Ghostly presence in north Norfolk church
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| Diane Berthelot pictured in Worstead Church in 1975 with the White Lady behind her |
A pub’s name-change in honour of a north Norfolk village’s ghost brought haunting memories flooding back for EDP reader Diane Berthelot.
Mrs Berthelot read about the re-launch of Worstead’s New Inn in the EDP and was thrilled when she saw it was to become The White Lady; celebrating the ghost said to appear in the nearby church every Christmas Eve.
One hot summer’s day 36 years ago, Mrs Berthelot believes she unwittingly had her photo taken with the White Lady while visiting the church, and the EDP article prompted her to get in touch.
While one early account of the ghost’s appearance ends in the witness’s death, Mrs Berthelot, of Hipperson Close, North Walsham, says her own experience was of a healing and peaceful spirit presence.
In 1830 a man is said to have climbed into the church belfry on Christmas Eve, boasting that he would kiss the White Lady if he saw her. When he failed to reappear, his friends followed and found him huddled and terrified. He managed to whisper “I’ve seen her, I’ve seen her,” before dying.
Mrs Berthelot, now 79, says she had never heard of the ghost when she, husband Peter and their 12-year-old son David visited the old weaving village of Worstead on Saturday August 2 1975, during one of their regular holidays in Norfolk from their then home in Essex, and went inside the church to escape the heat.
She had suffered ill health for some time and remembers that she was taking antibiotics for an infection and felt unwell that day. As her husband and son wandered round the empty church taking photos, Mrs Berthelot sat close to the font on a wooden bench and prayed for recovery, unaware that her husband had caught her on camera too. She remembers feeling warm, relaxed and at peace.
Months later, back in Essex, the family and their lodger Barbara decided to have a slide show and view their summer snaps for the first time. They were astounded when Barbara asked: “Who’s that sitting behind you Di?”
Mrs Berthelot said: “I looked up, saw the white figure and my feet started to ‘tingle’. This sensation eventually engulfing the whole of me. It was a pleasant, comforting feeling.”
The following summer Mrs Berthelot says she went back to the church and showed the slide to the late Vicar of Worstead, Rev Pettit, who told them about the legend and said there was talk that the White Lady was a healer who appeared when there was sickness.
For many years Mrs Berthelot said she experienced the same tingling sensation whenever she looked at the photo, although this has since stopped.
“I’ve been back to the church many times since but nothing ever happened again,” she said.
Mrs Berthelot has now presented a copy of her photo to Dennis Gilligan, the new owner of Worstead’s pub, who decided on the name change after finding an ageing newspaper article about the White Lady when he moved into his own home in the village.
Mr Gilligan plans to frame and display Mrs Berthelot’s photo. He suspects the White Lady may have started drifting across to the pub since it was renamed as lights appear to turn themselves on and off without human intervention - and he was recently touched on the shoulder while alone in the cellars. - edp24
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All’s usually quiet on Angelina’s ‘Cry Baby Creek’
We travel to Boxcar Road, where beneath a canopy of shade trees lies Jack Creek and “Cry Baby Bridge.”
According to a column by local historian Bob Bowman, the area is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a woman and her baby who died in an automobile accident after veering off the road and plunging into the creek below.
In the column, Bowman said he was directed to the bridge by a Lufkin woman. She told him visitors who come to the site at night claim they have heard sounds resembling a baby crying. One visitor supposedly found the imprint of a baby’s hand on her auto window after returning from the bridge.
Knowing the legend well, investigator Diane Broussard, who has been hunting ghosts for many years, said she visited “Cry Baby Bridge” one night with her “Ghost Box,” which she said sometimes picks up EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recordings of ghostly voices.
“We sat on the bridge and tried talking to anybody that would talk,” she said. “It was very quiet. The only thing you can hear on the recording is the water running.”
All over the United States, stories similar to Angelina County’s “Cry Baby Bridge” legend circulate today.
A book titled “Cry Baby Bridge,” by Mark Opsasnick, chronicles how the story has been passed around by teens since the 1950s.
In the book, Opsasnick described the most common version of the story known to him as “a horror-filled night from many moons past when a young woman, after engaging in a heated argument with her husband over the nonstop crying of their baby, pulled her car to a stop on the rickety bridge and in one swift, frantic motion inexplicably hurled their newborn child over the bridge railing and into the murky, swirling waters below. In a state of hysteria, the couple drove off, leaving the helpless bawling child for dead in a watery grave.”
Hudson Police Chief Jeff Burns, whose officers patrol the area on occasion at all hours, said they have never reported anything supernatural to him. - lufkindailynews
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Aussie farmer claims property is haunted
Wayne Lund sees dead people. No, he isn’t crazy – or if he is, he isn’t the only one.
He is adamant he has a sixth sense and believes he has discovered the presence of spirits on his Mt Mort property.
It wasn’t until this month, when an Ipswich clairvoyant visited the property, that Mr Lund stopped doubting himself.
“Everyone always tells me I’m nuts – even my wife,” Mr Lund said.
As soon as the psychic, who wishes to remain anonymous, set foot on the property she started trembling and describing the awful fate that she believes met a family on the property in the 1930s.
Clearly disturbed by the images she could see, the clairvoyant claimed a couple, their pregnant daughter and two other young children were murdered.
“Their bodies were dumped. It was horrific,” she said.
Mr Lund was shocked and amazed.
“That’s exactly what I’ve seen and I’ve written it all down,” he told The Queensland Times.
The woman added: “They want to be laid to rest.”
The accused? Well, the clairvoyant believes it was a man of Irish descent who roamed the land and had no motive for the slaying.
Mr Lund said every time he went near the creek on his property he became unsettled, as did the hunters and workers who occasionally crossed the section of his paddock.
“I feel like I’m having a heart attack when I come down here. It’s so real and heartbreaking,” he said.
“No one likes coming down here. They all come back shaking or say it gave them the jeebies.”
Mr Lund has never felt comfortable sharing his story.
That was until a recent request from Ipswich councillor David Pahlke was printed in The Queensland Times, asking for people who have ghost stories from the Ipswich area to come forward.
“I wanted to and still do want to hear from people who have ghost stories so we can start logging them, researching them and talking about them,” Cr Pahlke said.
“Somewhere down the path we might document the ghosts of Ipswich.”
“I’m sure there are many more stories like this out there.” - QT
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