FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - Species of Spectres Part VI

Welcome once again dear friends to another instalment of Species of Spectres in which we attempt to devise categories to classify assorted ghosts and ghouls. Now last time we were looking at Animal Apparitions, and discovered that according to folklore the most common varieties of spectral creatures are two species that have had a long relationship with humanity, horses and dogs. However what of our feathered friends?

Now in the realm of folklore there are many supernatural beliefs associated with birds, but most usually these are related to the presence of birds at certain times, i.e. seeing a certain type of bird is good luck, while the appearance of another is a harbinger of misfortune. More closely relating to all things ghostly, it is commonly held that the absence of birds a sure sign a particular place is haunted - no birds will nest in the eaves of a haunted house, and in lonely countryside places where uncanny things are said to walk there will be no sound of birdsong. For example, at Nibley Green, Gloucester in 1469, the troops of Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle and William Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley fought a terrible battle. And it is said the soldiers who perished there were buried in a mass grave in a nearby wood. Sightings of ghostly soldiers have been reported there, and it is said that no bird sings in that particular stretch of woodland.

Actual spectral birds however are another matter, and although uncommon there are enough accounts of avian apparitions to separate into three groups. Firstly we have simply the shades of bird that have ceased to be… The famous ghost hunter Elliot O'Donnell reported that at a house on Dean Street, London, a phantom black bird was often seen by locals. While not far away a house on Great Russell Street was prey to a phantom magpie that would tap on the windows,  before appearing inside perching on a phantom baton that floats in thin air. In Leamington, an old (and now demolished) house called Brookhurst was a Sonic Spectre ( is a ghost that is only heard) which manifested as the sounds of a large bird flapping round the place. As many varieties of birds have been tamed and kept by folks, it's not surprising there are a good few accounts of feathered friends returning from beyond the grave. Once upon a time, the Blue Bell Inn at Tushingham, Cheshire had a pet duck that playfully pecked at patrons ankles, a practice it perpetuated even after it perished, and its psychic predations were only prevented thanks to pious priests exorcising the phantom fowl!

However, aside from mere ghosts of birds that have joined the choir invisible, many old legends tell of phantom fliers that appear serve to a specific purpose. The first are harbingers, usually appearing to foretell a death. For a typical example of this, let us call in at Salisbury, where it is said that when a Bishop is going to die, two spectral white birds appear, either hovering over his house or on the roof of the cathedral. In a similar fashion it is said when there is to be a death in the family a flitting white bird-shaped apparition flaps about Arundel Castle and taps at the windowpane. A rarer variant of these traditions is recorded in Bangor, where at the Faenol estate, trespassers are warned away by the eerie crying of a spectral bird. And it is said that this particular avian apparitions is actually the ghost of a man executed for stealing timber from there, now doomed to warn others of the perils of theft.  

Finally we have a strong body of lore that tells of more fearsome feathered phantoms. At Temple Grafton in Warwickshire, there is a hill called Rolls Wood Hill. However locally it is also known as Alcocks Arbour, as it is claimed that the notorious highwayman John Alcock hid a cache of buried treasure there. However these riches are guarded by a demonic cockerel, and despite the risk of sounding like Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I must warn you that while this guardian sounds ridiculous it is not to be messed with. For the last fellow who attempted to retrieve the treasure was eaten alive by the evil avian! And the only way to gain safe passage past the creature is to be holding one of Alcock’s bones, which I fear are in somewhat short supply these days…

 There is a similar tale told of Bransil Castle in Herefordshire - once again it said that there is a hidden hoard of riches, guarded by a huge black bird, who may only be warded off by holding the bones of Lord Beauchamp who allegedly buried the treasure in the first place. And there are many more legends of supernatural treasure guardians that take the shape of birds. Interestingly these feathered fiends are very often described as having black plumage.

In Shorwell on the Isle of Wight, there is said to be a treasure chest buried in a quiet wood, beneath an elm tree. However if that sounds like a road to easy wealth, once again beware, for it is guarded by a fearsome spirit in the shape of a large black bird. Likewise at Penyard Castle at Weston Penyard in Herefordshire there is said to be more buried treasure, again guarded by a hideous black bird. While at Verwood in Dorset, there is a large rock known variously as St Stephen's Stone, the Hoarstone, or simply the Verwood Stone. And beneath this stone is said to be a hidden golden vessel containing yet another stash of treasure. However once again, these riches are guarded by a black bird that attacks anyone who tries to claim it. 

Next time we will be further considering Animal Apparitions, looking at some of the odder ghostly creatures that lurk in folklore and legend...

FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - Species of Spectres Part V

from Mysteries of the Unknown (Usborne 1977)

Welcome once again dear friends to another little exercise in classifying all things ghostly. In this little blog series, we have been attempting to devise possible categories for different hauntings based upon how they are documented in folklore and local legends. Now we often think of ghosts as being the shades of folks who have passed over, dead people returning to bother the living. However in the realm of folklore, a ghost is not necessarily something that takes an anthropomorphic shape. Indeed the spectral kingdom is apparently home to an entire phantom menagerie! 

There seems to be a wide variety of Animal Apparitions out a-haunting on a regular basis, so much so that several sub-categories can be constructed very rapidly. Perhaps most famous of all spectral beasts is the dreaded Black Dogs that appear all over the British Isles. Most regions have their own version of this famous phantom canine, and often have a local name too such as Barguest, Trash, Padfoot, Grim, Shuck, Skeff, Galleytrot. Commonly they are described as being hounds of a gigantic size, jet black, often with shaggy fur and burning red eyes. However there are some local physiological (or should that be ectoplasmic) variants, for example Norfolk's Black Shuck is sometimes described as appearing with a single burning eye, while the Yeth hounds of Dartmoor are sometimes said to headless (and further tales of the phantom hounds of Dartmoor can be heard here). 

Generally speaking, these spectral dogs are considered something of an ill omen, with a common belief that to see one is a harbinger of a death. However despite their fearsome reputation, the British Black Dog has had a remarkable impact on culture, inspiring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to create The Hound of the Baskervilles, turning up as the Grim in the Harry Potter series, and inspiring musicians such as Led Zeppelin, Nick Drake and The Darkness. So possibly these spectral hounds are not quite as unlucky as folklore would have you believe...

Another popular ghostly creature is of course the Ectoplasmic Equines, however I suspect their numbers are often greatly underestimated as the ghostly humans accompanying them tend to hog the limelight. For there are legions of tales of spectral coaches, ghostly hunts and headless horsemen in the annals of folklore and legend, but as I said all too often it is their riders that receive all the attention. However, typically phantom horses usually appear as coal black steed, and like their canine brethren often with the usual accessories of burning red eyes. However flaming hoofs are not uncommon for phantom equines, nor is it unknown for them to follow suit with their spectral masters and appear sans heads too. Phantom coaches, usually bearing a local historical dead celebrity, are frequently Calendar Observers and Anniversary Apparitions, however Ectoplasmic Equines may be further divided into sub-sub categories too. 

Often very similar to your usual phantom coach set up - i.e. black horses, possibly headless, with headless and/or skellington drivers, a tendency to drive dangerously - are the Dead Coaches. These sinister vehicles are largely considered a major inconvenience as they come to pick up the souls of the soon to be dear departed, and frequently that means you if you've spotted one. However as troubling as the Dead Coaches are, our next sub-category is often even more sinister, if not in many cases downright evil. There are many legends of the Wild Hunt and usually it is considered extremely bad luck to witness this band of spectral riders pass by. In the oldest legends the hunt was led but Odin or Woden or Wotan, but in later tales we find some local villain of black repute or the Devil himself leading the spectral hunters. Some legends hold that these spectral riders are hunting down the souls of the wicked, however there are many stories of them hunting far less charming quarry such as the souls of unbaptised babes. And in some tales, often  anyone who they encounter is considered fair game, a famous example of this is the company of witches and devils that hound Tam O'Shanter. Finally it should also be noted that there is a certain overlap with the Black Dogs here, for spectral hounds are sometimes said to be part of these fearsome ghostly hunting parties. 

So then, having rounded up some of the more common Animal Apparitions, next time we shall hunt down some of the more unusual non-human phantoms haunting the realm of folklore and legend. 

FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - Species of Spectres Part IV

Welcome back once again dear friends to our little series on all things ghostly, that is attempting to classify assorted spirits by the shape of the stories they inhabit. In previous episodes of this tentative guide we have seen how different ghosts may be defined by looking at who they were, and where and when they appear. Therefore this time we shall be completing the set of 'w' questions by asking what  they appear as. And this is perhaps the most fascinating question we have levelled at the canon of ghost related folklore so far, for according to the old tales, phantoms may manifest in many different forms. Rather than just the floating white sheets of popular culture or glowing transparent folks beloved of movies and the gogglebox, ghosts in folklore may take a wide variety of forms. Let's start with some of the most common varieties. 

Perhaps the largest, but also the most mundane, species of the spectre we can define by appearance are those ghosts that have a colour coding. For example, many folkloric female phantoms are named for the hues that they appear in, with dozens of stories telling of White Ladies or Grey Ladies, although varieties coming in blue, green and red are not unknown. And their male counterparts are often described by their spectral plumage too, with many reports of hauntings by Grey Men, Brown Monks and Blue Boys. Now given the often misty forms ghosts are said to manifest in, it is perhaps not surprising that so many phantoms are dubbed white or grey. However when examining assorted stories from folklore it does seem to be more the case that usually the spectres are coloured coded by the clothes they are wearing, rather than the make-up of their ectoplasm. But before we leave this category of Spectrum Spectres, it is worth recounting a little tale from the folklorists Eric Maple and Lynn Myring in Haunted Houses, Ghosts & Spectres (Usborne 1979). They have a story of a ghost that literally faded in colour over time. For in the 18th century, an old house was allegedly haunted by a lady in red. But in later years the ghost was reported as being a lady in pink, and then more recently as a lady in white. The last reports of the haunting were just the sound of her footsteps... 

And that brings us nicely to our next category - the Sonic Spooks - hauntings that are purely auditory. These ghosts are the opposite of what good children are supposed to be - never seen, only heard! Phantom footsteps are a very common form of this particular species of spectre - for example in an housing estate built in the 1970s in Sychdyn, near Mold, the sound of a woman walking is often heard at night, but no strolling lady is ever spotted. While at the wonderfully named Hall i' th' Wood Manor House near Bolton, there is a staircase which a phantom is frequently heard running down - who it is or why they are in such haste we do not know for they always remain invisible to mortal eyes...    

Also very common are tales of ghosts that make assorting knocking and banging sounds; indeed one of the best known technical terms for a spectre, 'poltergeist' simply means 'noisy ghost' in the original German. A famous Sonic Spectre of this type is the Phantom Drummer of Tedworth - in 1661, a magistrate named John Mompesson had the drum of a vagrant named William Drury confiscated, and soon after his home was plagued at all hours by the phantom sound of a drum. Not only did these ghostly drums trouble the Mompesson household for many months but the phenomena escalated into a full blown poltergeist haunting with objects thrown and damaged. 

However not all rapping and tapping hauntings are necessarily the work of poltergeists, for strictly speaking the moving of objects is probably a better defining factor for a poltergeist infestation, and there are plenty of spooks who prefer to make a racket rather than show themselves. For example at the Suffolk Arms pub in Cheltenham, an unseen spook delights in making knocking sounds in the dark whenever anyone enters the cellar, while at a haunting at Hindley the invisible tenant had the habit of knocking on every door in the house, always finishing my rapping on the front door at 2.30 AM. 

Of course, there is another well-known variety of ghost that is famed for the noise it makes - the infamous Banshee, a spirit famed for making an unearthly wailing. And according to legend, to hear the banshee's cry means that a death is coming soon. Now some stories do tell of this spirit actually appearing, sometimes as an old hag, sometimes as a young woman, and in similar fashion different legends ascribe different origins to the banshee, with some holding that this ill-omened female spirit is one of the fairy folk, while others claim she is a long dead ancestor of the family the banshee haunts. But the true defining characteristic of the banshee is its keening wail, with its maker usually remaining unseen. 

In the next part of our little exploration into the nature of all things spectral, we will be continuing to examine the shapes of ghosts appear in, and be discovering a wide variety of manifestations that perhaps many might wish remained unseen...

Bunworth Banshee, from "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland",

 by Thomas Crofton Croker, 1825

FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - Species of Spectres Part III

Welcome back to our little series on trying to define ghosts by examining the types of stories they appear in. Now then, last time we were looking at how different phantoms can be classified by looking at when old folk tales and legends say they appear, and we discovered a great many spooks in old stories being alleged to appear on certain nights of the year. However this particular set of spectres, which we dubbed Calendar Observers, may be defined further, for there is a possible subcategory here.

For example, take this haunting - in Bray, in County Wicklow in Ireland, every Midsummer night, the shade of a woman in white is said to appear on a rock called Lover's Leap. Legend tells that she was a lover who was unfaithful, and when her infidelity was discovered her handsome beau died from a broken heart. Overcome with guilt, the lady threw herself from the rock and now reappears every year on the same spot. Now here, while we have a phantom making an annual recurring appearance on a notable day in the calendar, at the same time the date in question has a personal significance to the spectre. And this is often the case in folklore - a ghost will reappear every year, most commonly on the night of their death. And this particular legion of spooks we might call Anniversary Apparitions. 

These phantoms are that appear in the most archetypal all of folk tales about hauntings; all those stories that detail some tragedy or murder, and then draw to a close with the lines "...and every year on upon that night, their ghost appears..." And here we are stepping into another possible definition, For quite often it is said that on the night in question (for it is almost always night-time in such tales), aside from the ghost appearing to mark the anniversary, in many cases, onlookers brave enough to gather at the appointed place will see the tragic events played out once more in spectral form. A well-known example of this is said to occur a little later this very month on the 23rd of October, for at Edgehill in Warwick, it is claimed you can see and hear a ghostly rerun of the famous battle fought there during the Civil War in 1642.

However we should note that not all of these Reenacting Revenants are necessarily bound to doing their spectral action replays on a specific date. Many ghosts are said to be seen repeating the same actions time and time again by witnesses down the years. Now the fact that numerous ghostly tales allege that apparitions are seen doing the same things over and over again has led to two of the most famous theories about ghosts. The first is the idea that hauntings are actually psychic recordings embedded in the material of the places they appear, recordings that are somehow accidentally triggered into replaying over the years.

Now the second theory, which partly overlaps with the first, is the idea that if ghosts are seen doing what they did in life, this explains why they famously can walk through walls. For they are merely following the layout of the buildings and locations as they were in their own lifetimes. This is exemplified by the famous story of ghostly Romans being seen tramping through the cellars of the Treasurer's House in Minster Yard in York. For if seeing a whole legion of Roman ghosts wasn't strange enough, the bizarre thing was that it was reported that the phantom regiment appeared to be sunk knee-deep in the floor, and seemed to be wading through it. However archaeological work suggests an interesting answer to this surreal spectral spectacle - for a few years later it was discovered that a few feet beneath the cellar floor was the remains of a Roman road...

from All About Ghosts (Usborne 1977)

FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - Species of Spectres Part II

Welcome back the second part of our little exercise in classifying different types of spook and spectre! Now obviously the exact nature of all things ghostly is somewhat nebulous to say the least, and hence we are concentrating our efforts on examining the different types of ghost we find in folk tales and legends. There are many tales told of phantoms and apparitions, and when you look closely, clear patterns begin emerge; in the sort of stories that are recounted, and in the nature of ghosts that manifest in them. 

In the first part, we saw how ghosts in folklore may be defined by who they were in life, and where they are said to haunt. And in this second set of tentative categories for all things spectral, the next question we can use to define these visitants from the spirit world is when are they said to appear. Now if you ask many folks when ghosts will appear, the first answer you will receive is Halloween night. Certainly in ages past there were assorted superstitions about divination on Halloween night (see here for details). And in popular culture - largely thanks to a highly influential poem by Robert Burns - there has long been a tradition of telling spooky tales as part of the evening's entertainments. But surprisingly, genuine folk tales of ghosts appearing on Halloween are actually somewhat thinner on the ground than you'd expect. For as I have been detailing in my annual podcasts on the origins of Halloween (see Part I here and Part II here), this day has had many other associations over the centuries and it is only relatively recently that it has become firmly associated with all things scary and supernatural.

However there are a range of ghosts who are said only to appear at certain notable times of the year, a group of spectres we shall dub the Calendar Observers. Now these are phantoms that often only ever make an annual appearance, specifically on one special day (or night) of the year. Now noted dates in the calendar, such as dates of old festivals, solstices and old Saint's days, are particular favourites. For example, in ages past Midsummer's Eve was said to be a time when the veil between worlds were thin, and aside from many folk tales about faery powers being abroad, there are many spectres who make an annual haunting on this night. For example, there is the legend connected to  an old oak tree at Broadwater Green in Worthing, Surrey - it said that on Midsummer Night a skeletal spectre appears and dances a jig until the sun rises the next morn. Similarly, over at Long Barrow in Wiltshire, a pale hound is said to appear on this night and roam around the ancient stones. 

Now according to ancient medieval legends, ghosts and goblins were allegedly forbidden from walking abroad at Christmas time, as it was the holy anniversary of Christ's birth. However judging from the numerous folk tales of spectres appearing either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day, it would appear that there is not a shred of truth to that legend. For Yuletide is perhaps the most popular time of the year for ghosts, favoured by a great many of Calendar Observers. To mention just a few - on Christmas Eve, the shade of Anne Boleyn haunts Hever Castle, a ghostly coach complete with a headless horseman rides up to Roos Hall in Beccles, while at Kersal Cell in Salford a ghostly monk makes his annual appearance. Furthermore according to legend, all the ghosts in the British Isles meet for an annual gathering on the night of December 21st - which is also the Winter Solstice - at the Stiper Stones in Shropshire. Given that so many will be busy making their yearly appearances in the next few days, one wonders whether this is some kind of official meeting planning haunting and manifestations for the coming year... 

FOLKLORE ON FRIDAY - Species of Spectres Part I

By their very nature, ghosts are somewhat nebulous beings. And their mysterious nature is undoubtedly partly why tales of hauntings have enthralled our imaginations down the ages. Different eras and cultures have offered different interpretations of ghosts, but even then, at any one time or place there are often several competing theories to that age-old question - what are ghosts? 

However stepping aside the tangle of philosophical, theological, psychological and scientific theories surrounding hauntings, if we look to the realm of folklore, and examine the nature of the tales told about spooks and spectres; looking at the nature of the ghost stories themselves,  we can begin to see patterns emerging. And hence we can start to sift assorted unquiet spirits and spectral visitants into some loose categories. Now the following list is not definitive, nor I suspect can ever be truly complete. Given the ethereal and enigmatic nature of ghosts, many spectres will be happily walking from one category to another as easily as they famously walk through walls. However it does provide us with some useful headings under which we can classify a good many haunters and horrors. 

Our first category I've called Celebrity Spirits and it is based on asking one simple question first - do we know who is this unquiet spirit? Now many tales of hauntings found in folklore are rooted in local history, and the ghost in question is often the shade of some significant individual - a former inhabitant of the dwelling, folks who perished in a local tragedy, or a famous historical person. And often events in their lives give us the reason why their spirit still walks the earth, forming an important part of their particular ghost story. Typical examples include deceased owners still keeping a supernatural eye on their former homes, assorted royals and politicians seen in their palaces, or victims haunting the spot where they were brutally murdered.

However not all ghosts are the products of local history, and there are a great many hauntings where we do not actually know who the ghost is. In some cases this is because the haunting is particularly nebulous - merely the sound of footsteps or just an indistinct shape appearing. However in many instances, the phantom is quite recognisable as what they were in life - a maid, a monk or a soldier for example - and from their dress we can even roughly tell what period in time they originate from. Sometimes local folklore can give us a variety of possible origin stories for the spook in question, while paranormal researchers occasionally uncover likely identities when researching the history of the place. But in general, who these Anonymous Apparitions were in life remains a mystery. And consequently the tales about them relate more to events that have occurred during their hauntings down in the years, whereas in sharp contrast the stories of Celebrity Spirits tend to be yarns from local history with an added ghostly coda.

So then, having asked our notional ghost who they are, the next question is - where do they appear? Now here we might devise a large number of categories - castle ghosts, prison spectres, suburban phantoms, abbey apparitions, hamlet hauntings... Indeed we could devise as many headings as there are types of places where folks live, but in the long run this does not help us define our ghost very much at all. Generally speaking, most ghosts are attached to some form of dwelling area, whether in a building or nearby one outside.  However there are plenty of tales of dread spectres that haunt woods and moors, rivers and mountains, and hence I think we need only distinguish whether a particular spook is an Urban Horror or a Country Terror. The former would of course embrace the usual haunted houses of all varieties, but also phantoms that walk abroad in towns and cities after dark, such as the top hatted terror that roams Rodney Street in Liverpool. Whereas the latter would include the apparitions that haunt lonely places, only rarely encountered by  passing travellers, such as the Grey Man of Ben Macdhui. 

However while on a geographical tip, we should add a third section, the Highway Haunters. Now at first it might seem that this section handily bridges our other two geographical categories, as roads are the murky middle ground that link the town to the country. However the phantoms that lurk by the side of highways and byways deserve a section of their own, for these road ghosts exhibit certain key features all of their own. As we discovered a short while ago when discussing the Lady in White that haunts an old section of the Great North Road in Aycliffe Village, road ghosts tend to have a similar pattern of stories. The most well-known road ghost story is what most folks know as the urban legend of the Phantom Hitchhiker, however there is a similar and equally widespread second variant of the road ghost - sometimes called the Phantom Jaywalker. In these cases, a driver along a particular stretch of road will see a figure step out in front of their vehicle, causing them to swerve to avoid an accident. However on stopping, there is never any trace of the mystery person who stepped out onto the road. Much like tales of the Phantom Hitchhiker, local folklore often records that this stretch of road marks a scene of a fatal accident in the past. And for more on the lore of these particular phantoms, do visit Sean Tudor's excellent site www.roadghosts.com. 

Of course here we are moving from a purely geographical defining factor, to looking at how different ghosts behave in different stories. And the haunters of the highways are very much getting their own category, not on the basis of their location but due to the fact that they have their distinct type of ghost story closely associated with them .

Now in the second part of this tentative attempt to separate species of spectres (try saying that three times fast) we'll explore how asking the question of when a ghost appears can help to define them further...