Hypnogoria: Hypnogoria Halloween Advent Calendar- Door 26

Transcript from the Into The Night radio show, broadcast on Radio Redvale, Thursday 26th October 2023

Hello folks I’m your host Mr Mike Nelson, and I’ll be taking you into the night! Now then gang, as you are probably aware we are now less than a week away from Hallowe’en! And loads of you have been messaging us here at the station wanting to know whether there is anything special happening for Hallowe’en night!

Well, yes, yes there is! There’s the annual lantern parade in the market square! Ah, just kidding folks, old Mike is just pulling your legs, of course I know what you really meant - is there going to be anything happening for Hallowe’en on Into the Night next week. And I can reveal that yes, yes there is! It’s a wee bit ambitious, but I’m hoping it will be a lot of fun! But what is it, Michael? I hear you cry! Well, I shall make the grand announcement of what we are going to do for the first Into The Hallowe’en Night Broadcast a little later on!

But joking aside folks, do check out this year’s lantern parade. I understand there will be a firework’s display and a big bonfire as well as the usual spooky shenanigans. And believe you me, from what a little birdie has told me, it’s going to be one to remember this year!

However as well as all that, I thought we would have a little competition too. Now I know we have many, many very, very talented listeners out there, and your little Ghost Bag segments have been going down a storm. So then, I thought we should have a little creative contest! So then, if you lot are up for it, send in your own poems about Hallowe’en. They can be any sort of form, rhyming couplets, haiku, free verse whatever, but they must be about Hallowe’en and perhaps, shall we say, about Hallowe’en in Haggleton!

There will be fabulous prizes up for grabs, t-shirts, mugs, stickers - all the usual tat we give away! But the winner will win an all expenses paid trip away to go and stay in a real life haunted hotel! How about that then! And the winning entry will be read out, nay, make that performed, on our Into the Halloween Night Special! So then, please do choose your words carefully, because we don’t want Old Mike back on the naughty step again do we! Yes indeedy, so be warned - any limericks about ghosts from Nantucket will be going straight in the bin!

Right then, is that all the admin covered Producer Raquel? Yes, we have a thumbs up, and so we are good to go! Ok, it’s the moment you are all waiting for… Time to open the Ghost Bag!

*Ghost Bag jingle plays*

So then, as I am sure most of you good people are by now all too well aware, over the last few weeks we’ve been trying to find out how many ghosts and spectres stalk the local area. For, Pluckley down Kent claims to be the most haunted village in all of England and I reckon we can beat that! And indeed we are up to eleven already and it's not even Hallowe’en yet! Now the last couple of nights, we have had a couple of stories that were certainly very spooky!

Mrs Liz Molesworth wrote it and described an encounter with a ghostly old gentleman in the grounds of Bowen Cottage Hospital. She described an elderly Tudor fellow who looked very sad, lonely and cold. Meanwhile Eddie Heron got in touch with a rather frightening brush with the supernatural at Bradbury Park. Eddie swears he witnessed what sounds like some sort of poltergeist activity - litter and rubbish swirling around in the air and slithering about on its own! And most spooky of all, Eddie says he saw some of the old paper and whatnot seemingly sticking to, and wrapping about a figure that was invisible!

Intriguing stuff! But sadly, so far no one else has got in touch with any similar reports of the same phantoms! So, no corroborating evidence as real ghost hunters would say! However, the previous shows are still available to listen again online at Radioredvale.com, so check out the full stories there, and please do get in touch if you have experienced either of these two possible hauntings! Because, while I am prepared to take Eddie’s and Liz’s word for what they saw, I can’t in good faith include their ghosts as regular hauntings in the village if no one else has experienced them! Yes, I know it is tough, but we’ve got to do this right if we want to beat those show-offs down in Pluckley!

So then, our count has stalled at eleven! But hopefully what we have in tonight’s Ghost Bag…

*Ghost Bag jingle plays again*

…will be able to bag us some more local haunters! Can we make it to a round dozen tonight? Remember folks, if you are listening in now and something clicks with you, you can send us an email or text!

Okey dokey, let’s get this road on the show! Now first up we have a letter from Helen Wakefield who has this to say -

Hi Mike, If you ask me what the spookiest place in Haggleton is, I would always say Chapel Hill Cemetery. Now don’t get me wrong it is a beautiful place, but when I have been there, more often than not, I always have the feeling somebody's watching me. And once I heard the sound of a child giggling and running about, but when I looked round, there was no one there.

Well now, I think you are on to something there Helen, and you are not alone. For a good number of you have written in concerning odd things at Chapel Hill. And I think we can perhaps pin things down a bit. Because next up we have Ronnie Hayes, who has this to add…

Dear Michael, I am writing in to report something I have noticed at Chapel Hill Cemetery. My late mother is buried up there, and we often go and visit. To get to her plot we pass through a certain area where there is a big old white tomb, and several times in the vicinity of there I heard peculiar noises. They sound not unlike a child playing about in the bushes but anytime I have looked, I have found no one at all. Twice at least though I am sure I have seen a small figure just slipping out of sight behind a tree or a headstone, like a cheeky child playing hide and seek. But again, when I have gone to look, there is not a soul there.

Very interesting! I wonder if that is the same area where Helen had her experience. If you’re listening Helen, do get in touch! But there’s more! Pete Munby wrote in too -

Hi Mike, Just a quick one to tell you about stories I have about Chapel Hill. I've heard that there is a ghost girl who walks around there, sometimes in the cemetery and sometimes down Barrow Lane. I’ve not seen her myself, but I know a couple of friends who have. Apparently she is young with long dark hair, and you would never think there was anything out of the ordinary about her, until that is, she suddenly melts away.

Very intriguing Pete! I must admit I have heard a story about a man who saw a girl thumbing a lift on Barrow Lane and picked her up, only to find she vanished from his car. Now that is the old phantom hitchhiker story that’s told literally everywhere, but that has got me thinking! Have any of you lot seen this possibly phantom female? Anyhow we have another listener with something to say about that area! This listener wished to remain anonymous, but what they have to say is very interesting...

Dear Mike, I would strongly advise any listeners to stay away from Chapel Hill after dark. My father used to work as a groundsman there many years ago, and when we were kids, he always warned us to do the same. In particular, to stay away from the mausoleum he referred to as the little white house. When pressed, he used to say it was because the ground round there wasn’t safe, being one of the oldest bits of the place, the earth was subsiding around a lot of the graves. However, years later, after a few too many drinks, he later told me that he warned us away because he’d had some nasty experiences there. He wouldn’t say what he had seen or heard, only that it was dangerous. Because they were always finding the mangled remains of rabbits and foxes, and occasional missing cats and dogs, in that area. .

Ruddy hell! Now that is worrying! Very, very creepy! But that’s not all! Mr Chris Underwood also has a tale to tell about that particular location in Chapel Hill too. He writes -

Towards the north gates not far from the main path, there is a big white mausoleum. When we were kids, it was said that if you go there around sunset and run around it seven times and then knock on the door, a ghost will come out. It was one of those things that went around among the local kids for years, when various tall stories about what had happened to kids had done it. Wild stuff about the door opening, eyeless figures in shrouds flying about and stuff. Of course, these kids who always went to another school, there was never anything in papers about some kid getting their head or legs bitten off or whatever.

Thinking it was just all playground stories, when there was a bet to go and do it, I accepted, figuring it was an easy way to win a fiver. A time and a date was agreed and a bunch of us wandered up there one Saturday tea-time. It was about this time of year, as the trees were turning and I was planning to spend my winnings on fireworks. We hung about until the sun started to set, and I did the deed. I knocked on the tomb door and we all waited, I don’t think anyone expected anything to happen. So you can imagine how fast we all pelted out of the place when there was a definite knock back and something inside croaked “Go away”!

Blimey Chris! I think I would strongly advise any listeners out there to maybe steer clear of that part of Chapel Hill! Indeed, we have had a few more messages about Chapel Hill too, reports of odd sounds and weird figures glimpsed there. Quite clearly it is some sort of hot spot. However your fearless host decided to go and investigate! I took a stroll up there and had a look about, however sadly, or perhaps luckily, I encountered nothing untoward. But I did locate that white mausoleum. And that piqued my interest, because other than a carving of an hourglass over the door, there is no writing on it whatsoever. Well, I say no writing, I could see where some ruddy yobbo had been scribbling on the side in blue crayon and it has been mostly cleaned off, but what I mean is, there is no inscription, no name and no dates. Which struck me as a bit odd.

So I toddled down the library and had a word with my good friend Mr Michael Dalby who’s in charge of the Local Studies Centre. And being a very knowledgeable chap he could solve that mystery right away. Apparently the mausoleum was built for a very rich lady, Mrs Eliza Edwards back in good Queen Vic’s day. But this old dear took ill while visiting relations Down Under and hence was buried over there, in Australia. And so the tomb she had paid for was never used, and as she had no relations still living here, ownership reverted back to the undertakers, the Goodwin Funeral Parlour that used to be based in Mordyke House in the 1800s. But as it was so expensive, they could never find another buyer. So then gang, that white tomb is in fact completely empty! And always has been!

So whatever goes a-haunting around there, it can’t be from that tomb! Curiouser and curiouser! Do you folks have any more to add? If you do, get in touch! However, I think from the volume of correspondence we can definitely say there is something lurking in that part of Chapel Hill, and it’s enough to get us to twelve I reckon? What say you Raquel? Is that fair? Yes, we have the fabled thumbs up! Right then folks we are neck and neck with Pluckley now… But I think I know where there are some more local spooks hiding, but that will have to wait for another night!

Now then unfortunately there will be no show tomorrow night, as your Uncle Mike is otherwise engaged, but rest assured it is all in a good cause, indeed it’s all part of the planning for our Into the Hallowe’en Night special! For on October 31st I can now reveal, we will be taking you on a special Halloween ghost hunt - live! But where will I be ghost hunting? Well, I’ll keep that up my sleeve for now! Tune in on Monday Night to find out! Right then, time for a tune I think! Let’s board the night train to relaxation!