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Taliajack · Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 20 Location: USA

Southend-on-Sea Ghosts and Legends

Grey Shape with no Eyes

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Clifton Court, Royal Terrace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1966
Further Comments: The grey shape haunted the bedroom of one of the houses here, driving the owners away. An exorcism removed the spirit.
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Tap on Shoulder

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Porters Mansion
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Working alone one night, a builder felt a couple of taps on his shoulder - turning around, he found no one there...
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Depressed Bed

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Private house along Ambleside Drive
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1993
Further Comments: Whilst sleeping in the house, one person awoke to see an area of the bed depress, as if an invisible presence sat on it. After a minute or so the area raised suddenly.
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Victorian Woman

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Private house along Hartington Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996
Further Comments: This phantom woman in a Victorian dress was described as frightening by the witness.
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Invisible Presence

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Private house along Orchard Side, Eastwood
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June 2001- August 2002
Further Comments: The haunting presence here appears to have made itself primarily known to a baby in the house; the young child would appear to watch an invisible presence move around rooms, and on one occasion a parent observed the baby tracking the movement of the entity only to see a couple of cards on a high shelf fall over as the child looked up. Mild poltergeist effects were also reported by the occupants.
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Calf Sized Dog

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Road between Rochford/Ashingdon & Hullbridge
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1991
Further Comments: A calf-sized dog walking on the other side of the road was spotted by the passenger in a car (although not by the driver), unnerving the witness considerably.
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Flying Disc

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Skies over the town
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 14 October 1954
Further Comments: A fighter pilot, while out on routine patrol, reported a near miss with a silver domed disc - the UFO had been travelling towards him at fantastic speed, and had veered off at the last possible second.
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Person Holding Lantern

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Southchurch Lawn (or could be called currently Eton House School)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Possibly the ghost of a smuggler, this spirit takes credit in saving the life of Princess Charlotte in 1801.
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Self-Playing Harmoniums

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Southchurch Street, a three story Victorian flat
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1956
Further Comments: The sounds which came from the harmoniums, along with the phantom footsteps and banging, drove a couple from this flat.

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Tall Man in Long Coat

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Southend pier, lower deck, near to the lifeboat house.
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August or September 1992, 21:45hrs
Further Comments: The end of the pier has been the scene of several suicides, and it may have been one of these lost souls which were chased by a staff member - the entity vanished at the burnt section of the pier, where access is not possible.
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Noises and Footsteps

Location: Southend-on-Sea - Sutton Rectory, outside Southend
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One witness heard footsteps walking towards him and then through him down a corridor.

Levibrawn · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 23 Location: Usa;- NY

Years ago when i was a kid i stayed with relations in england in southend for a while.

On the corner of Imperial Avenue right opposite the park off Chalkwell Avenue, there used to be a red brick house that after the 2nd world war was used as a convalescent home for the soldiers wounded in the war on summer days, the patients would lie outside in beds to get the sun and sea air. Im not certain but i believe it became old deserted mental hospital down later on back in the 1960 and 70's. It stood on the corner of this road and look like something out of a horror movie. It became deserted and rundown but had once been a very grand mansion, but now the windows were back then i recall mostly broken and doors hung off their hinges. It was easy to get into this huge building , we used to find old prescribed drugs and xrays and old filthy mattresses scattered around the rooms

It was the scariest place I have ever been in, and yet there was a strange fascination for us kids that pulled us back time and again.

I am absolutely certain it was haunted, there where stories of the ghosts of the old soldiers being seen here.

landlover · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location: RUSSIA

Essex ghosts

Visit the town of Coggeshall - said to be the most unluckiest place in Britain. It sits on ley lines (powerful beams of energy linked to the earth's magnetic pull) that cross here creating friction - and this could be the cause of the unusually high number of disturbing things that have happened. Several ghosts haunt the place, whilst black cats have also been found bricked up in the walls of buildings.

Take a driving tour of the county to seek out a spook or two. Start at 12th C. Prittlewell Priory in Southend-on-Sea, where a ghostly monk who dabbled in the black arts has been spotted by the fishponds. Overlooking the Thames estuary are the eerie ruins of Hadleigh Castle, reputedly haunted by the Devil - and described locally as the Black Man. To the west, Epping Forest is home to the Iron Age hill fort of Ambersbury Banks, where you might see Queen Boadicca. Head now to Waltham Abbey, where the 12th C. church has strange lights at night, alongside the chanting of a long-dead choir. The Red Lion Hotel in the town of Colchester is noted for the ghost of Alice Mellor, murdered here in 1633. Head south to Layer Marney Tower, where a terrifying apparition of Lord Marney rides down the tower’s staircase. End your tour at Mersea Island, scene of England's oldest ghost story. Here a phantom army of Roman soldiers has been seen marching across the causeway at dusk

admin sinfulldude · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:55 pm Post subject: Canewdon, near Southend on sea.

(was written and posted by madmart former forum's ADMIN )

Canewdon, near Southend on sea.

Few villages in England posses such a long standing reputation for witchcraft as Canewdon, near Southend on sea. In old historical records the name of the place is variously spelt as Canevdun, Canudon and Canevdon. Legend has it that the name is associated with the Danish King Canute or Cnut, and means "Canute's Hill".

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Canewdon became associated with the Craft. In 1847, according to local historian Phillip Benton, the remains of a huge statue described as "a heathen deity" were unearthed near the village. Buried with it were a number of bones which crumbled to dust when exposed to the air. This stone idol, which may have dated from pre-Christrian times judging from the condition of the bones, was smashed up and used to repair the local road.

The first recorded instance of witchcraft in Canewdon dates from the 16th century when a local spinster, Rose Pye, was accused of bewitching a child to death. At the assizes in July 1580 she was acquitted of the charge. By the early 19th century the village had acquired a reputation for strange happenings and was firmly established in Essex folklore as the haunt of ghosts demons and witches. It was claimed that there would be six or seven witches living in the village as long as the church tower stood. Every time a stone fell from the tower a witch died and another took her place in the coven. Other legends linked the church, dedicated to St Nicholas, with magic, witchcraft and the devil. Anyone who walked around the tower at midnight was forced to dance with the coven, children danced around the churchyard as a protection against bewitchment and the devil was said to live under one of the tombstones. There were reports, even in recent years, of the ghost of an old witch materialising out of a grey mist by the church gate.

Why this odd connection with a Christian place of worship with the Craft? Firstly, churches were often built on pagan sites. Secondly, the church tower was built to celebrate the English victory at Agincourt. Tradition has it that the Canewdon coven was founded in the 15th century buy a local landowner who fought in France and had been initiated into the French craft. This is the real reason why the church was significant to local witches.

According to popular belief, during the last century the Canewdon witches terrorised the neighbourhood. They allegedly inflicted plagues of lice on their enemies, "owl blinked" or overlooked wagons so their wheels would not turn and inflicted minor illnesses on the local population. Predictably most of these alleged witches were old women who lived alone who kept white mice as pets. These were regarded as imps or familiar spirits in animal form and had to be passed on when the witch made her final journey to the spirit world, although sometimes they were buried with their mistresses.

Whether these local beldames were real witches or just innocent victims of village gossip is difficult to prove. In rural communities isolated from the outside world witches were seldom regarded as benign. Whatever the truth of the matter folk tradition condemned them as servants of the powers of darkness who had soled their souls to the devil in exchange for magical powers. Belief in witches was prevalent in Canewdon for several generations and they were said to be under control of a male wizard (wise man)who was known as the master of the witches. This sounds genuine for a coven of female witches led by a male representative of the devil (the pagan horned god) was a common pattern in the traditional witch cult of the middle ages.

In the late nineteenth century the holder of the title Master of the Witches was a farm labourer George Pickingill or Pickingale (the family name was spelt both ways) who lived in an old cottage near the anchor public house a few hundred yards form the church. Pickingill was known as a cunning man who could charm warts and locate lost property by divining. He was the resident village character and when the first motor car came to Canewdon it was old George who was photographed alongside it. He had a sinister side to his image as the local eccentric for people said said he could stop farm machinery by staring at it with his intense blue eyes and curse those who offended him with his blackthorn walking stick.

St Nicholas church, Canewdon, Essex.

Craft tradition claims Pickingill was descended from a long line of East Anglian witches and that male members of the family had been priests of the Horned God since Saxon times. The first recorded member of the family was Julia Pickingill, the famous witch of Brandon who helped the \Normans hunt down Hereward the Wake and his rebels in the Norfolk fens. She was burned to death when the wooden tower she occupied was set alight by the Saxons.

Pickingill had gypsy blood ans was raised with the travelling people. His Romany kin venerated the black faced Mother Goddess of their ancestors and the young Pickinghill was encouraged to participate in there ceremonies involving ritual nudity and moon worship. This led Pickingill to become a devotee of the goddess and in later life he founded nine covens in southern England practising a heady mixture of East Anglian and French Craft, Romany folk magic and Scandinavian paganism. Each coven was led by a priestess of had to prove she had "witch blood" or had been inducted into an existing hereditary Craft tradition. Pickingill's use of priestesses, his veneration of the goddess and his contact with ceremonial magicians and occultists led many witches to condemn him as a renegade.

Pickingill passed into the spirit world in 1909 and was buried in an old (unconsecrated?) part of the churchyard. His powers, if local folklore can be believed, did not diminish with his death. On the day of his funeral as the hearse drew up at the church gate the horse trotted out of the shafts and cantered off up the lane. It was said that his imps haunted his empty cottage for many years until it was demolished and passers-by reported seeing their red eyes glowing in the darkness. Shortly before his death it is claimed Pickingill disbanded the Canewdon coven. Certainly little is heard of Craft activities in the village after the old magister died and his son, also called George, does not seem to have carried on the family tradition. Persistent rumours however suggest the Pickingill craft is still flourishing underground in the area and that remnants of the Nine Covens are still active elsewhere. Although the village has changed considerably in the last few years, with a modern housing estate replacing many of the old cottages, Canewdon still has an eerie atmosphere especially at dusk on a winter's evening.

After Halloween 1975 a pin studded doll was found next to a black candle in a wood near Canewdon which revived folk tales of the old witches. However this is more likely to have been the work of a practitioner of black magic than any modern witch. Legends persist though, and in 1977 a local resident pointed out to me the house of an old man in the village who was said to posses the power of the evil eye. In 1973 an Essex councillor claimed Canewdon was one of the last placed in England where witchcraft was still being practised. He said a coven meeting in the village was planning to cast a spell to prevent Maplin Sands being used as the site of the third London Airport.
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Joanne · Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Essex

Hello
Thank you for all the info here...was really interesting to read

I noted some of the items very close to myself

The post from 'Taliajack' concerning the 'Person holding the lantern'.
I myself have had an experience concerning this whilst walking my dog.

The post from 'Levibrawn' concerning 'Chalkwell Park'.
This park and area is really nice and was busy when I went for a walk

The post from 'Landlover' concerning 'Prittlewell Priory' and 'Hadleigh Castle' are very interesting as I have been to both these places.

I myself have had other experiences in Southend on sea and Westcliff on sea

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Helena · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 75 Location: yorkshire, UK

Joanne · Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Essex

Hello

My experience concerning the lantern carrying man....
I was walking my dog ontop of the cliffs one evening.
It was dark apart from the street lights, when my dog suddenly run off barking ahead.
When I caught up with the dog, I noticed a man who was holding up a lantern and looking out to sea.
The man smiled at me and then disappeared!

Needless to say, I quickly put my dog on his lead and went home!

Since this has happened, I have had a few other experiences and others have told me about their experiences.
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Helena · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 75 Location: yorkshire, UK

wow great thanx for sharing that with us all