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Category: Book Reviews
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Title: Paranormal Bedfordshire  | views:81 |   Firstly let’s get rid of the subtitle, “true ghost stories” because this book covers so much more. From ghosts and apparitions, to pre-emptive dreams and all the way to crop circles and aliens, all areas of the paranormal are in here.
You have to take your hat off to Damien, the author has covered some miles looking into these stories, his research is thorough and where possible he has found more than one witness to try to verify the stories contained in this publication. Eye witness accounts are here for you to examine, any reports from investigations are included, plus where possible directions to the locations where paranormal happenings have been included. Photographs also show the locations of some of the events
Casual observers of the paranormal will probably find this book heavy going, some will feel they don’t want to trawl through the background information and just want the nitty gritty facts of haunting’s, well im sorry this book wont do that, it’s a serious look at events and as such will be appreciated by the groups of investigators that do a bit more than a weekend walk in the dark looking for thrills.
Let’s examine one chapter of the book, The Wilden Poltergeist story near the end gives a true example of the work Damien has put into this. The history of the location is thoroughly examined and explained, from the name of villages in the area and there connection to Viking settlers, the owners of the area from the doomsday book (Bishop of Bayeaux) through the St Remy in the 12th and 13th centuries and up to today’s present owners.
The Wilden Poltergeist appears to be connected to one of the former owners, Rev. William Shrove Chalk who purchased the house in 1837.
The legend of two local witches is then reported along with an alledged sighting from the 1930’s by a bride and groom but more interestingly and more recent sighting in 1973 which led to the phantom receiving a certificate of authenticity, I don’t know who decided that this case was authentic, or how it was proved, or even who received the certificate, but im sure Damien has the answer.
Back to the book, Damien then relates other famous witches from Bedfordshire’s past, tells how even just being old and living alone was enough for people to accuse you of being a witch which would often lead to your death.
The present day village is then described, including the fact that the sole remaining pub has had visits from the poltergeist of the manor, the house had fallen into a bad state of repair.
Damien’s attention to the poltergeist was drawn from a meeting with two couples who had witnessed an apparition of a female entering the manor, plus all swore to having stones thrown at them in the area, including in the pub garden, one of them still has a chip on the roof of his car as a result of this phenomena. Perhaps the worst part of this case was the ability of the poltergeist to follow people to their homes, surely this isn’t wanted and is, I would have thought, the biggest nightmare of all investigators.
The telling of legends continues, witches being burnt on a path by the Manor, the house itself being struck by lightning , ghostly voices being heard at night, two gypsy brothers who lived in caravans on the lane dying within one week of each other, also that the house itself had been cursed …………
The author then describes how he met with someone with knowledge of the haunting’s and the trip they took to investigate, first the village church, the seven headstones story was tantalising to say the least, On a second visit to the site (after the quiet first trip) Damien took a medium with him who immediately hit on a cover up in the graveyard.
Two of them then moved on to the Manor itself, a small 4 bed roomed house, in a bad state, roof fallen in, stairs missing, but allegedly nothing bad had happened in the building to any investigator, it was on the way back down the pathways things happened, sudden noises from animals they hadn’t noticed on the way in, stones being thrown at them, pebbles and general noise around a single tree, another stone thrown at the caravan, a smell of burning, what sounded like handfuls of stones being thrown on corrugated roofs of a shed on the land, this place sounds really active.
Damien then sought out other witnesses to the phenomenon, heard stories of pebbles hovering in midair before landing near people but no-one seemed to be hit, more cases of the poltergeist following people to their homes, but one thing struck all of them, it seemed the ghost was drawing attention to itself, almost craving company. But a meeting with the present owner dispelled the lightning theory (the roof had been damaged by a tree) and in the end after a visit by a 2nd medium who found nothing on the site, its hard to tell the truth about the whole affair, was the poltergeist attached only to certain people?, did it fear the visiting mediums and their abilities? We cant tell, but if you decide to follow the story up, Damien has given you a good insight into the history and legends behind it.
By
Bob Hunt
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| Review submitted: 2010/1/25
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