piers

Cleveden pier

This one is interesting so, i think, i'll simply let you see for yoursekves

 by giving the web address: 

Http://hayleyisaghost.co.uk/clevedon-pier-ghost/

 This could be a common situation, where sitings are prompted to

Increase by virtue of being reported, and other witnesses

enhancing their own experiences, or sharing in the milieu.

It's a case of shadows seen out of the corner of the eye.

Frankly, though, the testimony of someone who says that they see

something as against that of someone, who never has, 

do have to be weighed against who is sensitive,

and who is not, and the tendency of the human eye 

to be deceived. We are hot wired to see human forms, 

whether they are there or not. Survival is the reason

for this talent, or capacity, because if there really is

something there, we need time to react, and find safety.

All of which implies that there might after all be something there

 to be seen, in the first place.

Might our ancestors have had to be on the look out for

hostile spiritual entities as well as human enemies?

I'll try to keep entering blogs. Bad day yesterday, 

Really headachy and not well. The flu bug still

has hold, but today seems confined to making me feel sniffly

and giddy. I wish that spiritual enemy would release its hold on me,

Tomorrow more piers with any luck.....

haunted piers 1

Piers 1

I'll start in Brighton, as it's quite close to home.

I mentioned the West Pier, which is little more today 

than a skeleton in the sea, but it had a ghost.

As is often the case, the theatre on the pier is where

the haunting took place. The fairly common theatrical 

ghost, of a  well dressed gentleman, seated in the audience

during rehearsals. Apparently it was assumed to be the designer 

of the pier's theatre. 

Nowadays there's another ghost, a great silver pole 

sticking up into the sky on the promenade....

a strange sort of gravestone for one of the great

Original state of dereliction

 

West Pier after fire.it's even worse today

The ghost train on Palace Pier

archtectural features of the coast .

The Palace pier is also said to be haunted. That, of course, still

stands, and is a wonderful thing to remember Brighton's past by.

The ghost train is supposed to be haunted.

It's one of those hauntings, where things happen when 

the ride is switched off.

Torches turn off by themselves, when employees walk 

through in the dark,and footsteps are heard.

It's a place we are informed that employees don't like to enter

after hours.

haunted piers

Piers

No, not Piers Anthony.

I mean those wonderful old structures,  which were built

when seaside holidays took off, as fun spaces 

and fairgrounds, along the English coast.

Many today are falling into the sea, are rotting away,

or have fallen foul of arson

e.g Brighton's now skeletal West Pier, and Hastings, 

Hastings pier

 which has had such a shocking fire trauma in 2010, 

after having been restored, and i remember 

sitting in a cafe there as late as 2008;

 and Eastbourne, fire wounded only the other year

Eastbourne pier

I went there for a day trip the week after the fire.

My brother was on holiday there in a flat overlooking it!

Has somebody got a grievance against piers, and assassinating them?

Then, there's the old dance hall in a pier on the lake,

in Carnival of Souls..... very spooky indeed.

An empty pier is a strange haunted thing.

Members of my ancestral family were employed 

to caretake a pier, and burnt it down by accident!

I've researched that incident... and although it isn't a ghost

Story, I'll tell that too, as it exists now as a memory....

But i will  tell the tales of some haunted piers

In the next few blogs......

Happy New Year?

I actually feel a trifle better today. 

It's been an awful Christmas with toothache following three

extractions, and a latent fluey bug which exploded over New Year

with one final attempt to turn me into a zombie.

I think that it succeeded.

The carnival of souls

 so, what's for the New Year for any of us, except being 

drowned in the internet, and being ressurected...

Nothing else?

They keep showing this movie...Carnival of Souls on tv.

How many of you have wandered the streets,

 and felt that nobody either sees and hears you, 

and that there is no sound? 

That you are no longer a part of this world?

That there's no place in life left for you........

That something  or someone else is calling you from The Other Side...

Who would that be? What place would that be?

witches

I am quite ill at the  moment,

With a severe head cold or flu, 

So can't guarantee a blog at all.

Well who knows... why is it doctors have returned

to the dark ages, and neither know what illnesses are

nor intend to treat us?... this society is retreating 

into statements like "let them die and decrease the 

surplus polpulation," just like the mercenary money lender,

Scrooge, or hanging judges.

The Malleus describes an event in Zabern, where a woman 

attempted to persuade a pregnant lady to take her as a

midwife, and she agreed, but as she neared birthing,

knowing this woman's bad reputation, she brought in

a different midwife.

The woman lay a curse on her in front of witnesses.

She said, "because she has offended me, I am going to

put something into her entrails." She gave her six months grace,

and then told her that she would suffer terrible pains.

This duly happened, and by praying and fasting she finally stopped

the agony. It was said brambles and other things fell from her body.

The midwife was brought to trial, and of course confessed

that a lot of harm was caused by midwives.

No doubt after considerable punishment herself.

witch trials 2

Witch trials 2

Here is a quote from the Malleus Maleficarium.(1486 or thereabouts)

"The fact that certain witches, against the instinct of human nature

.....are in the habit of devouring and eating human children. And concerning

this, the Inquisitor of Como has told us the following:that he was

 summoned by the inhabitants of the county of Barby...because

 a certain man had missed his child from its cradle,

and finding a congress of women in the night -time, swore

that he saw them kill his child and drink its blood and devour it......

We must add that in all these matters witch midwives cause yet greater 

injuries, as penitent witches have often told us.....

No one does more harm to the Catholic faith than midwives. 

For, when they do not kill children, then, as if for some other purpose, 

they take them out of the room and,

 raising them up in the air, offer them to devils."

Incredible isn't it.? Well, where women bleed men keep

their distance, and don't wish to be involved, and 

shy away from birthing, which means that they have no idea 

what was really happening.

It's unbelievable that any sane man shared these views.

Probably they were lifted in the air by their heels themselves,

and then the devils owned them!

 of course there were more enlightened men around, with 

intelligent medical knowledge, but presumably 

the writer of the 'Witches Hammer' didn't ask them

For their opinion.

I'll tell you a tale of a witch midwife from this book tomorrow.

witch trials

Witch trials

The case i mentioned is interesting as it attests

to a large body of individuals, who would be natural victims

of the witch persecutors: the midwives.

I have been looking at the history of midwifery,

and doesn't it just have a bearing on the situation?

There are many cases of older women, giving assistance at a birth

Or standing in after birth to look after the newly born 

children, and those children dying, so that the midwife is accused 

of bewitching the children to death!

But the fact is that they were just local women called on

for their experience of helping with birth and looking after babies

who maybe had herbalist knowledge too,

and delivery of children was frought in those days, 

with no medical treatment, no medical training, no 

medical utensils. They didn't even have forceps to help

the process until years afterwards.

Many babies would naturally have died in the process of birth

or in the ensuing weeks. 

These women were therefore perfect targets 

and thus accused of causing the child's death.

It is always a risk of offering medical care to superstitious oeople,

that a failure can be taken as a sign of malice.

It isn't only that, either. 

I could add a feminist take on the situation, 

that men would have no awareness at all of the birthing process....

More to come......