Haunted Roads Investigation
Haunted Roads - 22nd July 2012
After hearing stories associated with number of local roads for many years the team decided that it may be a good idea to do a quick investigation during their summer break. The team chose a couple that had many eye witness accounts over the years and decided that it would be best to spend a short amount of time at each to investigate the occurrences. The two roads chosen were the A370 through Congresbury and the B3114 off the A368 in Chew Valley. They arrived at the first location at about 22:30 and began by driving along the stretch of road a few times, passing the spot where there have been many sightings of a man who appears to just step out into the road in front of passing cars only to then vanish. The team looked for anything that may have cause the passing drivers to believe someone was stepping out in front of them, sudden reflections from the roadside etc. But nothing seemed obvious at the time. They then parked the car in the pub car park next to the location and proceeded on foot to walk along both sides of the road taking photographs and calling out to the man to show himself. The name George was suggested in one of the stories where the landlord of the nearby pub, which was then known as the Railway Inn, when asked many years ago by a motorists who had just encountered a man stepping out in front of him only to then disappear, suggested that it was George crossing the road looking for his dog. Apparently he had been seen many times before, often crossing the road and leaning on the fence opposite, when alive he was a resident in one of the adjacent cottages. While walking past the exact spot where the figure had been seen many times the team realised that the layout of the road must have changed in recent years. In a couple of the stories motorists report a railway bridge crossing the road. The old route of the track is still there but is now a foot path, however this is now level with the road, so the road must have originally dropped down into a dip under the bridge and then back up again just before the location of the figure. Whether this would have played tricks on drivers in the right conditions with headlights reflecting off of signs or shadowed spots where the headlights couldn’t reach may be one explanation, but we could for obvious reasons not test this theory on the night. All in all this was an interesting location but nothing occurred on the night, that being said, with so many sightings in exactly the same location something must be occurring here. It would be interesting to gain more knowledge on the history of the area and any other stories from people who have witnessed things here.
The team arrived at the second location, the B3114 at approximately 23:45 and again began by driving along the stretch or road several times. The stories about this section of road were even more numerous than the last and all reported very similar occurrences, either a woman walking out in front of passing cars giving them no time to stop, only for the woman to pass through the car, or sightings of a young girl stood at the side of the road wearing a Victorian style dress and soaking wet, both at the same section of road. The story associated with these sightings tells of a young girl of 14 called Catherine Brown who lived in the valley at Stratford Mill (now relocated to Blaise Castle Estate) before the village was flooded to make the reservoir. She is said to have drowned in the area although the exact location is difficult to confirm. While driving the team noted several things about the layout of the road. Firstly the road was very straight and the headlights of other cars could be seen from several miles away in some cases, the location was also on a slight brow of a hill where the headlights of the car created a shadowed spot on the road when passing by the reported section. Finally there was a sign located at the edge of the road just past the reported sightings which created a bright reflection from the cars headlights on the unlit country road. While all of these things go some way into adding the logical thinking to the investigation, the team had to keep in mind that there were over a dozen sightings by different people all telling the same story and giving a lot of detail in the description of the girl who has been seen standing, soaking wet, at the side of the road.
The team then parked in a nearby lane and proceeded to walk to the crossroads where the sightings keep occurring. There was a very obvious cold spot directly at the sighting spot that seemed to extend across the road, maybe this colder area can in certain conditions create patches of mist on the road, but for tonight the air was clear. In contrast to the first location, all the team members reported quite quickly that this location felt a little uneasy and “not quite right”. The team then crossed over the road and walked up the opposite lane. It was while in this lane that both Matt and Trixie became anxious about another side lane called Kings Hill lane that neither of them felt comfortable proceeding down. It was only after the investigation that Damien informed them both that this lane was also another location of many sightings of the young girl in wet clothes. The team walked down this lane a little way and the feelings of uneasiness became more apparent as well as the temperature seeming to drop dramatically the further down the lane they preceded. After about 45 minutes of calling out and taking photographs around this lane the team started to slowly head back in the direction of the car. While at the crossroads again a couple of cars passed by and it was noticed that the passing headlights created very odd looking shadows as they passed over the crest of the hill and the cross roads, possibly another explanation for some of the sightings maybe? But again, shadows do not explain the detail at which many of the sightings have been reported. The team then decided to drive along the side lane Matt and Trixie had felt uneasy about and up and down the main road again a few times, but nothing of interest was reported.
This short investigation ended around 01:15 but it would be interesting to come back to this second location again in the future and do a more thorough investigation with the rest of the team, possibly getting prolonged footage of the passing car headlights as well as a more detailed history of the location and the reported girl..