Local folklore, tall tales and ghosts

[hollydog]

This is the place to tell your stories, amusing or otherwise!, regarding local characters, incidents and things that go bump in the night.
So who is going to go first?..................................

[Coquet]

We have two major haunted places nearby, Chilingham castle, did it not have children bricked up in the walls? (gulp!) And of course the infamous Schooner Inn at Alnmouth.

Whittle colliery did have a ghost in the old 'back-bye' workings but I cannot remember the story now!
Underground in the old workings you could walk for hours and never see a soul, then you sit down for a rest..all alone.... quiet... pitch black.... then you hear a faint creak from the roof supports, or a little stone fall in the distance... water dripping.... then your light flickers like it's going to go out..... yes you could frighten yourself half to death down there, without the old hands telling you ghost stories!

[Coquet]

You have heard of the secret tunnel from Amble to Coquet Island? Apparently used by the Monks from Anglo Saxon times. The Monks would travel by horse and cart from Holy Island to Amble, then on foot with a candle through the tunnel to Coquet Island. The locals that knew the location of the mainland entrance were sworn to secrecy in 1376, to keep it secret from the Spanish and French, but unfortunately Google maps has now revealed the Island end of the tunnel

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=coqu...sland&t=h&z=19

[Coquet]

Another tale that springs to mind is the Viking longboat in the mud of the old abandoned bed of the Coquet, other side of Helsay.
It might have been visible centuries before the river changed its course, but now completely buried and hidden.

Now that is an interesting one, as the Vikings will have certainly been on the Coquet, and it's allegedly a very old local tale.

[janwhin]

Does anyone remember the gypsy caravan parked up near the east end cemetery. The old lady who lived there would tell your fortune for a bit of silver. I was always considered too young to have mine told

[janwhin]

Bob Aicheson had a shop in a downstairs room of his house, close to the Masons Arms on Albert Street. In the shop window was a clock with no hands and a sign below it stating "no tick here".

His two daughters, Nellie and Peggy eventually took the shop over, moving into larger premises closer to the fish and chip shop (Gino's in the 1960s). The shop sold lots of things but was principally a grocery shop. The two sisters had a small collie, a bit worse for wear, that used to hang out in the shop. They sold the best cooked ham in Amble, a request for which would bring out the big knife, used for all sorts of other tasks. The dog would be stroked, there would be a loud sniff from Nellie with a quick wipe of the nose and then the knife would slice through the ham. Perfect!

Miss Cresswell of Hauxley Hall would manoeuvre her car to a standstill outside, toot her horn and Nellie would serve her, outside. Miss Cresswell's driving skills were not the greatest. My dad and his marras would be biking to their shift at Hauxley pit but on hearing her car behind them would leap off the bikes into the dyke. Better safe than sorry

[Alan J.]

This was in the front room of the house directly next door to the Masons Arms, between it and the Deli. I don't think they ever moved to bigger premises though. Peggy ended up living in the house on the corner of Gibson street and High street, the white painted one. In that area there was also a greengrocers shop in what is now the eating end of the Blue Bell and it became a laundrette for a while before being taken over by the pub. Between Gino's and this was Brown the builders offices.

[Alan J.]

Originally Posted by janwhin

Does anyone remember the gypsy caravan parked up near the east end cemetery. The old lady who lived there would tell your fortune for a bit of silver. I was always considered too young to have mine told

This was a Mrs Morton they also had a small type of "Fun Fair" with a shooting stall and some "Shuggy Boats"

[MBA]

Originally Posted by Alan J.

This was a Mrs Morton they also had a small type of "Fun Fair" with a shooting stall and some "Shuggy Boats"

I remember them well, my mother would take us to the third shore in the summer and as treat on the way back it was ride on the shuggy boats.

[Derilda]

Today was my 74th birthday. I say that, not for any plaudits, but to demonstrate that I did walk the Earth, even then. Though most men were in work at the collieries and building companies, there wasn't a lot of money about. Food rationing didn't help. I relate a story told by comedians "The Dixie landers" but which is so close to my own up-bringing that I still smile when I think of those times. I will relate in the first person, as they told it.
"We didn't hev much money. One day me muther said,"Son we hev company coming for dinner and there isn't enough to gan roond. So, when I serve it up, say ye divvent want any." So, when she come oot wi' this rabbit I said, "No Thank you Mam." She gave a proud smile, when the vicar wasn't looking! I just sat there till they'd finished.
For a pudding she had done steamed roly-poly and hey, aa loved that. Me mooth was runnin' wi anticipation. But, when she got to serve me she said, "Ye didn't want enny rabbit so you cannot hev enny puddin'."
We all survived, and I thank all those parents who raised their kids to show good manners and consideration for others. (Even if some did learn it the hard way.)

[janwhin]

And a happy birthday Derilda...and many more I used to love rabbit when I was a kid.
My dad related a story about when he'd come home from the pit and my mother was out. She'd left him his dinner and pudding was a whole steamed syrup sponge. He was just sitting down to eat it when "Park's" man knocked at the door. He virtually had the saliva running down his chops but my dad just carried on eating it, regardless.