SOUTH DURHAM

I live in the south of County Durham, just a stones throw from North Yorkshire in fact. More specifically I have lived in the area around Bishop Auckland and Newton Aycliffe, the latter a new town developed in the 50's and 60's, making use of the massive Industrial Estate which was used extensively throughout the Second World War as Munitions Works, Aycliffe was chosen mainly because of the number of days in which there is cloud cover and fog. Something which hasn't changed since WW2. Local legends abound however... within Newton Aycliffe itself there are many ghost stories, I had an advert in the local newspaper a while ago for people to tell me their ghost stories and it blew me away how many people contacted me. The A-167 is said to be haunted by the ghost of a lady in a white dress, I have only found one fairly unreliable online source for this story, but two separate people contacted me saying they had seen her standing close to the "Gretna" public house/restaurant.

The railway line from Bishop Auckland to Darlington (and eventually Saltburn) runs close to Greenfield School (close to my house too), this is part of the line which runs from Stephenson’s work yards at Shildon to Darlington, in the very early days of steam travel men on horseback would ride ahead of the trains making sure no cattle had wandered onto the track or indeed any people, these men would often ring a bell as a way of warning. About midway between Greenfield School and Newton Aycliffe train station the ghost of one of these bell-men is said to haunt the tracks where he fell from his horse and hit his head on the tracks (ironically scared by the train). This is local legend and no such event has been recorded, however people have contacted me and said they have heard a horse whinnying and clopping on the stones, all the while a bell is ringing.

Because of the risk of offending or upsetting any local people I can only say the next haunted location is one of Aycliffe’s many Old People’s Homes. My grandmother worked there for around ten years, my mother for around ten and even one of my sisters for around five years. At least once a month I would hear about a new sighting or paranormal occurrence, the building is made up of two floors, the ground floor has recreation and social rooms, cleaning and laundry, and of course the dining room. The first floor is made up of the residents own rooms with a smaller social room at the end of a long corridor, the majority of the phenomena is associated with this small social room. Witnesses told of standing at one end of the corridor and seeing an old man standing in the doorway at the other end which led to the social room, thinking one of the residents was out of bed they go to the room and find it empty, with the only egress routes being a fire escape (still locked up) or the corridor itself. On one occasion two women at the same time saw a white misty form moving in the room, they of course departed quickly and didn’t go back onto that floor for a while. Some other staff members who contacted me told of seeing or knowing of some of the furniture in this room moving around on its own, on one occasion a plant pot slid off a windowsill and broke on the floor, when the staff member went to get some cleaning equipment she came back to find that the soil from the plant pot had been shaped into a crescent moon shape. As well as this room at least one of the residential rooms is also haunted, my own sister was locked inside the room when she was in fact the only person on the first floor during a residents day trip out, whilst she was cleaning the residents bed the door slammed shut behind her and she could not turn the handle, as though someone was holding it from the outside (of course there are plenty of other explanations, panic being one of them). The vast majority of Newton Aycliffe was built on old farming land, some of these old farms remain but some houses built on nothing more than dark soil have acquired a ghostly reputation. A local taxi driver told me of the haunting’s within his house; a man dressed in riding boots, dark cape and red shirt has been seen by him and his wife on more than one occasion. His house in, Mellanby Crescent, however does not stand on any older property, so who or why this spirit is there is as big a mystery as the question of s there a ghost there at all. I have heard of many similar ghost stories, one of which comes from a good friend of mine, not prone to strange tales. One day upon leaving the bathroom and heading for his bedroom he saw someone pass by him, height wise it was the same as his little brother and that is who he thought it was, however as he entered his room he saw his brother sitting on his bed playing on his games console, his parents at the time were out shopping. His own theory is that it was the ghost of the old lady who lived there previously, he has since moved out but his parents still live there in Havelock Close.

Slightly further away is Bishopton Castle Hill, lying just outside the village of Bishopton. The Castle Hill is a very well preserved Motte and Bailey Earthwork, originally made of wood the castle and its palisade defences have long since gone, leaving only the earthwork remains. It was built in the early 12th Century when Bishop Ranulf gave the land to Roger Conyers, soon however the Bishop of Durham was usurped by a man called William Comyn, many local barons paid Comyn homage as the new Bishop, Conyers however did not and awaited the rightful bishop to come north and take the Bishopric back. Eventually Comyn was defeated and the Conyers family prospered due to their support of the true Bishop. Bishopton however was not their main seat of power and so the Castle was left to be stripped of its wood. But it is here that the legend of Bishopton was created. It is said that anyone who spends a night on the hill will be chased off by a group of Fairies, certain legends differ with regards why these fairies are here, some claim they moved in when everyone else moved out and didn’t like people taking down their home, some say that they have always been there and they fought alongside Conyer’s during the troubles of the early 12th Century. The only residents of the hill today are the cattle which graze (and sadly slowly destroy) the hill, around 150 years ago the hill stood at 60ft, today it is less than 40ft. But wil the fairies remain after the cows have flattened the features of the field?

Locally there is a much more remarkable fairy story, that of the Middridge Fairies, a story I heard whilst at primary school! The village of Middridge lies between Shildon and Newton Aycliffe, it is a charming village which still has its annual fair, it also has a strange hole in the earth lying to the north of the village, no one knows what it was dug for but it is certainly man made (I think so anyway). Legend has it that if you run around it backwards saying the lords prayer an evil fairy, or even the devil himself, will come out of the hole and chase you until you are home, if it catches you, then your dead. Supposedly in the early 1900’s a group of farm boys dared one another to do this and something did indeed come out of the ground and chase them to their farm, as they ran into a bran they slammed the door shut behind them then heard a mighty crash as though a thunder bolt had hit the barn. Upon opening the door they found a trident impaled in the door, as they pulled it out it vanished but left the scorched trident mark in the door. It is said the door found its way to the local public house (Bay Horse) which put it on show but it too vanished one day, never seen again. 

Shildon of course is the birthplace of the passenger railway, Robert Stephenson learned his engineering skills from his father George, both father and son changed the world and they started it all in a workshop in Shildon. His house and workshop are now a museum, close by too there is a brand new multi-million pound museum named the Locomotion, all are linked by a section of the Bishop Auckland to Darlington rail line. In this large area people have reported hearing the sounds of steam engines, men chatting, the smell of smoke and just as intriguing the sound of horses and a bell (similar to the haunted line near Newton Aycliffe). Even within the confines of the new museum these sounds have been heard by staff and visitor alike.

Darlington is an old town, steeped in its merchant history it also has deep roots with the Quaker community which developed the town before more commercial minds took over. It also has a few haunted hotspots, probably the best being the Darlington Civic Theatre, haunted by one of its previous owners, and his dog! I have been fortunate enough to spend a night in the theatre as part of a Paranormal Companies investigation and I did see and hear some strange phenomena which I cannot explain, the first was whilst sitting in the middle stalls, behind us was a door leading to the bar area which we could see partly through. Whilst sitting in the seats we heard what I can only describe as the door being kicked, we all jumped up and had a very good look around both the area we were in and the bar and found no one, we heard no one run away and we would have heard someone run down the bar stairs, or seen them run into the bar area. Later on the whole group were on the stage, a number of us who were looking the same way saw a flash of light from the opposite side of the middle stalls, as though someone had been up there and had turned on a light then turned it off very quickly, again no one was there, we never saw any doors open for people to leave the area nor heard anyone running away. Other ghosts which supposedly haunt the place are a fly man (they would work the ropes which moved scenery about etc, usually they were old sailors used to rigging) and an old night watchman, though descriptions of this ghost might be influenced by a large photograph of a similar looking gentleman close to the toilets.

Other haunted places in Darlington are the old Darlington and Simpson Rolling Mills, in the 1920’s a man was killed in a terrible accident and his ghost has returned on a couple of occasions. On one such occasion the workforce downed tools until the management did something about it, what they did however is unknown. The Kings Head Hotel is a very popular place for visitors, sadly damaged in a recent fire it has always had its strange tales associated with it. Mainly on the fourth floor the tales centre around shadows being seen flitting from room to room, one Paranormal Company claimed to have seen the ghost of a young girl dressed in Victorian clothing, replete with bonnet and bow tied under her chin. Another haunted Railway Museum is at Darlington, sadly the place is now rather defunct since most of its treasures have been taken to the Locomotion at Shildon. Its ghosts however remain. One ghost is that of a Victorian lady who stands waiting on the old platform, whilst a security guard and his guard dog were scared one night by a spectral security guard and guard dog, there are also the smells and sounds associated with a busy steam engine yard which have been experienced by people in the past. Trains still stop at one of the platforms, but very few people get on board, those that do often smell a rather sweeter more perfume like smell as they get onto the train, as they turn to se where the smell comes from they see the ghost of the Victorian lady still standing, waiting on her own.

Originally built by the “Handsome Hansard” family in the mid 12th century Walworth Castle just outside Darlington has a very good haunted pedigree. Probably the most prolific room is the Jenison suite, where many guests and maids have had someone, or something, tug at their clothes or hair. There have also been the sound of footsteps falling on a stone staircase, which has been removed; the only sightings however take the form of a spectral “Grey Lady” who has been seen in various places. Her identity is open to speculation, but until she provides her biometric identity card her name will be unknown.

As well as Darlington close by there is also Bishop Auckland. Its history is abundant, and if you included the close by remains of Binchester Roman Fort (named Vinovia) the history stretches back to the first century. Its ghosts however remain elusive (though I will be putting an advert in the local paper over there) and only a couple have been found. None other than King Charles I is said to haunt the Bishops Palace, a location he spent a short time in during the Bishops Wars of 1639-40. Why he haunts this place is unknown, however the woodland park belonging to the Bishop’s Palace is a very nice place to spend a day so perhaps he found some peace and quiet here, something he would not have got in many other places. The second ghost story is a fairly modern one, in fact it only came to light in 2009. The Four Clocks Community centre sounds like a very modern place, it is in fact inside an old church. Built in 1914 the Wesley Church saw many good days come and go, it has its own clock tower with of course four separate clocks, hence the name. In a local newspaper article Centre co-ordinator Pamela Hope said: “Our CCTV camera captured what looked like a very hazy figure in the back passageway and also what looked like a circle of light moving across the floor and through the wall.

“One member of staff said she saw a woman in a hat which fits with it being an old church.

“During winter I had all the lights on and was sat at my desk when a shadow crept across my computer screen. At first I though it was somebody coming up behind me but when I turned around there was nobody there. There was also one night where a few of us had stayed late and we heard footsteps coming from the room upstairs. I was scared that there might be someone locked in who would be a bit angry but again there was nothing.”

Employee Helen White said there had been several cases of doors shutting themselves and being locked on the inside.

She said: “This church went through some dramatic changes when the centre was created and you can’t help but wonder whether the building work disrupted the spirits. Several people have said they have sensed spirits although they all say they are benign so at least we don’t have to worry about having a violent ghost.”

And so there are just some of the amazing local legends close to me in South Durham, I could have gone further afield and included Durham, Ferryhill, Spennymoor, or even Northallerton and Richmond… often its not finding a point to start, but a point to stop.

Thank you for your time.

CJ Linton.