Page 26 • The HERALD • 26th October 2023 v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v Kitchen & Bathroom Showroom with free design service Tel: 023 8084 3787 Email: showroom@pcbuildingsupplies.co.uk Web: www.pcbuildingsupplies.co.uk ELECTRICIAN/HANDYMAN FULLY QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN (30YRS EXPERIENCE) • Mains Upgrades • Testing • Extra/Replacement Points/Lights • Outside Lighting • Sockets • Ponds • BT/TV Points • Ethernet Points • CCTV • Fire/Intruder Alarms • Basic Plumbing Repairs • Outside Taps • Showers • Heating Problems • Blinds/Poles Fixed • Flatpacks • Loft Work Boarding, Tidying etc ALL OTHER DOMESTIC WORK CONSIDERED Call Mick on 07738 166453 or email: michaelshelley80@googlemail.com • Re-Skimming • Rendering • Coving • Dry Lining • Tacking • Artex Covered • Floor Screeding www.tbrownplastering.co.uk Call: 07919 183989 Friendly • Reliable • Professional • Free Estimates Ghostly Tales of the Waterside & New Forest by Marc Heighway, mheighway@hotmail.com Marc hosts monthly local history talks, visit:nfhwa.org/events for details. When the dark October nights start to draw in, the veil between the living and the dead grows ever more thin. As the dim glow of ickering jack-o’-lanterns appear in the eerie hush of moonlit nights, I’d like to turn your attention to mysterious and supernatural frights. Hauntings and ghostly encounters have captured the imagination of Waterside and New Forest locals for centuries, with tales of spectral apparitions and unexplained phenomena echoing through the dark corridors of our history. Some of these stories have been forgotten and lost to time, but being the Halloween season, I thought I’d dig up a few from the vaults. Our rst spooky stop is Beaulieu and the tale of old Mary Dore. She lived in the 1700’s and is said to have been a witch who had the ability to turn into a cat or hare whilst involved in the nefarious activity of wood stealing. A 19th century periodical published this about her legend: “Our crone, her only companion is a ghostly cat. She is a pariah, shunned and hated, but feared; the power of exciting fear indeed in those that hate her and thirst for her blood is the only solace of her wretched life.” Mary Dore wasn’t the only witch in the Beaulieu area. ‘Witchey White’ is said to have used her supernatural powers to bring courting couples together in the 1800’s. Like Mary Dore, she too had the ability to transform into a hare, and when chased by dogs she would disappear large, black bonnet. She was jumping up and down, up, and down. The young man panicked and fled blindly in the opposite direction, but every time he looked behind him there she was, always the same distance away, always jumping, up and down.” Moving nearer to the Waterside area, Marchwood has a ghostly tale which rst appeared in the local press in the 1800’s. A distressed soldier haunts the site of the military port, his sad spirit having been seen to walk through walls. Sightings of the ghost had such an e ect on one guard, that the man was driven to attempted suicide, becoming a hopeless lunatic. Not all ghost stories are from the distant past. Some exist in living memory such as the time the Ghost of Godshill was reported in 1987. It related to the ghostly apparition of a woman who appeared in a photo taken of a New Forest hunt near Fritham. A friend of mine also swears that one of the cottages in Buckler’s Hard is haunted. In the 1990’s she was told that every day at 3pm, you could clearly hear ghostly footsteps coming from an upstairs room, despite nobody being there. Along with her Mum, she went to investigate and sat in the lounge to wait. As regular as clockwork, the sound of heavy boots was heard above their heads, accompanied with a scu . e footsteps continued down the stairs, slow and heavy until they stopped outside the lounge door. ey expected someone to walk in, but nobody appeared. I also have a personal experience from a time when my family and I lived in an old house on the Waterside. e previous owners claimed their bed had been li ed from the oor during the night. ey were so terri ed that they sold up and ed, never to return. Whilst living there I did some research and discovered how the property had a history of mysterious res starting. I won’t give you the speci cs to where the house was so not to scare the current owners, but during our time, a decapitated crow was le on the doormat, and we found a scary doll in the garden. We don’t live there anymore. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, I encourage you be open-minded this Halloween season. As you carve and illuminate your pumpkin, maybe you could share these tales around a ickering re, but please remain vigilant and curious, for who truly knows what otherworldly encounters may await us in the shadows. into a small hole at the back of a cottage in Chapel Lane, East Boldre. e Ferryman Pub on the Walhampton side of Lymington also has a spooky legend. e pub (previously known as the Waggon and Horses) was the scene of a tragic accident in 1893 when local gamekeeper Henry Card accidentally shot himself dead at the bar. His ghost is said to appear to customers but will only be seen from the corner of their eye. Further west, Hordle’s All Saints Church has a resident ghost. Mary Ann Girling, the leader of the New Forest Shakers cult (who I wrote about in a previous edition) is said to haunt the graveyard. She once appeared in front of a terri ed teenager. “There was the tall, gaunt, angular figure of a woman, wearing a long, black Victorian dress and a
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