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More Bristol Ghosts
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The St George ghost
Air Balloon Road, St George, Bristol
In 1998 Victoria and Steven Cross asked the Bristol Evening Post for help in tracing the ghosts that had haunted her home in St George, Bristol.
Victoria, aged 25, said: "Old coins from the 1930s turned up in the house for no reason we could understand, and a friend said she saw a vision of a man in one of the upstairs rooms.
"We had builders in and they could hear footsteps when they were alone in a room.
"We had a puppy that used to get very distressed at night in certain rooms.
There was definitely something strange going on."
The couple, who have a one-year-old son called Caleb, quickly called in a medium who said there were four ghosts in the Victorian house.
One was a boy called Tom, another was a woman in a black dress with a high collar. The third was a teenager called Peter who died in the house, and the fourth was a man called David.
Victoria: "We haven't had any more trouble since the medium came but I would like an explanation of where the ghosts came from. I'm sure there must be a good reason because I've heard other people in the area say they've had similar hauntings since."
Plenty of witnesses
Over Court - Almondsbury
The problem with most ghost stories is that the spirits usually appear to just one person at a time. So it is always refreshing to hear about something that was seen by many people at once.
This is what happened when a hapless group of carol singers went to the Elizabethan manor called Over Court in 1937.
On their way back through the entrance arch the group of singers saw a bright white figure floating above the ground and radiating a bluish glow.
It was in full view for about half a minute and so the group could make out its tall pointed head-dress before the figure moved away in a zig-zag manner and then disappeared.
Who was this mystery figure? Well, it was supposedly the wife of an owner of Over Court who had had an affair with a local man. Upon finding out about her infidelity the husband shot her, but she was able to scramble away from the house and eventually drowned in the fish pond.
Screams of a murdered king
Edward II remains famous for one thing above all others - the grisly manner of his death.
The king, son of Edward I , proved to be something of a disappointment to his father, who conquered Wales for the English and was given a bloody nose by the Scots.
Edward II was a weak king who handed a good deal of his power over to the English noblemen - but even that didn't help him in the end.
He was horribly tortured at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire but only died when a red-hot poker was thrust up his rectum.
It was reported at the time that his screams could be heard as far away as the village of Berkeley and sometimes his screams can still be heard.
The castle - still owned by the same family as it was then - is open to the public and a part of it is preserved in the style of the day as Edward's cell, although it can't be proved that this room is where he met his death.
But Edward II has been made subject of a play - which has also been performed in the Great Hall at Berkeley Castle.
Fire Station Visitor
Fire Brigade Headquarters, Temple Back, Bristol
The Fire Brigade HQ in Temple Back
In 1975 the newly-built headquarters for the fire brigade was visited by a ghost on at least nine occasions.
It would walk through closed doors, lower the temperature of the central heating and then vanish all of a sudden.
A cook called Mrs Iris Rhodes saw it three times and once even chased it down the stairs with a glass of water thinking it was a fireman playing a prank.
She described the ghoul as between thirty and thirty six, with ruddy cheeks and wearing a large mackintosh - but there could be another explanation..
The Temple area of Bristol was once owned by the Knight Templars, an order of warrior monks suppressed in 1308 for heresy - in reality because they had become too powerful for medieval kings and popes to control.
While Mrs Rhodes believed it was wearing a mac, firemen who saw him reckoned it was actually medieval dress. The theory is it was one of the knights keeping an eye on development on the Templars' estate.
A Wizened Old Frightener
Various Bristol newspapers picked up on the story of a haunting in 1846 at the house adjoining All Saints Church in the city.
The ghost of a wizened old man terrified the tenants at the time, Mr and Mrs Jones.
Mrs Jones felt an urge to jump out of the window while Mr Jones was gripped with fear because of a flickering light that appeared on one of the internal walls.
Such was his trembling, so the story goes, that his body doubled up like a ball.
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