Ghostly Tyne and Wear

Rob Kirkup

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780750951098
• eBook ISBN:
  9780750952415
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

From reports of haunted castles, pubs, theatres and shopping arcades, to heart-stopping accounts of apparitions, poltergeists and related supernatural phenomena, Ghostly Tyne & Wear investigates thirty of the most haunted locations in Tyne & Wear today. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, this selection includes a phantom highwayman at Blacksmith's Table Restaurant in Washington, a Carry On film legend who haunts the Empire Theatre in Sunderland, a mischievous poltergeist at the the Central Arcade in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as well as sightings of phantom soldiers at Arbeia Roman Fort in South Shields. Illustrated with over sixty photographs, together with location and access details for each location, this book is sure to appeal all those interested in finding out more about the area's haunted heritage.

A–Z of Haunted Locations in Tyne & Wear

Angel View Inn

Overlooking the world-famous Angel of the North is the Angel View Inn. It was originally built as a farmhouse and stables, and the original stonework of the buildings can still be seen. Today it is a twenty-seven bedroom hotel, restaurant, conference and banqueting venue.

There is a legend at the inn of a young girl who was tending to a horse in the stables when the horse bolted and kicked out, hitting her in the face and killing her instantly. Is it said that she walks the corridors of the Angel View Inn, and those who have seen her have described her as having a gaping hole where her face should be. Staff members have also witnessed a man wandering the building on a number of occasions, most commonly near room 14; upon being approached he vanishes.

One of the current housekeepers was cleaning one of the rooms; she cleaned the bathroom, and then made the bed. She heard a noise in the bathroom and when she went back in all of the taps had been turned on fully. The same housekeeper had finished cleaning room 15, and as she left the room and was closing the door, she noticed an imprint on the bed in the shape of a person lying down, with an impression in the pillow where a head appeared to be.

One night, a couple staying in room 16 complained that they had been kept awake for hours by the sound of children running and laughing outside their room. There were no children staying in the hotel that night.

I spent an evening in the company of Tommy Harrison, who has worked as the night porter at the Angel View Inn for the previous six years, and has experienced some of the ghostly goings-on for himself during the many nights he has spent there. This is what he told me:

The previous night porter had no knowledge of the legend of the ‘faceless’ girl, and one night he sat down and started drawing as he often did. He drew a young girl with a dark void where her face should have been.

There was one night when a woman and her two young children were staying in room 9. She awoke during the night and one of her sons was sat at the bottom of her bed. She then realized to her horror that both of her children were fast asleep and that the child sat at the bottom of her bed was in fact a ghost. She was very shaken and upset.

The Angel View Inn. (By kind permission of the Angel View Inn)

There have been a lot of disturbances in the kitchen with pots and pans being thrown about when the room has been empty. We had a medium stay at the Angel View Inn and we were told that the building is home to six spirits.

It is interesting that the Angel of the North itself is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a Second World War Nazi recruitment officer, despite the 66ft-high landmark having only been erected in 1998. A number of visitors to the Antony Gormley sculpture have reported seeing the phantom, most commonly in the twilight, just after the last traces of sunlight have faded beyond the horizon.

Room 9; the room in which a lady customer woke during the night to find the ghost of a young boy sat at the bottom of her bed. (By kind permission of the Angel View Inn)

Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North.

Visitor Information

Address:

The Angel View Inn

Low Eighton

Gateshead

Tyne and Wear

NE9 7UB

Tel: [phone]

Website: www.angelviewinn.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

Opening Hours: Food is served in the restaurant Monday–Saturday midday– 9 p.m. Sunday lunch is served midday–6 p.m. Main menu served from 6 p.m.

How to Get There: From A1 north or south follow the brown tourist signs for the Angel of the North. At the immediate roundabout take the exit signposted Wrekenton onto the B1295. Take the first left into the Angel View Inn car park

Additional Information:

• For further information about the Angel View Inn’s facilities for banqueting and functions, please visit their website or call on the number above

• The Angel View Inn also caters for wedding receptions; further information is available on their website

• The hotel offers standard doubles and twins, and also superior doubles. All rooms are en-suite and many have stunning views of the Angel of the North. Family rooms are also available. Breakfast is included

Arbeia Roman Fort

Arbeia is the remains of a large Roman fort in South Shields built in around AD 158 on a low headland overlooking the River Tyne. Human occupation on this land predates the arrival of the Roman in Britain by many centuries. Archaeological evidence of the the earliest settlements date back to 3000–4000 BC. An Iron-Age roundhouse dating from 400 BC was recently excavated in the south-east corner of the site.

The Roman army had a firm grasp on the north east of England by the time the Roman fort was built in the second century. The fort covered a site of 4.1 acres and was home to 120 cavalry and 480 foot soldiers. By the early third century, the garrison numbers were reduced somewhat and most of the barracks were demolished to make way for stone granaries. The fort became a supply base for Hadrian’s Wall in Wallsend, four miles to the east, for the campaigns of Emperor Septimus Severus in AD 208–210.

In the early fourth century the fort was attacked and burnt down, but it was quickly rebuilt. Close to the end of the Roman rule a squadron of Syrian bargemen from the Tigris were garrisoned here, they gave the fort the name it is known by today – Arbeia; meaning ‘Fort of the Arab troops’. The Romans had previously called it Lugudunum. The unit occupied Arbeia until the Romans left Britain in the early fifth century.

The site was occupied well into the eleventh century by the Anglo-Saxons, and then left deserted. The remaining buildings were demolished and the land was used for farming until, in 1875, the first archaeological excavations of the Roman fort began. Digging on the site of the headquarters building immediately proved successful with a complete column being uncovered, as well as engraved gemstones and coins. A decorated tombstone of Regina was revealed in remarkable condition. She was a British woman of the Cattivellauni tribe, who was a slave, and then a freewoman. She was the wife of Barates, a Syrian merchant who added a message of mourning in his native Aramaic on her tombstone. Further digs in 1949–50 by Ian Richmond discovered the perimeter boundaries, and a museum was opened in 1953. Excavations continue to this day and the museum is managed, and the site cared for, by Tyne and Wear Museums. Some gruesome discoveries have been made in recent years; two adolescent skeletons dating back to the fifth century with deep cuts in their skulls were revealed in a pit in the centre of the courtyard. A large number of human remains have also been found in one area, leading many to believe that Arbeia might have been the site of one of the largest Roman burial grounds in the north.

The West Gate, the barracks, and the Commanding Officer’s house have been reconstructed on their original foundations, based on the detailed evidence available, and gives visitors a chance to experience the magnificence of Roman architecture, and how life in Roman times would have been. The museum contains a variety of exhibits including inscriptions, tombstones, and a recreation of a Roman burial. There is also an array of weaponry, including a welded iron sword with a brass inlay showing Mars, the Roman god of war.

With over 5,000 years of history, it comes as little surprise that there have been numerous ghost sightings at Arbeia. It is reported that locals have seen soldiers in full Roman garb walking throughout the ruined remains of the fort, often walking past a building or a pillar, then vanishing. One witness claims to have been passing late one night and saw a ghostly Roman soldier standing in front of the reconstructed West Gate. As they looked closer they realised, to their horror, that the soldier appeared to be a skeleton. A skull peeped out from beneath the helmet with gaping eye sockets and a loose jaw. Skeletal hands grasped a shield and a short sword. They were absolutely terrified and looked around in the street for someone, anyone, to come over and see this for themselves. The streets were deserted, they were on their own. When they looked back the skeletal warrior was no longer there.

The original site of Arbeia was much larger than the excavated site today, resulting in many of the current houses nearby standing on the foundations of the Roman buildings. The cellar of the nearby Look Out public house stands on the same level as the original fort, and staff members of the pub have reported seeing Roman soldiers marching through the cellar before walking into a wall.

Darren Ritson, author of Ghost Hunter: True-Life Encounters from the North East, and co-author of The South Shields Poltergeist: One Family’s Fight Against an Invisible Intruder, conducted a paranormal investigation at Arbeia and took the time to tell me what happened:

I went to Arbeia during the day for a pre-investigation visit and experienced, what I believe, to be a paranormal occurrence. I was in the Commanding Officer’s quarters and I tried to take a photo with my digital camera. I pressed the button but nothing happened, I tried again but to no avail, so I used my Nikon SLR 35mm and pointed it, clicked, and again nothing. I lowered the camera towards the floor to see what the problem was and it went off. One camera malfunctioning is not unusual, but two? I believe that there was a presence with me and it did not want his or her photo taken.

Early into the investigation that night a blue flashing light was seen in the Commanding Officer’s house, a few minutes later it was seen again. The atmosphere then seemed to change as if we were not alone; the temperature dropped and the air around us became ice-cold, resulting in goose bumps. We headed to a section of the house where three bedrooms are joined by a corridor. I had previously locked the door of the corridor, witnessed by two other investigators, but when I went to open the door it was already unlocked.

Later we went to the Great Hall to check on a trigger object, an item which we place onto a piece of paper and draw around so we can tell if it is moved, which we had left in a locked room. As with the door in the Commanding Officer’s house, I had locked it in the presence of two other people, but again this door was now unlocked! When we went into the room the trigger object had been moved too. We later found a third locked door had been mysteriously unlocked. We discussed the unlocked doors with the staff at Arbeia after the investigation, and we were told that this was not the first instance of this happening. Staff had previously reported doors in the Commanding Officer’s house unlocking of their own volition.

Visitor Information

Address:

Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum

Baring Street

South Shields

NE33 2BB

Tel: [phone]

Website: www.twmuseums.org.uk/arbeia

Opening Hours: 1 April–31 October, Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5.30 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.–5 p.m.; 1...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword by Richard Jones
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• A–Z of Haunted Locations in Tyne & Wear
• About the Author
• Sources & Recommended Reading