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cumbria.haunts
cumbria.haunts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: John@jaka.demon.co.uk (John Burnham)
Subject: Re: Cumbrian Ghosts
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 22:07:55 +0000
Well, actually, weekends are usually the time I'm least likely to post
as I'm often in Oxford visiting my girlfriend. Weekday nights are far
more likely. Like tonight...
OK, I've got a few more stories which I'll share. Some a lot more
close to home than the ones I have already posted.
First, someone asked me if there are any regularly appearing ghosts in
Cumbria. The story that springs to mind is that of Armboth House.
Armboth House stands on Armboth Fell, above the shores of Thirlmere.
The story goes that on Hallowe'en the daughter of the house was to be
married. The wedding feast was being prepared when a man rushed in to
tell the family that the bride had been pushed into the lake and had
drowned. Years later, when the house was abandoned, the story started
that every Hallowe'en lights could be seen in the house, bells began
ringing and a ghostly figure of a large dog could be seen swimming in
the lake. The house would ring with the sound of the wedding
preparations and a table would be set by unseen hands. Finally the shade
of the bride would rise up and went to keep her appointment with the
wedding celebrations. The story then changed to say that all the
spirits of the area would attend the celebrations. In the book, " The
English Lakes ", W.T. Palmer wrote -
" .. that on a certain night all the fugitive spirits whose bodies
were destroyed in unavenged crimes assembled at Armboth House - bodies
without heads, the Skulls Of Culgarth with no bodies, a phantom arm and
many weird shapes; the windows were alight with corpse candles, chains
clank in corridors and there are eternal shriekings. "
All in all, a pretty haunted place. So, for anyone wanting to go ghost
spotting in Cumbria, I suggest a vigil on Armboth Fell on Hallowe'en.
This story leads to the question - what are the Skulls Of Culgrath ?
Ok, next story.
The story of the Skulls Of Culgarth is one of the more famous ghost
stories of the Windermere district of Cumbria. Myles Philipson, a
Justice of the Peace, wanted to add some more land to his already large
estate. Unfortunately, the land he wanted belonged to an elderly
couple, Kraster and Dorothy Cook, who refused to sell. Philipson
hatched a plan and invited the couple to his home for a Christmas
Feast. Afterwards he accused them of stealing a silver cup he claimed
had gone missing. The evidence was planted so it appeared that they had
indeed stolen the cup. The case was somewhat of a foregone conclusion,
it was Myles Philipson that was presiding over it... The couple was
sentenced to death. They were hanged at Appleby, but before she died
Dorothy pronounced seven curses on Culgarth Hall, Myles Philipson's
home, saying they would haunt it day and night until Philipson's line
still lived there or, as she put it -
" Hark's to here, Myles Philipson, that teenie lump o' land is
t'dearest grund a Philipson has ever bowte. For ye shall prosper niver
maur, yersl, nor yan of o't breed. And while Culgarth's strong woes
shall stand, we'll haunt it day and neet. "
Soon afterwards, two skulls appeared in Culgarth Hall. And that was
not all, every night screams were heard. There were many attempts to
get rid of the skulls, including burying them in quicklime, but the
skulls always returned to the hall before night. Philipson's fortunes
failed, he became a poor and broken man. After his death, the hall left
his family and the skulls became quiet. They were eventually bricked up
in the hall where they are to this day as far as I know.
I also said in one of my postings that I would ask my dad to fill me
in on his experiences at a hall of residence in Newcastle. He said he
couldn't tell me much as he luckily avoided most of the nastiness
going on. Apparently, the strangeness started when a girl living there
just suddenly flew off her bed ( the top bunk of a bunk bed ). This was
witnessed by a couple of people. After that various things started
moving/flying about - possibly poltergeist activity. People started to
get into a state approaching mass hysteria - something was making
people jumpy - they were getting strange feelings that something was
wrong. Apparently to appreciate the feeling you need to see the place,
to quote my dad - " it has eight foot wide oak staircases and towers,
spires, the lot ". My mum reckons if she had to imagine somewhere that
was haunted, she could do much worse than think of Ridley Hall. The
strangest part was that it was discovered that one of the students had,
during a field trip, broken into a church and stolen a pair of
candlesticks. Soon after this was resolved abd the candlesticks
returned, everything returned to normal.
I don't know what happened here and my dad passes it off as hearsay
and feelings. Make of it what you will.
The nearest thing I get to a story of my own is this. I lived most of
my life at my grandparents' farm in Cumbria. It was an old farmhouse
and quite nice, but there certain bits of it - the older parts - I
really felt..... I don't know.... nervous, scared, apprehensive, that
something was watching me.... I have never seen anything there, but
when we did some work on that part of the house we ripped the ceiling
out of the room I really didn't like ( still don't.... I still get
scared going into it at night - luckily it is used as a larder type
room, so I don't have to very often... ) and found a small shoe, like a
child's and a thigh bone. Again, make of this what you will.
Oh well, my coffee is finished, the record needs turning over, so I'll
call this posting to a close. I still have many more stories, let me
know what you think of these and if there are any requests for specific
types of story ( eg a friend told me a really gruesome tale of ghostly
revenge - not sure if it is fact or fiction ( he reckoned it was
factual ) but it was a real spinechiller... ) let me have them, I'll do
my best to dredge through what passes for my memory and try and come up
with a suitable story.
John Burnham john@jaka.demon.co.uk
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