Wiltshire Ghosts

flowe3rs · Wiltshire Ghosts

Wiltshire Ghosts

Stourton, Wiltshire

It seems as if New Year's Eve could be the anniversary of a tragic event for the ghost haunting the Sloane Track, which leads from Penselwood to the lower end of Stourton.

For this is the date that a headless horseman haunts the road followed closely by his faithful black dog. Legend has it that the man made a bet at Wincanton Market that he could get home to Stourton in just seven minutes.

Taking a short cut cross-country the horse stumbled and threw him as he galloped down the Sloane Track, breaking his neck

Headless Horseman

Ghost saves a child
Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire

There are many stories about ghosts who scare the life out of people, but not so many about those that save the life of people.

But in 1986 on Salisbury Plain that is exactly what happened. Tragically the background to the story involves a young mother and her son being mown down by a drunken driver.

Some time later the widowed husband, a serving soldier, was driving between two service vehicles at the same spot where his wife and child had been killed.

All of a sudden his wife appeared to him and glided to the front of his lorry.

He slammed on the brakes and just moments later a three year old boy ran straight out in front of the lorry.

If the lorry hadn't been stationary when it was the boy would certainly have been killed. The soldier believed his wife had made that one and only reappearance to protect the little boy and her husband.

Ghostly Village
Purton, Wiltshire

From the phantom horseman that haunts the road that leads out of the village to spectral dogs and figures seen by a number of people at different times in a residential house in the village, the village of Purton has a mind-boggling variety of ghosts.

Out and about in the village groups of ghostly children and youths have appeared to people and then suddenly vanish without explanation.

But perhaps the most enduring ghoulish figure is that of a nun said to haunt Purton church, where a skeleton, thought to be her, was found bricked up in a wall cavity.

There have been many theories as to why the woman's body was buried there. Some believe that she was the victim of foul play, others that she was a female recluse living in a small cell.
Whatever the story behind this particular ghost she has certainly been seen by quite a few people in her time.

Falling From The Sky
Larkhill, Wiltshire

It is not often that you get accident black spots for aircraft, but just three miles from Amesbury near the army camp there is a small copse with a stone cairn commemorating the first Royal Flying Corps members died in an aeroplane while on service in 1912.

Not far from this spot is the place where Colonel FS Cody, an aviation pioneer, plunged to his death in his experimental aircraft.

During the Second World War there were several incidents where servicemen based at the army camp near this area saw a plane dive straight into the copse.

On rushing to the scene to help the crash victims they would find that the plane had disappeared without a trace.

Several also saw the figure of a man in old-fashioned flying gear in the area who would disappear inexplicably, he is thought to be the ghost of the early aviator Colonel FS Cody.

On Safari
Longleat House, Wiltshire

A former safari park worker recalls some strange goings on both in the house itself as well as in the animals enclosures.

It is claimed that in the old elephant house in the park one of the elephant's would always fling dung into one particular corner.

Research found that wounded US soldiers were housed at Longleat during World War Two, and that what became the elephant house was previously used as a mortuary.

Meanwhile in the House a green lady is said to haunt the top corridor and has been seen by numerous housekeepers there

Duke of Buckingham
Debenhams, Salisbury

One of Wiltshire's most celebrated ghosts is said to stalk . . . a Salisbury department store.

The ghost of the beheaded Duke of Buckingham still roams around the Salisbury branch of Debenhams
Not any old ghost, but the apparition of the Duke of Buckingham - a character familiar to generations of schoolchildren who have studied Shakespeare's Richard III.

"Crookback Dick" ordered the execution of His Grace, inevitably known today as the Duke of Debenham's, in 1483.

Buckingham was one of many who met his death in Richard's bloody struggle for the throne. He was duly beheaded in the Market Place.

Over the centuries his mournful spirit has manifested itself many times on the site, now occupied by Debenham's, in Blue Boar Row.

Once, a BT engineer was working in the attic room where Buckingham was imprisoned when he felt a cold touch on his shoulder.

He ran out of the room in a state of cold terror and no-one could persuade him to go back. Someone had to go in and get his tools.

According to legend Buckingham's head was taken still bleeding to the king, who was staying in the Cathedral Close, and the stains are said to magically reappear, even today

Spectral scooter
Warminster, Wiltshire

You think you've heard it all and then someone comes up with a story about a phantom moped.

Or at least that's the only explanation a group of paranormal researchers could give to a spook light they saw very early one morning near Upton Scudamore in 1976.

The light was about eight inches across and four to five feet off the ground, it appeared to be approaching the car containing the group who thought it was an angry farmer on his moped.

The light disappeared when it was blocked by trees, and when the group inspected the area during daylight there were no moped tracks.

Warminster, of course, is also famed for its associations with UFOs

A spooky village fair
When looking at the ancient Avebury site from the nearby earth mound in 1916, a lady had her view obscured by a village fair that was going on at the ancient site.

There were shows and booths, a crowd of fair-goers and all the other associated things. The woman looked for a while but drove away when it started to rain.

She later found out that the village fair had not been held since 1850. for these party goers their revels were never ended

Mrs Hedges Takes Shelter
Swindon, Wiltshire

Not all ghostly encounters are scary, and the experience that Mrs Edna Hedges had in the 1930s was all very civilised really!

A storm was raging as Mrs Hedges cycled down the road to her friend's house. She needed shelter and pulled up to a nice looking thatched cottage down a little lane.

She was invited in by an old man and there was a bright fire burning in the hearth.

The next thing she knew she was back on the road on her journey.

On arriving at her friends' house everyone was surprised at how dry she was, she described what had happened and found that the cottage she had been in had in fact been derelict for over 50 years.