Hypnogoria: Hypnogoria Halloween Advent Calendar - Door 23

Transcript from the Into The Night radio show, broadcast on Radio Redvale, Monday 23rd October 2023

And that was the news and weather and you're listening to Into the Night with me, Mike Nelson! Yes folks I'm back! Well.what a week it has been! Of course we've been off air since Thursday thanks to damage from Storm Babet, but Radio Redvale is back, better than ever.

However before that yours truly had to have a little break, and if you heard last Monday's show you'll know why! Once again, I am truly sorry for my most unprofessional outburst, and I do appreciate the letter and calls of support. However the powers that be here in Radioland were not so forgiving, and so old Mickey here ended up on the broadcasting naughty step!

But I have served my sentence and hopefully learned my lesson. Can you teach an old dog, or indeed an old DJ, new tricks? Well, we will find out, won’t we!

So then normal service, well, what passes for normal around here at any rate, will be resumed tonight! And we have tons to catch up on! Right then, let's open the now very bulging Ghost Bag!

* Ghost Bag jingle plays *

Ok gang, a village in Kent, Pluckley claims to be the most haunted village in this green and pleasant land, boasting of twelve ghosts haunting there. But I reckon we can pinch the title of most haunted village, and with your invaluable help, we've been collecting tales of all the spooks and spectres that allegedly haunt the highways and byways of the local area. And we have already established nine local hauntings! And I reckon we are going to add a couple more tonight! And just a little tease for you all, if we get to a dozen, I promise we’ll do something very special for Hallowe’en night!

So what do we have first Producer Raquel? Oh yes, we’ve got some follow-ups to do, and I reckon the first one is going to get us to ten. Let’s see if you out there agree! Ok then, last time we had a very scary report for a lady we called Angie, who recounted staying in a house where every night, yes, every single night, a skeletal figure would creep out of an old wardrobe and, well, basically terrify the life out of her. Terrified the life out of me too, I can tell you! Thankfully she and her family were only staying there temporarily. However it seems quite a few of you have some things to add!

First up, a Mr Tomas Rolt wrote in with this to say -

Dear Michael, I cannot claim to have seen the figure Angie talked about, but her letter reminded me of stories my old grandmother used to tell us. Now I am getting on myself, so we are going back to the 1950s here. But my old gran used to keep us in line with tales of something she called the Old Boney Grinner, a local bogeyman who prowled about after sunset, which she only described as being a tall shape of bones and rags. And she even had a little rhyme too -

Watch out after dark for the bony grinner
If he catches you, you’ll be his dinner!

And she claimed to have been told the stories by her old grandmother, who maintained this horror used to stalk a piece of woodland called Ringstone Copse. Now, they cut it down during the war, but my old gran claimed this had just forced the spectre to come into the village in search of victims instead!

Well, thank you for that Tomas! It certainly sounds similar doesn’t it! And it seems Angie’s story rang bells for other folks too!

A lady called Lucy Hodgson also wrote in and said -

Hi Mike, I don't know if this is at all connected, but when I was a kid in the 1970s we were told a certain type of white mushrooms that grow in the woods round here were very poisonous and we were not to touch them. Not that we would have, because they looked horrible, pale and slimy. But we were told they were called Skullstools and some kids claimed they grew up where ghosts walked, probably because they tended to come up in little clumps in short lines, sort of like footsteps.

Now that is interesting, isn’t it folks! And I certainly think there is a connection. Indeed I paid a little visit to the library and the brilliant Mr Dalby of the Local Studies Centre directed me to an old book which also mentioned these local fungi and also linked them to this Bony Grinner bogeyman! However we also had two other reports for two entirely separate people who both claim to have seen the same thing as Angie.

First we have a letter from a chap we will call Ernest! He doesn’t want to give his real name, and that is fine folks! Anyhow Ernie writes -

Hi Mike, I think I had an encounter with the same thing as that lady Angie. When me mum was in the hospital with my little sister back in 1992, I had to stay for a bit with my Aunty as Dad was back and forth visiting Mum. Anyhow, Aunty put me up a camp bed in the spare room, which was full of old bits and pieces. One of the things in there was a big old wood trunk which I thought looked like a pirate's chest. It was dead cool like, with a carved pattern on the lid and a little brass plate with the maker’s name on it - I remember it so clearly - “Ringwood Bros. 1940”.

But the first night I slept there, a loud creak woke me up. I looked and I swear, I saw that the chest lid had swung open and something was climbing out. It was horrible, a big tall bony man dressed in something like a monk’s habit, but all torn and stained, and he had a skull for a head. It clambered out the chest and started crawling around the room. I just jumped out of bed and ran for it. My Aunty reckoned it was just a nightmare. But next morning, the chest lid was still open, and Aunty was very cross to find the old curtains and bedding she stored in there had gone all mouldy all of a sudden. Aunty got Dad to take the chest away to the tip. I did sleep in that room again but nothing else happened.

Blimey! Well, thank you for that Ernie! Very intriguing! First a wardrobe but now a chest… Is there a connection there I wonder? However we have another report too! A Mr Bernie Capes also got in touch and he had this to tell us -

Dear Mr Nelson, I must confess I was highly disturbed to hear Angie’s story on your show last night. Because I believe I have seen the same thing. It was only just a few years ago, in early October just around sunset. I was out walking with my terrier doing a circuit of the village. While we were passing the fields just at the east side, near Ringstone Hill, and we stopped for a while by a little pond. Well, I should say, I stopped, and my dog hared off, sniffing out rabbits in the long grass. I took the opportunity to light up my pipe, as he can be a while when chasing about in that meadow.

I was just enjoying a smoke and gazing at the reflection in the little pond, when I noticed two red lights behind me. But before I could come to any conclusion as to what they were, they seemed to rush up behind me all of a sudden, and in the reflection I saw at my back a tall thin figure looming up. It was just all bones and grey rags, but with blazing eyes that radiated pure malevolence. At that point my terrier burst out the grass howling loudly - very unlike him - and tore off down the path. Needless to say I followed him at great speed.

And I for one do not blame you sir! Bernie goes on -

I cannot explain what I saw, and I have never seen anything like that before. And while I admit we didn’t take that route on our walks for a bit, we have been back many times now, but I have never experienced anything like it again I am glad to report.

And so are we sir! But I think that is quite conclusive! What it seems they called the Bony Grinner is indeed very much still out and about! And I think that makes him our Number Ten! However before we go, I reckon we can maybe notch up another!

I’m sure most of you will be familiar with the Sheridan Inn out on Fring Lane. The current premises were built in the 1930s, but it stands on the site of an old coaching inn. Now old Mikey has been doing his homework, after all I can’t leave all the work to you good people out there! And I discovered that for many years, back in Victorian times at least, in the last months of the year, from Hallowe’en to Christmas basically, there were sightings of a phantom coach. Apparently on dark nights, when it’s foggy or frosty, a black coach pulled by four pale horses, clatters down Fring Lane and turns out into the driveway of the Sheridan Inn.

Now I’ve not mentioned this on the air before, because it seemed there hadn’t been any sightings in modern times, and I thought , as you would, that this was just an old tall tale. However I was gobsmacked when I had a good number of letters from you lot claiming to have encountered this spectral coach and four!

We had, what? Was it six letters Raquel? Yes, six letters from you lot, with folks reporting hearing the sound of a coach and horses in the vicinity of the old Inn and Fring Lane. Now I did wonder if perhaps the haunting was just fading away and there were only phantom sounds left. But then, this very morning, we got this letter from Trevor Swain. And he writes -

Dear Mike,
I’d like to share with you something rather eerie that happened to me two years ago. I admit I was having a pint at the time, but I swear I had had just the one and was nearly as sober as a judge. I work as a delivery driver for the brewery, and I had just done my last drop-off of the day. And this was delivering fresh barrels of ale to the Sheridan.

It was late December, and a Friday afternoon. And as it was my last stop before clocking off, Tony the landlord offered me a pint and a mince pie on the house. I accepted and settled down in the snug near the front bay windows. And as I was munching away I heard the unmistakable sound of horses’ hooves coming up the gravel driveway. I turned round and in the last light of the day I clearly saw a black old fashioned coach drawn by four white horses swing from past the front of the pub, and head back out into Fring Lane. However before they reached the big stone gateposts, the whole shebang just melted away into thin air.

Obviously I was very shocked, and Tony must have noticed because he came over with a tot of whisky and said, “ah so, you’ve seen ‘em then”. Apparently it happens every couple of years, usually just before Christmas.

And there you have it! A phantom coach and horses in the festive season! No one knows who they are or why they appear, but I do know one thing, that gets us to eleven folks!

Well, that story has put me in a somewhat festive mood, so let’s have something a bit wintery and with a bit of jingle to it! So then, sit back and relax with a little track called Silent Snow from our friends at the Eldritch Light Orchestra...