Metheringham Lass
A phenomena has been reported by many shaken drivers who have passed the former RAF airfield at Metheringham, Lincolnshire, late at night. At first glance this appears to be a version of the “Vanishing Hitchhiker” stories which are common all over the world, but there are some deviations from the usual story.
Many drivers have reported a crying young woman standing in the road and waving them down on dark and usually rainy nights. She begs them to stop and help her, explaining that she and her boyfriend have been involved in a motorcycle accident and that he needs urgent medical help. She is said to be accompanied by a strong smell of lavender. As the driver exits the car to help, the girls disappears and the lavender scent is replaced by the putrid smell of rotting flesh.
The general opinion of people who have researched the history of the RAF base is that the “lass” is the ghost of 19 year old Catherine Bystock from Horncastle. In early 1945, shortly before the end of WWII, Catherine, who was dating a Flight Sergeant based at Metheringham, was killed when her boyfriend’s motorcycle skidded off the road during a heavy rain on their way back from a dance. Catherine was killed instantly but her boyfriend, though badly hurt, survived.
Author: P A McHugh
Re: Metheringham Lass
The following article by Bruce Barrymore Halpenny (author of the highly recommended ‘Ghost Stations’), entitled ‘The ‘Metheringham Lass’ haunting’ , appeared on the BBC Lincolnshire website.
The Metheringham Lass™ is one of the most interesting Lincolnshire haunting stories. It has proved with readers to be one of the most popular of my ghost stories. In the early days, I had dozens of reports from RAF personnel and civilians, of a ghostly figure that was seen on a section of the old wartime airfield of RAF Metheringham.
Intrigued I looked into it and my research took time, but at long last, I found the crucial link. I finally established that the ghostly visible spirit of a young lady, who is seen standing in the road that was once part of the wartime airfield, was that of a young woman named Catherine Bystock, who had lived at Horncastle. She was 19 years old and courting a Flight Sergeant from RAF Metheringham.
Catherine Bystock
The story that I have uncovered is that just before the end of the Second World War, a young RAF aircrew Flight Sergeant was giving his fiancée a lift home to Metheringham village on the pillion seat of his motor-cycle after being to a local dance. The motor-cycle skidded on wet surfacing and crashed close to the place where the ghostly figure appears.
The Flight Sergeant lived but the young lady was thrown from the motor-cycle and killed instantly. She had terrible head injuries. The two were due to be married and she had already ordered her wedding gown.
I gave her the title of The Metheringham Lass to link her to RAF Metheringham. Lass is a Lincolnshire girl.
False Sightings
From previous knowledge of such cases, I knew there would be many ‘sightings’ and the skill would be to sort the genuine from the false. In order to do this I altered and even created certain aspects of the Metheringham Lass, which not only proved successful in catching out those that were pretending to have seen the ghost.
People who really encounter this spirit, always give me the true description of her, and if you really encounter her you will!
Re: Metheringham Lass
Hi I love a short distance from here, has anybody seen this girl??
The following article by Sebastian Mann (17 Dec 2021) was published in Lincolnshire Live.
A small village in Lincolnshire is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a 19-year-old girl who died in a tragic accident, but not everyone is convinced.
Everywhere has its legends, and the quiet road that runs alongside the now-defunct RAF Metheringham base is said to be home to a ghostly presence.
Some residents of the nearby village of Metheringham firmly believe that they encountered her driving home one eerie night, while others are adamant it’s nothing more than a simple story.
The legend goes that if you were to drive down the road at night, you might encounter an apparition of Catherine Bystock, who died at 19 when her boyfriend crashed his motorcycle as they headed home from a dance in 1945.
Drivers are said to be flagged down by a young woman, wearing a loose-fitting RAF jacket that belonged to her boyfriend, who begs them to help her injured lover.
Some drivers who see her have said she disappears as soon as she reaches the car. Other stories go as far as her climbing into the passenger seat, before vanishing into thin air later on down the road.
When she appears, the air is said to be filled with a calming smell of lavender, but soon overwhelmed by the smell of rotting flesh.
Steve Parker, 40, still remembers the night he says he saw her back in the spring of 1998.
He said: “When I first heard of the legend, I was a fresh-faced 17-year-old who’d not long since passed my driving test.
“One evening, myself and a couple of others were driving back from the airfield at about 8.30pm.
“I’ll never forget it. There was a pile of pipework by the side of the road, and from this pipework, a light, grey-coloured outline of a person-type thing appeared.
“It was coming from nowhere, it was just appearing. It was like it went straight through it.
“It wasn’t a real person, because there was no physicality to it. You couldn’t see the physical mass of a person, but you could see a light-grey outline of a person – like a hologram.
“You couldn’t make out a face, or anything like that.
“Everyone in the car went deathly silent. It freaked me out completely for weeks afterwards.”
The incident inspired Steve to research further into the legend.
He added: “I’ve never had any form of encounter like it before or since, but as I was researching it I realised what we’d seen might have been the Metheringham Lass.
“I absolutely believe there’s something down there.”
The encounter has stuck with Steve for 23 years, and he said he hasn’t come up with an alternative explanation yet.
He said: “It can’t have been a light reflection, there was nothing for the lights to have reflected off of.
“I 100 per cent believe there is something down there.
“Whether it was the Metheringham Lass that we saw, you can’t say in cast iron, but at the same time there’s no other way of explaining it.”
But not everyone is convinced.
One resident, who has lived in the village for 25 years, said the Metheringham Lass was nothing more than a myth.
She said: “I’m more of a sceptic than a non-believer, but the Metheringham Lass is just a story.
“I did liaise with a local historian, now deceased, who had been researching the myth for decades.
“He found out that the story was started by the owners of one of the properties on the airfield to keep people away.
“There used to be serious issues with joyriders and associated antisocial behaviour up there.
“But ultimately I fear it had the opposite effect.”
She added: “It’s also not uncommon to see mists rolling across the airfield and the road next to it, where most encounters are said to take place.
“The trouble is, no names linked to the myth can be found in any records.”
Another resident said that perhaps the truth wasn’t so clear-cut.
He said: “I understand that there are supposedly no records of her, but people have been reportin”Both the sceptics and the believers can’t be wrong.
“I think the truth’s somewhere in the middle.”