Ghosts

Posted by Richard Rawlinson

I’ve just seen a Templar knight in Bristol, walking the streets in helmet, chain mail and white tunic with red cross. This is not uncommon in a city with a rich Templar history, reflected by the station name, Temple Mead, and a Weatherspoon pub called Knights Templar.

I’m not sure if he was a ghost or a man in fancy dress, just pretending to be a member of the monastic military order founded in the 12th century to protect pilgrims to Jerusalem. Paranormal Site Investigators (PSI) have reported many apparitions, especially at the HQ of Avon Fire and Rescue, built over a Knights Templar temple. Interestingly, the sightings are invariably accompanied by the sound of Gregorian chant.

Next year is the 700th anniversary of the death of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who was burned at the stake on 18 March 1314 after the former darlings of Christendom had fallen from grace.

King Philip IV of France was the main catalyst for their downfall, torturing them into confessing heretical religious practices and the crime of finding sexual release with each other.

Philip’s motives were dubious. He was broke and the Order of Templars was rich. As well as being holy monks and crack soldiers, another dichotomy of the Templars was they were pioneering bankers, so talented at finance that the Order was richer than monarchs, who it then dutifully bankrolled. Philip owed the Order money but needed plenty more to fund his appetite for European wars. By persecuting the Templars, he could clear his debt, grab some booty, and, at the same time, strengthen France’s position by destroying the Vatican’s formidable army.

Some later historians have also had it in for the Templars, portraying them as a proto-Nazi ethnic extermination squad. But the Templars’ recorded mission was to protect pilgrims and the vulnerable, with no mandate in their book of 600 rules for ideological murder of people holding a different faith.

The Crusades was hardly a time of religious and cultural tolerance. Perhaps the Templars did overstep the mark by modern standards. Perhaps they did lose support in powerful places because they got too big for the boots.

But the ghosts down Bristol way are a chivalrous bunch.

As Sean Eddleston lay dying he told his partner, Sharon Grant, that he wanted her never to date anyone else. Since then, his ghost has frightened off every one of her suitors. The Sun newspaper takes up the story:

Five years since Sean’s death, Sharon, now 44, claims to have had three relationships dashed by her ex appearing from beyond the grave to give her fellas the frights of their lives.

She says he PULLED the hair of one lover, PINNED her to the bed so she couldn’t get up and answer the door to the same fella — and even APPEARED next to him on the sofa.

Sharon is now coming to terms with the fact Sean may always interfere in her relationships.

She says: “A friend of mine told me to get my place exorcised but I’m not sure I want to. Although Sean has been a pain, I do like having him around. A part of him is still here and I find that comforting.

“Some nights I’ll sit down on my own in the front room and chat to him. I know he’s there, I can feel his presence. I was never interested in ghosts and ghouls before Sean died and had no opinion on whether they existed. Now I know they do.

“I tell Sean I need that physical relationship with another man but it doesn’t mean I don’t still love him. I can be there for hours just chatting. I only hope Sean is listening.

“But he needs to let me get on with my life.”

Full story in The Sun here. 

CCTV at SMP Large Format, Ashford, Kent, captured this terrifying spectral orb moseying around one of the offices. It has left the workforce shaking.

“The boys in the factory feel there is something there or watching them. You know when you get the feeling you are not alone?

“We have not seen the orb or glow again since, but a couple of them have said they have noticed their tools being moved.

“One of them even got trapped after a really heavy piece of kit somehow moved to block a door, again when no one else was around.”

Full story in the Sun here. 

From the Cumbria News and Star:

In a bizarre 35-second sequence, recorded by a CCTV camera in the dead of night at The Wolfe pub in Little Dockray, a ball of light is seen descending through the ceiling, its outline pulsating as it moves around.

At one point, part of the shape appears to reach out and move rapidly just above a table as if polishing it.

Suddenly, the light ball swoops upwards, disappearing through the ceiling, its topmost part momentarily assuming the likeness of a face.

The pub’s landlord, Andrew Batemen, 38, was staggered when he saw the images.

He mentioned the footage to staff at the Thomas Cook travel agents next door – and found that they too had captured weird goings on their CCTV cameras.

That footage, shot exactly a week later almost to the hour, shows a computer mouse mysteriously moving across a desk in the darkness.

A soft light then bathes the office as the computer monitor switches on – and within seconds a large sign falls from the shop’s front window.

To add to the intrigue, staff at the travel agent believe the building was once used as a funeral parlour.

Full story here. See the CCTV footage here.