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admin sinfulldude · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:04 pm Post subject: The ghosts of Stocksbridge bypass

Stocksbridge bypass over the years as been a place well know for being haunted.The bypass was intended to alleviate the heavy traffic through the town of Stocksbridge. The bypass was completed in April 1988, cost over £14 million and was carved out of the hills adjacent to Stocksbridge but even before its completion things started to happen in the area and on the site of the road which caused concern not only for those involved in the work, but for the policemen sent to deal with it.
The McAlpine construction company, who were contracted out to do the work, employed security guards from Constant Securities who patrolled the site and the materials stored their after work hours. Peter ***** was in charge of the security but was not on site the night of Tuesday September 8th. That night he was called out by Steven ******* and another man who were on duty at the by-pass. He arrived and found them in a distressed state - the two men had white and pallid faces, were physically shaking and crying. Upon questioning them he found out what had happened to them.

1987 September 7th
The night before, Monday September 7th they had commenced their shifts as normal and had driven up Pearoyd Lane (above the steelworks in Stocksbridge) 20-30 minutes after midnight and saw what they took to be a group of children playing just down from the half-constructed bridge beside a pylon. The men parked up the Land rover and went to investigate. They were puzzled by the sight of the children especially since they were wearing clothing which was especially dated - antiquated even. It was late for any kids to be out there and the pylon was a fair distance from the nearest houses in the town itself. When they reached the spot, there were no children. The ground was fresh mud but there were no footprints and no sign of anyone having been around. Mystified, they got back into the Land rover and continued onwards. The following morning they checked with the local workmen who slept in some caravans nearby and were told that they too had heard the sound of children's voices during the night hours on a few occasions.

1987 September 8th
The following evening, Tuesday September 8th, they began their shifts once again as normal and at roughly the same time drove up Pearoyd Lane towards the partially-constructed bridge. Steven noticed something and pointed it out to his colleague. There on the bridge was a figure of a monk. Steven got out and his partner drove up the road and around to the bridge. When the headlights touched the figure, they passed right through it. Suddenly the figure vanished. Afraid and uncertain of what they had seen, the men rushed back down to their base and called up Peter Owens, their boss.
Disturbed, the men called the local police at Deepcar and told them what had happened. PC Ellis took the call and explained that it was hardly a police matter and half-jokingly suggested they needed a priest rather than a PC.

Later that day PC Ellis received another call, this time from Stuart Brindley, the vicar at Stocksbridge, who told him that the two security guards had called on him in a distressed state and asked for an exorcism, such was the extent of their fear, PC Ellis was instructed to go to the church to remove the men and also to find out what was going on.

1987 September 11th
Following these reports, PC Ellis and former Special Constable John Beet drove up to the spot in their Vauxhall Astra squad car on Friday September 11th to investigate. They expected to find nothing and attributed the words of the two security guards to panic and hysteria.

They parked up and sat facing the bridge. The night was warm and both men had their windows rolled right down.

Before long they thought they could see something moving on the bridge, something unidentifiable from their position. PC Ellis man got out and went up onto the bridge, only to discover that what they had seen was a loose tarpaulin flapping in the breeze. Relieved and feeling a little foolish they sat in the car for a while.

Gradually the men began to feel unsettled. PC Ellis said he 'went cold' ....as if someone had walked over my grave. And what was so odd I went cold without knowing what was the matter.' Suddenly PC Ellis was aware of a presence on his right outside the car. He turned his head quickly and saw what he took to be a figure immediately outside his window pushed up so close that he could see only the torso it. He said it looked like it was wearing dark clothing with a white 'v' shape from the neck down. As he was turning to look it vanished. Then John Beet saw exactly the same thing on his side of the car, and when he looked it also disappeared.

PC Ellis, although disturbed by the experience, got out of the car and walked around it to see who it was. He looked on all sides and even peered underneath. Nobody was near the car. Both men were in no mood for pranks or jokes but this seemed very different and very real. Back in the car, PC Ellis turned the ignition key and at first the car would not start. For a few moments the engine refused to turn over, then suddenly sprung into life.

They drove further down the road towards the construction area and pulled up. The site was deserted. They radioed into the police station of their position. Without warning something banged hard on the rear of the car. PC Ellis described it as sounding like a baseball bat or pickaxe handle. Again he got out and checked the car. Nobody was in the area and the men were alone. He climbed back in only to hear the bang twice more. Without further ado, they drove off back to Deepcar.

The men reported that the feeling they had was not one of fear when facing danger, but one which springs from a situation over which you have no control. A feeling of dread.

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MORE GHOSTLY EVENTS ON STOCKSBRIDGE BYPASS

1987 Late Summer
Joggers Graham and Nigel Brooke were out on the Stocksbridge Bypass during its construction one evening when they noticed ahead of them a figure walking with its back towards the traffic in the middle of the road. As they drew nearer they noticed that it had no discernible features except for the nose and eye sockets. Accompanying this figure was a 'fusty, rotten smell' but more bizarrely the figure was walking 'in the road from the knee down' as if on a different level to the tarmac. When they were closer still the figure disappeared, leaving the father and son perplexed and scared.

The bypass bridge

1987 Autumn
Later Judi and David Simpson were driving over the bypass on a bridge one day when out to their left over the fields they noticed something odd and distinctly unsettling: a figure was floating above the field. They described it as having no face but it did have arms and legs which were flaying around. As they drove, the figure came up the embankment, rose to the road and disappeared into the car. The couple were terrified.

Historical Evidence

The area had monastery farms hundreds of years ago. There is a story of one of these monks had become somewhat disillusioned with the church and had decided to leave. He subsequently went to work at Underbank Hall as a groundsman. When he died, because of his departure from the faith, he was buried in unhallowed ground.

In the area in the late 18th century and up to the mid 19th century children were regularly used in mining pits.

1977 New Year's Eve
Mr and Mrs Ford were driving along the by-pass into Stocksbridge when they saw a man apparently trying to cross the road. He wore a cloak, yet seemed to be hovering in mid air. As Mr Ford slammed on the brakes to, avoid him, he froze with fear, the apparition had no face! His wife grabbed the wheel to prevent them from plunging over a steep embankment above the steelworks.

Autumn 1987
Graham Brooke was training for the London Marathon and running with his son for company. They were coming down the road from Wortley Church, when they saw a man dressed in eighteenth century clothes with a dark brown cape and carrying a bag with a chain. There was a musty smell. As their hair stood on end, the man suddenly vanished.

The legs of the Pearoyd pylon with Stocksbridge on the background

8 September 1987, 7.00a.m.
At seven o’clock on the morning of September 8th 1987 two security guards, employed on the part-built road, arrived at the vicarage asking him to exorcise the road. One of them burst into tears and was in a state of shock.

The vicar did not know what to do and contacted the police. The guards, David Brookes and David Goldthorpe had been driving in a Landrover along the by-pass about midnight, when they saw a hooded figure on the bridge (which could not be reached on foot). They stopped and directed their headlights onto the bridge. The lights passed straight through the figure, which immediately vanished.

Shortly before this they had seen a group of children playing just down the road from the bridge near a pylon. They drove past, parked the Landrover and got out, but the children had vanished. There was fresh mud around the pylon, but no footprints.

John Holmes, who worked at G.R. Steynes’ lorry depot on Carr Road, Deepcar, said that he and his mates used to hear children singing while the construction work was going on. Even on freezing nights, they heard what sounded like a choir of about ten children, but could never make out the words. They always felt that they were being watched. One old man refused to work at the depot at nights, because he had seen something there.

Stories of the hauntings go back to the beginning of the century. There is a legend of a stage-coach overturning and killing a group of small children. Or were the ghostly children really fairy folk?

12 September, midnight
At midnight on September 12th, PC thingy Ellis and a special constable, determined to investigate the story, parked near Pearoyd Bridge. It was a clear night with an almost full moon.

After a couple of minutes they both saw a shadow moving across a large painted pallet. It happened three times. They decided that lights from the steelworks below were causing it.

Then suddenly PC Ellis froze. He felt that someone was standing beside him. He turned but could see no-one. Then his colleague let out a scream and hit him on the arm. He looked the other way and could see the torso of someone standing next to the passenger seat. He gained the impression of a Victorian cravat and waistcoat. For a split second he saw a face. Then the man was gone.

They drove up to the bridge and radioed to colleagues in Deepcar to join them. They had only been parked for a few seconds, when something thumped on the back of the car. Yet there was nothing to be seen. They hurriedly drove back down to the works.

Friday 13 May 1988
THE ROAD WAS opened on Friday the 13th! They couldn't have picked a worse date!

Ever since there has been an unusually high number of accidents, many fatal. Driver error, poor road design and inadequate or non-existent lighting over some stretches at night have all been blamed. The Department of Transport eventually agreed to install lighting the full length of the road.
On the Bypass - with a length of 7 miles - there were 26 deaths within fifteen years. From 2001 to 2003 there were 5-year old twin boys from Stocksbridge, a 6-year old girl, coincidentally also a twin, two persons on a motorbike from Barnsley and a Dutch lorry driver.

From left to right on the arrows: Hunshelf Bank, Pearoyd pylon, Pearoyd bridge and the bypass.

Ghost as passenger
The large black shadow that sat in the passenger seat of psychic June Beevers’ Metro car in the spring of 1993 was undeterred by street lights.

‘It didn’t communicate with me,’ she said, ‘but I felt a real sense of fear. I was shocked and I am used to psychic phenomena, so it would be very startling for other drivers and I dread to think what the consequences could be.’ She believes that this very active presence is responsible for the accidents.

A hooded figure

There is one legend which says that a hooded figure, which has been seen by many people particularly around Pearoyd Bridge, is of a runaway monk (disillusioned with monastic life) who died at either Hunshelf or Underbank Hall.

He wished to be buried at Stannington, but instead was buried in unhallowed ground far from his monastery, and his grave has been disturbed by the building of the by-pass. One man, who lives nearby, regularly sees the monk on the bridge. A man and a boy have also been seen on the bridge.

It is probable that his was not the only grave to be disturbed, although Stocksbridge vicar Reverend Brindley could find no record of a Christian graveyard in the area.

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