church. He left his estates at Allendaleand Wallington to his nephew Sir Walter Calverley (1707-1777) on condition that hemarried William’s illegitimate daughter Elizabeth and assume the name Blackett. Theywere married in 1729 and he took the Blackett name in 1733. Sir Walter then began the taskof improving Wallington. It was in a poor state and Walter Calverley Blackett took ondebts of £77,000. The land was laid to waste and the estate workers said to be living insqualid conditions.

Sir Walter Calverley Blacket, a Member of Parliament for forty years and Mayor ofNewcastle five times. He was known affectionately as ‘King o’ wor canny toon.’ He wasregarded as a very generous man, an active philanthropist not only round the estate butalso in Newcastle upon Tyne where he ran his lead and coal business. The Infirmary onForth Banks would not have been started without his handsome contribution and heestablished a hospital for six poor unmarried women. It was he who gave the TomlinsonLibrary to St. Nicholas’s Church in 1736 as well as the Shambles to Hexham. He contributedto the cost of a bridge at Hexham, as well as employing James Paine to build one on hisestate in 1760. Before this travellers had to cross the Wansbeck at one of seven fords. Thisbecame more dangerous when the river was in flood especially at the lower fords nearMorpeth.

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He re-roofed the house and transformed the parkland as well as the interior of the house,replanned the farms, created a garden and rebuilt the village of Cambo.He also replacedthe old paths with straight well made turnpike roads He was his own landscape gardenerbut commissioned “Capability” Brown to make a fishing lake at Rothley, four miles northof Wallington. He built the stable courtyard in 1737 and was responsible for the fineplasterwork executed by the Italian craftsmen he employed between 1740 and 1742. Theestate at this time was a picture of mounting debts and falling assets and it was only theexpectation of inheriting the Calverley estates that allowed him to carry on. These cameto him in 1749 and a few years later he sold them in order to buy the Wallington estatefrom the Trustees. He added the clock tower, (first designed for Sir Walter as a chapel)and coach houses in 1760 and this is when the four griffins’ heads, (placed on the frontlawn in 1928), were brought from London as ballast in his coal ships together with thebusts that stand in the walled garden. They were originally part of one of the oldentrances to the city of London known as Bishopsgate.When the house was originallybuilt it had no main staircase and there was only a narrow flight of steps to the next floorin each corner of the building. Sir Walter Blackett introduced the internal corridor on eachfloor and had a main staircase built. By the time of his death in 1777 after fifty years ofwork the estate was then regarded as one of the best managed, and finest homes in thenorth of England. The alterations were done for him by Daniel Garrett and executed in thePalladian style.

The only child of Sir Walter and Elizabeth (also Elizabeth) died at the age of 17 in 1752 soafter Sir William’s death the estate passed to his nephew, Sir John Trevelyan ofNettlecombe (1734-1828) in Somerset. He was the son of Sir William’s sister Julia who hadmarried into the Trevelyan family.

The Trevelyans were of Cornish origin. One of them was a courtier of Henry VI and anothersailed with Drake. They made their way to Nettlecombe by marriage in the 16th century.They became country squires and fought for Charles I, lost property in Commonwealthtimes but came into a baronetcy during the Restoration.

Sir John struggled with keeping Wallington and Nettlecombe running. Apart fromanything else they were at opposite ends of the country. He chose to live at Nettlecombe,which was very different to Wallington. Nettlecombe lay in a sheltered valley below theQuantocks and was late Elizabethan, whilst Wallington was of stark Georgian architectureset in the bracing Northumberland countryside with less pretty views.

Sir John was more than a country squire. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, was a keenornithologist and was elected to Parliament. He was also a friend of the potter JosiahWedgewood and is said to have had a good knowledge of natural history. He died in 1828at the age of 94.

Sir John the younger (1761-1846) had similar interests to his father and was a foundermember of the Royal Horticultural Society that had been set up by Josiah Wedgewood’s

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son, John Wedgewood. Sir John married a very wealthy woman in 1791. She was MariaWilson (1771-1851), the sister-in-law of the assassinated Prime Minister Spencer Percivalwho was shot in the House of Commons Lobby in 1812. She brought not only a large dowryto the marriage but a fine collection of porcelain, which can be seen at Wallington. Shewas regarded as a very formidable woman for whom the idealistic and gentle John was nomatch. It was a stormy marriage but it produced fourteen children, most born atWallington. Two died in infancy. Maria lived mainly at Wallington whilst Sir John livedmostly at Nettlecombe.

Their eldest son was Walter Calverley Trevelyan (1797-1879), described as ‘an intellectualof a dry professional order’. He owned Wallington from 1846 until his death and was thelast of the direct line. He was a distinguished geologist with an interest in botany. Hebecame an expert on farming methods, winning prizes for his cattle. He was also a strictteetotaller who emptied the contents of his father’s wine cellars into the lake. He marriedPauline Jermyn (1816-1866), a clergyman’s daughter, in 1835. He had been introduced toher two years earlier at a Cambridge conference of the British Association for theAdvancement of Science and they were brought together by a shared interest in geologyand phrenology. She was 17 and Walter was 36. Walter was a member of the Geology andGeography Committee at the time. Pauline was a woman of high intellect. She had learntGreek, French, Latin, German, and Italian and wrote poetry from an early age. Herinterests lay in science, literature and the fine arts. She also wrote reviews in theEdinburgh Review and The Scotsman. Sir Walter Trevelyan was a respected scientist butas Sir Charles Trevelyan commented in his book ‘Wallington’, published in 1950: “Pauline,Lady Trevelyan, soon became the centre of society of science, poets and painters.Algernon Swinburne read his poems on the lawn. Millais painted. Augustus Hare sawghosts. Ruskin talked and wrote. It was to that period that we owe the Central Hall. InBlackett days the house was surrounded by a courtyard, which we must imagine dark,dirty and unattractive. Ruskin suggested that it should be roofed in. And in 1855 hepresent beautifully lit hall was created under Ruskin’s directions, who is said to haveactually designed the balustrade on the first floor. William Bell Scott, a young pre-Raphelite artist, then an art teacher in Newcastle, was chosen to paint the historicalpictures. When the hall was complete, Wallington, as we know it was complete.” JohnDobson was the architect employed to create the hall.

Pauline organized for the inner courtyard to be adorned with murals. She wanted it tolook like an Italian courtyard. The couple travelled a great deal in the first eleven years oftheir marriage and Pauline’s love of the Italians and their language had caused them tospend a great deal of time there, particularly in Rome and she felt a great affinity with thecountry. The chief artist was William Bell Scott who depicted the history of the region in aseries of paintings. Ruskin and Pauline made their contribution by decorating several ofthe pilasters. Pauline commissioned Thomas Woolner, one of the original members of thePre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as sculptor to provide a central figure for the hall. His work,‘Civilization’, dominated by the mother-and-child piece known as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ or

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‘The Trevelyan Group’ was installed at Wallington in 1866 shortly after Pauline’s deathfrom advanced ovarian cancer. There are also works by William Frith, Alexander Munro,Burne-Jones and others. The Wallington scheme influenced further works of a similarnature such as the twelve historical paintings for Manchester Town Hall and thedecoration of the Scottish Portrait Gallery. Pauline’s influence was felt far and wide.

Although the Trevelyans were hospitable their way of life was very eccentric and LadyTrevelyan was not a homemaker. Augustus Hare stayed at Wallington twice, in 1861 and1862, and his experience was probably not unusual. He arrived in time for lunch on his firstvisit, “which was as peculiar as everything else (Lady Trevelyan and her artists feedingsolely on artichokes and cauliflowers). The endless suites of huge rooms only partlycarpeted and thinly furnished with ugly last-century furniture, partly covered with fadedtapestry. Lady Trevelyan never appears to attend to her house a bit, which is like the greatdesert with one or two little oases in it, where by good management you may possiblymake yourself comfortable.” Despite this he and many others were drawn to the coupleand spent a lot of time with them.

The marriage of Sir Walter and Pauline did not produce any children so the estates ofWallington and Nettlecombe should have been left to the next heir of the baronetcy,Alfred Wilson Trevelyan but Sir Walter did not want to leave the two Trevelyan estates toone man. Some have claimed that this was because Alfred had converted to Catholicism.However Nettlecombe was entailed and so it had to go to him as did the furniture fromWallington and the baronetcy. Wallington and its portraits and china were left to SirCharles Edward Trevelyan (1807-1886), Walter’s cousin. Alfred tried to challenge the willbut was unsuccessful.

Sir Charles inherited Wallington late in life after a distinguished career in India. He alsoworked at the Treasury where he played a large part in the reform of the Civil Servicebefore returning to India a second time. His first period in India was marked by hismarriage in1834 to Hannah Macaulay (1810-1873), the sister of Lord Macaulay the historianwho wrote his ‘History of England’ at the desk, which is now in Wallington Hall’s study. Itwas his second wife Eleanora Campbell, (1829-1919) who he married in 1875 that hebrought to Wallington. She had the huge task of furnishing the whole place.

Towards the end of his life Sir Charles Edward built Cambo Church Tower and the schoolsat Cambo and Rothley. He made no profit from the estate as so much money was spenton improving it. He died in 1886 and was succeeded by his son, Sir George Otto Trevelyan(1838-1928), the eminent historian, who held office under Gladstone and was ChiefSecretary in Ireland for two years. He inherited large debts. Lord Macaulay was close tohis nephew Sir George and it is thanks to the combination of his royalties and those fromSir George’s ‘Life and Letters’ that he was able to pay off all the mortgages in 1889. It wasat Wallington that Sir George wrote most of the ‘History of the American Revolution’.

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He married Caroline Philips (1849-1928) in 1869. She inherited Welcombe Park in Stratford-upon-Avon and it was there that they spent the winters. They had three sons, Sir CharlesPhilips (1870-1958), Robert Calverley, the poet (1872-1951) and George Macaulay (1876-1962), the historian and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is said that theirs was atrue and enduring love story. They were married for fifty-nine years and were hardly everapart. George died just eight months after Caroline in 1928, shortly after his 90th birthdayand was buried next to his father in Cambo churchyard.

Charles Philips Trevelyan, their eldest son became 3rd Baronet. He was a Member ofParliament for almost thirty years, first as a Liberal and then a socialist. He was presidentof the Board of Education twice – in 1924 and from 1929-1931. He married Mary KatharineBell (1881-1966) in 1904. She was the granddaughter of the millionaire ironmaster fromDurham, Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell. They had seven children but one died young. Charles wasa dashing and handsome man who was ideologically left wing. He was very attractive towomen and fathered a child at 72 with his secretary Edith Bulmer who was 39 when shegave birth to their son Martin in 1943. The boy was never acknowledged publicly asCharles’s son but the relationship lasted over twenty years until Edith died a few weeksbefore him.

Wallington was in need of urgent repairs when Charles inherited it. The roof over the mainhall was in a very bad state and the grounds and tenant’s houses neglected. Charles wasdamning about his father’s abilities as a landlord and called him ‘only a rent receiver’.George Otto would have been the first to admit that he was not a countryman andrunning an estate was never his strong point. His powerful intellect was better suited topolitics and historical writing. He was a shy but brilliant classical scholar more at ease as apen pal to President Theodore Roosevelt who had read his books, than conversing withhis own tenants.

Charles and his wife worked hard to make the necessary improvements and as a way ofthanking their tenants they invited them to their silver wedding celebrations. Charles wasa complicated man for whom wealth sat easily on one shoulder whilst socialism rested onthe other. In a speech to the gathering he said:

“You are all aware that I am no friend of the system which by pure chance makes merich and a thousand others poor for life…I want you to know that I regard myself notas the owner of Wallington and the people of Wallington, but as a trustee of propertywhich under wiser and humaner laws could belong to the community…I want you tofeel that to come and see Wallington is on your part not an intrusion but a right…Wewould like to think the pictures, the china, the books, the woods, the garden, arepossessions for all the people around here to cherish or to use… We have oftenexpressed the opinion in public that if the Nation were to give family allowances wherethere are children in the family and that would be one of the best methods towards awider and juster distribution of wealth. We intend to give an allowance to every family

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on the estate of 2/6 a week for every child from birth till such time as it leaves schoolor college. The allowance will be paid every month by Lady Trevelyan to the mother ofthe family…”

Charles was ahead of the Government who set up Family allowance 16 years later after theSecond World War.

In 1936 Sir Charles announced that he was leaving Wallington to the National Trust. Partof the house and gardens had been open to the public at weekends every summer since1929. In a broadcast talk about the bequest in March 1937 Sir Charles said:

“It became evident to my wife and myself that it would be a great public loss ifWallington could not continue to be open for recreation of the increasing numbers ofpeople who now visit it. It would clearly be a public calamity if the house were to losethe collections which make it interesting, or were to be closed to the public whoincreasingly like to frequent it, or if the woods were cut down to meet taxation, or ifthe place were to become derelict if my successors could not afford to live in it. I madeup my mind that I was not going to allow Wallington to become only a memory. I hadto consider how to secure its future. There is as yet no department of State which hassuitable machinery for controlling property with mansions in the interests of thepublic. I therefore determined to bequeath the house and the estate to the NationalTrust, who will own it after my death in the interests of the whole community.

The contents of the house will remain here in perpetuity and undispersed. The estatewill remain as a unit and not be broken up, and the first use of the surplus values of theestate will be to maintain the place and the surrounding woods and gardens. The locallife will go on undisturbed, and farmers will have a greater security than they couldhave under private ownership. Only one condition of moment is attached to thebequest of the house, namely that my wife and children shall be entitled to continueto reside at Wallington as tenants during their lives. The National Trust seems to feelas I do, that the interest of the place would be seriously diminished if it ceased to beinhabited by people who are attached to its traditions.

There is one great reason which makes it easier for me than most people in my positionto take this step. To most owners it would be a terrible wrench to consider alienatingtheir family houses and estates. To me, it is natural and reasonable that a place such asthis should come into public ownership, so that the right to use and enjoy it may be forever secured to the community. As a Socialist, I am not hampered by any sentiment ofownership. I am prompted to act as I am doing by satisfaction at knowing that theplace I love will be held in perpetuity for the people of my country.”

Sir Charles and his wife Lady Mary opened the doors of Wallington to evacuees during thewar. As he had been head of the Board of Education in the Labour government heconsidered it appropriate to take a school and 115 girls arrived on August 31, 1939. They

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were pupils at Elswick Road School. They slept in camp beds in what is now the restaurantbuilding and in the attics. Other rooms in the house, as well as the estate office were usedas classrooms. Some spent two years there and by all accounts were well looked after.Lady Mary was very supportive. She taught them how to swim, took them on naturewalks, taught them folk songs and played the piano for them.

In 1941 the house and estate of Wallington became the property of the National Trust.

Charles was hardly affected but his children bore the brunt. The man who lost the mostwas Charles’ heir, his eldest son George Lowthian Trevelyan (1906-1996), 4th Bt. ofNettlecombe and Wallington - the Nettlecombe title having reverted to the Wallingtonline. He was devastated by the decision. Sir George had spent some time at GordonstounSchool teaching and whilst he was there he began to think about the possibilities of usingsome of the English country houses as centres of adult education. He planned to useWallington for this purpose when he inherited it. But the idea came to nought. George’sfriend Rhoda Cowen says, ‘It happened that George was staying with us at our Londonhouse in Philimore Gardens when he opened ‘The Times’ at breakfast and saw thatWallington had been given away. It was quite dramatic! It was the first time anybody hadgiven away such a place. George was dreadfully shocked; he stood quite still, went white,and was silent. Then he said the oddest thing, I shall always remember it: “My hairbrushesdon’t even belong to me anymore!”

Charles made life difficult for the National Trust by his stipulation that his family would beentitled to live at Wallington as tenants. Many thought that he was having his cake andeating it by giving the house away but continuing to live there in the manner that he hadalways done. There was great consternation during the Second World War when he hada crown painted on one pillar of the entrance gate and a hammer and sickle (the symbolof Soviet Russia) on the other, demonstrating his loyalty to the sovereign and left wingpolitics. The Trust deplored it but could do nothing. Charles died at Wallington in January1958, aged 87. The Trust then assumed control of the estate. Wallington, including thevillage of Cambo, is the largest country estate protected by the trust.

The family’s right to live there continues with Patricia Jennings who is Charles’ daughter,born in 1915 and living in her own quarters in the house. She is well known for herinvolvement with the Northumbrian Piper’s Society and is an expert player of theNorthumbrian Small Pipes. Her mother, Lady Mary was a keen supporter of the societyand became its president in 1947. Patricia served on the committee and also as vice-chairman.

Wallington continues to be a favourite place for visitors. In 2004 165,654 people wentthere and this was a record for the National Trust. The house had been closed forrefurbishment for 18 months but the gardens still attracted 120,000. It opened to the

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public in April 2004 after a £1.7m facelift. All the money came from National Trust funds,as the income from visitors does not even cover day-to-day care. The refurbishmentincluded returning the Victorian colour schemes, which had been sourced by taking paintscrapings and the weaving of new carpets using the 19th century originals as patterns. Thepaintings by William Bell Scott were cleaned and restored and the famous collections of17 dolls’ houses were put back in place. The roof was repaired and the 18th century libraryceiling with its elaborate plasterwork, which was in danger of collapse, was supportedusing metal dowels that pin the ceiling to metal braces. A lift was also installed. Prior tothe opening there was a ceremony on March 29th to mark the completion of the work andmembers of the Trevelyan family were present. The date also coincided with the 75thanniversary of when Sir Charles first opened his home to the public. Figures for 1934 showthat 700 people visited the property. Now the annual figure is around 130,000.

In June 2008 Lloyd Langley, the house and collections manager at Wallington arranged areunion tea party for the evacuees taken in by Patricia’s parents. He set up an exhibitionof material relating to their stay at the house and was given access to the war diary keptby Lady Mary together with her photograph album which are both owned by the trusteesof the Trevelyan family.

Visitors come and go but some say there is more than one resident at Wallington. Theupper floors are supposed to be haunted by a man with heavy, laboured breathing who isclaimed to be John Fenwick, the executed Jacobite. There is also the sound of a birdbeating its wings against the windows.

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2. The Haunting of the Schooner Hotel & theHistory of AlnmouthBy Tony Liddell, 2009

THE SCHOONER HOTEL IS SITUATED at No. 8 on the west side of NorthumberlandStreet, Alnmouth, Alnwick, Northumberland (NGR NU 2466 1043), and has beensubject to paranormal research interest for many years now. The name ‘Schooner’

derives from a character of sailing ship (using fore and aft sails on more than one mast),first used by the Dutch in the 16th and 17th centuries and then developed in the Americasfrom the 18th century onwards. Schooners were cargo vessels, capable of both ocean andcoastal travel.

The 32-room hotel itself is listed in the Northumberland Tourist Guide as “a 17th Centurylisted Coaching Inn” and also that “notable people said to have stayed at the Schoonerinclude Charles Dickens, John Wesley and Douglas Bader and even King George III. Thereis even the chance of meeting the resident ghost, Parson Smyth.” The Schooner’s ownwebsite claims “Some Hotels artificially set up Ghosts Events...not so the Schooner. It hasno need. Throughout its history many ghosts have been heard, seen and felt within itswalls. The Poltergeist Society has twice given the Hotel the title of the "MOST HAUNTEDHOTEL IN GREAT BRITAIN". It has been thoroughly investigated, and is listed on record ashaving over 60 individual ghosts.”

The website “Northumberland Coast: a Visitors Guide” tells us that “The famous SchoonerHotel, a listed 17th century coaching inn only 100 yards from the beach and golf course, hasbeen the hub of Alnmouth village since its first customer back in the 1600's, and remains oneof the most well known and respected hotels in the North East of England. The SchoonerHotel is also famous or should it be infamous as the 'The Most Haunted Hotel' in Great Britainand was featured in the television series 'Most Haunted'.” Firstly, though, is all as it appears?

Historically, very little is in the public record about the Schooner Hotel. Certainly, trawlingthrough official historical sources, such as the Northumberland Sites and MonumentsRecord and the Northumberland Historic Environment Record, there is no reference tothe Hotel being of 17th century date, rather it is referenced as being an inn of early 19thcentury date, which was then extended later that century (SMR 5752). Certainly, the Innis a Grade II listed building, but even the listing data fails to identify any earlier featuresthan the early 1800s. The Listing information was compiled in 1969 and reads as follows:“…main part tooled squared stone, extension rendered, both parts whitewashed; cutdressings. Welsh slate roof with 2 stacks rebuilt in yellow brick. 3 storeys, 5 + 3 bays. Olderleft part has C20 half-glazed doors in old segmental-headed arch at right end, chamferedsegmental-headed carriage arch, with Percy crescent on keystone, at left end and two

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4-pane sashes between; five 12-pane sashes to 1st floor and four 9-pane short sashesabove. All windows have slightly-projecting sills painted black. Extension to right hassymmetrical front; central 6-panel door with plain overlight in stop-chamfered surround;4-pane sashes in architraves. Coped gables. Left end stack with chamfered coping; ridgeand right end stacks rebuilt on old bases. Rear wings altered and not of special interest…”(English Heritage Images of England).

Most of Alnmouth’s Northumberland Street on which the Schooner is situated hasarchitecture dating to the 18th and 19th centuries. The gateway and front wall toHallsteads and The Hall are of 19th century date, incorporating only a small amount of 18thcentury stonework (ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5761). The Hall itself is of 1834 date, alongwith its feature sundial (ADS Record IDs - NSMR03-5760/NSMR03-5758). Barndale Houseand Barndale Cottage, 30-31 Northumberland Street, belong to the late 18th century (ADSRecord ID - NSMR03-5757), and Seafield, 18 Northumberland Street, is a mid-18th centurybuilding with a 19th century north end addition (ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5758). 17Northumberland Street, or Aln House, was built in c.1740 (ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5755),

Investigations underway in Room 28, 2004

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with the Schooner’s neighbouring building, No. 7 and 7A dating to the early 19th century(ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5751). The nearby Church of John the Baptist was alsoconstructed in 1876 with the addition of a chapel in 1880 (ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5744).Whilst comparison with the local architecture is not evidence that the Schooner itselfcan’t date to pre-18th century, it is certainly indicative that this may be the case.

The Inn is mentioned in Samuel Lewis’s “A Topographical Dictionary of England” in 1848,citing “hot baths are always in readiness at the Schooner inn”, indicative that one ofAlnmouth’s main attractions at the time was the beginning of the tourist industry and that“..the village is resorted to for bathing, and the sands, being very firm, form a finepromenade”.

So, it seems that the Schooner is definitely an early 19th century inn, which does put it inthe timeframe for a visit by Charles Dickens, but not for a visit by King George III. With thehistory a little awry abou the hotel, what about the ghostly claims?

First of all, there seems to be little or no evidence of The Poltergeist Society existing, orhaving existed, so until evidence of the Society’s existance is proven, its unlikely that thehotel could have been named Most Haunted Hotel two years running. With the basis ofthis in mind, should the rest of the ghostly claims of the hotel be questioned.

Certainly, the infamous Room 28’s ghosts need to be re-examined. The room is said to behaunted by the ghosts of a family massacred within its walls: unfortunately, at the time ofresearching this article no evidence of such a massacre taking place could be found - anevent that would surely have made the local papers at the time.

Recent years also saw the creation of a new ghostly resident - as an experiment intosuggestibility by one of the Hotel’s resident investigators, who preferred to remainanonymous. Noting that the hotel guests (and visiting ghost hunting groups) wereextremely prone to suggestion, she planted the seed of a ‘ghost chicken’ in the minds ofsome visiting ghost hunters: the result, as expected, are now reports from allegedmediums of a ghostly chicken seen wandering the corridors of the Schooner...

With the validity of the historical basis behind many of the reported hauntings in question,it is natural to question the validity of all ghostly experiences at the Schooner: aconclusion that could easily be overturned if historical evidence supporting any of theclaims could be brought to light.

Alnmouth is located in North East England, Northumberland on the coast of the North Seaat the mouth of the Aln river, nearly five miles southeast of Alnwick. The name ‘Alnmouth’derives from the town’s location at the mouth of the River Aln; however, in past centuriesthe town was also referred to as “Alemouth”. Though the first historical mention ofAlnmouth as a settlement didn’t appear until the 12th century, the archaeological record

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of the area gives us a picture of human action and interaction within the area long beforethen. On 18th October 1912, workmen laying a new water pipe unearthed a Bronze Agecist which contained two brachycephalic (broad and short) human skulls and a goodquantity of human bones. The cist also contained a short-necked drinking vessel (ADSRecord ID - NSMR03-5400). In 1943, antiquarian A. Hogg identified a potential Iron Agehillfort, referred to as Alnmouth Castle, located on a spur of land marked as ‘Pine Hill’ onOrdnance Survey Maps. The evidence for this site is minimal, though on inspection of thesite by Hogg, he concluded that the sides of the hill spur had been artificially steepened(ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5765). In the mid-1970s, a flint microlith dating from theMesolithic was found on the raised beach at Alnmouth, near an area a number of otherflints from the same date had also been found (ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5712). In 1994 alandscape survey by Newcastle University revealed the presence of cup and ring markedstones, dating to the Bronze Age, incorporated into a boundary wall within the town(ADS Record ID - EHNMR-1321545). An early medieval Chapel, sometimes quoted as beingof Saxon origin, dedicated to St. Waleric was located on Church Hill, but fell prey to theelements and the last remains were apparently destroyed during the 1806 storm. Theevidence for this early chapel being of Saxon origin is said to be the discovery of a Saxoncross shaft back in 1789, and is said to be inscribed with the name ‘Eadulf’, Saxon King ofNorthumberland in 705AD. Other evidence points to the chapel (at least the phase ofbuilding that existed until the storm of 1806) was built sometime between 1170 and1190AD, with the chancel extended in the 13th century. This dating is based mostly onprints of the chapel’s architecture.

Another argument for this early chapel arises from the year 684AD, when a synod washeld to elect the new Bishop of Hexham at that time. Bede tells us that it was held at themouth of the river ‘Alne’ at a place known as Twyford. Though nothing seems to remainof Twyford, it has been assumed that due to the geographical description, Alnmouth wasfounded on the site of Twyford.

The first historically recorded mention of a market in Alnmouth was in 1147AD (Letters2005): it is thought that this first mention in the historical record marks the founding ofthe settlement by de Vesci, the then owner of nearby Alnwick Castle. In the same yearEustace de Vescy also gave Alnwick Abbey a plot of land in the borough of St Waleric,confirmed at a later date by his son, William de Vescy, that it was in ‘Alnemue’, presumedto be an early spelling of Alnmouth (ADS Record ID - NSMR03-5694). In 1207, under thedevelopment of the Normans, the settlement had grown in stature to the extent that itwas granted a charter for a port and a market. Forty-six years later, 1253, saw the firstinception of an Alnmouth fair (Letters 2005).

In 1316 the Bailiff of Alnmouth sent ships fully armed and provisioned to Gascony by RoyalCommand, and in 1333 he was then commanded to give up all ships capable of carrying“fifty tuns of wine” for the defence of the realm. By 1334 the Lay Subsidy for the townwas £3.75 (Letters 2005).

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The late 17th-18th centuries saw Alnmouth prospering with a steady trade of corn, pork,flour and eggs to London, as well as wool to Yorkshire; shipbuilding was also a primeoccupation in the town, with the first ship built in the town being launched on May 13th,1763. A turnpike (for a road between Alnmouth and Hexham) had also been built in thetown in the 1750s, meaning an improved access for imported and exported goods.

It is during this period of prosperity, in the early 18th century, that Alnmouth gained itsreputation as a harbor for smugglers. In 1742, John Wesley, founder of the MethodistChurch, visited Alnmouth, and reported that the village was “a small seaport town famousfor its wickedness”. An article in the The Local Historian’s Table Book, written in 1765states that “smuggling was once pursued here with much boldness and success, but thecustoms house offices stationed here, have at length nearly annihilated this illicit trade”.

In 1806, Alnmouth was rocked by one of the worst storms seen in that area at the time,and the Aln broke its course cutting off Church Hill from the rest of the village. The newcourse of the Aln was not as deep, making things much more difficult for trade by water,and it marked the beginning of the harbor and town’s decline.

The coming of the railway in the mid 1800s marked the end of Alnmouth as a tradingharbor. In 1848, The Schooner Inn in Alnmouth is mentioned in Samuel Lewis’s “ATopographical Dictionary of England”, citing “hot baths are always in readiness at theSchooner inn”, indicative that one of Alnmouth’s main attractions at the time was thebeginning of the tourist industry and that “..the village is resorted to for bathing, and thesands, being very firm, form a fine promenade”. By this time Alnmouth was classed as onlya small sea port as well as a township and comprised an area of 180 acres of land, botharable and pasture, with shipbuilding by then non-existent and trade dealing mainly withimported timber and iron as well as the growing tourist industry (Lewis 1848).

Alnmouth was taken by the French who fortified the town during the reign of Elizabeth I,and at this time the harbour was described as “small and inconvenient, although safe forsmall vessels and fishing craft” (Smedley 1845). 1864 saw the building of the Duchess’sBridge over the Aln, funded by Eleanor, fourth Duchess of Northumberland, and wasconstructed in line with connecting the village to the railway station.

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3. Poppies for RemembranceBy Sheila Convey

THE HUMBLE POPPY HAS BEEN seen as a symbol of remembrance since the end ofthe First World War. Few emblems are as instantly recognizable. November is whenwe wear an artificial flower in memory of those who paid the ultimate price for their

country.

The poppy associated with the tradition is Papaver rhoeas a species of flowering plant inthe family Papaveraceae. Its common names include, Field Poppy, Corn Poppy, FlandersPoppy or simply Red Poppy. It has a long-lived seed bank and is capable of germinatingwhen the soil is disturbed. It is regarded as a weed of agriculture having the ability toflower and seed itself before cereals are harvested and is tolerant of many weed controlmethods.

Poppies have been used as a symbol of sleep and death for many years: sleep because ofthe Opium Poppy (PAPAVER somniferum) and death because of the common blood-redcolour.

The red poppy worn to honour the dead of battle has nothing to do with the blood thatwas shed but represents the wild flowers that grew in the trenches and craters createdwhen shells and shrapnel opened up the ground. Not much else could grow in a soil thatwas rich in lime from all the rubble. They were the first plants to appear on soldiers’ gravesin Belgium and France.

It was during WWI that John McCrae, a medical Officer in the Canadian Army was inspiredto write what is regarded as the most famous wartime poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’ after hewitnessed a friend being killed the previous day in 1915:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

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Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

John McCrae didn’t make it home but his words inspired an American teacher calledMoina Belle Michael. She came across the poem in a magazine she was reading during abreak whilst working at the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries’ headquarters during anannual conference in New York. The poem, then called ‘We Shall Not Sleep’ was lavishlyillustrated so although she was familiar with it the last verse seemed to have moremeaning that day. She promised herself that she would ‘keep the faith’, even jotting downa response on the back of a used envelope: “We shall keep the faith”. She later wrote apoem with that title.

Moina was given $10 by the conference delegates in thanks for her work and she spentthis on 25 silk poppies. She pinned one to her coat and sold the rest to the delegates.

It took her two years to get the poppy adopted as a national remembrance symbol butsuccess came at the National American Legion’s conference where an announcement wasmade in 1920.

The poppy also inspired a lady called Anna E. Guerin, a native of France. She saw it as a wayof raising money for children in her own country and organized the sales of millions thathad been made by the widows of French ex servicemen.

In 1921 she sent her poppy sellers to London where Field Marshall Douglas Haig, a seniorcommander during WWI and a founder of the Royal British Legion, took up the idea. Byautumn of that year the newly established legion sold its first remembrance poppies. Theyraised £106,000.

Major George Howson MC was the man put in charge of setting up a factory to producethe poppies. It was to offer work to as many of the 100,000 ex servicemen as it could.

On May 14, 1922 he wrote to his parents: “I have been given a cheque for £2,000 to makepoppies with. It’s a large responsibility and will be difficult. If the experiment is successfulit will be the start of an industry to employ 150 men. I do not think it can be a great successbut it is worth trying. I consider the attempt ought to be made to give the disabled theirchance.”

The factory opened in London’s Old Kent Road and took on five disabled men. Within afew months the staff had risen to 50.

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In 1926 Haig’s wife started a similar factory in Scotland. The Lady Haig Poppy Factory inEdinburgh now makes around 5.1 million poppies each year.

When production first started all the poppies were made from cloth, a metal stem and abutton made from pitch.

By 1933 they couldn’t meet demand at Old Kent Road and they had suffered a warehousefire the previous year so a move was inevitable. They went to the London suburb ofRichmond where they continue to this day.

Sadly Major Hudson died soon after the move, aged only 50. He is not forgotten though.Every year on the anniversary of his death a special poppy wreath is delivered to the familyhome in Oxfordshire.

The factory is a charity in its own right and sells its products at cost to the Royal BritishLegion who distributes them in return for donations and so millions of pounds pour intothe welfare fund. All its workers must be ex Forces or disabled dependants of someonewho has served his country. The ethos is that every person is expected to work to the bestof their abilities. It doesn’t matter if one person’s output is double that of another as longas they are both working equally hard. There is also a network of around 80 home-workers-many of them Forces widows.

It seems extraordinary that every poppy in England and Wales has come out of one roomin Richmond and is still produced by around 150 people. There is a wide range of crossesand wreaths as well as the special corsages worn by the Queen and the rest of the Royals.However, the simple red paper poppy is the mainstay. Blue wreaths filled with carnationsare an oddity. They are made for the SAS who never march in the parades but haverequested the colours match their belts.

Last year the factory made over 38 million poppies, 100,000 wreaths, 650,000 speciallarge buttonhole poppies and 750,000 crosses. They raised over £30 million. Production isup 10 million on ten years ago but the unbroken record stands at 45 million poppies madeat the end of WWII. They send out to commemorative ceremonies around the world andcover 254 plots as well as the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey. It is one of theall time greats when it comes to marketing successes in the charity world.

The Royal British Legion’s site states: “The 2009 Poppy Appeal is emphasising the need tohelp the Afghan generation of the Armed Forces and their families-today and for the restof their lives. For their sake, wear a poppy…”

Moina Michael’s poem, ‘We Shall Keep The Faith’ is still as poignant today as it was in 1918.

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,Sleep sweet to rise anew!

We caught the torch that you threwAnd holding high, we keep the Faith

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With all who died.We cherish, too, the poppy red

That grows on fields where valour led;It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the deadIn Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy RedWe wear in honour of our dead.

Fear not that ye have die for naught;We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

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4. The History of the TitanicBy Tardis Smith

IN 1898 AUTHOR MORGAN ROBERTSON published a novel called Futility in which aBritish ocean liner strikes an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The fictional voyage tookplace in April, in the North Atlantic and the ship was called Titan.

At a dinner party in 1907 J. Bruce Ismay (Company President of the White Star Line)proposed the construction of two luxury class ocean liners. In March 1908 the decisionwas made to proceed with their construction. The gantries where constructed first withan overall length of 840ft, a width of 150ft and a height of 100ft. There was also a new drydock made to accommodate the two liners, known today as the Thompson Graving Dock.

The Olympic’s keel was laid on the 16th of December 1908 with the ship identificationnumber of 400. On March the 31st 1909 the Titanic's keel was laid with the identification

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

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number of 401. With an overall length of 882ft and a width (beam) of 92ft and a grosstonnage of 45,000, when finished it was surmised that she would be able toaccommodate 2,436 passengers and a crew of 860. The Titanic was launched onWednesday the 31st of May 1911 at 12.15 p.m. It took 62 seconds for the Titanic to enter thewater; she was then taken to be fitted out.

The Olympic’s hull was badly damaged in a collision with HMS Hawke on September 20th1911 so workers were taken from the Titanic fitting out to help with repairs to the Olympic,meaning that the Titanic’s maiden voyage was delayed.

On Wednesday April 10th, 1912 at 12 noon the Titanic left for her maiden voyage (thiswould be Capt. Edward J. Smith’s last voyage before retireing) with 922 passengers. Morewould join the ship at Cherbourg and Queenstown bringing the final total of passengersto 1,316 which was a little more than half the 2436 she could carry.

As the Titanic left its berth, the powerful suction created by the ship's propellers causedthe liner New York, which was docked nearby, to break away from its moorings and wasdrawn dangerously close (about 4 feet) to the Titanic before a tugboat towed the NewYork away. The near accident delayed the departure for one hour. After crossing theEnglish Channel, the Titanic stopped at Cherbourg, France, to disembark and board

Last known photograph of Titanic © Jeremy Nightingale: April 11: Thursday 1:30pm:Anchored off of Roche's Point, Queenstown, Ireland. Francis Browne, a Jesuit

seminarian, disembarks and takes the last known photograph of the Titanic for the next

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additional passengers, and stopped again the next day at Queenstown (known today asCobh), Ireland, before continuing towards New York.

On the night of Sunday, April 14, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and theocean was completely calm. There was no moon out and the sky was clear. At 11:40 pmwhile sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Fredrick Fleet andReginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship'sbell three times and telephoned the bridge exclaiming, "Iceberg, right ahead!" FirstOfficer Murdoch ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, whichstopped and then reversed the ship's engines. A collision turned out to be inevitable, andthe iceberg brushed the ship's starboard (right) side, buckling the hull in several placesand popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 300 ft (90 m). The watertightdoors were shut as water started filling the first five watertight compartments, one morethan the Titanic could stay afloat with. The weight of five watertight compartments fillingwith water weighed the ship down past the top of the watertight bulkheads, allowingwater to flow into the other compartments. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of theimpact, arrived on the bridge and ordered a full stop. Following an inspection by the ship'sofficers it was apparent that the Titanic would sink, and shortly after midnight on April 15,lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress signal sent out.

The iceberg buckled Titanic's hull allowing water to flow into the ship. copyright toWikipedia

The Titanic reported its location at 41° 46' N, 50° 14' W. The wreck was found at 41° 43' N,49° 56' W. Wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were busy sending out

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distress signals. Several ships responded, including the Mount Temple, the Frankfurt andTitanic's sister ship, the Olympic, but none were close enough to make it in time. Theclosest ship to respond was Cunard Line's RMS Carpathia, and at 58 miles (93 km) away itwould take about four hours to reach the distressed ship, still too late to get to Titanic intime. The only land-based location that received the distress call from the Titanic was thewireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland.

The first lifeboat launched, boat 7, was lowered shortly after 12:40 AM on the starboardside with only 28 people on board out of a maximum capacity of 65. The Titanic carried 20lifeboats with a total capacity of 1,178 persons. Sixteen lifeboats, indicated by number,were in the davits, and four canvas-sided collapsibles, indicated by letter, stowed on theroof of the officers' quarters or on the forward Boat Deck to be launched in empty davits.

Around 2:10 AM, the stern rose out of the water exposing the propellers and the forwardboat deck was flooding. Events began to happen rapidly as the last two lifeboats floatedright off the deck, collapsible lifeboat B upside down, and collapsible lifeboat A half-filledwith water. Shortly afterwards the front funnel collapsed, crushing part of the bridge andmany of those struggling in the water. On deck, people were scrambling towards thestern or jumping overboard in hopes of reaching a lifeboat. The ship's stern slowly roseinto the air, and everything not secured crashed towards the bow. While the stern rose,the electrical system finally failed and the lights went out. Shortly after the stress on thehull caused Titanic to break apart between the third and fourth funnels, and the bowsection went completely under. The stern section briefly righted itself on the water beforerising back up vertically. After a few moments, at 2:20 AM, the stern section also sank intothe ocean.

Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived; 1,517 perished.The majority of deaths werecaused by victims succumbing to hypothermia in the 28 °F (-2°C) water. Out of the 18lifeboats launched, only two rescued people out of the water after the ship sank. Lifeboat4 was close by and picked up five people, two of whom later died. Close to an hour laterLifeboat 14 went back and rescued four people, one of whom died afterwards. Otherpeople managed to climb onto the two collapsible lifeboats that floated off the deck.There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but manysurvivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat orgetting pulled down by the suction from the sinking Titanic, though it turned out thatthere had been very little suction.

As the ship fell into the depths, the two sections ended their final plunge very differently.The streamlined bow planed off approximately 2,000 feet (600 m) below the surface andslowed somewhat, landing relatively gently. The stern, however, fell fairly straight downtowards the ocean floor, possibly rotating as it sank, with the air trapped inside causingimplosions. The bow section, having been opened up by the iceberg, had no air left in itwhen it sank.

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Almost two hours after Titanic sank, the RMS Carpathia arrived on scene and picked up itsfirst lifeboat. Over the next several hours, the remainder of the survivors were rescued.Onboard the Carpathia, a short prayer service for the rescued and a memorial for thepeople who lost their lives was held, and at 8:50 AM, Carpathia left for New York, arrivingon April 18. Once the loss of life was verified, White Star Line chartered the ship MacKay-Bennett to retrieve bodies. A total of 328 bodies were eventually recovered. Many of thebodies were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the majority of the unclaimed wereburied in Fairview Cemetery.

Use of SOS

The SOS signal was first proposed at the International Conference on WirelessCommunication at Sea in Berlin in 1906. It was ratified by the international community in1908 and had been in widespread use since then. The SOS signal was, however, rarelyused by British wireless operators, who preferred the older CQD code. First WirelessOperator Jack Phillips began transmitting CQD until Second Wireless Operator HaroldBride suggested half jokingly, "Send SOS; it's the new call, and this may be your lastchance to send it." Phillips, who perished in the disaster, then began to intersperse SOSwith the traditional CQD call.

Mummy's Curse

Another source of a Titanic "curse" is the Princess of Amen-Ra who lived in 1050 B.C.According to legend after her discovery in the 1890s in Egypt, owner after owner of themummy ran into serious misfortune including bankruptcy, serious injuries and severaldeaths. The mummy was donated to the British Museum where it continued to causemysterious problems for visitors and staff. The mummy was eventually purchased byjournalist William Thomas Stead who dismissed the claims; though he did arrange for themummy to be hidden under the body of his car for fear that it would not be taken aboardthe ship because of its reputation. He reportedly revealed to other passengers thepresence of the mummy the night before the accident. The mummy itself was placed inthe first-class cargo hold. However, eyewitness accounts report that, once the Captaingave the order to abandon ship, the mummy appeared on deck. This is another urbanlegend as the British Museum never received the mummy, only the lid of its sarcophaguswhich is on the display at the museum. Additionally, except during war and specialexhibits abroad, the coffin lid has not left the Egyptian room.

This is only a very short history of the Titanic, and there are a lot more theories of whathappened to the Titanic and how and why it sank.

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5. The Quayside ShaverBy Chris Clennell, 2008

DURING THE 17TH AND 18TH centuries every decent gentleman endeavoured to beshaved at least once a week. Such was the demand for barbers that many of thefairer sex were persuaded to try their hands at the 'tonsorial' art.

In 1794 Sykes, in his 'Local Records' states that on the Quay, near the Bridge, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne were women, who, in the open air, on market days performed the office ofbarber, at one-half the normal price.

The author of this song, Mr. William Stephenson, was aquainted with an old soldier namedTom Lough whose wife was one of the Quayside Shavers and handled her razor as deftlyas the rest of them. Her manners and address to her customers are apparently faithfullyrepresented in the song, which was published in a small book of poems and songs in 1832.

On each market day,Sir,the folks to the quay,Sir,Go flocking with beards they have seven days worn,

And round a small grate,Sir,in crowds they all wait,Sir,To get themselves shav'd in a rotative turn.Old soldiers on sticks,Sir,up on politics,Sir,

Debate,till at length they quite heated are grown;Nay,nothing escapes,Sir,until Madam Scrape,Sir,Cries 'Gentlemen, who is the next to sit down?'

A medley this place is,of those who sell laces,With fine shirt neck buttons and good cabbage nets:

Where match-men at meeting,give each a kind greeting,And ask one another how trade with them sets:

Joined in with Tom Hoggars,and little Bob Nackers'Who wander the streets in their fuddling gills;

And those folks with bags,Sir,who buy up old rags,Sir,That deal in fly cages and paper windmills.

There,pitmen with baskets and fine posey waistcoats,Discourse about nowt but who puts and hews best;

There keelmen,just landed,swear 'May they be stranded,If they're not shaved first,while their keel's at the fest';With face full of coal dust,would frighten one almost,

Throw off hat and wig while they usurp the chair;

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While others stand looking and think it provoking,But,for the insult,to oppose them none dare.

When,under the chin,Sir,she tucks the cloth in,Sir,Their old quid they'll pop in the pea-jacket cuff;

And while they are sitting,do nought but keep spitting'And looking around with an air fierce and bluff;

Such tales as go round,Sir,would surely confound,Sir,And puzzle the prolific brain of the wise;

But when she prepares,Sir,to take off the hairs,Sir.With lather she whitens them up to the eyes.

No sooner the razor is laid on the face,Sir,Than painful distortions is seen on the brow;

But,if they complain,Sir,they find it in vain,Sir,She'll tell them 'There's nought but what patience can do.'And as she scrapes round 'em,if she by chance wound 'em

They'll cry out as though she bereaved them off life;'Od smash your brains, woman! aa find the blood's comin'!

Aa'd rather be shav'd with an aad gully knife.'

For all they can say,Sir,she still rasps away,Sir,And sweeps round their jaw the chop-torturing tool;

Till they in a pet,Sir,request her to whet,Sir,But she gives them for answer,'Sit still,ye fond fool.'

For all their repining,their twisting and twining,She forthwith proceeds till she's mown off the hair;

When finished cries 'There,Sir',then straight from the chair,Sir'They jump,crying,'Daresay you've scraped the bone bare.'

Source - The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend 1889TThe

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6. The Body SnatchersBy Sheila Convey

DISSECTION OF THE HUMAN BODY to gain knowledge of structure and function isrooted in antiquity. Anatomy is the study of the way we are made and isconsidered the cornerstone of scientific medicine. However it has a history, which

at times was grisly and scandalous.

It has not always been the preserve of medicine though. Many artists dissected cadavers,particularly during the Renaissance, as a means of better understanding the human form.

A Flemish born anatomist called Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) transformed the field andcorrected many misconceptions from earlier times. In his early life anatomy wasconsidered of little importance to other branches of medicine but he believed that surgeryhad to be grounded in anatomy. In 1539 a Paduan judge took an interest in his work andmade the bodies of executed criminals available to him. Until that time Galen was thestandard authority in anatomy but because of religious reasons was restricted to animals,manly apes. Vesalius was able to make comparisons in various human bodies and from thisproduced ‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica’ (on the structure of the human body) in 1543.

Around this time Henry VIII gave the College of Barbers and Surgeons the right to take thebodies of 4 executed prisoners every year.

Interest in anatomy grew and so did the numbers of bodies allowed for dissection.However, only convicted criminals could be used and the private schools that werespringing up were not allowed to take them. The needs were more than met in the 18thcentury when hundreds were executed for quite trivial crimes but by the 19th century,when many anatomy schools were being established, there was a shortage of cadavers.On average 55 people were hanged each year when some 500 bodies were needed.

Laws were very strict concerning human dissection at the beginning of the 1800’s. It wasforbidden in all cases, except where the body of an executed criminal was donated. Thisbecame comparatively rare since ‘hanging with dissection’ was a specific punishmentreserved for murderers, with the requirement that the body must never be placed inhallowed ground.

The anatomy schools were competing for students but lecturers were unable to teachvery well without their visual aids. Dead bodies became a commodity. It was too risky forthe anatomists to actively search for fresh corpses and this is where the body snatcherscame in. They were also known as resurrectionists, for their ability to raise the dead.

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The body snatchers had two methods for robbing the fresh graves, which was carried outunder cover of darkness and with wooden spades, which were quieter. Some would digat the head end and when they reached the coffin they would prise open the lid with acrowbar. The earth covering the rest of the coffin would act as a counterweight and soexposed the body, which they pulled out with ropes. It would be put in a sack and tied atthe neck and heels. The grave robbers would then replace the earth to cover their tracks.Another method was to remove a manhole-sized square of turf 15ft. to 20ft. from thehead of the grave and then dig a tunnel to intercept the coffin. The end of the coffin wouldbe pulled off and the corpse pulled through the tunnel. The turf was then replaced.

Even if it were suspected that the grave had been interfered with the body snatcherswould not pay too high a price, as the body was not considered property. This is why theywould usually strip the body of clothing, as it would be classed as stealing. Taking a corpsewas a misdemeanour in common law and only punishable with a fine or imprisonment,rather than stealing, which was a felony and punishable by transportation or execution.

It was lucrative employment. By the 1820’s a fresh corpse could bring £10 and they neededto be as fresh as possible. Without refrigeration bodies decayed quickly and wouldbecome useless to the anatomist.

The concept of body snatching was repulsive to most people at that time. Britain was stillvery religious and Christians believed that the body should be left intact. Despite publiccriticism the authorities turned a blind eye. One surgeon, Andrew Marshall was caughtwith a hamper containing the bodies of two children but no action was taken against him.Many regarded it as a necessary evil.

Relatives of the dead did all they could to stop their loved ones’ bodies being taken. Thepoor were more at risk as the coffins were cheap and easily broken. People would guardthe graves and watch towers were built in graveyards where the guards could stay. Theperimeter walls were raised and high railings added to keep the corpses in and therobbers out. Some placed trinkets on the grave so that they could see if it had beendisturbed. People joined ‘watch clubs’ which collected weekly contributions. When amember died all the others took it in turns to watch their grave. In Scotland they wenteven further and used heavy iron grills or cages. These were called mortsafes (from theLatin word ‘mors’, ‘mortis’ meaning death) and were placed on top of the graves in orderto give the body a chance to decompose before the body snatchers could get at it. Theyalso used a morthouse or watch box to provide security for the dead. Some opted for ironcoffins and a Kingkettle collar was sometimes used. An iron shackle was placed round theneck of the body and then bolted to the base of the coffin.

As grave robbing became more difficult and altogether more risky the less accomplishedgave up on it and this pushed the price of bodies up even further. This led to somethingthe public feared, and that was murder as a means of obtaining bodies.

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Two Irish immigrants, the infamous Burke and Hare murdered many victims in Edinburgh.They had hit upon the idea by chance one night in 1827 when one of Hare’s tenants diedin his sleep. He owed rent and it was decided to sell his body to the medical school. By thetime of the trial in 1828 Burke had confessed to 16 murders. Hare turned King’s evidenceand claimed that he had only ever done the planning and the bargaining with Dr.Knox ofEdinburgh’s Medical School. Hare’s evidence sent Burke to the gallows. He died a monthlater and ironically his corpse was donated to the school he had kept well supplied. Hisbody was dissected in a lecture and it is rumoured that the students stole pieces of hisskin, which they used to cover books. His bones are still there. Hare was smuggled out ofEdinburgh and is thought to have lived as a beggar for the rest of his life. Dr.Knox was notcharged with any crime but hundreds rioted in the streets demanding he be arrested andhanged for his involvement. His career in Edinburgh was effectively destroyed as fewerand fewer students attended his lectures.

In the April edition of ‘All the Year Round’, a magazine published in 1881, Charles Dickenscommented on how, “For several years (in the late 1820’s) there prevailed what wouldnow be called a “burking scare.” He said: “Burke added, like Mr.Boycott, a new verb to theEnglish Language. In fact people went about at night in terror of being burked”. Manycriminals took inspiration from Burke and Hare.

The London Burkers were a group of body snatchers operating in London in 1831 whomodelled themselves on Burke and Hare. The gang consisted of John Bishop, ThomasWilliams and James May. The killing of a 14-year-old Italian boy called Carlo Ferarai was tobe their downfall. He was a street urchin who travelled to London displaying trained whitemice and a turtle in exchange for a few coins. On 4th November 1831 he was lured into aboarding house with the promise of a job and was murdered by the gang. In their haste tomake a profit they took the still warm body to Richard Partridge of King’s College London.He became suspicious and called the police. John Bishop’s children had been give the miceand this led to the men being tried at the Old Bailey. Bishop and Williams were condemnedto death. May was transported to Australia but died on the voyage. Bishop and Williamswere dissected and the remains displayed. Thousands had turned up to watch thehangings and a play was written about the unfortunate boy. There was a public outcry.

Parliament was forced to legalise the dissection of bodies and The Anatomy Act waspassed in 1832. It was designed to increase the number of available bodies by allowing theuse of those who were unclaimed after 48 hours of the death. It was inevitable that thepoor would be the main source of supply and people from workhouses, hospitals andasylums were handed over for the next 100 years. The Act revoked the law allowingexecuted murderers to be dissected and made provision for those who didn’t want theirbodies to be dissected. The Home Office also appointed an inspector of anatomy whopoliced the distribution of bodies and inspected anatomy schools. By the 1890’s bodysnatching was rare and had almost stopped by the beginning of the 20th century.

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Simon Chaplin, the senior curator at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College ofSurgeons in London has said that despite the distaste surrounding the unethical aspectsof body snatching it should be put into its historic context. In a speech in 2007 he said thatsome of the greatest discoveries of medical history took part in the 18th century. Theyincluded advances in dental surgery and obstetrics, the development of the smallpoxvaccine and the detection of venereal disease.

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7. Automatic Writing and the Strange Case ofGlastonbury AbbeyBy Sheila Convey

AUTOMATIC WRITING IS CLAIMED BY some to be writing that is directed by spiritor by the unconscious mind. It is sometimes called “trance” writing but it can alsobe done whilst someone is aware of their surroundings, but not of the actions of

the writing hand.

Some mediums claim that spirit is constantly trying to communicate and automaticwriting gives them an opening. Some psychotherapists use it as a tool in Freudianpsychology and regard it as being of value in gaining insight into the mind of theautomatic writer. Sceptics doubt whether it is any more profound than consciousthoughts and rate it no higher than harmless entertainment.

Difficult then to imagine that the important excavation of Glastonbury Abbey, or morecorrectly, the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Mary, would be conducted with the guidance ofa long dead monk called Johannes Bryant who claimed to have lived from 1497 to 1533.

Glastonbury Abbey was once the most wealthy and influential in England and is believedto be the oldest Christian foundation in the British Isles.

The Saxons conquered Somerset in the 7th century and as they had been converted toChristianity Their King, Ine of Wessex, who was a local man and is regarded as one of themost important in the Abbey’s history. He made it richer and gave it status.

By the 12th century the Abbey housed the tombs of three kings.

During the Dissolution in 1539 Henry VIII ordered Earl Somerset and his soldiers to literallyflatten the place. They began by torturing Abbot Whiting before hanging him. Theysmashed statues, burned down the library and stole anything of value. The destructionwas so complete that all was lost including the floor plans and even the overalldimensions. Anything left was carted away by locals to use in other buildings.

Some written references survived which mentioned the Edgar Chapel, which was said tobe more magnificent than St.George’s Chapel Windsor. The Loretto Chapel was also lost.

The sad remains of Glastonbury Abbey remained in secular hands until a man called ErnestJardine bought the ruins at an auction in 1907. He paid £30,000 for it and then held it intrust until the Church could raise the funds for restoration. By the time it came into thehands of the Church of England all that was left was the 14th century Abbot’s kitchen andpart of a small gatehouse.

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Frederick Bligh Bond (1864-1945) was an architect, archaeologist and psychicalresearcher. He was also a great-nephew of William Bligh of Bounty fame.

Bligh Bond was appointed by the Church to head the excavations. It was an extremelydifficult task but Bligh Bond’s reputation went before him. He was said to have anuncanny way of successfully marking out the areas to be excavated without trial or error.It was an unpaid seasonal job, which was to be carried out alongside his Bristolarchitectural practice.

Bond was a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a member of theSomersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. He was also a member of theSociety for Psychical Research.

He specialized in ecclesiastical architecture and medieval woodwork. He was responsiblefor designing parts of Bristol University as well as two schools and districts of Avonmouthand restoring several churches.

His main task to relocate important details of the layout of the site and to locate the Edgarand Loretto chapels.

When the work at Glastonbury came up he decided to try to get some information aboutwhere to dig by the use of automatic writing. It was through the Society for PsychicalResearch that he’d met a medium called Captain John Allan Bartlett and they made theirfirst attempt in November in Bligh Bond’s Bristol office. Bartlett, (or ‘John Alleyne’ asBligh Bond called him in a later book) was the first of five mediums to be used.

The usual way for the automatic writing to be done was for Bond to place two fingers ontop of Bartlett’s hand, which held a pencil. This was believed to give the medium addedpower.

Bond asked the first question, “Can you tell us anything about Glastonbury?” Both menwere amazed at the speed and clarity of the messages. Bartlett began to write and drawat high speed. Bligh Bond later recalled that it was as if the monks had been waiting forcenturies to have their say. At first it seemed that their were a number of different ‘voices’who called themselves the ‘Watchers’ but over time one appeared to come forward as thegroup’s spokesman. He said that he was one of the abbey’s monks and was calledJohannes Bryant.

Johannes said that he lived from 1497 to 1533. He ‘spoke’ in a mixture of English andschoolboy Latin and seemed to get impatient when misunderstood. As time went on BlighBond ensured that independent witnesses were present. The sheer speed of the writingconvinced most that the medium involved wouldn’t have had time to invent anything.Johannes told Bond to have faith and follow instructions: “Stand ye and be as waxe in ourhands.”

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Bond dug as directed by the spiritual guide. He soon found the Abbey’s twin towers, theEdgar Chapel, main altar as well as an unknown site behind it reached through anunknown door He found tunnels, water courses and drainage systems. Things carried onat this pace for ten years when Bond discovered the foundations for the Loretto Chapelin 1919. He identified every part of the site including several small cloisters that were notshown on any plans. What surprised everyone though was the detail regarding thedecoration of the Abbey, which the monks seemed most proud of.

Bond said that the monks literally brought the past to life. He said they told him of theirlives and everyday problems during medieval times.

The most intriguing information given was when it was claimed that Abbot Beere camethrough. He was one of the last of the great builders. It was said that the dimensions ofthe building embodied sacred geometry as well as sacred numbers and that the key to thesecret was engraved in a marble floor in the Loretto Chapel and a great treasure washidden on the site.

It all seemed to point to Glastonbury being a sacred site and it came with a promise thattime would reveal its true function.

Hostility broke out in 1916 amidst claims that proper records weren’t being kept. The Deanof Wells, Joseph Robinson led the revolt. He was the principal churchman responsible forGlastonbury and had always been opposed to Bond’s appointment. Things went from badto worse between Bond and the Church which culminated in them spelling out in nouncertain terms that he did not have a free hand to do what he liked and must adhere totheir way of doing things.

Bond went even further and decided to use information from the ‘Watchers’ to look forthe original circular chapel that they ‘said’ had been erected by Joseph of Arimathea. Bydoing this he claimed that Glastonbury would be recognized as being in the same class asRome when it came to Christianity.

In 1918 Bond published a book called ‘The Gate of Remembrance’ in which he gave detailsof all the séances. It caused an absolute storm and Robinson loudly accused him of beingunscientific and what was even worse in his eyes, using ‘spiritualism’ which the Churchwas violently opposed to.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Price backed Bond but the Church insisted that theArchaeological Society appoint someone to keep an eye on him. The funding was cut backand in April 1922 when Bond refused to work with the newly appointed co-directorSebastian Evans he was sacked.

His professional clients had been deserting him since the publication of his first book andhe ended up in debt following an earlier divorce and fights for custody of his daughter.

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The excavation was shut down and the site was untouched for six years.

Bond continued to insist that the Church got rid of him because they were afraid of whathe might find. He also claimed that they had purposely obliterated some of his discoveries,in particular an apse, which finished of the Edgar Chapel. He said this was done to discreditJohannes claims that the building contained sacred geometry.

Many years later it was conceded that Bond had found a polygonal apse, which rounded,off the Edgar Chapel.

He never again practised archaeology instead devoting his time to lectures in America andexperimenting with the paranormal as well as editing ‘Psychic Science’, a quarterlypublication of the College of Psychic Science and ‘Survival’ the journal of the AmericanSociety for Psychical Research for which he was a part-time educational director. Heworked for some time for a Boston architectural practise.

He returned to England in January 1936 remaining convinced that his work at Glastonburywould be accepted and that he would be asked to go back. It never happened andalthough it is one of the most visited ancient sites and one that may never have beenbrought back to life without Frederick Bligh Bond he is given no credit for his work by thechurch authorities on the history of the site and one can find only scant reference to him.

He spent his last years in rooming houses in Wales doing oil sketches of churches and diedin March 1945, aged 81.

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8. The Ghosts of Ettington ParkBy Sheila Convey

ETTINGTON PARK HOTEL IS SET in 40 acres of the Stour Valley six miles fromStratford upon Avon. It has a reputation as being one of the most hauntedbuildings in England.

It is claimed that there is no other place in this country that has been associated with onefamily for as long as Ettington Park. It has been home to the Shirley family for over 900years and it is possible they were there before the Norman Conquest. They are one of theoldest families in Britain ad they were renowned for their military prowess. Sir HughShirley was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 and was immortalised inShakespeare's play Henry IV. Sir Ralph Shirley was knighted by Henry VII on the battlefieldat Stoke in 1487. The family intrigued Shakepeare and they figured heavily in his plays. Hespent a lot of time socialising at the house, as he was a close friend of the Underhill familywho leased the property in the sixteenth century.

Ettington Park Hotel, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

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The building has had many alterations over the years and its appearance today isattributed to the architect John Pritchard who was commissioned by Evelyn Philip Shirleyto rebuild the house in 1858. This took until 1862 and is in the Gothic style. Pritchard rebuiltaround the core of the old house, which dates back to 1641 when the family moved backin after demolishing the original manor house, and built a new one using salvagedmaterials.

There is evidence that this site has been occupied for over 2,000 years. Roman artefactshave been discovered and it is thought there was a Roman villa in the grounds.

Seawallis Shirley was the last member of his family to live in the house and he died in 1912.

More recently Etington has been used as a nursing home, a POW residence for Italians anda public school. It was devastated by fire in 1979 but was restored and became a hotel in1983.

The ghosts include Lady Emma who roams the corridors at night before disappearingthrough a wall, Mary, a servant girl who was pushed down the stairs and died, and aVictorian lady who has been seen in the conservatory accompanied by the sound offootsteps pacing back and forth. The drawing room seems to be haunted by an Edwardianlady who stands barefooted in one of the bay windows and many have also heard thesound of a social gathering in there with the sound of music playing. The library has a smallamount of poltergeist activity with one book in particular flying off the shelves time andtime again. The Long Gallery appears to give everyone a very strong feeling of beingwatched and many have seen a man in army unifom as well as an old lady who alwaysstands in one particular window by the fireplace. There have also been sightings of theghosts of two small children who are supposed to have been drowned in the River Stourin 1800.

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9. The Marquis of Granby GhostsBy Sheila Convey

THE MARQUIS OF GRANBY IS a public house that stands on the old route of one ofthe first waggon ways built at the beginning of the 18th century. It is situated in anarea called Streetgate in the village of Sunniside, Tyne and Wear.

The area to the right of the pub, on the low side was known as Streetgate Lane or LowStreetgate. It consisted of three houses that adjoined the pub and another row consistingof four cottages. There was a cottage in between the two rows and to the rear.

In 1841 the pub was known as the Granby Arms and run by a Bill Dobson. By 1865 WilliamLaidman, who the locals nicknamed Bill o' the Bank, was running it as well as working onthe railway, and this is when the intrigue begins.

An annual flower show was held on the Ravensworth Estate and as usual a marquee waspitched on Earl Ravensworths' land near the pub. It was the night of 28th August 1865 andpeople were dancing late into the night entertained by local musicians. It would neverhave entered their heads that before the celebrations were over one of the crowd wouldbe dead.

Joseph Leybourn was 47 and an agricultural labourer at a farm in Marley Hill. He lived inStreetgate just a short distance from the pub with his wife Catharine and three childrenwho ranged in age from 9 to 18.

Joseph left the dance around midnight and crossed over to the nearby Marquis of GranbyInn where a very noisy argument broke out with Joseph Leybourn in the middle of it. Theoutside servants from Ravensworth Castle were involved in the ferocious quarrel fuelledby drink and loud threats were aimed at Joseph.

It appeared that he had taken the side of a young farm worker from Hexham called Nixon,against the notorious Jack Bee. Bee was a native of Cumberland but spent his days as awandering cobbler. He was a tall, muscular man with a bad reputation.

The row continued until two o'clock in the morning when the pub closed its doors afterthe extended opening hours due to the flower show. A woman who lived in LowStreetgate a few doors from the pub claimed she had heard the men leaving and thatthere was plenty of cursing and swearing going on. She said that she'd heard a voicelouder than the rest that threatened Joseph Leybourn saying, "I'll knock his soul out."

The road was dark and lonely by the time one of the villagers, George Mudd made his wayhome from the dance. Some other men accompanied him but they hadn't gone very far

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when one of them shouted to George to bring the lamp over that he was carrying assomeone, probably drunk, was sitting on the ground. As he shone the lamp they saw afigure sitting on a stone propped up against the hedge. They realised that he was dead butdespite his face being covered in blood recognised Joseph Leybourn. There was blood onstones nearby and later a heavy sharp stone covered in blood and hair would be found ina nearby field.

The men carried the body to his home. George Mudd thought it best to break the newsgently to his wife and said that Joseph had been hurt but Catharine simply replied, "No,he has not been hurt, he is dead.“ It was as if she had a premonition, they said.

They never found the murderer and a report of the adjourned inquest appeared in theNewcastle Daily Chronicle of 22nd September 1865 stating that a verdict of wilful murder,by person or persons unknown, was brought in.

The Earl of Ravensworth was appalled that something so bad had happened on his estateand even worse was the fact that quite a few of his servants had been involved. As aJustice of the Peace he felt moved to make a stance and he sacked the staff and promptlycancelled any further flower shows declaring that there would never be another whilst hewas alive.

The cottages adjoining the pub have long since gone and the pub itself was rebuiltbetween 1902 and 1905 but it is said that most of the tenants since the murder haveexperienced strange occurrences and possible sightings of ghosts. One of the mostpublicized occurred during the tenancy of Arthur Stoker in 1955. Arthur lived above thepub with his wife Doris and their children. An apparition that manifested itself in theirbedroom terrified their two sons. Whether it was this that caused the family to move isuncertain but they were running the Sun Inn further up the village that same year.

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10. Phantom ArmiesBy Sheila Convey

THERE ARE MANY DOCUMENTED CASES of phantom armies and the reports aresurprisingly consistent. They go back as far as the 17th century. This mentions but afew.

One of the most famous is the sightings is at Edgehill on the southern end ofWarwickshire. The battle of Edgehill was the first of the English Civil War and began on 23October 1642. Constitutional disagreements between King Charles I and the governmentboiled up that day into the first major action of the Civil War as the King set out from hisbase in Shrewsbury heading for London with his Royalist troops numbering around14,500. The parliamentary army of almost 15,000 men, led by Robert Devereux, the Earl ofEssex clashed with the King's army between the villages of Radway and Kineton on openland at Edgehill at 2.00 am. By nightfall (around 4.30 pm) there were 1,000 dead and2-3,000 wounded. The bodies were looted and left where they had fallen.

Two months later on 23rd December shepherds at Edgehill claimed to have seen a re-enactment of the battle. Over the coming months many more tales surfaced of peoplewitnessing the same thing. There were so many accounts that a printer called ThomasJackson published a booklet in 1643, which told the stories. This intrigued the King and hesent a group of his trusted men to investigate the phenomena. The intention was to speakto witnesses but it seems that they got more than they bargained for. They were leftterrified by two visions of the battle being fought. Several of the men who had foughtwere shocked to see dead comrades taking part.

The site still remains the most haunted in Warwickshire with activity increasing aroundHalloween.

Scotland is rich in the history of ghostly battles. Harpers Weekly Supplement told thestory of an event in 1719 near Aberdeen. Taken from Harpers Weekly SupplementNovember 18, 1871 p.1095:

"On the 29th of January, 1719, a Scottish gentleman, named Alexander Jaffray, Laird ofKingswells, was riding across a piece of wide and waste moorland to the westward ofAberdeen, when, about eight o'clock in the morning, he beheld--to his great alarm andbewilderment, as he states in a letter to his friend, Sir Archibald Grant, of Monymusk(printed by the Spaulding Club)--a body of about seven thousand soldiers drawn up infront of him, all under arms, with colours uncased and waving and, the drums slung on thedrummers backs. A clear morning sun was shining; so he saw them distinctly, and also acommander, who rode along the line, mounted on a white charger. Dubious whether to

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advance or retire, and sorely perplexed as to what mysterious army this was, the worthlyLarid of Kingwells and a companion, an old Scottish soldier who had served in LowCountry wars, reigned in their horses, and continued to gaze on this unexpected array fornearly two hours; till the troops broke into marching order, and departed towardsAberdeen, near which, he adds, "the hill called the Sockett tooke them out ofsight?"Nothing more was heard or seen of this phantom force until the 21st of the ensuingOctober, when on the same ground--the then open and desolate White-myres--on a fineclear afternoon, when some hundred persons were returning home from the yearly fair ofOld Aberdeen, about two thousand infantry, clad in blue uniforms faced in white, and withall their arms shining in the evening sun, were distinctly visible; and after a space, the samecommander an the same white charger rode slowly along the shadowy line. Then a long"wreath of smoak apiered, as if they fired, but no noise" followed.To add marvel to thescene, the spectators, who we have said were numerous, saw many of their friends, whowere coming from the fair, pass through this line of impalpable shadows, of which theycould see nothing until they came to a certain point on the moor, and looked back to thesloping ground. Then, precisely as before, those phantoms in foreign uniform broke intomarching order, and moved towards the Bridge of the Dee. They remained visible,however, for three hours, and only seemed to fade or melt gradually away as the sun setbehind the mountains. "This will puzzle thy philosophy," adds the laird at the close of hisletter to the Baronet of Monymusk; "but thou needst not doubt of the certainty of either."

In 1774 a man called Stricket saw troops riding along Souter Fell in Cumberland. It wasaround 7pm. He had had a similar experience the year before but most of those he toldabout it simply dismissed it as a fantasy. He worked as a servant to Mr.Lancaster, ofBlackhills so after watching them for a short time he was keen to get someone else aswitness so he called his master from the house. He is reported as saying: "These visionaryhorsemen seemed to come from the lowest part of Souter Fell, and became visible at aplace called Knott; they moved in successive troops (or squadrons) along the side of theFell till they came opposite Blackhills, where they went over the mountain. They were twohours in sight; and this phenomena was seen by every person (twenty six in number) inevery cottage within a distance of a mile."•

The newspapers and magazines of 1812 were full of the stories of armed men that hadbeen seen near Harrogate on June 28th of that year. A local farmer, Anthony Jackson,accompanied by the son of a neighbouring farmer, Martin Turner were attending to cattlebetween seven and eight o'clock on a Sunday evening at Heywra Park when the lad of 15drew Anthony's attention to what appeared to be a large body of armed men in thedistance. They were dressed in white military uniforms and surrounded a figure in scarlet.It is said that after performing various evolutions they moved forward in perfect ordertowards the summit of the hill. They are said to have passed the spectators within 100yards. According to the Leeds Mercury and Edinburgh Annual Register they were fourdeep, extending over thirty acres. No sooner had this body reached the top of the hill theywere joined by others in dark uniforms. Smoke appeared as if from artillery, rolling over

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the grass of the park. As the second band joined the first they all disappeared down theopposite side of the hill.

More recent sightings include a story from January 1950 in Scotland. A woman was drivinghome one evening when she saw what appeared to be the Battle of Nechtanesmere, alsoknown as the Battle of Dunnichen Hill that had been fought in 685 AD. The NorthumbrianKing Ecgfrith launched a full-scale attack on the Picts under King Bridei III. It was a disasterfor Northumbria and Ecgfrith and his army were slaughtered. Shocked by what she wasseeing the woman ended up in a ditch and had to walk the rest of the way along thecountry lanes carrying her small dog. She hadn't got very far when the dog becamealarmed and began to growl and struggle. Heading towards her were people carrying littorches. The men were bending down and turning over bodies that were strewn aroundas if looking for their comrades. She later described the clothing the men were wearing toa Historian who confirmed her description was that of the Pictish warriors.

Three years later Harry Martindale had a very strange experience in the cellar of theTreasurer's House in York. It was 1953 and Harry was 17 and apprenticed to a localplumber. They were installing a heating system and Harry was working alone. He said thathe heard what sounded like the sound of a distant horn and his first thought was that itwas strange hearing something like that when he was so far underground. As the soundcame and went he carried on working up his ladder but it seemed to get closer as itcontinued to sound. Suddenly a Roman soldier walked across the floor after comingthrough a brick wall. Harry literally fell off his ladder in shock. Sitting on the floor he sawthat several other men followed him. Most walked in pairs and were wearing plumedhelmets. They carried a short sword on their right-hand side and they were dressed inrough green tunics. He said they all looked down in a dejected manner as they headedtowards the Minster. The strangest thing was they could only be seen from the knees up.As they reached the centre of the room they emerged into a recently excavated areawhere the apparitions became totally visible.In the 1970s an archaeological dig revealed,(amongst other things), a Roman road leading through the grounds of the Treasurer'sHouse. It appeared that they had been walking on the old road.

In November of 1956 two brothers were camping on Skye. They had pitched their tent onthe Cullin Mountains and some say that they witnessed the re-enactment of the last greatbattle between the Clans MacLeod and Macdonald. The Cullin Mountains are a horseshoeshaped range encircling one of the most isolated lochs in Scotland, Loch Coruish. Thebrothers were awoken by the battle cries of men in kilts charging around them. This wasfollowed the next night by the ghost army in retreat. They were screaming, stumbling andrunning for their lives.

Could these sightings be a time slip, mass hysteria, accounted for by too vivid animagination or simply be an attention seeking exercise?

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11. The Ghosts of RSS DiscoveryBy Sheila Convey

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH century Antarctica wan an unexplored partof the world. Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Societydecided to raise money to fund a scientific expedition. He soon raised the

necessary capital and employed a Dundee shipyard to build the first vessel ever to be builtspecifically for scientific research. They had experience in building robust whaling shipsand all that was needed were a few modifications to allow magnetic surveys and so theRRS Discovery came into being; the last three-masted ship built in Britain.

Markham needed a good sailor to take charge and he decided on Robert Falcon Scott whohad joined the navy at thirteen. Twenty years later he was made a Commander and givenDiscovery in June 1900.

By August she had been prepared and set sail from the Isle of Wight. Tragedy struck enroute to New Zealand when a young sailor by the name of Charles Bonner fell from themain mast in rough seas. He died when he hit the iron deckhouse.

Forty-nine men started the journey and the number included Ernest Shackleton andEdward Wilson who was the zoologist on board. He later died in 1912 with Scott on theill-fated Endurance expedition.

Five scientists carried out the work, which was truly groundbreaking. They discoveredover five hundred new kinds of marine animals, shrimps, spiders, star and shellfish andthey mapped hundreds of miles of unknown coast, mountain ranges and glaciers as wellas well as making magnetic measurements, auroral observations and seismic recordings.All this was done under the most severe conditions with temperatures dipping as low asminus 45.

In November of 1902 Scott, Wilson and Shackleton made the southern journey. They tookoff across the Great Ice Barrier to explore. They travelled over 950 miles on sledges andarrived back at Discovery at the beginning of February 1903. The ship had been locked inby ice, which stretched for 20 miles to the open sea. Controlled explosions were carriedout later that month by two relief ships, which freed her, and they headed for home.

The ship eventually ended up in London where she was laid up before returning toDundee in 1986 and going on permanent display after restoration made possible by agrant of half a million pounds from The Maritime Trust.

She is said to be one of the most haunted ships and many think that Shackelton, who hadbecome obsessed by the Antarctic after the 1901 expedition, has never left her. Some

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report that some of the onboardrooms have a very strange feel tothem with quite a lot of visitorsunable to enter them.

Electricians have been brought inbecause the bulb overShackleton's bunk continues toblow but they seem unable tofind an explanation.

Footsteps are regularly heardwhen the ship is closed to visitorsand opinion is split on whether itcould be Shackleton or the ghostof the young seaman, CharlesBonner.

Staff at the Discovery PointVisitor Centre where she sitsreport many strange goings-onand one evening in 2005 standsout. A guest at one of the dinner functions said that she had had conversed with a veryinteresting man all evening. Eerily no one else could see whom she was talking to.

RSS Discovery, courtesy of WikipediaCommons

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12. St. Cuthbert’s GhostBy Sheila Convey

THE TINY TIDAL ISLAND OF Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, is off the coast ofNorthumberland and according to the 2001 census has a usual population of 162. Itmay be small but it has played a huge part in the history of Northumberland. It is

known as the cradle of Christianity. The Irish born Saint Aidan who arrived there in 635 ADfounded the monastery of Lindisfarne.

The island has many stories of strange happenings but the ghost of St. Cuthbert is themost famous.

Cuthbert was born near Melrose around 635 AD. He entered Melrose Abbey as a monkand later went to Ripon. He was appointed prior at Lindisfarne some time later andbecame its sixth Bishop in 685 AD. He only spent two years on Lindisfarne but during thattime he converted it from Celtic Christianity to Roman Christianity. He yearned to 'bealone with God' and he was given permission to leave for the inner Farne Islands, whichlie a few miles off Lindisfarne. He died there after only 2 months on 20th March 687 ADsaid by many to be 'a victim of his own austerities'. He was brought back to Lindisfarneand buried in the monastery.

In 875 AD the monks fled the island to escape the Vikings who had plundered the churchstealing all the gold and silver and burning the priory. St.Cuthbert's remains were placedin a wooden coffin together with other precious relics including the head of Oswald andthe bones of Bishops Aidan, Eata, Eadfrid and Ethelwold.

They wandered with the relics for many years before reaching Chester-Le-Street whereSt.Cuthbert spent 100 years before being moved to Durham.

They say he has 'returned' to Holy Island and his ghost is often spotted at low tide onmoonlit nights. He is seen quietly sitting on a boulder where he fashions Cuddy's beads(button-like fossilized pieces of crinoid stem) into a delicate rosary.

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13. The Epworth PoltergeistBy Sheila Convey

EPWORTH RECTORY IN LINCOLNSHIRE IS a Queen Ann style building and was thehome of the Wesley family until 1735. One of the best-documented accounts ofpoltergeist activity occurred here from December 1716 and ended abruptly after

two months, in January 1717.

John Wesley (1703-1791) is the famous Anglican minister who became the leader of theMethodist movement. He was 13 when the activity started but he said that even though itonly lasted a short time it was so powerful that the memory stayed with him for the restof his life.

The house stands on the sight of an earlier building, which was destroyed by fire whenJohn was 5 years old. He had to be plucked from the flames.

John's parents were Samuel and Susanna Wesley. His father was rector of St.Andrewschurch from 1696-1735 and was well known as a poet and hymn-writer. His wife Susannahad married her husband at 18 and gave birth to 19 children. She had many hardships inher life not least the death of 9 of her children as infants. Four of the children were twinsand a maid accidentally smothered one child. When she died in 1742 only 8 of her childrenwere still alive. Her husband was not good with money and the marriage was not a happyone. The main bone of contention seems to be that Susanna was a passionate Jacobiteand her husband a strong supporter of William of Orange. Samuel left his family for a fewmonths in 1701 but eventually returned. The reason was an argument over Susannarefusing to say "Amen" when prayers were said for Prince William because she said thathe wasn't the true king.

Accounts vary but the poltergeist activity seems to have started in December 1716 whenSamuel's manservant, Robert Brown and a maid heard terrible moans and groans comingfrom the dining room. They said it sounded like someone was dying. At first they assumedit was a neighbour who was ill at the time but when Brown opened the door there wasnothing there. Later that night he heard loud knocking on the kitchen door to find nobodythere. It happened a further three times.

Unnerved the servants went to bed bud the entity seemed to have followed Brown. Hewas lying in bed when he heard heavy footsteps and then the sound of something fallingover his boots that had been left on the floor. Even more bizarre was the sound of a turkeygobbling.

A pattern seemed to develop and the house would be full of the strangest noises fromaround 9.45pm every evening. Loud knocking was accompanied by the sound of bottles

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being smashed, pewter being thrown around the kitchen, a windmill changing directionand many others. They were always accompanied always by moans and groans. The familyhad a large dog at the time, which would whine, and bark before the noises started. It wassaid that the whole house seemed to 'vibrate.'

The children were very afraid at the beginning but John's sister Emily named the entity'Old Jeffrey'. They thought it might be the ghost of a man who had died in the house andinvented a game where they chased him around.

The poltergeist seemed at its most violent during the usual evening prayers when thefamily were gathered together. When William of Orange was mentioned there wasfurious knocking but if the King was mentioned there was silence. As a result prayers forthe monarchy were abandoned.

Some members of the household tried to communicate. If someone shouted, "Jeffrey!"•loud knocking would be heard or the sound of a foot stamping. The family were urged toleave the house but Samuel refused.

Samuel was angered by the incidents and blamed his wife at first for frightening thechildren but became furious one night when he heard the sound of loud raps in thenursery. He called out, shouting that it was the devil and demanded to know why it wasfrightening his children. He challenged the poltergeist to leave the children alone andfollow him to his study. As a result that night was peaceful but the following evening ashe unlocked the study door and prepared to enter a violent force knocked him back.

It all came to an end as suddenly as it had started. Was the agent human or an entity?

It is possible that it was Susanna Wesley? She was a sincere supporter of James II butlearned not to voice her opinions, as violent rows would break out. Or could it have beenone of the children growing up in that unhappy household?

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14. An Introduction to Spontaneous HumanCombustionBy Tony Liddell

“There’s one mystery I’m asked about more than any other: spontaneous humancombustion. Some cases seem to defy explanation, and leave me with a creepy and veryunscientific feeling. If there’s anything more to SHC, I simply don’t want to know.”

- Arthur C. Clarke (1994)

THE PHENOMENA KNOWN AS SPONTANEOUS Human Combustion or SHC has beena puzzle for over 200 years since the first recorded case in 1763. Since then, therehave been allegedly over 200 potential cases of the phenomena worldwide. SHC,

in short, is a descriptive term for when the human body ignites without exposure to anexternal source of heat or influence that could cause the body to burst into flame.

The remains of BentleyIn cases designated as SHC, the human remains were found tohave burnt at an intense heat, centred around the torso and leaving only extremities suchas feet or legs intact among a pile of smouldering ash. The phenomena retains more of amystery when it is also noted that flammable items such as fabrics and paper easily withinthe vicinity of a SHC victim remain undamaged and intact; items which surely would bedestroyed in the level of heat necessary to burn a human body to ash (approximately1600°F for 2 hours). At this point it has to be noted that while the unfortunate victim’sclothing itself is destroyed, other items in direct contact with the person such as carpetsor bed-sheets have escaped with as little damage as a greasy sooty spot.

The first recorded case of SHC was scribed by James Dupont in his now famous works, DeIncendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis. He recorded that in 1725, a woman was founddead, badly burned, and that her husband was actually acquitted of her murder by theFrench Courts as they deemed it an act of SHC. This legal act seems to have sparked moreof an interest in SHC as a phenomena, and it became so widespread a belief that in 1852author Charles Dickens even used SHC to kill of a character named Krook in his book BleakHouse.

Sifting through Reeser's remainsIn the 18th century, theories as to the cause of SHC beganto be formed, and ranged from demonic attack, to divine retribution, to the more‘mundane’ explanation of alcoholism, where the alcohol in a person’s system reacted withtheir blood when they were angry causing the internal eruption.

As the cases mounted up, further explanations were put forward during the 20th century,aimed at suggesting that excessive fat in the human body could lead to a SHC demise.

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Another explanation put forward by scientists is that the phenomena could be caused byan electrical fault within our own bodies, where our internal electrics basically ‘short out’setting our body fat on fire. Of course, all theories into SHC remain unverified andessentially untested due to the nature of the phenomena itself.

Examples of famous cases of SHC include:

● Nicole Millet (1725): Rheims, France. All that remained were her lower limbs, afew vertebrae and parts of her skull among a pile of ash.

● Mary Reeser (1951): 67 year old victim of SHC fromFlorida, USA. Burned to death in her relativelyundamaged wheelchair, leaving only her spinalcolumn, her left foot and her skull among a pile ofash, still in her chair.

● Gisele Bundchen (1998): 67 year old victim of SHCfrom Honfleur, France. All that remained was herslippered left foot and a pile of ashes.

● Robert Francis Bailey (1967): Homeless man,London. Firemen report finding Bailey’s burningbody in a derelict building, spewing blue flame fromhis abdomen.

● John Irving Bentley (1966): 92 year old victim,Coudersport, Pennsylvania, USA. All that remainedwas his right leg, still slippered and a pile of ash.

● George I. Mott (1986): 20 year old died of SHC, New York, USA. All that remainedwas a section of rib-cage, a leg and his shrunken skull in a pile of ash.

● Jeannie Saffin (1982): 61 year old died of SHC, London. Face and hands burned tobone, 30% burns over body.

● Henry Thomas (1980): 73 year old, Wales. Only the skull and his legs below theknee were left among the pile of ash.

There has also been a case of SHC recorded in the North East of England. In 1908,Wilhelmina Dewar, retired teacher in Whitley Bay, was found dead by her sister.Wilhelmina had burned to death in her bed, but no damage was done to the sheets.Though originally cited as a case for SHC, the coroner refused to accept her sister’saccount of finding her charred remains, and it was recorded eventually that she had foundher sister burning elsewhere in the house, doused the fire and put her to bed, where shedied. However, till the day she died, Wilhelmina claimed that she had been forced to putthat second explanation forward, and that her sister’s death was truly a case of SHC.

Mary Reeser, dead by SHC1951

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So does Spontaneous Human Combustion exist? If the two hundred cited cases areanything to go by, it certainly does, but what causes it? A strange reaction in our bodies,turning us into living candles, or supernatural attack and intervention? Hopefully, time willinform us on this mystery and help prevent more of the strange and perplexing deathscaused by SHC.

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15. Crisis ApparitionsBy Sheila Convey

CRISIS APPARITIONS OR 'LIVING GHOSTS' seem to involve a visit to someone withwhom they have close emotional ties. It appears to be a cry for help in difficultcircumstances or a last goodbye.

The two World Wars brought about many such sightings and several people reportedseeing visions of loved ones. Occasionally people survive the trauma and when told laterabout the experience they are unaware that it happened.

One of the first studies to be carried out by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) wasto investigate the nature of apparitions. Edmund Gurney, F.W.H.Myers and FrankPodmore joined forces to produce a 1,300-page report entitled 'Phantasms of the Living',in which 702 different cases were analysed. Within one year of it's inception the SPR hadcollected over 400 reports of such cases.

Gurney was mainly responsible for 'Phantasms' and he and Myers could not reach anagreement on what these crisis apparitions were. Gurney was interested in telepathy andhe thought them similar to the visual messages some people claim to see during whatthey claim is a telepathic message. He thought that is was simply an 'exteriorised' form ofthe mental image. Myers theory was that an apparition results when some aspects of thedying person's organism projects over space and appears at the distant location. Whatmanifests might not be purely physical in the objective sense but would represent a partialpsychic invasion of it's place of manifestation.

The two never reached agreement and in 1889 the SPR carried out a British survey of thepublics' psychic experiences. The results were published in 1894 and reports of crisisapparitions were again strongly represented.

The studies came in for some criticism from several people, particularly the Americanphilosopher C.S.Pierce. They claimed that the cases represented did not meet sufficientconditions to be accepted as evidence but Gurney stood by his work and felt that if only afew single cases were strongly evidential the conclusions for crisis telepathy wereinescapable.

One of the most famous crisis apparitions is said to be that of Vice Admiral Sir GeorgeTryon (1832-1893).

George Tryon was born in January 1832 in Northamptonshire. He was educated at Etonand joined H.M.S.Wellesley in 1848. He passed his midshipman's examination at 18 and

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was noted by his superiors for his 'intellect and disposition'. It was to be the start of anillustrious career.

He served in the Crimean war and was promoted to lieutenant by 1855. Three years laterhe was posted to the Queen's escort in Cherbourg and this marked the start of his life longinterest in the innovation and improvement of the service.

He was promoted commander in 1860 and became a captain in 1866. After attending theRoyal Naval College, Portsmouth he was appointed director of transports in the Red Sea,landing troops and supplies for the Abyssinian expedition for which he was awarded theCB in 1868. The following year he married the Honourable Clementine Charlotte, daughterof Gilbert John Heathcote, first Lord Aveland.

Tryon was regarded as a great innovator and tactician and his appointment asCommander-in-Chief of the Australian Station in 1885 led to the creation of the RoyalAustralian Navy. On his return to Britain he was promoted to vice-admiral.

HMS Victoria was built at Elswick and launched in 1887. She completed her sea trials in1889 and became the flagship in the Mediterranean under the stewardship of Tryon. Hehad been made Commander-in Chief of the Mediterranean Station. This gave him theopportunity to try out many of his ideas regarding training. He always thought that agreater sense of realism was needed during manoeuvres but this proved to be his downfall.

In 22nd June 1893, the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet was about to anchor of Tripoli.Admiral Tryon was conducting manoeuvres before anchoring.

He ordered that the ships form two columns, one led by him and the other by his secondin command Rear Admiral Markham on Camperdown. Tryon was acknowledged as anexpert in ship handling. He ordered that the two columns turn inwards towards eachother to arrive on reciprocal courses prior to anchoring. Unfortunately the two columnswere only 1,200 yards apart. It was pointed out to Tryon that because of the ship's turningcircles they needed at least 1,600 yards between them. The warning came too late andCamperdown collided with Victoria, which sank in about 10 minutes. Admiral Tryon and358 men died that day.

Around the time of the catastrophe Lady Tryon was at home in London hosting a party.The reception room was buzzing with laughter and conversation when a sudden hushdescended on the gathering as everyone in turn looked towards the staircase. They allsaw Admiral Tryon walk down the stairs towards them. He crossed the room, opened adoor, and vanished!

The court-martial placed the blame on Tryon, stating that the manoeuvre ordered by himwas a lapse of judgement. Controversy continued and concentrated on the risk inherentin his methods. It caused great consternation that in a few minutes the Mediterraneanfleet had lost its' admiral and its' flagship.

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Admiral Tryon's body was never recovered but H.M.S.Victoria was found in August 2005.She was standing completely vertical, her bows buried into the seabed and said by thedivers who discovered her to be "standing like a tombstone all this time waiting fordiscovery."•

Admiral Tryon was survived by his wife (d.1922) and his son George Clement who becamea major in the 3rd Grenadier Guards and later Conservative M.P.for Brighton.

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16. John Green’s GhostBy Sheila Convey

ANTON'S LETCH IS A SMALL stream that makes its way down the hills to the westof Rothbury heading for the River Coquet. Dotted around the stream there's manya house with 'Anton' in its name such as Anton's Leap and Anton's Dell. Anton is

the stuff of legend around these parts and his name has been bandied about since theseventeenth century. The story goes that he was a priest who travelled around from placeto place collecting taxes so was by no means popular. Land-owning farmers wereextremely wary of him and one such man was Farmer Green.

The fateful day began with word going round that Anton was in the district collectingtaxes and most folks kept a low profile. John Green hated him more than most so whenhe spotted him riding across the hills and heading in his direction he decided to hide untilAnton tired of looking for him and went away.

However Anton was used to such tricks and decided to punish John Green for fooling himonce again. He rode round the farm trampling crops, pulling down fences and damaginganything else that he came across.

Green was incensed by having to watch the devastation from his chosen hiding place andas Anton rode off he decided to give chase. He followed his tracks to Thropton and as theyapproached the burn Anton could see John Green and hear his threats. In fear for his lifehe urged his horse to leap over but it stumbled and he was thrown off;hence the nameAnton's Leap. He died from head injuries that were said to down to more than a mere falland it was rumoured that John Green had killed him.

Green was never tried for the suspected murder but the Church excommunicated him andhe was buried in unhallowed ground on his farm at Thropton.

In the mid 1940s several houses were erected on the land. Builders preparing to fell a treediscovered an old headstone beneath it. They incorporated into one of the houses and canstill be read to this day.

"John Green of Thropton died April 11 1731 aged 92 years.Roger son of John Green of Thropton died Nov.30 1765."

It seems that John Green doesn't lie silently in his grave though because his ghost is oftenseen walking along Thropton's main street, particularly when there's a special celebration.

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8. Sourcesand suggested reading

Archaeological Data Service.

Batchelor, J. 2006. Lady Trevelyan and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. London: Chatto &Windus.

Dupont, J. 1763. De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis.

Keith, E. 1939. Memories of Wallington. London: Purnell & Sons.

Lamy, M. 2004. 100 Strangest Mysteries. Metrobooks.

Letters, S. 2005. Northumberland: Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to1516. Centre for Metropolitan History.

Lewis, S. (Ed) 1848. A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of HistoricalResearch.

Michael, M.B. 1941. The Miracle Flower. Dorrance & Company.

National Trust, 1989. Wallington. Hampshire: BAS.

Northumberland Sites and Monuments Record.

Northumberland Historic Environment Record.

Richardson, M.A. (Ed) 1843. The Local Historian’s Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences.Oxford University.

Smedley, E. (Ed) 1845. Encyclopædia Metropolitana. Oxford University.

Trevelyan, C. 1950. Wallington: It’s History and Treasures. London: Purnell & Sons.

Trevelyan, L. 2006. A Very British Family: The Trevelyans and Their World. London: Chatto& Windus.

www.greatwar.co.uk/people/moina-belle-michael.htm

www.poppy.org.uk

www.arlingtoncemetery.net/Flanders.htm

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1081635

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http://en.wikipedia.org/Papaver_rhoeas

http://www.wikipedia.org

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otherworld north east research society journal volume iii, 2009

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