Post by Melissa Foxworthy on Dec 2, 2007 19:08:35 GMT -5
Resurrection Mary
This cemetery is home to a well known ghost story. It's the story of Resurrection Mary. Her name is Mary Bregavy, a young Polish girl that was killed in a car accident in 1939 while going home from a dance at the O'Henry Ballroom, now the Willowbrook Ballroom.
Her ghost makes appearances all along the cemetery roads and at the Willowbrook Ballroom. She has been known to dance with men at the ballroom and ask them for a ride home only to disappear from their cars as they pass the cemetery. She's been seen hitchhiking on the nearby roads by many creditable witnesses. A taxi cab driver saw young girl walking one evening in 1989 and picked her up. The two of them were talking and driving but as the cab passed Resurrection Cemetery the girl, (Mary), disappeared from the front seat of the cab.
In the summer of 1976, the Justice police received a phone call from a man who said that he saw a girl locked in the cemetery after hours. It was 10:30 PM when Sergeant Pat Homa responded to the call. Homa shined his flashlight through the cemetery bars into the darkened burial grounds. He didn't find any girl. He did find two of the bars on the gate were bent apart at a weird angle. They appeared have been bent apart by human hands. After a closer examination, imbedded in the metal were the impressions of small handprints. On the surface of the green patina of the bronze were scorch marks that looked very much like skin texture. Metallurgist experts could not explain how the bars were bent.
Officials had the bars cut off and sent them away to be straightened. The bars were gone for over two and a half years. They were finally reinstalled in the gates in the early 1980's. The same bars were put back, but are refitted upside down.
Newbury By-Pass
At least six employees of the security firm Pinkerton, guarding the controversial Newbury by-pass in Berkshire against protesters, have reported seeing shadowy figures floating along the carriageway at night. The apparitions were spotted at Rickety Bridge, close to the site of the second Battle of Newbury in 1644.
The guards chased the strange figures and saw them vanish into thin air. Naturally, the phenomena were interpreted as ghosts of Civil War soldiers. Last December, Pinkerton called in a chaplain, John Hudson, to counsel the shaken witness. "The Church takes these things seriously," he said. "If proven, exorcism will be recommended."
Road ghosts form a distinct sub-division of psychic phenomena, the most common variety being "phantom hitch-hikers". These have been recorded for centuries all over the world (even, for example, in mediaeval Japan) and are generally classified as legend, although, as Michael Goss has shown in The Evidence for Phantom Hitch-Hikers (1984), many contemporary accounts have the unfinished feel of genuine experience - certainly, many drivers are convinced that something more than hallucination has occurred.
Then there are spectral jaywalkers, apparitions that step recklessly into the path of oncoming traffic. The most celebrated example of this is the Ghost of Blue Bell Hill, in Kent, attributed to the shade of a young woman killed in a road accident there in 1965.
There are other types of road ghost. One of the oddest stories to hit the Hampshire headlines between the wars was the tale of the Tall Man of Brook. On the evening of Sunday, May 5, 1924, three people, Betty Bone, her brother Alf, and his friend Ewart Pope, were cycling through the New Forest.
It was still light as they reached the Bramshore golf links just beyond the Bell Inn at Brook, where they passed a strange pedestrian at least seven feet tall.
He was dressed in an antique top hat and a long tailcoat. As he was facing the same direction, none of them noticed his face. A quarter of a mile further on, to their great surprise, they saw the Tall Man in front of them again at the top of Telegraph Hill. As before, they didn't notice him until they were within 20 paces; he just "appeared" as if by magic.
Passing him, they experienced what they later described as "a distinct sensation of the eerie, the uncanny".
At the crossroads of the B3078 with the Fritham to Normansland road, the man again appeared about 20 paces ahead. By now thoroughly unnerved, the trio pedalled past him furiously, intent on getting as far away as possible. He was never seen again.
Then there are phantom vehicles, a variety of spectre which I find particularly appealing. One night in thick fog in November 1983, a Mrs Brason was driving down the Bicester-to-Banbury road, near the Bear pub in Souldern, when she found herself behind a black estate-car with wooden strips but showing car no lights.
She was nervous about overtaking in the fog, but when she saw a car approaching at speed from behind, she decided to follow it past the car in front. As she prepared to overtake, she found to her astonishment that the black car had vanished. There was no turn it could have taken.
After telling this story on Radio Oxford in January 1996, Mrs Brason received a phone call from Ken Fowler. He had seen the phantom vehicle, which he recognised as a Morris 1000 Traveller, near the Bear pub. He was 17 and riding his motorcycle on another foggy November night, in 1963. The phantom Morris was facing him in the middle of the road with no headlights. He slowed down to within 20 yards and it disappeared before his eyes.
Welsh Road Ghosts
Spectral women have been spotted on Welsh roads
Two roads in Wales have been listed in a magazine survey of the UK's top 10 haunted highways.
At Llangennith in the Gower, south Wales, a phantom woman dressed completely in white has been spotted on the main street.
Readers of the Fortean Times have also reported seeing another spectral white lady in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The report was compiled after over 2,500 people contacted the magazine about ghostly roadside sightings over the last two years.
The sheer number of reports prompted the journalists to produce a league table of roads across Britain.
'Inundated'
"We've been inundated with reports of sightings on Britain's roads in the last couple of years, and it's clear that some ghostly sightings are being seen over and over again," said Fortean Times editor Bob Rickard.
"Is this our subconscious playing tricks on us, or do we share our environment with ghosts of the dead and various elemental spirits?"
The UK's most haunted road is listed as the A23 between London and Brighton, where ghostly figures include a small girl with no hands or feet, a figure in a white trench coat and a figure in cricketer's clothing.
Elsewhere, a six-foot tall monk has been spotted near Gloucestershire, while phantom vehicles have been seen on the M6 near Birmingham, and phantom hitchhikers have been sighted between Nunney and Frome in Somerset.
This cemetery is home to a well known ghost story. It's the story of Resurrection Mary. Her name is Mary Bregavy, a young Polish girl that was killed in a car accident in 1939 while going home from a dance at the O'Henry Ballroom, now the Willowbrook Ballroom.
Her ghost makes appearances all along the cemetery roads and at the Willowbrook Ballroom. She has been known to dance with men at the ballroom and ask them for a ride home only to disappear from their cars as they pass the cemetery. She's been seen hitchhiking on the nearby roads by many creditable witnesses. A taxi cab driver saw young girl walking one evening in 1989 and picked her up. The two of them were talking and driving but as the cab passed Resurrection Cemetery the girl, (Mary), disappeared from the front seat of the cab.
In the summer of 1976, the Justice police received a phone call from a man who said that he saw a girl locked in the cemetery after hours. It was 10:30 PM when Sergeant Pat Homa responded to the call. Homa shined his flashlight through the cemetery bars into the darkened burial grounds. He didn't find any girl. He did find two of the bars on the gate were bent apart at a weird angle. They appeared have been bent apart by human hands. After a closer examination, imbedded in the metal were the impressions of small handprints. On the surface of the green patina of the bronze were scorch marks that looked very much like skin texture. Metallurgist experts could not explain how the bars were bent.
Officials had the bars cut off and sent them away to be straightened. The bars were gone for over two and a half years. They were finally reinstalled in the gates in the early 1980's. The same bars were put back, but are refitted upside down.
Newbury By-Pass
At least six employees of the security firm Pinkerton, guarding the controversial Newbury by-pass in Berkshire against protesters, have reported seeing shadowy figures floating along the carriageway at night. The apparitions were spotted at Rickety Bridge, close to the site of the second Battle of Newbury in 1644.
The guards chased the strange figures and saw them vanish into thin air. Naturally, the phenomena were interpreted as ghosts of Civil War soldiers. Last December, Pinkerton called in a chaplain, John Hudson, to counsel the shaken witness. "The Church takes these things seriously," he said. "If proven, exorcism will be recommended."
Road ghosts form a distinct sub-division of psychic phenomena, the most common variety being "phantom hitch-hikers". These have been recorded for centuries all over the world (even, for example, in mediaeval Japan) and are generally classified as legend, although, as Michael Goss has shown in The Evidence for Phantom Hitch-Hikers (1984), many contemporary accounts have the unfinished feel of genuine experience - certainly, many drivers are convinced that something more than hallucination has occurred.
Then there are spectral jaywalkers, apparitions that step recklessly into the path of oncoming traffic. The most celebrated example of this is the Ghost of Blue Bell Hill, in Kent, attributed to the shade of a young woman killed in a road accident there in 1965.
There are other types of road ghost. One of the oddest stories to hit the Hampshire headlines between the wars was the tale of the Tall Man of Brook. On the evening of Sunday, May 5, 1924, three people, Betty Bone, her brother Alf, and his friend Ewart Pope, were cycling through the New Forest.
It was still light as they reached the Bramshore golf links just beyond the Bell Inn at Brook, where they passed a strange pedestrian at least seven feet tall.
He was dressed in an antique top hat and a long tailcoat. As he was facing the same direction, none of them noticed his face. A quarter of a mile further on, to their great surprise, they saw the Tall Man in front of them again at the top of Telegraph Hill. As before, they didn't notice him until they were within 20 paces; he just "appeared" as if by magic.
Passing him, they experienced what they later described as "a distinct sensation of the eerie, the uncanny".
At the crossroads of the B3078 with the Fritham to Normansland road, the man again appeared about 20 paces ahead. By now thoroughly unnerved, the trio pedalled past him furiously, intent on getting as far away as possible. He was never seen again.
Then there are phantom vehicles, a variety of spectre which I find particularly appealing. One night in thick fog in November 1983, a Mrs Brason was driving down the Bicester-to-Banbury road, near the Bear pub in Souldern, when she found herself behind a black estate-car with wooden strips but showing car no lights.
She was nervous about overtaking in the fog, but when she saw a car approaching at speed from behind, she decided to follow it past the car in front. As she prepared to overtake, she found to her astonishment that the black car had vanished. There was no turn it could have taken.
After telling this story on Radio Oxford in January 1996, Mrs Brason received a phone call from Ken Fowler. He had seen the phantom vehicle, which he recognised as a Morris 1000 Traveller, near the Bear pub. He was 17 and riding his motorcycle on another foggy November night, in 1963. The phantom Morris was facing him in the middle of the road with no headlights. He slowed down to within 20 yards and it disappeared before his eyes.
Welsh Road Ghosts
Spectral women have been spotted on Welsh roads
Two roads in Wales have been listed in a magazine survey of the UK's top 10 haunted highways.
At Llangennith in the Gower, south Wales, a phantom woman dressed completely in white has been spotted on the main street.
Readers of the Fortean Times have also reported seeing another spectral white lady in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The report was compiled after over 2,500 people contacted the magazine about ghostly roadside sightings over the last two years.
The sheer number of reports prompted the journalists to produce a league table of roads across Britain.
'Inundated'
"We've been inundated with reports of sightings on Britain's roads in the last couple of years, and it's clear that some ghostly sightings are being seen over and over again," said Fortean Times editor Bob Rickard.
"Is this our subconscious playing tricks on us, or do we share our environment with ghosts of the dead and various elemental spirits?"
The UK's most haunted road is listed as the A23 between London and Brighton, where ghostly figures include a small girl with no hands or feet, a figure in a white trench coat and a figure in cricketer's clothing.
Elsewhere, a six-foot tall monk has been spotted near Gloucestershire, while phantom vehicles have been seen on the M6 near Birmingham, and phantom hitchhikers have been sighted between Nunney and Frome in Somerset.