I see dead people

[africanqueen]

I have no idea where to put this so am sticking it here. No doubt it will get moved to the right place.

 

Does anyone know of any legends or stories or "hauntings" or anything that's not "real" about the canals in the UK? Are there any supposed nymphs or beasts amongst us (don't answer that actually) like in Scottish waters or any rivers in the UK?

 

I'd love to hear some stories.

 

Thanks

[Athy]

Look for "Kit Crewbucket" on your search engine.

[Yellowback]

I have no idea where to put this so am sticking it here. No doubt it will get moved to the right place.

 

Does anyone know of any legends or stories or "hauntings" or anything that's not "real" about the canals in the UK? Are there any supposed nymphs or beasts amongst us (don't answer that actually) like in Scottish waters or any rivers in the UK?

 

I'd love to hear some stories.

 

Thanks

Don't know if it counts as what you're after, it probably will after time and lots of beer have passed under the bridge.

 

You could try asking Hairy-Neil about the myth of the siren who lured him onto the rocks, (suppose it was gravel really), on the Trent recently.

[RLWP]

"The Great Mattress of Tame...."

 

Say no more

 

Richard

[Josher]

Should make sure you are on the boat, alone, moored in a deep cutting first ...

 

Linky

[The Anonymous Bard]

Well, as a bit of fun and something we have never gotton to the bottom of...

 

It's a bit vague from the size of image but download and enlarge it, then look directly above the guys head and see what you think?

 

This was something which we never noticed at the time and only picked up on afterwards whilst viewing some images which we had taken, there is a good marker in the signpost to the right of the picture which we have used on visits since to trace back on site but to no avail in finding out what it was as there has never been anything there that could represent the "figure" as we interpreted it in the image.

 

Upon enlargement it's so clearly James Brindley in typical cloak floating half way up a tree with his back to us.

 

Oh how the imagination runs riot... where's the Speckled Hen i'm running dry!

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50005139@N08/4589328011/sizes/o/in/set-72157624018948598/

Edited December 29, 2011 by The Anonymous Bard

[Keeping Up]

We met Kit Crewbucket in 1990 (story on our website)

 

The stories in "Still Waters" by Margaret Cornish are excellent. Out of print but you can still find copies.

[jeannette smith harrison]

Hello All

"Still Waters" was re re released only last year so should be easy to get.

"Canal Crimes" by R.H. Davies is another

"Shadows on the Water" by Allen Scott Davis is another.

Or for the price of a few pints find yourself an old Boatman & im sure

he will spin you his yarns & stories for hours.

Some of the Stories in these books have been repeated down the generations

of boatmen & a bit like chinese whispers get altered a little each time.

Most where told to the children not to frighten them as in horror stories

but to protect them from the everyday dangers of working on the cut.

Old canal folk are v superstitious & to tell a child about a ghost in the tunnel

would send the child scutling down into the cabin( safe & out of the way)

As a child i was always sent into the cabin @ Hanwell flight because of the Ghosts

it was really because of the amount of bodies found in the cut along that area mostly

from Hanwell Sanitorium.

Jeannette

[Bobbybass]

I did have a phone call from a mysterious woman once..

She said..'come on over...there's nobody here'..

So I went on over....and there was nobody there...

 

Spooky eh...?

 

[Hairy-Neil]

 

You could try asking Hairy-Neil about the myth of the siren who lured him onto the rocks, (suppose it was gravel really), on the Trent recently.

 

That's no way to talk about Roxy....

[the grinch]

We met Kit Crewbucket in 1990

 

never actually met her, but have experienced the ghost light in the tunnel

[AJLintern]

We met Kit Crewbucket in 1990 (story on our website)

Ooh that's creepy! Maybe he's a bit of a purest and doesn't like plastic boats entering his tunnel eh?

[africanqueen]

Josher, that's great. Thanks.

 

Jeannette, thanks as well.

 

Hmm...I just spent £37 at amazon thanks to you lot.

[Dignity]

Brilliant insight Jeanette thanks.Very recently a guy I've worked with for 9 years and know well (so believe him)told me this.He was backing his wagon into a dark car park (the same place I've done with him many times) when in the reversing camara showed up a barge, as it went passed, on the back was a roman centurion in full dress with a lantern.Nowhere near water,it didn't show in the wing mirrors,only the camara.The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.Not something I can explain.

Theres another story from last week,this time I was with the bloke.Now I'm not sure about this as he's a bit of a haunted fan,but theres this call we do opposite a hospital thats closed,boarded up and is supposed to be very haunted (its well known apparantly).Now I'm driving the wagon so I'm sat in the cab while he goes round the back of the wagon to load.He comes back and as were driving off he comments how he could smell an industrial laundry smell.It's 6.00am and theres nothing except a garage and a couple of houses.I couldn't smell it but I didn't go outside,he maintains that it wasn't a houshold detergent smell.

Finally theres my ex wifes story,again I believe her as I know her very well.She worked in a sewing factory,her machine was in sat in this particular spot.The other girls told her it was haunted,which she took as a wind up.Then one day the air around her went extreamly cold and she could smell old pipe tobbaco.It was apparantly the old bloke who had died in there years ago and hung around that particular bit of the factory.

Me I've seen nothing,but I think perhaps I'm not tuned in, in that particular way

[n.b.Goldie]

Professor Brian Cox the well known heart-throb physicist says that the second law of thermodynamics makes the existence of ghosts an impossibility. I have no idea what the second law of thermodynamics is but if the prof says so that's good enough for me. Any ghosts you see are the figment of your own deranged imagination.

 

Regards

Ditchdabbler

[twbm]

Brilliant insight Jeanette thanks.Very recently a guy I've worked with for 9 years and know well (so believe him)told me this.He was backing his wagon into a dark car park (the same place I've done with him many times) when in the reversing camara showed up a barge, as it went passed, on the back was a roman centurion in full dress with a lantern.Nowhere near water,it didn't show in the wing mirrors,only the camara.The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.Not something I can explain.

 

Wireless TV extension in a nearby house being picked up by the cables in the wagon?

[jenlyn]

The Boaters Manifesto FB page

[luctor et emergo]

Did they ever find that huge snake ( Boa Constrictor ?) that escaped into the canal near Wolverhampton, lart year?

[jeannette smith harrison]

Hello all

Sorry been away from world for a couple of days (New strain of flu it knocks you for six)

I have never seen a ghost or experienced anything along the lines but tales that where

told to me as a child have a lasting effect. I still belive in the hair witch of the cut

& other stories told to me.I was raised with a lot of superstition & old wives tales

not to mention the stories told by my Dad, Nan & Grandad.

As a small child i lived in two worlds's

School holidays spent as a boat child running free & learning about life on the cut.

Then back to school,my grandparent's & Parent's could not read or write but they mad sure i

never missed a day from school.Prahaps thats where i get my thirst for reading. African queen i

spend around £50 a month on book's & if you are ever near to the London Canal Museum we have a great selection

of canal related books in the shop pop in & have a look.

luctor et emergo i take it you have read "The Tunnel" I re read it a couple of weeks ago & without

fail it gave me nightmares.

So untill the day a ghost taps me on the shoulder i will keep an open mind.

[africanqueen]

Jeanette, I live practically on top of the Canal Museum. I really ought to make time and pop in. Thanks for all your suggestions.

[jeannette smith harrison]

AfricanQueen

Have sent you a p/m

Jeannette

[africanqueen]

Jeanette, I tried to reply to your PM but it wouldn't let me. Sorry. I havent been on here for a while.

[carlt]

 

Upon enlargement it's so clearly James Brindley in typical cloak floating half way up a tree with his back to us.

Never mind Brindley. I want to know why there is a child impaled on a pole, just in front of your engine room...

[The Anonymous Bard]

 

Never mind Brindley. I want to know why there is a child impaled on a pole, just in front of your engine room...

 

 

Lol!

 

I couldn't make out what that was myself until looking at some other pictures taken at the same spot, different boat but it looks as though it's the No Parking sign.

 

I'd be surprised if there hadn't been a few good ghost stories circulating over the years at The Swan just up the road...

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50005139@N08/4920633293/in/set-72157624018893692

 

Edited to add that it didn't take long to look one up (rumour, not ghost!).

 

Quote taken from the following link,

 

"If you stay until dark, watch out for the lady ghost who reputedly appears in the mirror in the bar. But we’re not fooled, this pub couldn’t be spooky if it tried: besides, any real ghost worth its salt would probably only want a bag of crisps and a pint and to be as sociable as everyone else."

 

http://www.towpathtalk.co.uk/news/an-amble-with-a-pub-on-the-trent-mersey-canal

Edited February 2, 2012 by The Anonymous Bard

[carlt]

I can't help feeling the Photoshoppers will be along shortly, to enhance the shot, revealing other wonders of the supernatural world.