Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Country and County: United Kingdom

Legends

Tunnel Between Finchale Abbey and Durham Cathedral

The following tunnel legend was printed in ‘Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders’ by William Henderson (1879). ‘There was a wild legend in my native city of a subterranean passage between Finchale Abbey and the cathedral of Durham, and of an attempt to penetrate it.

Hauntings

Awd Simmon Beeather

A Glossary of Words used in Holderness (1877) gives the following description for the word Simmon and mentions an associated ghost. ‘Simmon, pounded brick or tiles, used by brick-layers for colouring the mortar. Beating simmon was formerly the hard labour punishment in Beverley Borough Gaol.

Apparitions / Folklore / Hauntings

Fimber Crossroads

The following extract is taken from ‘History of Fimber. A treatise on Agricultural Improvements, Memories of Remarkable Events and Village Tales’ by T. Edmondson (1857), in which he describes local folklore concerning the haunting of the crossroads at Fimber.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds

Ba’l Hill, Neolithic Round Barrow

The Neolithic round barrow at Wold Newton stands nearly three meters and has a diameter of around 40 meters. It stands beside an intermittently flowing stream known as the Gypsey Race. It was excavated in 1894 by JR Mortimer.

English Fairies / Fairies / Folklore

Gypsy Race

The Gypsy runs from the Great Wold Valley and out into the North Sea at Bridlington. Bad fortune is said follow when the Gypsey Race flows. The following description of the Gypsey Race was published as response to a letter in the Bridlington Free Press on Wednesday 21 May 2008.

Apparitions / Hauntings / Other Mysteries

The Living Apparition of Rev. Dr. Hugh Astley, Vicar of East Rudham

On 26 December 1908 an apparition was witnessed outside the vicarage in East Rudham. The apparition, witnessed by several people was identified as Rev. Dr. Hugh Astley, the Vicar of East Rudham. Astley had recently been in a railway accident, bt was not dead, so this was a strange experience involving the apparition of a living person, known all three witnesses.

Apparitions / Hauntings

St. Wilfrid’s Parish Church, Calverley

St. Wilfrid’s Parish Church is a Grade II listed building, the earliest parts of which date from the 11th or 12th century, though there may have been an earlier structure on the site.

Apparitions / Hauntings

Richard Cloudesley The Islington Ghost

The ghost of Richard Cloudesley is associated with the parish church of St Mary in Islington. The account of the haunting extracted below is taken from a publication entitled ‘The Islington ghost! A short account of the burial of a gentleman [R. Cloudesley] with a relation of several strange appearances which followed! (1842)’.