A15 Ruskington

The following article by Matthew Lodge entitled ‘The ‘haunted’ stretch of Lincolnshire road which has left drivers quaking’ appeared in Lincolnshire Live on 22 October 2019. ‘From footsteps heard in the middle of the night to unexplained lights seen in abandoned buildings – Lincolnshire has its fair share of paranormal goings on.

But, few have left their mark quite like the ominously titled “Ruskington Horror”.

Popularised by Richard Madeley, who did a TV programme on the terror in 1998, this apparition has been seen along the A15 for decades.

The location does not make it unique, indeed there have been many ghostly sightings on the road running between Lincoln and Sleaford, including a phantom cyclist, a little girl in a pink gown and horses running along the road.

However at the turn off for Ruskington, near Sleaford, these sightings are much more common, with multiple reports from people saying something was amiss.

Dr Rob Gandy, who works as a health statistician and travels around the UK cataloguing paranormal events, says there are well documented sightings of something in the area.

“One person described having a face suddenly appear from around the front pillar of his car’s windscreen on the driver’s side with its left hand up,” he said.

“It had dark hair, olivey-green skin and a pitted face.

“He somehow carried on driving with whatever it was in place for 40-50 seconds.”

Other drivers have reported seeing a white shape that turns into a man who has his arm raised as if to warn drivers about something.

After he has been seen he fades away into a mist.

One person who was driving along the road when they thought they saw someone run in front of their vehicle.

The driver was left absolutely certain they had accidentally killed someone, but after stopping found there was no-one to be seen.

Dr Gandy says he is convinced that people on the road have had “genuine” experiences.

“Apart from the obvious hoax calls I believe everybody that gets in touch,” he said. “Their responses are completely genuine and I find that fascinating.

“They often say people are hallucinating which is a bit of a pejorative term. When you’re driving along at night and are really focusing on the road, if there’s external stimuli it can cause you to hallucinate.”

It has since come to light that the field the figures have been seen coming from was in fact the site of a former plague pit, where bodies from Lincoln were buried.

In another twist it was found that a nearby church had been built by the Knights Templar, a shadowy medieval order that has links with mysticism.’

In a piece published in the Express on 20 October 2012, Richard Madeley talked about his piece on the A15. ‘I dubbed the phenomenon The Ruskington Horror (which I thought had a nice Victorian penny dreadful touch) and despatched a film crew and researcher to investigate.’

‘There had been three fatal accidents close to the spot in the 20th century: an RAF plane came down there during the Second World War, a hermit who used to have a ramshackle dwelling in the field was run over a few years later and a motorcyclist crashed and died at the roadside in more recent times.’