December 18, 2025 • 38 mins
In 1953, a museum caretaker reached out to touch an elderly stranger's shoulder — and his hand passed through thin air as the man vanished, leaving behind a blue book that had belonged to a lawyer who died thirty years before.
#12NightmaresOfXmas “THE DEATH COACH” and 6 More True Paranormal Christmas Stories! #WeirdDarkness
Episode 6 of 12 in the “Twelve Nightmares of Christmas” series!
In this episode: “The York Museum Ghost”, “The Sea Captain’s Ghost”, “The Frozen Lovers”, “Ghost Cat”, “Saying Goodbye”, “The Death Coach”, “Sir Geoffrey Walks”
SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
All stories in this episode are from the book, “The Spirits of Christmas: The Dark Side of the Holidays” by Sylvia Shults: https://amzn.to/3uT2vMA
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Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. Background music provided by Alibi Music Library, EpidemicSound and/or StoryBlocks with paid license. Music from Shadows Symphony (https://tinyurl.com/yyrv987t), Midnight Syndicate (http://amzn.to/2BYCoXZ) Kevin MacLeod (https://tinyurl.com/y2v7fgbu), Tony Longworth (https://tinyurl.com/y2nhnbt7), and Nicolas Gasparini (https://tinyurl.com/lnqpfs8) is used with permission of the artists.
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(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
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"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
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WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2024, Weird Darkness.
https://weirddarkness.com/YorkMuseumGhost
#WeirdDarkness #HauntedMuseum #TrueGhostStory #ParanormalInvestigation #HauntedEngland #GhostSighting #ScaryStories #HorrorPodcast #RealGhosts #Supernatural
#12NightmaresOfXmas “THE DEATH COACH” and 6 More True Paranormal Christmas Stories! #WeirdDarkness
Episode 6 of 12 in the “Twelve Nightmares of Christmas” series!
In this episode: “The York Museum Ghost”, “The Sea Captain’s Ghost”, “The Frozen Lovers”, “Ghost Cat”, “Saying Goodbye”, “The Death Coach”, “Sir Geoffrey Walks”
SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
All stories in this episode are from the book, “The Spirits of Christmas: The Dark Side of the Holidays” by Sylvia Shults: https://amzn.to/3uT2vMA
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. Background music provided by Alibi Music Library, EpidemicSound and/or StoryBlocks with paid license. Music from Shadows Symphony (https://tinyurl.com/yyrv987t), Midnight Syndicate (http://amzn.to/2BYCoXZ) Kevin MacLeod (https://tinyurl.com/y2v7fgbu), Tony Longworth (https://tinyurl.com/y2nhnbt7), and Nicolas Gasparini (https://tinyurl.com/lnqpfs8) is used with permission of the artists.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2024, Weird Darkness.
https://weirddarkness.com/YorkMuseumGhost
#WeirdDarkness #HauntedMuseum #TrueGhostStory #ParanormalInvestigation #HauntedEngland #GhostSighting #ScaryStories #HorrorPodcast #RealGhosts #Supernatural
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, mysterious, macabre,
unsolved and unexplained. If you're new here, be sure to
subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Android so you
don't miss future episodes. This is a special twelve Nightmares
(00:27):
of Christmas episode. Each day from December thirteenth through December
twenty fourth, I'm posting a new episode of Weird Darkness
featuring material from the new book The Spirits of Christmas,
The Dark Side of the Holidays by Sylvia Schultz. Be
sure to come back every day from December thirteenth through
the twenty fourth for more holiday horrors on Weird Darkness. Now,
(00:51):
bult your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights,
put another log onto the fire, and come with me
in to the Weird Darkness. The town of York, England,
(01:20):
is incredibly ancient by American standards. Many cultures have put
their stamp on it. Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Celts, Normans, all
putting a facet on this jewel of the North and
relics of all these bygone people who lived and died
in York are housed in the York Museum. In nineteen
(01:44):
fifty three, a haunting began at the museum that involved
a book with a blue cover. It was just an
ordinary book, but for one returning spirit, it seemed to
hold great importance. It started on a Sunday evening in
September nineteen fifty three. There was a meeting going on
(02:05):
at the museum, so the caretaker, mister George Jonas, was
waiting for it to be over so he could lock
up the building. Jonas and his wife were downstairs as
people filed out. Jonas made a cup of tea before
going upstairs for a final sweep of the building. But
missus Jonas said, are you sure everyone's gone? She heard
(02:28):
footsteps above them and listening. Mister Jonahs did too. It's
probably the curator. I'll go up and tell him. I'll
be turning the lights off soon, Jonas said. He went
up the stairs heading for the curator's office. There was
an elderly stranger in the office instead. He was in
(02:48):
the far corner of the room, bent over as if
looking for something. As Jonahs came into the office, the
stranger stood up, turned around and walked right past asked
Jonahs out of the office. Pardon me, sir, but are
you looking for someone? Jonas asked. The stranger, who was
(03:08):
dressed in an old fashioned frock coat and trousers. Ignored him.
The old fellow went straight across the hall through the
open door into the library. Jonas followed him, turning on
the lights as he came into the room behind the
odd stranger. I must find it, Oh, I must find it,
the old gentleman muttered to himself. He crossed the library
(03:32):
to a bookshelf and ran his fingers down the spines
of the books. By this time, Jonas was feeling a
bit miffed at being so roundly ignored, but he thought
that perhaps the old fellow was hard of hearing, or
even stone deaf. Jonahs walked closer to the old man.
If you want to see the curator, mister Wilmot, I'll
(03:53):
be glad to escort you to his house. As Jonah spoke,
he reached out to touch the gentleman's shoulder to get
his attable. Just before Jonah's fingers brushed the tweed of
the old fellow's jacket, the man vanished. Jonas stood completely
still for a few moments. While his mind tried to
process the old man's sudden disappearance, his gaze wandered to
(04:18):
the floor. There was a book with a blue cover
lying there. It had fallen from the old gentleman's hands
as he vanished. Idly. Jonas noted the title Antiquities and
Curiosities of the Church. Then his mind caught up with
a situation. He raced down the stairs and bundled his
(04:40):
wife out the door. Time to go, let's go, now,
we need to go. The next morning, Jonas went to
work at the museum as usual. His first stop was
the library. The blue book was still lying on the
floor where the ghost had dropped it. Jonas shook his head.
So he hadn't imagined it at after all, He told
(05:01):
the museum's curator the odd story. Four sundays later, mister
Jonas was again at the museum, and the ghosts returned.
The spirit looked just as solid as before. Jonahs later
swore he looked like a very real person. But this
time the old man in Edwardian dress went from the
(05:24):
office across the hall to the library and walked through
the locked door to get there. This was just weird
enough that mister Jonas decided to bring someone else with
him when he worked his Sunday hours. On the fourth
Sunday after that, Jonas and a friend walked into the
library and heard the quiet shuffling of someone turning the
(05:45):
pages of a book. A flash of blue caught their eyes,
and a book dropped to the floor as they watched.
It was the same book the old man had pulled
off the shelf the first time Jonas had encountered him.
Enough was enough. The ghost was following a pattern of
appearing every fourth Sunday, so on the fourth Sunday in December,
(06:09):
a group of six men gathered with mister Jonas in
the library of the York Museum. Jonas had gone to
his doctor to make sure he wasn't just imagining things,
and had even invited the doctor to come to the
library to see the manifestation for himself. Along with Jonas
and his doctor were a lawyer and a reporter from
(06:29):
the Yorkshire Evening Press. Mister James Jonas, the caretaker's brother,
was also there, mostly because he thought his brother's story
was complete nonsense. George Jonas took the blue book off
the shelf to show it to everyone. As it turned
out the book had a business card pasted inside the
(06:50):
front cover. Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church had once
belonged to Alderman Edward Wooller, a lawyer who collected antiques.
The Alderman had collapsed and died at a meeting nearly
thirty years before. The old gentleman had always arrived around
seven forty pm. Everyone in the room sat tensely watching
(07:12):
the clock as the minutes ticked past. At exactly seven
forty two, the slim blue book slowly slid to the
edge of the bookshelf, as if drawn out by an
invisible hand. It gently dropped from the shelf onto the floor,
still standing upright. Everyone in the library was shocked, except
(07:34):
for George Jonas, he was just relieved not to have
been the only witness this time. Everyone else agreed that, yes,
without a doubt, there was something supernatural going on in
the library every fourth Sunday, and now there was a
possible identity for the ghost, Alderman Wooler. But not everyone
(07:57):
welcomed the idea of a ghost in the library. Mister Wilmot,
who had held the post of curator for the past
four years, was open to the idea of investigating the
phenomenon further. After all, the apparition, whoever he was, had
now been experienced by nine people. However, the museum was
overseen by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and they roundly poo
(08:21):
pooed the very thought of the paranormal. The society's chairman grouped,
it is too silly for words. There will be no investigation.
I would not let the subject be brought before the
council of the Society. I would not waste time on
such tripe. Wilmot was so incensed at the chairman's dismissive
attitude that he handed in his resignation. In the meantime,
(08:45):
Jonas and his associates went ahead with the investigation Wilmot
had supported. Jonas was ill on the fourth Sunday in January,
so he wasn't able to ghost hunt that evening. But
on the next fourth Sunday, February seven, seventh, nineteen fifty four,
twelve men sat quietly in the museum's library. George Jonas
(09:07):
was feeling much better, and he was joined by several professionals,
including members of the Society for Psychical Research. The men
locked the door of the library to make sure they
could conduct their investigation undisturbed. They got to the museum
in plenty of time. They began the session at seven fifteen,
(09:28):
twenty five minutes before the ghost's usual arrival time of
seven forty. Unfortunately, the haunting seemed to have run its course.
Whether Jonah's absence in January knocked the ghost off his schedule,
or the spirit had finally been satisfied with pulling the
book off the shelf several times, we'll never know. But
(09:49):
nothing happened in February save for a small wandering cold spot,
and on March seventh, the next Sunday in the cycle,
nothing at all happened. The spirit was gone, but the
snark remained. During those weeks of waiting for the ghost
to show up, some of the more open minded members
(10:11):
of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society started asking questions about mister
Wilmot's resignation. A special meeting was held to inquire into
the circumstances there were, it was reported later, some bitter
attacks and some strong defense who knew philosophers could get
so worked up. The result of the meeting was that
(10:32):
the members of the society voted overwhelmingly to ask Wilmot
to stay on as the museum's curator. Wilmot had been
about to leave for another position, but he agreed to stay.
Politics being what they are. This was followed by a
flurry of other resignations. At its annual meeting two months later,
(10:53):
the Yorkshire Philosophical Society had a completely new twelve member council.
There was one person who was sad to see the
museum ghost, go Alderman. Wooller's grandson heard of the ghost
and realized that the description of the Edwardian gentleman fit
his grandfather exactly. He was thrilled to have a ghost
(11:14):
in the family. After the experience of December nineteen fifty three,
the ghost has never been seen again. But there are
people who say that if you're in the York Museum
Library doing research or simply reading a book, you may
notice that the room seems unnaturally cold. Maybe the old
(11:35):
fellow is still lurking in the library. The coast of Donegal, Ireland,
(12:04):
is one of the most picturesque places in the country.
Small islands off the coast provide a breakwater some small
protection from the angry storm lashed waters of the Atlantic.
The islands of Inoshinee Gola and Innisbond perform a perfect
natural harbor for passing ships to seek refuge in a storm.
(12:26):
Around Christmas one year in the early part of the
twentieth century, a small sailing ship came into the harbor
to resupply. The ship had been battling her way through
a prolonged storm and supplies were running low. The captain
and two of his men rowed to the harbor from
the ship. They barely made the trip safely, even with
(12:49):
the protection of the islands. The water of the harbor
was a seething, boiling cauldron of foam, and it was
evening by the time they landed. The islanders guided the
small boat safely to shore and welcomed the three men.
The captain loaded the skiff with supplies and was determined
to make it back to his ship that night. The
(13:10):
captain was a frequent visitor to the island and was
well liked. The islanders begged him to stay until the
fury of the storm slackened, but the captain was adamant.
He and his two companions pushed off into the darkness.
The next morning, the fears of the islanders had come true.
In the darkness of the storm, the unfamiliar harbor, and
(13:33):
the storm racked waters had bested the small skiff. A
man walking the beach looking for salvageable items from Rex
found the small boat. It had been smashed to splinters
by the pounding waves. Near it was the battered, broken
body of the captain. The bodies of the other two
(13:53):
sailors were never found. The tragedy hit the islanders hard.
The island was home to just a handful of people
who kept horses and cattle grazing on the tough forage there.
The islanders were devastated that, despite their best efforts to
convince them to stay, the captain and his companions had
taken their chances on the dangerous waters, and now they
(14:17):
were gone. The islanders felt the loss as though it
had been family members who had drowned. After the tragedy,
the settlers drew together for companionship. Soon afterward, they began
to spend their evenings together in one house in an
effort to keep the loneliness at bay. One evening, as
(14:40):
they sat around the fire chatting, they heard footsteps approaching
the door. The walkway leading to the door was made
of fine, soft sand, Yet they still heard footsteps as
if someone was coming towards the house on hard packed earth.
Everyone on the island was there in the house, so
they figured it must be a stranger. They all looked
(15:02):
eagerly towards the door, ready to welcome the traveler to
their fireside. The door swung open, and there stood a tall,
broad shouldered man, the Captain, who had been buried just
a few days previously. Every person in the room recognized him.
A woman sitting in the corner said in Irish, oh God,
(15:23):
there's the captain. One of the men found his voice
and greeted the captain in his native Irish speech, saying
come in. But the figure in the doorway simply stepped
back and disappeared. The islanders rushed out into the night,
but they didn't find anyone near the house. The captain
(15:44):
had vanished into the dark winter night. A few days
(16:17):
before Christmas eighteen fifty, a small boat dropped anchor off
Jameson's Point near Rockland, Maine. The captain was not on board.
Rumor had it that he had gone ashore for a
drink and not his first, and that the schooner's owners
had fired him for his hard drinking ways. Whatever the reason,
(16:37):
the boat was lacking a captain. The first mate, believing
strongly in the old adage when the cats away, the
mice will play, had recently proposed to a beautiful young woman.
With the captain gone, the first mate saw no reason
not to enjoy the company of his bride to be.
He invited her to stay in his cabin on the
(16:58):
schooner for a few days. Only the mate, his young lady,
and one deck hand were aboard the boat on December
twenty second, when a vicious storm whipped up and snapped
the boat's anchor cable. With only two men to guide
the schooner, it soon ran aground on the rocky shore
near Owl's Head. The boulders held the boat in place,
(17:21):
so luckily it didn't sink, but it did fill with
sea water. The three people aboard huddled for warmth on
the deck. Waves crashed over the deck, drenching the three
in freezing spray. Their clothes began to grow stiff with ice.
The first mate took charge. His plan was for all
three of them to roll up together in a wool
(17:43):
blanket and lie down next to the stern rail as
far out of the wind and spray as possible. The
mate knew they couldn't avoid the spray altogether, but he
hoped it would freeze on the blanket and form a
protective shell of ice around them. This plan worked too well.
The waves continued to pummel the boat all night, and
(18:04):
the spray froze into ice more quickly than the mate
had anticipated. The ice built into a suffocating layer several
inches thick. By the time the sky grew gray with
the dawn, The first mate and his fiancee were unconscious.
The deckhand mourned his companions, but was glad to find
(18:26):
himself alive at the end of that chilling night. He
used a small knife to chip away at the ice,
then smashed his way free with hands that bled from
the shards of icy cold. He staggered to his feet
and saw that the tide had gone out. A narrow,
rocky bridge now connected the boulders to the shore. The
(18:49):
winds of the storm still blew, but at least the
deckhand could stumble towards dry land and salvation. He headed
for the lighthouse at Owl's Head. Even through the battering storm,
the light still shone. He fixed his mind on the
light and headed for it, Crawling the last fifty yards
(19:09):
on bloodied hands and knees. He reached the lighthouse and
the keeper hurried him into the warmth of the house's kitchen.
Shivering under a blanket, his hands wrapped tightly around a
mug of hot soup, the deckhand stammered out his amazing
story of survival. The lighthouse keeper was reluctant to go
(19:29):
out into the storm to retrieve two corpses, but he
organized a rescue party just in case. The man found
the pair curled in a tight embrace and frozen in
a solid block of ice. The rescuers used chisels and
picks to free the storm's victims. Everyone was sure the
(19:50):
two were dead, but even so, they were rushed to
a home near the lighthouse in an attempt to revive them.
They were stripped and placed in cool water. Rescuers gently
massaged the cold limbs, searching for the faintest signs of life.
In about two hours, the woman's eyes fluttered open, and
(20:11):
she struggled back to consciousness. An hour after that, the
first mate stirred too. The two snatched from death's icy grip.
Took several months to recover. But in June, the first
mate and his radiant bride stood together in front of
a preacher and promised to love each other till death
(20:34):
do us part. The paranormal writer Jeff Ballinger is a
(21:09):
tireless collector of weird tales. In his book Our Haunted
Lives True Life Ghost Encounters, he shares some of these
wonderful stories. Susie Layman had a beloved cat affectionately named
Fat Kitty. Fat Kitty was a beloved member of the
family and stayed devoted to them even after death. Susie's
(21:32):
son was born prematurely, and the spirit of Fat Kitty
seemed to watch over the tiny human. Susie would see
a glimpse of a shadow cat under her son's basinet.
She'd also notice that the bed sheet at the foot
of her bed, which was the corner of the bed
closest to the bacinet, was constantly must as if a
(21:53):
cat had been sitting on it keeping watch. Fat Kitty
had one litter, and Susie kept two of the kittens,
One named Kaliko, spent her life utterly fascinated by Christmas
trees and the decorations that adorned them. One afternoon, after
she'd lost Kalico, Susie was in the house by herself.
(22:14):
She happened to walk through the living room and gave
the Christmas tree a looking over, making sure it was
just the way she wanted it. Just then, one of
the ornaments at the bottom of the tree started moving.
That's what Kaliko always loved to do. She loved to
run by and slap an ornament, or lay up underneath
it and slap it. They don't know what made me
(22:35):
do this, but I looked at the ornament and said, Kaliko,
just leave the tree alone, and it stopped immediately. My
husband saw it do the same thing. It was always
one particular ornament on one particular part of the tree
that she used to play with. Susie smiled, knowing that
Kaliko was still enjoying her shiny swinging toy. Sometimes the
(23:14):
spirits of the animals we love come back, and sometimes
those spirits are given the chance to say their goodbyes
to us, just as people do. The French scientist Camille
Flammarion was also an investigator of psychic phenomenon. In nineteen twelve,
he published a story that a mister Mg. Grazier had
(23:35):
shared with him. Grasier was a very solitary boy, preferring
studying to socializing. His one companion was his saint Bernard Bobi,
who was with him nearly constantly. On December fourteenth, nineteen ten,
Bobi was with Gracier's parents in Lausanne, Switzerland, two kilometers
from where Grazier was. About seven thirty pm, I heard
(23:59):
the door of my room him open and saw Bobi
standing in the doorway, looking unhappy. I called him to me.
He didn't look up and he didn't obey my order.
I called again. He came, rubbed against my legs and
lay down on the floor at my feet. I bent
to stroke him and he wasn't there. With a sick feeling,
(24:20):
Grazier ran to the nearest phone. He dialed the number
for Bobi's veterinarian. That's when Grazier found out that Bobi
had been put to sleep two minutes earlier. On the
(25:09):
night of December eleventh, eighteen seventy six, a servant of
the mcnamaras of County Claire in Ireland was making his
evening rounds on the estate of Enistmont. In the dark.
He heard the rumbling of wheels on the road. The
hour was very late, and the watchman knew no mortal
vehicle was expected. He realized that the noise was coming
(25:32):
from a phantom coach, a coach that, according to local legend,
foretold approaching death. The servant knew that at the appearance
of the spectral coach, all of the gates in its
path should be opened. Then the ghost coach would not
stop at the house for a member of the family,
but would only foretell the death of a relative far away.
(25:54):
The watchman ran ahead of the spectral carriage, flinging open
the gates ahead of it. Gasping for breath, hand pressed
to a stitch in his side, he wrenched the third
gate open with a clang, and threw himself face down
on the ground next to it. The carriage rumbled through
the open gate as the watchman sobbed for breath. The
(26:15):
next day, Admiral Sir Burton McNamara died in London, many
miles from nistmonn. Jeffrey Demandeville, Earl of Essex, was quite
(26:54):
possibly the most hated man of his time. He lived
in England during the tomorrowultuous twelfth century. He was the
grandson of a Norman baron who fought alongside William the
Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in ten sixty six.
Jeoffrey himself was no stranger to conflict. He played a
(27:14):
dangerous game when Stephen and Matilda were jockeying for the
crown of England in the twelfth century. Jeffrey cheerfully accepted
honors and patronage from both of the potential rulers. He
was accused of treason against King Stephen in eleven forty one,
but was pardoned. After his narrow brush with disaster, Sir
(27:35):
Jeffrey became Sheriff and Justice of London as well as Essex,
Middlesex and Hertfordshire. This gave him absolute power over the
capital of England and three of its counties. Sir Jeffrey
was at the top of the heap, both in wealth
and in political influence, but his ascendancy also proved to
(27:57):
be his downfall. Sir Jeffrey's ambition made him cruel. The
attacked Ramsey Abbey, the fourth richest abbey in England. He
evicted the monks and looted the church. He then moved
himself and his men into the abbey, using it as
his home base to ransack nearby towns. For this plunder
(28:18):
and desecration of church property, he was excommunicated, although he
was later given absolution. Sir Jeoffrey didn't only attract negative
attention from the Church. King Stephen, who once again had
the upper hand and the power struggle, suspected Jeffrey of
collaborating with Matilda. The King sent officers to arrest the
(28:40):
Earl and take him to London. There, under threat of hanging,
Jeffrey was forced to give up the Tower of London
and his castles in Essex, his biggest military assets. Although
Sir Jeffrey was released after that tussle with the King,
he was burning for revenge. He led an o and
revolt against Stephen, forcing the king to march against him.
(29:04):
As part of his campaign, Geoffrey attacked Burnwell Castle, one
of the fortresses built by King Stephen to defend against
the traitorous Earl. The Earl's death was almost an anti climax,
the result of raw stupidity on his part. During the
siege of the castle, Sir Jeoffrey removed his helm for
a moment and was shot in the head by a
(29:27):
bowman on the castle's rampart. Sir Jeoffrey lingered for a
few weeks before dying at Mildenhall in Suffolk in September
eleven forty four. Because of his excommunication, the Earl was
denied Christian burial. His body was taken to London and
he was buried there. So why does Sir Jeoffrey walk?
(29:48):
In East Barnet, a suburb of North London. His ghost
was to be seen wandering the small village, and at
Christmas time the spook, wearing spurs and a red cloak,
could be seen in nearby Trent Park Cockfosters. The only
connection he had with the area was that it had
(30:08):
been a small part of his vast territory. Why haunt
just this one place? Well, there is another version of
Sir Jeffrey's demise that can be considered when discussing this haunting.
This story goes that the outlaw Earl drowned in a
well in Trent Park, near East Barnett. There are also
(30:30):
whispers that the Earl hid some of the treasure he
looted from Ramsey Abbey down that well, and that he
is still searching for that chest of gold. This provides
a handy, though not historically accurate, explanation for the haunting
stories can get a little mixed up during the passing
of nine hundred years. In December nineteen twenty six, the
(30:52):
ghost of Sir Jeffrey returned to East Barnett in fine form.
The year before, strange things had been seen and heard
in a municipal stable there. In nineteen twenty six, the
district council decided to demolish the stable and repurpose the
bricks into a new road. The road work had barely
started when reports came of Sir Jeffrey walking across the
(31:16):
floors of an old house nearby, ostentatiously clanking his spurs
on the floorboards. This phenomenon was repeated three times at
the same house. The family experienced several impatient knocks at
the front door, where there was no human standing there.
Then the letterbox rattled, scaring both the family and their dog.
(31:39):
Strange noises were heard near the road works too, and
a man walking near the haunted stables at midnight heard
the jingle of the phantom spurs and caught a brief
glimpse of an apparition wearing a red cloak this being December,
many London newspapers set reporters to East Barnet in search
(32:00):
a good ghost story, but for some reason, many of
the reporters wrote excited articles about the ghost, but then
denied the reports. This cast serious doubts on the haunting.
A small group of local hunters went out to East
Barnett late in December to wait for the fandom to appear.
(32:20):
They claimed that they did see the Earl, dressed in armour,
standing in the moonlight, but because of the reporter's backpedaling,
no one believed them. Six years later, in December nineteen
thirty two, dozens of people saw Sir Jeffrey's ghost. A
ghost hunting group had done some research. The records they
(32:42):
had to work with only went back twenty years, but
in that time the ghost had reliably appeared every sixth year.
Older residents of East Barnett claimed that the spirit appeared
as midnight approached between the full moon and the last
quarter in the month of decem. Armed with disinformation, the
(33:03):
group went for an investigation on Saturday, December seventeenth, nineteen
thirty two, just before the moon rose that night, the
ghost hunters heard a weird noise off in the distance,
a noise like the clanking of spurs. The noise came
closer and closer until it was right beside the group.
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Then it faded, moving away from them. The group slowly
followed the sounds of clanking spurs until they got to
a place at the edge of the East Barnett Valley
where the land rose a bit. There was a break
in the cloud cover, and there, on a sloping rise,
they saw the armored figure of Sir Jeffrey in the
faint moonlight. According to the group's report, the glance was
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a fleeting one, but very distinct, and the sight is
fixed in the minds of those who saw it as
plainly as if it had been revealed in midday sunlight.
The ghost hunters were with excitement. They hoped that the
ghost would return either on Saint Thomas's Eve the next Tuesday,
or on Christmas Eve, both days being considered especially favorable
(34:11):
for ghostly manifestations. Saint Thomas was the apostle who doubted
the existence of life after death. The group decided to
hold another investigation on Christmas Eve, and they invited anyone
who wanted to join them to come along. Everyone met
an hour before midnight on Christmas Eve, the sightseers drifted
(34:32):
off in various directions, while the investigators and a few
others moved a quarter mile south of the village to
a small wooden bridge across Pyms Brook. This bridge connected
the old church path to the road to Cockfosters. As
midnight approached, the maining group at the bridge started hearing
strange noises to the south. They started walking slowly towards
(34:57):
the sounds. They followed the stream for a while, walking
along the bank, and the noises stopped. The group continued on,
heading towards the nearby cemetery. Suddenly, the drawn out howl
of a dog split the night. The dog seemed to
be wailing in distress. The group stopped listening, tensely, waiting
(35:19):
for whatever would happen next. The soulful howl came again
in among the investigators. The ghost hunters didn't dare break
the spell of the manifestation by turning on their flashlights,
so they stood frozen to the spot. The dog continued
to keen, and soon the clanking of ghostly armor was
(35:41):
added to the mournful song. Over there, someone yelled. They
all saw the shadowy form of a headless dog feeding
into the mist. Legend spoke of a hound that often
accompanied Sir Jeffrey, but no one alive had ever seen
the dog's ghost. Then the group surrounded by the clank
(36:01):
of armour. The ghost of Sir Jeffrey stood in the
moonlight for a long moment, then he too melted into
the mist as they watched. History doesn't tell us if
Sir Jeffrey and maybe his faithful hound appeared six years
after that, But in nineteen thirty eight the people of
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England had other things on their mind. But December mists
still gather in the valley of East Barnet, and there
are plenty of places for ghosts to hide. If you
(36:53):
enjoyed this episode, consider sharing it with others and help
build the Weird Darkness community by converting your friends and
family into weirdos as well. This special episode is part
of my twelve Nightmares of Christmas series collaboration with paranormal
blogger and author Sylvia Schultz. The stories I used in
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this episode are from her book The Spirits of Christmas,
The Dark Side of the Holidays, and you can find
a link to that book in the show notes. Do
you have a dark tale to tell. Share your story
at Weird Darkness dot com and I might use it
in a future episode. Music in this episode is provided
by Midnight Syndicate. Find a link to purchase and download
(37:36):
this dark, creepy Christmas music. In the show notes, I'm
your creator and host, Darren Marler. Merry Christmas and thanks
for joining me in the Weird Darkness.
Welcome Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, mysterious, macabre,
unsolved and unexplained. If you're new here, be sure to
subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Android so you
don't miss future episodes. This is a special twelve Nightmares
(00:27):
of Christmas episode. Each day from December thirteenth through December
twenty fourth, I'm posting a new episode of Weird Darkness
featuring material from the new book The Spirits of Christmas,
The Dark Side of the Holidays by Sylvia Schultz. Be
sure to come back every day from December thirteenth through
the twenty fourth for more holiday horrors on Weird Darkness. Now,
(00:51):
bult your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights,
put another log onto the fire, and come with me
in to the Weird Darkness. The town of York, England,
(01:20):
is incredibly ancient by American standards. Many cultures have put
their stamp on it. Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Celts, Normans, all
putting a facet on this jewel of the North and
relics of all these bygone people who lived and died
in York are housed in the York Museum. In nineteen
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fifty three, a haunting began at the museum that involved
a book with a blue cover. It was just an
ordinary book, but for one returning spirit, it seemed to
hold great importance. It started on a Sunday evening in
September nineteen fifty three. There was a meeting going on
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at the museum, so the caretaker, mister George Jonas, was
waiting for it to be over so he could lock
up the building. Jonas and his wife were downstairs as
people filed out. Jonas made a cup of tea before
going upstairs for a final sweep of the building. But
missus Jonas said, are you sure everyone's gone? She heard
(02:28):
footsteps above them and listening. Mister Jonahs did too. It's
probably the curator. I'll go up and tell him. I'll
be turning the lights off soon, Jonas said. He went
up the stairs heading for the curator's office. There was
an elderly stranger in the office instead. He was in
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the far corner of the room, bent over as if
looking for something. As Jonahs came into the office, the
stranger stood up, turned around and walked right past asked
Jonahs out of the office. Pardon me, sir, but are
you looking for someone? Jonas asked. The stranger, who was
(03:08):
dressed in an old fashioned frock coat and trousers. Ignored him.
The old fellow went straight across the hall through the
open door into the library. Jonas followed him, turning on
the lights as he came into the room behind the
odd stranger. I must find it, Oh, I must find it,
the old gentleman muttered to himself. He crossed the library
(03:32):
to a bookshelf and ran his fingers down the spines
of the books. By this time, Jonas was feeling a
bit miffed at being so roundly ignored, but he thought
that perhaps the old fellow was hard of hearing, or
even stone deaf. Jonahs walked closer to the old man.
If you want to see the curator, mister Wilmot, I'll
(03:53):
be glad to escort you to his house. As Jonah spoke,
he reached out to touch the gentleman's shoulder to get
his attable. Just before Jonah's fingers brushed the tweed of
the old fellow's jacket, the man vanished. Jonas stood completely
still for a few moments. While his mind tried to
process the old man's sudden disappearance, his gaze wandered to
(04:18):
the floor. There was a book with a blue cover
lying there. It had fallen from the old gentleman's hands
as he vanished. Idly. Jonas noted the title Antiquities and
Curiosities of the Church. Then his mind caught up with
a situation. He raced down the stairs and bundled his
(04:40):
wife out the door. Time to go, let's go, now,
we need to go. The next morning, Jonas went to
work at the museum as usual. His first stop was
the library. The blue book was still lying on the
floor where the ghost had dropped it. Jonas shook his head.
So he hadn't imagined it at after all, He told
(05:01):
the museum's curator the odd story. Four sundays later, mister
Jonas was again at the museum, and the ghosts returned.
The spirit looked just as solid as before. Jonahs later
swore he looked like a very real person. But this
time the old man in Edwardian dress went from the
(05:24):
office across the hall to the library and walked through
the locked door to get there. This was just weird
enough that mister Jonas decided to bring someone else with
him when he worked his Sunday hours. On the fourth
Sunday after that, Jonas and a friend walked into the
library and heard the quiet shuffling of someone turning the
(05:45):
pages of a book. A flash of blue caught their eyes,
and a book dropped to the floor as they watched.
It was the same book the old man had pulled
off the shelf the first time Jonas had encountered him.
Enough was enough. The ghost was following a pattern of
appearing every fourth Sunday, so on the fourth Sunday in December,
(06:09):
a group of six men gathered with mister Jonas in
the library of the York Museum. Jonas had gone to
his doctor to make sure he wasn't just imagining things,
and had even invited the doctor to come to the
library to see the manifestation for himself. Along with Jonas
and his doctor were a lawyer and a reporter from
(06:29):
the Yorkshire Evening Press. Mister James Jonas, the caretaker's brother,
was also there, mostly because he thought his brother's story
was complete nonsense. George Jonas took the blue book off
the shelf to show it to everyone. As it turned
out the book had a business card pasted inside the
(06:50):
front cover. Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church had once
belonged to Alderman Edward Wooller, a lawyer who collected antiques.
The Alderman had collapsed and died at a meeting nearly
thirty years before. The old gentleman had always arrived around
seven forty pm. Everyone in the room sat tensely watching
(07:12):
the clock as the minutes ticked past. At exactly seven
forty two, the slim blue book slowly slid to the
edge of the bookshelf, as if drawn out by an
invisible hand. It gently dropped from the shelf onto the floor,
still standing upright. Everyone in the library was shocked, except
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for George Jonas, he was just relieved not to have
been the only witness this time. Everyone else agreed that, yes,
without a doubt, there was something supernatural going on in
the library every fourth Sunday, and now there was a
possible identity for the ghost, Alderman Wooler. But not everyone
(07:57):
welcomed the idea of a ghost in the library. Mister Wilmot,
who had held the post of curator for the past
four years, was open to the idea of investigating the
phenomenon further. After all, the apparition, whoever he was, had
now been experienced by nine people. However, the museum was
overseen by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and they roundly poo
(08:21):
pooed the very thought of the paranormal. The society's chairman grouped,
it is too silly for words. There will be no investigation.
I would not let the subject be brought before the
council of the Society. I would not waste time on
such tripe. Wilmot was so incensed at the chairman's dismissive
attitude that he handed in his resignation. In the meantime,
(08:45):
Jonas and his associates went ahead with the investigation Wilmot
had supported. Jonas was ill on the fourth Sunday in January,
so he wasn't able to ghost hunt that evening. But
on the next fourth Sunday, February seven, seventh, nineteen fifty four,
twelve men sat quietly in the museum's library. George Jonas
(09:07):
was feeling much better, and he was joined by several professionals,
including members of the Society for Psychical Research. The men
locked the door of the library to make sure they
could conduct their investigation undisturbed. They got to the museum
in plenty of time. They began the session at seven fifteen,
(09:28):
twenty five minutes before the ghost's usual arrival time of
seven forty. Unfortunately, the haunting seemed to have run its course.
Whether Jonah's absence in January knocked the ghost off his schedule,
or the spirit had finally been satisfied with pulling the
book off the shelf several times, we'll never know. But
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nothing happened in February save for a small wandering cold spot,
and on March seventh, the next Sunday in the cycle,
nothing at all happened. The spirit was gone, but the
snark remained. During those weeks of waiting for the ghost
to show up, some of the more open minded members
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of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society started asking questions about mister
Wilmot's resignation. A special meeting was held to inquire into
the circumstances there were, it was reported later, some bitter
attacks and some strong defense who knew philosophers could get
so worked up. The result of the meeting was that
(10:32):
the members of the society voted overwhelmingly to ask Wilmot
to stay on as the museum's curator. Wilmot had been
about to leave for another position, but he agreed to stay.
Politics being what they are. This was followed by a
flurry of other resignations. At its annual meeting two months later,
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the Yorkshire Philosophical Society had a completely new twelve member council.
There was one person who was sad to see the
museum ghost, go Alderman. Wooller's grandson heard of the ghost
and realized that the description of the Edwardian gentleman fit
his grandfather exactly. He was thrilled to have a ghost
(11:14):
in the family. After the experience of December nineteen fifty three,
the ghost has never been seen again. But there are
people who say that if you're in the York Museum
Library doing research or simply reading a book, you may
notice that the room seems unnaturally cold. Maybe the old
(11:35):
fellow is still lurking in the library. The coast of Donegal, Ireland,
(12:04):
is one of the most picturesque places in the country.
Small islands off the coast provide a breakwater some small
protection from the angry storm lashed waters of the Atlantic.
The islands of Inoshinee Gola and Innisbond perform a perfect
natural harbor for passing ships to seek refuge in a storm.
(12:26):
Around Christmas one year in the early part of the
twentieth century, a small sailing ship came into the harbor
to resupply. The ship had been battling her way through
a prolonged storm and supplies were running low. The captain
and two of his men rowed to the harbor from
the ship. They barely made the trip safely, even with
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the protection of the islands. The water of the harbor
was a seething, boiling cauldron of foam, and it was
evening by the time they landed. The islanders guided the
small boat safely to shore and welcomed the three men.
The captain loaded the skiff with supplies and was determined
to make it back to his ship that night. The
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captain was a frequent visitor to the island and was
well liked. The islanders begged him to stay until the
fury of the storm slackened, but the captain was adamant.
He and his two companions pushed off into the darkness.
The next morning, the fears of the islanders had come true.
In the darkness of the storm, the unfamiliar harbor, and
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the storm racked waters had bested the small skiff. A
man walking the beach looking for salvageable items from Rex
found the small boat. It had been smashed to splinters
by the pounding waves. Near it was the battered, broken
body of the captain. The bodies of the other two
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sailors were never found. The tragedy hit the islanders hard.
The island was home to just a handful of people
who kept horses and cattle grazing on the tough forage there.
The islanders were devastated that, despite their best efforts to
convince them to stay, the captain and his companions had
taken their chances on the dangerous waters, and now they
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were gone. The islanders felt the loss as though it
had been family members who had drowned. After the tragedy,
the settlers drew together for companionship. Soon afterward, they began
to spend their evenings together in one house in an
effort to keep the loneliness at bay. One evening, as
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they sat around the fire chatting, they heard footsteps approaching
the door. The walkway leading to the door was made
of fine, soft sand, Yet they still heard footsteps as
if someone was coming towards the house on hard packed earth.
Everyone on the island was there in the house, so
they figured it must be a stranger. They all looked
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eagerly towards the door, ready to welcome the traveler to
their fireside. The door swung open, and there stood a tall,
broad shouldered man, the Captain, who had been buried just
a few days previously. Every person in the room recognized him.
A woman sitting in the corner said in Irish, oh God,
(15:23):
there's the captain. One of the men found his voice
and greeted the captain in his native Irish speech, saying
come in. But the figure in the doorway simply stepped
back and disappeared. The islanders rushed out into the night,
but they didn't find anyone near the house. The captain
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had vanished into the dark winter night. A few days
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before Christmas eighteen fifty, a small boat dropped anchor off
Jameson's Point near Rockland, Maine. The captain was not on board.
Rumor had it that he had gone ashore for a
drink and not his first, and that the schooner's owners
had fired him for his hard drinking ways. Whatever the reason,
(16:37):
the boat was lacking a captain. The first mate, believing
strongly in the old adage when the cats away, the
mice will play, had recently proposed to a beautiful young woman.
With the captain gone, the first mate saw no reason
not to enjoy the company of his bride to be.
He invited her to stay in his cabin on the
(16:58):
schooner for a few days. Only the mate, his young lady,
and one deck hand were aboard the boat on December
twenty second, when a vicious storm whipped up and snapped
the boat's anchor cable. With only two men to guide
the schooner, it soon ran aground on the rocky shore
near Owl's Head. The boulders held the boat in place,
(17:21):
so luckily it didn't sink, but it did fill with
sea water. The three people aboard huddled for warmth on
the deck. Waves crashed over the deck, drenching the three
in freezing spray. Their clothes began to grow stiff with ice.
The first mate took charge. His plan was for all
three of them to roll up together in a wool
(17:43):
blanket and lie down next to the stern rail as
far out of the wind and spray as possible. The
mate knew they couldn't avoid the spray altogether, but he
hoped it would freeze on the blanket and form a
protective shell of ice around them. This plan worked too well.
The waves continued to pummel the boat all night, and
(18:04):
the spray froze into ice more quickly than the mate
had anticipated. The ice built into a suffocating layer several
inches thick. By the time the sky grew gray with
the dawn, The first mate and his fiancee were unconscious.
The deckhand mourned his companions, but was glad to find
(18:26):
himself alive at the end of that chilling night. He
used a small knife to chip away at the ice,
then smashed his way free with hands that bled from
the shards of icy cold. He staggered to his feet
and saw that the tide had gone out. A narrow,
rocky bridge now connected the boulders to the shore. The
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winds of the storm still blew, but at least the
deckhand could stumble towards dry land and salvation. He headed
for the lighthouse at Owl's Head. Even through the battering storm,
the light still shone. He fixed his mind on the
light and headed for it, Crawling the last fifty yards
(19:09):
on bloodied hands and knees. He reached the lighthouse and
the keeper hurried him into the warmth of the house's kitchen.
Shivering under a blanket, his hands wrapped tightly around a
mug of hot soup, the deckhand stammered out his amazing
story of survival. The lighthouse keeper was reluctant to go
(19:29):
out into the storm to retrieve two corpses, but he
organized a rescue party just in case. The man found
the pair curled in a tight embrace and frozen in
a solid block of ice. The rescuers used chisels and
picks to free the storm's victims. Everyone was sure the
(19:50):
two were dead, but even so, they were rushed to
a home near the lighthouse in an attempt to revive them.
They were stripped and placed in cool water. Rescuers gently
massaged the cold limbs, searching for the faintest signs of life.
In about two hours, the woman's eyes fluttered open, and
(20:11):
she struggled back to consciousness. An hour after that, the
first mate stirred too. The two snatched from death's icy grip.
Took several months to recover. But in June, the first
mate and his radiant bride stood together in front of
a preacher and promised to love each other till death
(20:34):
do us part. The paranormal writer Jeff Ballinger is a
(21:09):
tireless collector of weird tales. In his book Our Haunted
Lives True Life Ghost Encounters, he shares some of these
wonderful stories. Susie Layman had a beloved cat affectionately named
Fat Kitty. Fat Kitty was a beloved member of the
family and stayed devoted to them even after death. Susie's
(21:32):
son was born prematurely, and the spirit of Fat Kitty
seemed to watch over the tiny human. Susie would see
a glimpse of a shadow cat under her son's basinet.
She'd also notice that the bed sheet at the foot
of her bed, which was the corner of the bed
closest to the bacinet, was constantly must as if a
(21:53):
cat had been sitting on it keeping watch. Fat Kitty
had one litter, and Susie kept two of the kittens,
One named Kaliko, spent her life utterly fascinated by Christmas
trees and the decorations that adorned them. One afternoon, after
she'd lost Kalico, Susie was in the house by herself.
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She happened to walk through the living room and gave
the Christmas tree a looking over, making sure it was
just the way she wanted it. Just then, one of
the ornaments at the bottom of the tree started moving.
That's what Kaliko always loved to do. She loved to
run by and slap an ornament, or lay up underneath
it and slap it. They don't know what made me
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do this, but I looked at the ornament and said, Kaliko,
just leave the tree alone, and it stopped immediately. My
husband saw it do the same thing. It was always
one particular ornament on one particular part of the tree
that she used to play with. Susie smiled, knowing that
Kaliko was still enjoying her shiny swinging toy. Sometimes the
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spirits of the animals we love come back, and sometimes
those spirits are given the chance to say their goodbyes
to us, just as people do. The French scientist Camille
Flammarion was also an investigator of psychic phenomenon. In nineteen twelve,
he published a story that a mister Mg. Grazier had
(23:35):
shared with him. Grasier was a very solitary boy, preferring
studying to socializing. His one companion was his saint Bernard Bobi,
who was with him nearly constantly. On December fourteenth, nineteen ten,
Bobi was with Gracier's parents in Lausanne, Switzerland, two kilometers
from where Grazier was. About seven thirty pm, I heard
(23:59):
the door of my room him open and saw Bobi
standing in the doorway, looking unhappy. I called him to me.
He didn't look up and he didn't obey my order.
I called again. He came, rubbed against my legs and
lay down on the floor at my feet. I bent
to stroke him and he wasn't there. With a sick feeling,
(24:20):
Grazier ran to the nearest phone. He dialed the number
for Bobi's veterinarian. That's when Grazier found out that Bobi
had been put to sleep two minutes earlier. On the
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night of December eleventh, eighteen seventy six, a servant of
the mcnamaras of County Claire in Ireland was making his
evening rounds on the estate of Enistmont. In the dark.
He heard the rumbling of wheels on the road. The
hour was very late, and the watchman knew no mortal
vehicle was expected. He realized that the noise was coming
(25:32):
from a phantom coach, a coach that, according to local legend,
foretold approaching death. The servant knew that at the appearance
of the spectral coach, all of the gates in its
path should be opened. Then the ghost coach would not
stop at the house for a member of the family,
but would only foretell the death of a relative far away.
(25:54):
The watchman ran ahead of the spectral carriage, flinging open
the gates ahead of it. Gasping for breath, hand pressed
to a stitch in his side, he wrenched the third
gate open with a clang, and threw himself face down
on the ground next to it. The carriage rumbled through
the open gate as the watchman sobbed for breath. The
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next day, Admiral Sir Burton McNamara died in London, many
miles from nistmonn. Jeffrey Demandeville, Earl of Essex, was quite
(26:54):
possibly the most hated man of his time. He lived
in England during the tomorrowultuous twelfth century. He was the
grandson of a Norman baron who fought alongside William the
Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in ten sixty six.
Jeoffrey himself was no stranger to conflict. He played a
(27:14):
dangerous game when Stephen and Matilda were jockeying for the
crown of England in the twelfth century. Jeffrey cheerfully accepted
honors and patronage from both of the potential rulers. He
was accused of treason against King Stephen in eleven forty one,
but was pardoned. After his narrow brush with disaster, Sir
(27:35):
Jeffrey became Sheriff and Justice of London as well as Essex,
Middlesex and Hertfordshire. This gave him absolute power over the
capital of England and three of its counties. Sir Jeffrey
was at the top of the heap, both in wealth
and in political influence, but his ascendancy also proved to
(27:57):
be his downfall. Sir Jeffrey's ambition made him cruel. The
attacked Ramsey Abbey, the fourth richest abbey in England. He
evicted the monks and looted the church. He then moved
himself and his men into the abbey, using it as
his home base to ransack nearby towns. For this plunder
(28:18):
and desecration of church property, he was excommunicated, although he
was later given absolution. Sir Jeoffrey didn't only attract negative
attention from the Church. King Stephen, who once again had
the upper hand and the power struggle, suspected Jeffrey of
collaborating with Matilda. The King sent officers to arrest the
(28:40):
Earl and take him to London. There, under threat of hanging,
Jeffrey was forced to give up the Tower of London
and his castles in Essex, his biggest military assets. Although
Sir Jeffrey was released after that tussle with the King,
he was burning for revenge. He led an o and
revolt against Stephen, forcing the king to march against him.
(29:04):
As part of his campaign, Geoffrey attacked Burnwell Castle, one
of the fortresses built by King Stephen to defend against
the traitorous Earl. The Earl's death was almost an anti climax,
the result of raw stupidity on his part. During the
siege of the castle, Sir Jeoffrey removed his helm for
a moment and was shot in the head by a
(29:27):
bowman on the castle's rampart. Sir Jeoffrey lingered for a
few weeks before dying at Mildenhall in Suffolk in September
eleven forty four. Because of his excommunication, the Earl was
denied Christian burial. His body was taken to London and
he was buried there. So why does Sir Jeoffrey walk?
(29:48):
In East Barnet, a suburb of North London. His ghost
was to be seen wandering the small village, and at
Christmas time the spook, wearing spurs and a red cloak,
could be seen in nearby Trent Park Cockfosters. The only
connection he had with the area was that it had
(30:08):
been a small part of his vast territory. Why haunt
just this one place? Well, there is another version of
Sir Jeffrey's demise that can be considered when discussing this haunting.
This story goes that the outlaw Earl drowned in a
well in Trent Park, near East Barnett. There are also
(30:30):
whispers that the Earl hid some of the treasure he
looted from Ramsey Abbey down that well, and that he
is still searching for that chest of gold. This provides
a handy, though not historically accurate, explanation for the haunting
stories can get a little mixed up during the passing
of nine hundred years. In December nineteen twenty six, the
(30:52):
ghost of Sir Jeffrey returned to East Barnett in fine form.
The year before, strange things had been seen and heard
in a municipal stable there. In nineteen twenty six, the
district council decided to demolish the stable and repurpose the
bricks into a new road. The road work had barely
started when reports came of Sir Jeffrey walking across the
(31:16):
floors of an old house nearby, ostentatiously clanking his spurs
on the floorboards. This phenomenon was repeated three times at
the same house. The family experienced several impatient knocks at
the front door, where there was no human standing there.
Then the letterbox rattled, scaring both the family and their dog.
(31:39):
Strange noises were heard near the road works too, and
a man walking near the haunted stables at midnight heard
the jingle of the phantom spurs and caught a brief
glimpse of an apparition wearing a red cloak this being December,
many London newspapers set reporters to East Barnet in search
(32:00):
a good ghost story, but for some reason, many of
the reporters wrote excited articles about the ghost, but then
denied the reports. This cast serious doubts on the haunting.
A small group of local hunters went out to East
Barnett late in December to wait for the fandom to appear.
(32:20):
They claimed that they did see the Earl, dressed in armour,
standing in the moonlight, but because of the reporter's backpedaling,
no one believed them. Six years later, in December nineteen
thirty two, dozens of people saw Sir Jeffrey's ghost. A
ghost hunting group had done some research. The records they
(32:42):
had to work with only went back twenty years, but
in that time the ghost had reliably appeared every sixth year.
Older residents of East Barnett claimed that the spirit appeared
as midnight approached between the full moon and the last
quarter in the month of decem. Armed with disinformation, the
(33:03):
group went for an investigation on Saturday, December seventeenth, nineteen
thirty two, just before the moon rose that night, the
ghost hunters heard a weird noise off in the distance,
a noise like the clanking of spurs. The noise came
closer and closer until it was right beside the group.
(33:25):
Then it faded, moving away from them. The group slowly
followed the sounds of clanking spurs until they got to
a place at the edge of the East Barnett Valley
where the land rose a bit. There was a break
in the cloud cover, and there, on a sloping rise,
they saw the armored figure of Sir Jeffrey in the
faint moonlight. According to the group's report, the glance was
(33:49):
a fleeting one, but very distinct, and the sight is
fixed in the minds of those who saw it as
plainly as if it had been revealed in midday sunlight.
The ghost hunters were with excitement. They hoped that the
ghost would return either on Saint Thomas's Eve the next Tuesday,
or on Christmas Eve, both days being considered especially favorable
(34:11):
for ghostly manifestations. Saint Thomas was the apostle who doubted
the existence of life after death. The group decided to
hold another investigation on Christmas Eve, and they invited anyone
who wanted to join them to come along. Everyone met
an hour before midnight on Christmas Eve, the sightseers drifted
(34:32):
off in various directions, while the investigators and a few
others moved a quarter mile south of the village to
a small wooden bridge across Pyms Brook. This bridge connected
the old church path to the road to Cockfosters. As
midnight approached, the maining group at the bridge started hearing
strange noises to the south. They started walking slowly towards
(34:57):
the sounds. They followed the stream for a while, walking
along the bank, and the noises stopped. The group continued on,
heading towards the nearby cemetery. Suddenly, the drawn out howl
of a dog split the night. The dog seemed to
be wailing in distress. The group stopped listening, tensely, waiting
(35:19):
for whatever would happen next. The soulful howl came again
in among the investigators. The ghost hunters didn't dare break
the spell of the manifestation by turning on their flashlights,
so they stood frozen to the spot. The dog continued
to keen, and soon the clanking of ghostly armor was
(35:41):
added to the mournful song. Over there, someone yelled. They
all saw the shadowy form of a headless dog feeding
into the mist. Legend spoke of a hound that often
accompanied Sir Jeffrey, but no one alive had ever seen
the dog's ghost. Then the group surrounded by the clank
(36:01):
of armour. The ghost of Sir Jeffrey stood in the
moonlight for a long moment, then he too melted into
the mist as they watched. History doesn't tell us if
Sir Jeffrey and maybe his faithful hound appeared six years
after that, But in nineteen thirty eight the people of
(36:23):
England had other things on their mind. But December mists
still gather in the valley of East Barnet, and there
are plenty of places for ghosts to hide. If you
(36:53):
enjoyed this episode, consider sharing it with others and help
build the Weird Darkness community by converting your friends and
family into weirdos as well. This special episode is part
of my twelve Nightmares of Christmas series collaboration with paranormal
blogger and author Sylvia Schultz. The stories I used in
(37:13):
this episode are from her book The Spirits of Christmas,
The Dark Side of the Holidays, and you can find
a link to that book in the show notes. Do
you have a dark tale to tell. Share your story
at Weird Darkness dot com and I might use it
in a future episode. Music in this episode is provided
by Midnight Syndicate. Find a link to purchase and download
(37:36):
this dark, creepy Christmas music. In the show notes, I'm
your creator and host, Darren Marler. Merry Christmas and thanks
for joining me in the Weird Darkness.
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