witch tales

Helen Duncan's story isn't really a story of a ghost, or a witch. 

SHe hss the dubious honour i believe of being the last

 person to be sentenced for witchcraft connected crimes

 (crimes?) in this country.

I Watched a rather peculiar old film last night on Showcase

probably a poor recording, as the film quality is often dire on this channel,

which i came across by chance, about a woman, who had been

 possessed by the spirit of a 'hag' called "She Beast."(1966)

The film quality was appalling.

Still it was an interesting story, and the image

 of the hag which overwhelms her appearance,

as the being goes on a rampage to revenge herself

 on the descendants of the villagers, who drowned her, 

is  interesting .What it shows of course is the

 attitude to the witch, that she must look like the

 wicked witch of the west.

I Had not seen this film before, as it doesn't seem to get an airing

on tv a lot. I actually like some of these kitchy hammer types of movies.

The story isn't subservient to as much gore as possible

Damn it though, doesn't the witch get a bad press!

 

Helen Duncan

THe Duncan story

YOu know of course about Helen Duncan. 

Her story took place in Portsmouth.

I Recall a tv drama re enacting the preposterous court case,

which landed her in jail.

IF you like old movies, then the medium,

who runs a little transport cafe on the way to Scotland

in the Kenneth More version of the 39 Steps

was based on her case.

It all began in 1939, with the outbreak of war, when 

Helen Duncan was holding seances in Edinburgh. 

In her audience that night was Brigadier Firebrace

Head of Scottish military intelligence.

It was then that she announced that the 

HMS Hood had been lost with all hands.

On one occasion a little later in Portsmouth,

she claimed to make contact with one of the dead crew 

of the HMS Barnham, which had been torpedoed and sunk,

by the name of Sid.

At the time the fact of the sinking was only known

 to a handful of military intelligence officers.

It transpired that there was a man called Sid on the crew

... well, was that a coincidence or what?

(Or put it another way, how common was the name Sid at that time?)

Sadly for her the government was in the throes of extreme 

paranoia, and thought that she might be a 6th columnist.

 It does seem unlikely in retrospect, knowing what we know now

 about the double dealing of the Nazi espionage machine, 

which is purported to be in the hands of those,

 who were not the avid supporters of Hitler

 that they claimed to be. That's by the way, however,

 as Helen Duncan found herself under suspicion

 because of her claims. Perhaps more likely they felt 

that she might inadvertently give away state secrets.

 She was tried under the 1735 witchcraft act for

Making contact with spirits.

.... more to come.......

portsmouth 3

Wymering manor (continued)...

The story goes that a newly married couple came 

to the manor. This cycle of the " star crossed lover" theme, of course, 

crops up again and again in the folklore of ghosts,

and this one is as usual, tragic. However,

the outcome in this case was a "better" one, maybe...

The husband was called away, and an individual 

called Sir Roderick, of Portchester, decided to call over and 

seduce the young bride. This story has a theme

with more moral overtones, as the husband returned

home unexpectedly, and caught Sir Roderick 

chasing him out into the manor grounds, and

killed him as he was attempting to mount his horse.

The story goes that if a newly married couple come to the house,

they will hear Sir Roderick's horse galloping down the lane.

Leonard Metcalfe, an occupant of the house,nwho died in 1958,

claimed that he and his new wife, just after WW2, 

were woken at 2 a.m. by the ghostly sound 

of a horse clattering away down the lane outside....

It might be interesting to see if there is an historical record,

which matches up with the story...

The Hampshire ghost club claim 18 ghosts

haunt Wymering, including a Scottie Terrier, a black cat,

A brother of Jane Austen, a monk as well as the nuns, 

disembodied voices, poltergeist activity, a piano playing,

the sound of children playing, a baby crying, and drops 

in temperature...

portsmouth 2

Portsmouth 2

The building, which gets the biggest press in Portsmouth for 

hauntings is like Hampshire's Borley Rectory,

Wymering Manor.

This piece of old Portsmouth has a bit of a reputation. 

Most Haunted went there in 2006. 

The council has since been trying to sell it.

Various testifying witnesses, who lived there, say that 

they had doors open on their own, and that they

saw apparitions, including a choir of chanting nuns,

The pannelled room is alleged to be oppressive.

The funny thing is that wood panelled rooms can feel that way.

I remember on my visit to Preston Manor in Brighton

that the wood pannelled area at the foot of the stairs felt

oppressive too. I wonder why that is?

Above thenpannelled room, it's said a nun is also seen,

dripping with  blood.

There's also a story about the sound

 of a horse gallopping outside.

That's a story in itself, so i'll tell that one tomorrow....

portsmouth

Portsmouth

This blog tried to post itself before i have even started.

Uhum... ghost in the machine...
I have been getting fed up with search engines on the internet
which assume that yiu are a buyer, and only take you to ebay
and Amazon. If that goes any way towards explaining why i miss
days maybe it's because i give up jn frustration.

Anyway to continue my look into folklore and hauntings
I'll go to one of my favourite coastal places, Portsmouth.
I ofte n get off the train at the northern station of Fratton,
And walk down into Southsea.i have wandered both
 sides of the line, though, not on the tracks of course.
Here's an old tale close to my heart.. of a witch.
This is the Froddington witch.
I assume Froddington doesn't exist any more,
A luminous witch inhabits the edges of Fratton Common,
She is supposed to whistle at passers-by and mesmerise them....
They then freeze, giving her time to disappear
There seem to be quite a few ghostly legends
 assocuated with Portsmouth, of people and things disappearing,
Probably in the sea mists blowing in from the Solent....
I don't know where Froddington wss but there is a Fratton pub
called the Froddington Arms.

The witch's local?

This is what wikipedia says about Froddington....
"Goldsmith's Farm and Fratton Common were part of the original small rural village originally called Froddington, the only visible evidence of this being the presence of a public house, "The Froddington Arms" on the western side of Fratton Road. Due to developments during the Industrial age, more of the surrounding land was absorbed by Portsmouth in the 1870s and 1880s, principally by new housing developments"

cuckfield

Cuckfield

What interests me especially is how the old lore 

tended to make ghost stories a little more bizarre. 

Take for instance the story of the haunting in the Tower

of London, where a group seated at a dinner table saw

a tube of liquid revolving in the air manifesting itself,

And sloshing around.

Or what about the ghost of a coal sack, 

which attacked and chased people walking 

through the streets at night.

That has to be one of the most weird hauntings ever.

It wouldn't sit well with the scientufic materialistic and prosaic

orientation of the mind of culture today.

Cuckfield's neighbouring village of Twineham can boast

another weird one, which has got into the fiction

of the supernatural a little more readily.

The Rectory has a number of ghosts, apparently, including

a black kid skin  glove, which crawls along the landing.

The rectory is worth a return visit, anyway,

 as it appears an active place.

 But for now, i'll stay with the general idea, 

given the association with witches noted at Wilmington Mill,

and the  Wesley Rectory, for instance, the witch's familiar

used to regularly creep into haunting stories,

and the spirit of a fast moving small animal

was often seen, usually by children.

Remember a witch was often supposed

 to take the form if a running hare to elude pursuit.

So what on earth would we make today of the tale of 

A haunting by Jef, the talking mongoose,

And to actually write a book about it?

folklore and ghosts

I think that it's very important, 

as there is a collapse of the culture of this country,

where colloquial wisdom has subsided.

Where the urban life has taken over,

There are now fewer of the countryside orientated festivals, 

and the annual celebrations have passed away,

leaving only a scattered few....

The pagan fire ceremonies persist in Sussex

with a flavour of the past, like the Lewes and Littlehampton

bonfire and torch lit processions, 

but generally, we have a heavily commercialised

Christmas, Halloween and New Year, 

which are only the vestigial form of the old ceremonies.

It was interesting reading through a book of old customs 

to see how many had lapsed away.

Did you know that on March 1st,

People went down from Arundel to the bridge over the Arun,

and shook themselves, because if they did that, 

they woukd be free of fleas all year!?

How many of you say 'white rabbit' at the beginning of each month,

as soon as you wake up.?

Where is the possibility of commercialising Michaelmas?

Charles Fort wrote down his discoveries of the strange

from all the newspapers that he could find.

Today we have youtube and facebook.

And the urban myth.

Like  we might believe that the government is in collusion

with the Greys to implant nanotechnology in abductees,

And cattle mutilations.

Not quite the same as children making sculptures out of oyster shells

to show the beginning of the oyster harvest is it?.

 We are at threat of losing the old knowledge and the sense 

of nature to the relentless march of dryasdust science,

and thhe creative to urban tawdriness.