West Midlands Ghost Club

Wednesday 16th July 2014

By way of a brief update to the blog:

*On Friday the 13th of June, two W.M.G.C. members paid an evening visit to an allegedly haunted, rural site (in the Midlands).... known locally as 'Monks Path' because of related ghost sightings there.  Needless to say, it's probably not at all surprising to learn that activity widely associated with the site in question comes in the form of a 'procession of monk-like figures' that have been witnessed walking along what is known to be an ancient / medieval trackway......

*In early July, the group received a call from a local hostelry, asking if we might respond to some 'ghostly happenings' that had apparently been occurring in the pub over the 12 months that the current management had been in residence.  With regards to activity, it seems that stools have been heard 'falling' off tables in the empty bar area (on more than one occasion) and the items of furniture found 6 or so feet away from the tables concerned. On another occasion, the landlady was upstairs and a customer situated downstairs, when both heard a brief series of five or so footsteps close by...... When they met up a couple of minutes later, both asked the other about hearing the steps...... but both insisted that the sounds had been 'close to them' and not from other parts of the property.....?

The landlady has had her bedroom door literally 'forced open' during the night, with no one else in the building. She has also felt someone 'rub their fingers down her shoulder / back' while in bed alone. 

A customer in the bar area said that he had seen the curtains at the front windows of the pub - windows that cannot physically be opened, as they are just sheets of glass in the frame - 'blow out' into the room at a 45 degree angle and remain static for a number of seconds....... He went to tell the manager and, as they looked at the curtains, they were then seen to be falling back into proper position! (Funnily enough, we've heard a number of different people, over the years, tell us the same kind of thing..... concerning different sites!? A young couple from the same street as a WMGC member had this occur during their first night at a new address a few years ago!!) 

What is of considerable interest is the simple fact that the landlady had become quite used to other, peculiar happenings occurring at previous addresses / pubs and her partner has actually 'worked with the deceased' in the past..... but both report having been somewhat 'ruffled' by what is happening in this current property!? (In a previous pub in North Staffordshire, for example, the landlady said that she used to have to keep going into a disused, old cellar at the site and removing a couple of glasses from a table that was situated in the room. She said she'd remove them one day........ and they would be back again by the next morning!? There were no glasses kept in the cellar, so she suggested 'someone' kept fetching them from the bar and putting them back on the table concerned....... just as if someone were having a drink overnight!?!) 

Club members have asked the couple basically 'what they'd like to do' about what has been going on at the site and have said that the ball would be 'left in their court', as it were.......?  The chance of a small investigatory visit might be on the cards, but there is little of any real use that can be done structurally in a pub at the best of times, of course...... Still, it would be interesting to sit in the place for a while and see if any of the effects concerned might be experienced or picked up on, perhaps? 

*On July 10th, group members visited a couple who have apparently been experiencing ghostly activity at their home in the West Midlands region.  Unfortunately, we have not received permission to share details concerning this intriguing case from the parties concerned.....

*Most recently, group members - along with our new associate, Naomi Horne - paid an evening visit to a region of Walsall that has been of considerable interest to the club over the years.  A certain area of Rushall, on the outskirts of the town, has long been associated with sightings of a 'grey' or 'white lady' apparition, which has apparently been seen by many people over the decades from (at least) the 1960's, up until the present day......  Group interest in the matter gave rise to a number of articles on the subject in the local press some years ago and local BBC radio ran a segment on the general topic for the space of a week at that time........