Haunted England and Folk Customs, Christina Hole

 A Friend picked this lovely Christina Hole book up for me as a Christmas present. What is particularly interesting about Haunted England is the wonderfully strange illustrations that are throughout the book. I do have another of Christina's books British Folk Customs
which also contains some lovely illustrations. Christina Hole 1896/1985 in 1956 became a Council Member of the Folklore Society For more info on Christina Hole

Down The Time Tunnel

From the collage archives.

Ghosts of Derbyshire by Clarence Daniel (Dalesman Books, 1977)

To mark both Halloween next week and the proper onset of Autumn this weekend… Derbyshire, ladies and gents.

One of my less noble ambitions tin life to try to one day collect enough of these regional ‘ghosts of..’ / ‘haunted..’ / ‘mysterious..’ books to cover the entirety of the UK. I think I have a lot of the more obvious ones, but less exciting / evocative parts of the country can be hard to find, so I was thrilled to be able to tick Derbyshire off the list.

In addition to the usual round of spectral hounds and ladies in white, this particular area of the midlands seems notable for a lot of funny business involving skulls, and, if Clarence Daniel is to be believed, a frankly suspicious abundance of bad local poets, all dedicated to commemorating supernatural events using a fairly similar meter. You can draw your own conclusions.

Gleo Mor, goblin of

Sadly not ghosts specific to roads, or road-related things (imagine ghosts embedded in the tarmac, nesting in exhaust pipes etc), but there is a phantom lorry in Scotland:

Shadows 75 to 78

Shadows was a Thames TV supernatural/mystery series that ran for 3 series from 1975 to 1978. All the stories were supernatural/Ghost/Fantasy/Mystery based. Shadows featured a superb array of actors including John Nettleton, Jenny Agutter, Jacqueline Pearce, Gareth Thomas, Brian Glover, June Brown, Russell Hunter (as Mr Stabs this character was also in Ace of Wands) George A Cooper (Caretaker Grange Hill) Brian Wilde (Mr Barraclough, Porridge) Norman Rossington, Gwyneth Strong and Joan Greenwood.
Writers for the series included Fay Weldon, J.B.Priestley, Susan Cooper, Joan Aiken.
What is also rather wonderful about Shadows was the exceptionally good intros to the series. A total of 3 different intros were used. My Personal favorite was the intro to the 2nd series with the animated bird flying, high contrast tower blocks and the creepy girl standing still whilst her shadow skips on a pale blue landscape. Always thought the intro to the 3rd series had a Box of Delights feel to it.
Some of the stories are perhaps a bit obvious/cliched and samey (After School & Waiting Room) some are fun (Dutch Schlitz's Shoes, The Man Who Hated Children) The Inheritance is a personal Favorite and definitely has a Folk Horror edge to it. A very fine and often over looked series.  If you do get the chance all intros are here on YouTube

The Horn Dance from The Inheritance