IT is Hallowe'en. Here is an octet of horrible hauntings and spooky stories, all of them evidence based and undeniably true, to get you in the mood, from the Tartan Lady of Blackwell to Black Peggy of Holmedale...
The Tartan Lady of Blackwell Grange
PRINCE William, the Duke of Cumberland, stayed at the Grange (above), then the home of George Allan, in 1745, immediately before heading to Scotland and victoriously leading the English troops into battle at Culloden, on April 16, 1745.
When he returned in triumph, laden down with booty, he stopped off at the Grange and presented Mr Allan with a plundered painting of a lifesize lady in a white dress with a vivid tartan sash across her body.
It was an ugly painting, with haunting eyes, so Mr Allan hung it in a distant corridor and forgot about it. But his servants hated it, feeling it had a malevolent presence. They even claimed that on the anniversary of the battle, the Tartan Lady wandered the corridor, lamenting her lost kinsmen.
In 1821, a cousin of the Allans, Robert Hodgson, was staying in the Grange. He was a lieutenant in the Dragoon Guards, a regiment that had been involved in the slaughter of the Scots, and, on the eve of the anniversary, his sleep was broken by a brilliant ball of light appearing in his room.
Out of the light stepped a ghostly lady, in a white dress with a tartan sash across her body. She moved towards him, her arms outstretched and her eyes burning with hatred.
He grabbed his pistols and fired into her fearful face, but she kept on coming…
He fired lower, into her body, which caused a low hissing sound to emanate from the apparition, and she shrank back into the ball of light which then disappeared.
Aroused by the sound of gunfire, servants came to Robert’s aid. As soon as they heard his story, they took him to the painting in the distant corridor – and there, on her white dress, was a black bullet hole, never seen before, which was over her heart.
The following morning, the painting was taken to the furthest corner of the Blackwell estate and burned – but it is said the Tartan Lady still walks the hotel on the eve of the battle, seeking revenge for her slaughtered kinsmen.
The Old Hell Cat of Raby
When in 1714, their eldest son, Gilbert, announced he was going to marry a commoner – albeit a very rich one – Lady Elizabeth was so furious that she threatened to disinherit him when if he went ahead.
He did go ahead, and Elizabeth and Christopher hired 200 workmen to tear out the castle fittings and cut down the woods, so destroying Gilbert’s inheritance.
Gilbert took his parents to court and they were ordered to cease their campaign of destruction, but this didn’t extinguish Elizabeth’s fury. Indeed, to this day, “the old hell cat” is said to haunt the battlements of the castle, pacing angrily up and down, knitting with red hot needles.
The Phantom Piper
JIMMY ALLAN (above), from Northumberland, was a bigamist, an army deserter and an all-round rogue, but he was also the best Northumbrian piper player in the region.
He was known as “the man with the golden pipes” and the Duke of Northumberland, at Alnwick Castle, was a big fan of his playing.
But in 1803, at Gateshead, he was convicted of stealing horses and, on trial in Durham, he was sentenced to death. However, George III pardoned him on condition that he be transported to Australia's penal colony in Botany Bay.
Aged 70, he was held placed in the Durham House of Correction, beneath Elvet Bridge, awaiting transportation, with only his pipes for company.
But his health deteriorated. By the start of 1810, it had become so bad, that a petition was sent to the king calling for his release, but the ailing monarch was too unwell to sanction it, so Jimmy died in the cell on November 13, 1810, aged 77.
Four days later, a pardon, signed by the Prince Regent, arrived in Durham, and the mournful sounds of Jimmy’s pipes still haunt Elvet Bridge where he was incarcerated for the last years of his life.
The prison cell beneath Elvet Bridge before its conversion into a pub
Jimmy Allan's cell, where his pipes still play, is at the centre of this Google StreetView picture showing the steps leading onto Elvet Bridge
The Tall Man
Landlord Lenny Holmes with a stack of glasses that he had witnessed being moved by the Tall Man, in 1998. The pub closed in 1999
THE former Marquis of Granby pub in Byers Green is said to be haunted by the ghost of a tall man. He was responsible for decades of spooky occurrences including taps being turned on, stools moving across the room and stacks of glasses mysteriously being split in two.
The Naughty Nun
HALL GARTH HOTEL (above), at Coatham Mundeville to the north of Darlington is said to be haunted by the ghost of a nun.
She was caught leading astray a male member of the noble family which owned the hall.
So they bricked her up in a secret tunnel, which apparently led to her convent, and left her to die. Little wonder she still walks to this day, warning single women who stay in Room 2, which is above the cellar in which she died, of the fate that befell her…
A member of staff in 2003 investigates the room at the Hall Garth where the naughty nun is said to appear
The White Lady of Aycliffe
A LITTLE further up the A167 from Coatham Mundeville, a White Lady has infested the road in the area of Aycliffe Village from as far back as the 18th Century. Reports suggest that she is usually in formal attire – perhaps a wedding dress or a Victorian dress – and she accosts travellers on the old Great North Road. Some have even stopped their carriage or car for her, offered her a lift, she’s got in, but a mile or so north, there has been no one there…
Black Peggy
ONE Sunday in the autumn of 1881, the Reverend Arthur Close was returning to Hutton Magna, near Barnard Castle, where he was vicar for 33 years. He had just preached at Helwith, a moorland hamlet, and, on horseback, he approached a small bridge (above) between the villages of Newsham and Dalton in the shadow of what is now the A66.
Mr Close wrote later: "I distinctly noticed the figure of a woman dressed in black walk over the bridge. My horse also noticed the figure, for he pricked up his ears as it passed in front of him. She then disappeared round a turn in the road."
When he got round the bend she was nowhere to be seen.
He pulled his horse onto the verge and moved along slowly, cracking his riding whip and calling: "Is anyone there?"
He felt it was impossible for any human being to vanish completely as there was nowhere to hide.
He consulted his parishioners who knew only too well who he had seen because for centuries they, and their ancestors and even their ancestors’ horses, had seen the same thing.
The vicar wrote: "I was therefore forced to the conclusion that the mysterious individual was the old dame Peggy, who has always been credited with these nocturnal ramblings."
Matilda the bride
Still dressed in her wedding gown, she used to appear only in the early spring and only if a single man was staying in Room 11 – it was as if she hoped her love had come back for her.
In recent years, she began appearing so frequently that hotel staff had taken to calling her Matilda. Is she still there, even though the hotel is now closed and derelict?
READ MORE: TEN MORE SPOOKY STORIES FROM SOUTH DURHAM
READ EVEN MORE: ANOTHER TEN SPOOKY STORIES FROM OUR AREA
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