It is over four years since I started researching “The Ruskington Horror” – the name given to a Lincolnshire road ghost phenomenon by ITV This Morning host Richard Madeley in 1984 (FT401:32-38, 402:38-43). Little did I anticipate that my researches would yield over 30 first- and second-hand testimonies about weird stuff from across the county of Lincolnshire, stretching from a 12-ft (3.6m) tall monk strolling along a Scunthorpe road in the north to a driver being buzzed by a phantom motorcycle near Holbeach in the south. The phenomena ranged from the folkloric to the totally inexplicable (mainly the latter!) In this concluding article I present stories that came to light from further witnesses.
GHOSTLY GATEWAY
Noting that FT regular Nigel Watson is originally from Scunthorpe I contacted him to ask if he was aware of local road ghost phenomena. He sent me a copy of his article 1 which quoted Joan Forman, from page 53 of her Haunted East Anglia, where she wrote:
“My father, when a young man was engaged to the miller’s daughter at Legbourne Mill. He was in the habit, when the working day was over, of cycling out to Legbourne via Cawthorpe, taking the route by the plantation… He had a reasonably modern bicycle, as cycling was one of his hobbies; in those days modern did not extend to battery powered lamps. Both front and rear were acetylene lamps and had to be lit by hand. On one particular night my father rode his usual journey to the mill. He had turned into the plantation stretch which leads to Cawthorpe and was passing the gateway when his front lamp went out. He dismounted and re-lit the lamp, climbed back on and was about to move when the rear light went out. He got off the machine again, re-lit the rear lamp and once more prepared to ride off. At that point both front and rear lights were extinguished.
No doubt the young man was thoroughly alarmed and disconcerted. As far as he could see there was no earthly explanation why one lamp, let alone both, should go out. Once more he re-lit both lamps, jumped on the bike and pedalled hell-for-leather down the lane. Once out of the mysterious gateway, both lights remained alight. He came home via the main road through Legbourne village and for several weeks gave the plantations a wide berth.”
The above incident took place in about 1925, and
