Haunted York

 

The city of York is famous worldwide being haunted, so we decided to search or to see some ghosts one day at night, during a ghosts tour with an unusual and mysterious guide. This guide tell us some ghosts or strange stories like these:

 

York Minster

York Minster is an impressive building. It took over 250 years to build and has the largest stained glass window of any gothic cathedral in Europe. It is also one of the most haunted buildings in York. We were told the story of the night in 1984 when the Minster was ravaged by fire, and we were also told of the naval officer who was seen here in the 1920s who approached a young lady here and whispered something to her then walked off. The naval officer was her brother and he had whispered "there is a future state" she tried to catch him up but couldn't see him. It was actually the ghost of her brother who was working away at the time and she knew at that moment he had passed away. They had made a pact that whoever died first would let the other know if there was an afterlife, hence "there is a future state". She was notified of her brothers death a few weeks later.

 
 

 

Bedern

Bedern, off Goodramgate, was the medieval home of the Minister's Vicars Choral. The choristers finally moved out in 1575 and the area degenerated in region of slums and warehouses. By the 1847 century, a sort of orphanage-cum-workhouse was established here known as the York Industrial Ragged School. Its master, Mr Pimm, was paid handsomely to round up local waifs and strays and put them to work and he was keen to keep hold of what he called, his earnings. Mr Pimm kept a register of the children who worked here and he was paid for each child and the money was to be used for food and clothing for the children. He kept the money for himself though and many of the children died through cold or starvation. Mr Pimm realised that by disposing of the bodies himself he could keep the child on the register and still claim the money for that child. From then on if one of the poor little children died the body would bured by Mr Pimm in a shallow grave. If a child took ill they'd be locked away to recover or die. Mr Pimm started hearing noises and was tormented by the spirits of the children he'd mistreated, he took to the bottle and ended locked away in an asylum for the remainder of his life.

Bedern has recently been renovated, luxury flats have been built and many of the owners see and hear strange things at night. The restless spirits of the dead children are still occasionally seen, or heard, in the area. More usually, however, it is their playful laughter which is heard, not their screams. Although sometimes persons have stopped to listen to the eerie sound, but, as they do, the laughter changes into screams of terror. Two of the children's bodies were never found. Now…

 

Above is a photo that was taken by one of the customers of the walk. This is Bedern. On the right of the photo you can clearly see a figure of a small child wearing what looks to be a shawl or something similar.

The Shambles

On our way to The Shambles we went to Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate, the shortest street in York with the longest name. The Shambles is the cobbled street that is home to the final tale of our ghost walk. Margaret Clitheroe was a catholic who lived here when it was illegal to be a catholic, she, however, prayed in dimly lit rooms and also housed priests in her home until it was dark and they could move on. She was caught though and she wouldn't renounce her faith, saying that she wanted God to judge her, and she was sentenced to death. She was tied to the ground (supplying the scarfs to bind her hands, herself) she then had an extremely heavy wooden door placed on top of her and then boulders thrown on the door until she was crushed to death on 25th March 1586. Her body was thrown on a rubbish heap and remained there until some of her family plucked up the courage to retrieve it to give her a proper burial, when they found it they were amazed by the condition of the body as it had been there a good while and the blood coming from the cuts was still fresh, so they chopped off one of her hands to show the locals the miracle (the hand is now in a locked cupboard in the Bar Convent Christianity museum and can be viewed upon request).

She was made Saint Margaret Clitheroe in 1970 and the council bought the house she lived in and have opened it to the public. Everyone who enters the building are amazed by how calm and peaceful they are when they enter, even if they were in a foul mood before they walked through the door (the day after the ghost hunt, I actually stepped inside the doorway of this building and felt nothing at all) and there have been hundreds of sightings at the house. However the council have bought the wrong house! The house they have opened is only a couple of hundred years old and the house she actually lived in is a shop called Manor Prints and Pottery on the opposite side of the street and she was crushed to death in the cellar of this very building.