Talking to the reporter the other day about police involvement in hauntings and the like, I had mentioned that police also served - in the past - as admirable witnesses to such things..... and, of course, as ghosts themselves at times!! We have a fairly famous police ghost in Willenhall (about 400 yards from where I live) for example and there are cases from all around the region, including Handsworth and Northfield in Birmingham too.... When we did the regional documentary Ghosts for the BBC in 2000, one of the snippets included in the show covered the apparition of murdered policeman - PC James Davis - who was killed almost 130 yrs ago on Icknield Street, Wythall. (Not far from Kings Norton in Birmingham). It was said he was stabbed to death by a local poacher, Moses Shrimpton, while trying to apprehend the neer do well....... (This latter assumption has apparently been refuted in more recent years, however!?) Subsequently, a memorial stone to the 33 yr old fallen policeman was placed in the hedgerow, at the side of the lane, where the crime took place...... Over the years, accounts of experiences with the shade of PC Davis have been mentioned from time to time, though its always been a question as to whether this particular ghost was just an aspect of local legend that had developed with time (as in a lot of instances) or possibly something more tangible, perhaps.......? Whatever the truth behind these rumours, a very interesting encounter came to light a few years back, concerning a peculiar - and rather fortuitous (at least for the person concerned!) - sighting of a uniformed ghost at the spot concerned...... The witness concerned had been out at a country pub with a boyfriend at the time and - having had an argument with him - had stormed off along the lanes thereabouts in a huff....... She says that she walked along, she suddenly came across the figure of a man dressed in old Victorian Police Uniform.... As she neared the figure, he allegedly called out to her: Stay on the left of the road girl, do you hear me!? A little perturbed by the figure / experience, she carried on without comment but later looked back to see that the man had now gone. She says that - on the left side of the road - there was no footpath, but just a grass verge, with the path was on the right. Strangely, despite knowing that she should always walk into oncoming traffic on country lanes, she ended up staying on the left..... Only a very brief time later, a car came around a nearby bend at some speed and tragically careered into a group of people - on the opposite side of the road - as they left a pub!! Needless to say - sheer coincidence or not - the woman concerned couldnt help but believe that the warning by the spooky bobby had influenced her path that night and kept her out of harms way!?! She says that she later visited the spot with her father and - to her amazement - they discovered the monument to the murdered Davis at the exact same spot that she had seen the ghostly figure......!?!
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 19:01:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015