Ghost Stories | Brighton Ghost Walk of the Lanes

INTRODUCTION

Over the past decade or so, ghost walks have been growing in popularity in towns and cities around Great Britain. This is hardly surprising when one considers our rich and varied history, ancient buildings and of the many dastardly goings on down the centuries. The English Civil War alone brought numerous accounts of headless horsemen, […]

ROAMIN’ CATHOLIC

It is often believed that children are more readily attuned to paranormal experiences, possibly because they have not developed many of the prejudices that adults have against such phenomena. As young children do not possess fully expanded thought processes they are unable to filter what the adult mind might consider irrational and not scientifically proven. […]

THE GHOST AT THE GRANGE

The village of Rottingdean is located some four miles east of Brighton. Its history as a settlement is thought to date back to as early as the Stone Age with many flint tools and axes being uncovered in the surrounding area. Once home to a humble farming community many residents soon discovered that smuggling was […]

UNINVITED GUESTS

The Oldest hotel in Brighton is thought to be the Old Ship, its original structure, in what is now Ship Street, was said to have been built from ships’ timbers and was first mentioned in 1665. The hotel has a rich and varied history, most notably for its one-time proprietor, Nicholas Tettersall, the Captain of […]

GHOST OF THE RIPPER

One of Britain’s most notorious murderers was unquestionably Jack the Ripper, although, to this day, no one is sure who he really was. There have been many books and essays written about the gruesome Whitechapel murders and the mutilations of five women that took place between August and November 1888 that would fill several bookcases; and […]

A FRIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

HOVE MUSEUM & ART GALLERY is a late 19th century Italianate Victorian villa that was originally known as Brooker Hall. The building dates from 1877 when it was built for Major John Oliver Vallance (Lord of the Manor and a principal landowner in Hove). Vallance died in 1893 at the relatively young age of 46. […]

THE PHANTOM LEGIONNAIRE

Cheshire is situated in the northwest of England. It was founded by Romans as a small settlement in 79 AD and given the name of Deva Victrix. However, by AD 200 it became a major fortress for elite forces based in the Roman Province of Britannia. Huge stone walls were built around the garrison, which […]

GHOSTS OF THE HIGHWAY

Throughout England there have been many reports of alleged road ghosts making sudden dramatic appearances. While some have sent vehicles into screeching skids, others have caused serious accidents. Many motorists have been known to hear strange noises and banging sounds on the windows of their vehicles. More dramatically, others have driven straight through these bizarre […]

THE SWIRLING SPECTRES OF MARY KING’S CLOSE

Edinburgh is one of the U.K’s most popular tourist destinations. It has many grand Georgian buildings, smart shops, fine restaurants and cafes. Each August, it hosts the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival. However, its main year-round attraction is unquestionably the castle that sits astride the city like a brooding giant. But […]

PHANTOMS OF THE A23

Driving at night can often be scary enough, particularly down winding, unlit country roads. Just imagine encountering a vague figure suddenly drifting into the glare of your headlights. Many motorists have witnessed such unexplained phenomena. Some have even felt these apparitions pass straight through their vehicles.

THE GHOSTLY CHILDREN OF BEDERN

York is one of England’s oldest cities. It was founded by the Romans in 71 AD and became known as Eboracum. After four centuries of rule the Romans finally departed leaving it to become occupied by the Angles. In 866 AD, Viking invaders captured the city and renamed it Jorvik. By the middle ages the […]

WILLIAM MACKENZIE’S TOMB

A few years back, while visiting Liverpool, I read an article in a daily newspaper about the curious pyramid-shaped tomb of William Mackenzie, which is situated in the graveyard of the former St. Andrew’s Church in Rodney Street.

THE SKULL OF ANNE GRIFFITH

Burton Agnes Hall is an impressive Tudor mansion and stately home near Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was designed by Inigo Jones and decorated by Rubens. Yet within the majestic confines of its Great Hall there exists the sinister artefact of Anne Griffith’s skull, in accordance with her dying wish three hundred […]

THE GHOST OF CARY GRANT AT THE ROTTINGDEAN CLUB

Although Brighton has hosted its fair share of celebrities down the years, including Lord Lawrence Olivier, Sir Terence Rattigan, Sir Paul McCartney and, not forgetting, the Prince Regent (later George IV), who undoubtedly considered himself as a celebrity. Yet only four miles along the coast road from Brighton is the village of Rottingdean, which challenges […]

THE TOWER HOUSE

The Tower House dates from 1877 and stands on Melbury Road in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It was built by William Burges, a well-known Victorian architect, as a home for himself. It has had many famous owners down the years. In the 1920’s the house had belonged to Colonel T. H. Minshall, DSO, […]

THE SPIRIT OF DICK TURPIN

The Georgian highwayman Dick Turpin lives on in our collective imagination more as myth than man. He has come to be portrayed as a gallant and romantic figure, due mainly to the publication of Harrison Ainsworth’s popular 1834 novel Rookwood. Turpin was in fact little more a murderous villain who only turned to highway robbery in the latter stages of his criminal career.

THE GRENADIER

Roy Grigg, a former landlord, had no doubt about the recurring haunting at the tavern. He also noted that his German Shepherd dog would begin growling and snarling during this period for no apparent reason. This is particularly interesting as it is widely believed that animals, certainly cats and dogs, have an extra-sensory perception, in that they can sense things that humans cannot.

RESTLESS SPIRITS AT THE REGENCY TAVERN

The Regency Tavern, that stands in Russell Square, a stone’s throw from the bustling Churchill Shopping Centre, has had a long-established reputation for being haunted. The building dates from around 1870, but had extensions added in the 1930’s to include number 32, which had once been a boot and shoemaker’s shop founded in the late […]

THE GHOSTLY CHILD OF MEETING HOUSE LANE

I occasionally tell this tale when on the Ghost Walk of the Lanes. It was first documented briefly by John Rackham in his excellent and meticulously researched book, ‘Brighton Ghosts, Hove Hauntings’. Bears and Friends was a shop that once occupied premises in Meeting House Lane, specialising in teddy bears. The premises date way back […]

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY AT THE ROYAL ALBION HOTEL

Designed by Amon Henry Wilds, The Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton, opened its doors on July 27th, 1826. However, it was then known simply as the Albion, only acquiring the ‘Royal’ prefix in around 1847, due to the patronage of its distinguished guests and thus being conferred a royal coat of arms above the front entrance. […]

TOWER BRIDGE PHANTOMS

She claimed to have sensed the presence of a very angry spirit that had began shouting in her face. She also claimed that this boisterous apparition had tried to push her out of the room. She fled to another room but claimed the thing had followed her and began trying to trip her up. The young woman was so overcome by her experiences, and feelings of nausea, that she fled from the building altogether.

THE MURDEROUS VICAR OF WAPPING

His face was said to be deathly pale with two horrible glaring eyes. Curiosity compelled the workmen to turn and take another look, only to discover the man had completely vanished. It seemed they had witnessed the phantom evil Vicar of Ratcliff Wharf who was said to haunt the Wapping and Limehouse.

THE GHOSTLY NUN OF COVENT GARDEN

Covent Garden was once part of open countryside between the City and the village of Charing. The area was acquired by the Abbey of Westminster and was used by monks as a garden and burial ground. When excavations were undertaken in 1829, prior to the building of the new market, a number of skeletons were discovered.

SLINGSBY HEIGHTS – THE SPECTRE IN THE SHADOWS

Many of my customers, on the Ghost Walk of the Lanes, frequently ask if I have ever seen a ghost. I have certainly had what I would describe as a paranormal ‘experience’. This occurred, many years ago, when I went to visit a run-down Victorian property some fifteen miles from the City of York.

GRUESOME GHOST IN THE CELLAR

Brighton has always been a cross between style and sleaze. Peel away its chic fade and you will find a seedy underbelly. The playwright and journalist Keith Waterhouse was not one to mince words when he famously wrote: “Brighton is a town that always looks as if it is helping police with their inquiries.” This dark side of the city was, perhaps, most accurately depicted in Graham Greene’s 1938 murder thriller, Brighton Rock, and has since been seized upon in the popular crime fiction of Peter James. So rest the foundations of my tale…

LEGION OF THE DAMNED

In the early 1950’s a young apprentice plumber, by the name of Harry Martindale, experienced a chilling moment when a Roman legion appeared to march through the cellar he was working in…

PHANTOM OF THE UNDERGROUND

Covent Garden Underground Station was not always the bustling place it is today. For many years it remained a rather solitary little station, adrift between the more hectic stops of Leicester Square and Holborn. But deep within this echoing subway is said to linger a most troubled and brooding presence.

MEETING HOUSE PHANTOMS

The Friends’ Meeting House, in Prince Albert Street, Brighton, dates 1805. It was originally a rather modest establishment until further extensions were added in 1875. It was built on land that once belonged to the Priory of St. Bartholomew. The gardens were originally a Quaker burial ground where some 54 adults and 34 children were placed in unmarked graves.

WHISPERING SPIRIT

Little East Street sits in the shadow of Brighton Town Hall and runs from Bartholomew Square to King’s Road on the seafront. Tucked snugly at the southern end is number six, a listed cottage with bow-fronted windows, dating from 1800. The building was originally two separate shops; the right half dealing in ironmongery and hardware; the left half a stationers. In the mid-nineteenth century the whole building became a fishing tackle shop under the tenure of Samuel Andrews. It remained with that family up until World War II when it became a tailor’s shop.

THE TROUBLED SPIRIT OF OLD STRIKE-A-LIGHT

In the mid-eighteenth century Brighton, or Brighthelmstone as it was then known, was little more than a fishing village with a population of just 2000. The earliest fishing settlement was a humble assortment of dwellings strewn along the foreshore below the cliff and high water mark. These were mostly destroyed in the early part of […]

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