The Mysterious Ash Tree - Beware or Befriend?

​In my front garden stands a typically fast-growing Ash tree, one whose roots are perilously close to destroying the garage.

Which got me thinking about the Ash tree in folklore and in the paranormal world; my cultural touchstone being M.R. James’ disturbing tale The Ash Tree (1904); links to two BBC2 versions are linked below.

The Ash (or Fraxinus) is generally regarded as a positive member of a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, or Oleaceae. Indeed, in Norse mythology, the World Tree Yggdrasil is held to be a sacred Ash tree and was regarded across Northern Europe as a symbol of cosmic connection, healing, and strength.

The Old Ash Tree

​Symon Parsley / Old Ash Tree

In popular culture, the World Tree recently featured in season 2 of Marvel’s LOKI (2023).

For the Vikings, the first man, Askr, was formed from an Ash, whilst the first woman Embla was made from an elm. In the Norse poem Hávamál, Odin described hanging himself from a "wind-swept (Ash) tree" for nine nights, wounded by a spear, in a self-sacrifice to himself to gain wisdom and learn the secrets of the runes.

​In Celtic and British folklore, the Ash is one of the three sacred trees, along with Oak and Thorn; a healing tree, particularly used in rituals to cure poorly children.

For the ancient Greeks, the Meliae were nymphs associated with the Ash tree, born from the blood of Uranus falling onto Gaia.

​The Askafroa (wife of the Ash tree), or in Danish ‘Askefrue’ is the guardian of the Ash tree, a malicious creature. To appease her, it was necessary to make a sacrifice every Ash Wednesday by pouring water on her roots and declaring: "I am offering to you so that you do us no harm".

​Ash Wednesday, while nowadays of course, a Christian observance marking the start of Lent, has roots in pagan customs of purification, mourning, and the return of spring, including using ash for protection, fertility, and renewal. Ashes were used to mark the forehead for Odin’s protection often done on "Odin's Day" (Wednesday). In Celtic tradition, ashes were used to bless livestock and ensure fertility during the transition from winter to spring, frequently associated with Imbolc celebrations.

There are fictional takes on less than benevolent Ash trees, including in the 1990 3-part BBC television adaptation of Kingsley Amis’s novel, The Green Man (1969), where it puts in a truly terrifying appearance at the beginning of the first episode:

​Note: Green Man sculptures are often created from fallen Ash trees.

The Green Man in Lesnes Abbey Woods, London Borough of Bexley.

​Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The UK - in ‘real’ life?

1869’s Haunted Ash of Lampits (Scotland), part of The Ghosts of Carnwath series of supernatural reportage

An account in Scotland’s Hamilton Advertiser of 28th August 1869 detailed a melancholy apparition and haunted Ash tree near Lampits Farm, to the east of Carstairs Junction in South Lanarkshire:

“There long stood a solitary, melancholy-looking ash tree in a field on the Lampits Farm, in the vicinity of Cockysyetts, which was cut down to make way for the Queen’s branch of the Caledonian Railway, and which was still more melancholy, in my imagination, from its dismal associations; for here, on one of the branches of this dowie-looking tree, a poor heart-broken girl of Cockysyetts closed her earthly sorrows and her earthly pilgrimage. No mavis or blackbird was ever seen to nestle in it scanty foliage, no merry note of music was ever heard from its dull half-blasted branches; the raven might croak and the pyot chatter there by day, and the owl scream by night, but no other merriment, dear tree, was thine. Ghosts love the darkness and the shade, and the ghost of poor Jessie was often seen gliding at midnight among the shadows of the fearsome neuk.”

Today, few trees grow on the flat windswept carseland around Lampits. There remains, however, a solitary ancient ash tree that commands a view across the flat fields towards the Caledonian Railway. Many of its upper branches have been lost to past storms, and disease ravages others, however new growth continues to sprout from a gnarled and weathered old trunk.

With scanty foliage and half-blasted branches it has an uncanny resemblance to the melancholy old ash tree described in the newspaper article over 150 years ago. Ash trees can live for up to three hundred years, therefore it’s possible that the surviving tree could have witnessed Jessie’s melancholy end, early in the 19th century. It might even have sprung from a seed of the haunted ash.

The Hardy Tree (St Pancras Old Church, London)

​David Edgar, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Hardy tree was an Ash tree located in the very ancient, possibly Roman St Pancras Old Church's churchyard in London. Notable for the stacked gravestones embedded at its base in around 1860, when graves were moved by writer-then-architect Thomas Hardy to make way for the Midland Railway to run through the churchyard.

In 2014, the tree was infected with fungus, and with storms further weakening it, the tree fell in December 2022.

The Hell Tree

From: The Mysterious Hardy Tree | Graves that Circle a Tree….(2021)

It’s thought that during his time here, Hardy actually uncovered the body of a two-headed man during the excavations. Thomas never documented anything regarding and this and more recent photographs of the tree has encouraged speculation if he ever had anything to do creating the design at all. He did write a poem named Levell’d Churchyard. Thomas’s poem suggests that he didn’t have fond memories of the work he did here but its hardly surprising given the job he was expected to do.

In letters that were written by the St Pancras Old Church vicar John Tweed in 1859 to his wife Charlotte, he appeared to have witnessed a supernatural manifestation. The vicar detailed how his churchyard was home to a mass gathering of apparitions and how tombstones seem to appear at the Ash tree and that he had even seen them moving towards this tree by a unseen force.

In December 1859 he wrote to Charlotte: ”More missing headstones. Increasingly certain of connection with my guests. Today I traced strange lines of disturbed earth across the graveyard. Each lead to the Ash Tree. Are they being dragged there? And then where? The ash tree itself is looking increasingly unhealthy, possibly diseased. I don’t like to get too close to it.”

And then: “If I hadn’t seen such as I have seen these past months I may not have trusted my eyes, but trust them I must. I shall record it in as plain a manner as I know how: By the light of the moon last night I saw a gravestone, moving with some speed, and quite of its own accord, across the graveyard. It hurtled towards the ash tree, at the base of which it disappeared, as if plunging in to the very bowels of the tree.” Finally: “Good God. Hundreds of them, of all shapes, just pouring into the tree.” He later refers to the tree being a gateway and it’s believed by some that he felt it could have possibly been a hell gate.

​“Dearest Charlotte, I do so love hearing your news from the vale, it pains me to have to recount the horrors of my life here… At night I am plagued by nightmares so vivid and dreadful that I am afraid to sleep at all. I have been nailed to the cursed iron frontage of a flame-licked and hell-bound locomotive. I have walked through the dark miasma and fetid slime of a London choked by death. I have seen the flagstones of the church floor thrust violently upwards by a sudden eruption of uncertain origin. And these are only the visions I have the constitution to retell… I begin to suspect that it is not just the lost ones that are being dragged down to that place. For how to account for the sheer number I watch descend every night? Where will it end? Must every dead soul in the parish, every dead soul in London be reclaimed for damnation?! No Charlotte, I shall not see it happen.”

​Allegedly John Tweed closed the hell gate in 1860 by burying a Bible under the tree, and scans of the Ash tree show a large book buried within the roots… but nobody has ever been allowed to dig the area. No reports were made from Tweed after 1860, when he lost the ability to record his findings; his writing hand apparently useless.

​And...this from Exit Strategy for the Restless Dead: The Hell Tree of St Pancras (2017)

He wrote to Charlotte: “Every thief, vagabond and ne’er-do-well in London seems to have wound up buried at St P. Which would be all well and good, except that the digging up of late seems to have unearthed more than just bones. Judging by the number of lost souls drifting about the place in one spirit form or another, I would offer that many of my guests are far from welcome in Heaven. I can only assume that having been buried in consecrated ground further precludes them from the other place, which leaves them, it is my horror to say, stuck in the churchyard with me”.

Tweed was not entirely without sympathy for his ghostly companions, going on to tell his wife that they were: “Sad seeming things. I feel quite sorry for them. I don’t suppose I should mind at all if only they kept their mournful meanderings to the night-time hours. Last Sunday I was midway through service when a wraith came down the aisle – an infernal thing, it stalked among the shadows between the shafts of morning light, wailing and moaning like a baleful cat. There were already murmurings amongst the parishioners about the foul stench from the digging up. Dearest Charlotte, I am not sure how much longer I can pacify them.”

The Beatles at Old St Pancras (1968)

Although St Pancras Old Church is in central London, minutes away from the great Victorian Gothic pile of a station, the area can be quite a haunting, lonely place, perched on a hill overlooking the railway junctions of St Pancras and King’s Cross. I remember visiting in the snows and blizzards of Winter 2015, when the church grounds felt like something from one of Grimm’s tales.

The Lively Arts: Thomas Hardy - A Haunted Man (1978)

The Ash Tree - Vampire/Zombie Killer

​In folklore, an ash stake is traditionally used to kill vampires, especially in Slavic, Russian, and Baltic traditions. Ash wood represents protective, "life" energy in Norse mythology, where it can help destroy the Draugr (Undead), or at least weaken their supernatural powers. The Viking version of vampires/zombies are described as bloated “death-blue/black” revenants who ferociously protect their treasure, with the ability to grow to giant sizes and shapeshift.

Note: other words for the Undead or Vampires in Norse legend include:

Aptrgangr (Again-walker): One who walks again.

Haugbúi (Barrow-dweller): One that dwells within its burial mound (howe).

Gjenganger: A ghost or revenant.

​In Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), Abraham Van Helsing utilizes wooden stakes associated with specific woods like ash or white oak to impale vampires by piercing their Undead hearts.

Three BBC adaptations of The Ash Tree by M.R James

The Ash-Tree (1986)

And a later telling from 2000; my idea but ripped off by a then senior BBC colleague:

​A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ash Tree (1975) - The big reveal...

​Ash Wednesday (1973) full movie

LINKS

​The Haunted Ash of Lampits: https://clydesdalesheritage.org.uk/article/the-haunted-ash-of-lampits/

​Askafroa: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/history/myth/askafroa

​Ash Wednesday and its pagan origins: https://susannesanlier.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/ash-wednesday-and-its-pagan-origins/

​What is Imbolc? The Celtic fire festival that welcomes spring—in February: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/imbolc-celtic-celebration-brigid

​Draugr, Haugbui And Aptrgangr – The Undead of Norse Myths: https://vikingr.org/other-beings/undead-viking-age?srsltid=AfmBOooD9FPhdZ_fGZNJpou74mRFiwpS_qX8UmyR39HCDmJHrj0w4hDj

​Thomas Hardy: Gravestone-encircled tree falls in Camden: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64110086

​The Mysterious Hardy Tree | Graves that Circle a Tree….:https://paranormalhauntings.blog/2021/12/26/the-mysterious-hardy-tree-graves-that-circle-a-tree/

​Exit strategy for a restless dead: The Hell Tree of St Pancras: https://portalsoflondon.com/2017/01/20/the-hell-tree-of-st-pancras/

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Cleopatra’s Needles: Cursed Obelisks in London & New York

​A pair of obelisks, together named Cleopatra's Needles, were taken in the 19th century from the ruins of the Caesareum of Alexandria in Egypt; one to the London Embankment and the other to New York’s Central Park.

Inscribed by Thutmose III and later Ramesses II of the Egyptian New Kingdom, the obelisks were first moved in 12 BC to Alexandria, remaining there for over 1,800 years.

Cleopatra's needles and the Tower of the Romans, drawn c.1798,

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Cleopatra’s Needle - London

Cleopatra’s Needle

​Cleopatra's Needle and the Victoria Embankment by Oliver Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

​The obelisk that was eventually re-erected in London was presented to the Prince Regent in 1819 by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali, a gift to mark British beating the French at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and in 1801’s Battle of Alexandria.

​The obelisk remained in Alexandria until 1877 when anatomist and dermatologist Sir William James Erasmus Wilson sponsored its transportation to London at the cost of £10,000, around £1,553,000 in today’s money.

​The 224 ton artifact was encased in a iron cylinder, 92 feet long and 16 feet wide, dubbed Cleopatra, commanded by one Captain Carter, towed to London by the ship Olga, under Captain Booth. On October 14th 1877, a violent storm in the Bay of Biscay caused the Cleopatra to list uncontrollably, forcing the tow ropes to be cut. The Olga launched a rescue boat with six volunteers but the boat capsized, and all crew members died. Captain Carter his five shipmates aboard Cleopatra were eventually rescued though.

​The paddle tug Anglia was then commissioned to tow the Cleopatra to London where it arrived in January 1878 and set up with some pomp at the Embankment on September 12th 1878.

​Cleopatra's Needle is flanked by George John Vulliamy’s two faux-Egyptian bronze sphinxes, made at the Eccleston Iron Works in Pimlico in 1881. The sphinxes bear hieroglyphic inscriptions that say “netjer nefer men-kheper-re di ankh”, meaning "the good god, Thuthmosis III given life". Oddly, they are looking at the Needle rather than guarding it - or are they?

Possibly their role was NOT to stop harm from coming to the obelisk but rather to prevent anything supernatural from escaping, a task in which they appear to have singularly failed.The Embankment boasts other Egyptian touches, such as the well-endowed winged female sphinxes gracing the armrests of nearby benches.

​A time capsule was concealed in the front part of the pedestal, containing twelve candid photographs of the most attractive English women of the day, hairpins, cigars, tobacco pipes, a set of imperial weights, a baby's bottle, children's toys, a razor, a hydraulic jack and some samples of the cable used in the erection, a 3-foot (90-centimetre) bronze model of the monument, and a complete set of contemporary British coins.

A rupee, a portrait of Queen Victoria, a history of the transport of the monument plans, a translation of the inscriptions, the Bible in several languages, a copy of John 3:16 in 215 languages, Whitaker's Almanack, a Bradshaw Railway Guide, a map of London, daily newspapers and finally, a twenty-four inch metal ruler, were also squirrelled away in the capsule.

It has been posited that the pictures of women and a razor amongst the items deposited beneath the monolith emitted waves of evil occult energy that eventually resulted in the crimes of Jack the Ripper decades later.

As The Ripper puts it in Alan Moore’s From Hell (1999): “They call it Cleopatra’s Needle. He who’d wield it would the BEST of tailors be, to do its work, increase the Sun God’s sovereignty … encoded in this city’s stones are symbols thunderous enough to rouse the sleeping Gods submerged beneath the sea-bed of our dreams.”

In 1977, my school Nower Hill High secreted a time capsule, which was (typically) forgotten about until accidentally rediscovered in 2013.

Cleopatra’s Needle: Shades of Ancient Egypt Gather

Soon, eerie unexplained events began to unfold around London’s Cleopatra monument, including the following;

​The Spectral Seaman

The ghost of a naked man has been seen on a number of occasions, leaping from out behind the obelisk and throwing himself into the River without making a splash. The first sighting of this apparition occurred only a few weeks after the installation of the obelisk, leading many to conjecture it was the shade of one of the sailors who drowned in the Bay of Biscay. Or it was simply a ‘flasher’ with a taste for the theatrical?

​Aleister Crowley Was ‘Ere

It is said that the notorious occultist Aleister Crowley performed dark rituals late one evening at the base of the obelisk in order to release the trapped spirit of the Pharoah Rameses. The ceremony supposedly involved animal blood and a human skeleton. Crowley failed in his endeavour, which was accompanied by the sound of Rameses mocking guffaws. File under: unlikely.

Suicide Isn’t Painless

Cleopatra’s Needle soon became a site associated with suicide. A policeman claimed a hysterical woman approached the officer, urging him to come to the banks of the Thames by the obelisk to prevent someone from hurling themselves into the water. As he left her and reached the area, he saw the same woman leap into the river, cackling as she did so.

​The Laughing Man-Fish

In Elliott O’Donnell’s Haunted Waters (1957) he recounts, “the spot where Cleopatra’s Needle stands was well-know to be haunted. None of the outcasts would venture near it. Two of them told me that one night they saw a tall, nude, shadowy figure, with a pear-shaped head and a body covered with what looked like scales, suddenly appear by the needle, wave a long arm at them and leap over the wall into the river. They said that they sometimes heard unearthly groans and hellish, mocking laughter in the river.”

​The Ancient World in London - Egyptomania in London

Near where I used to live in Islington:

Cleopatra’s Needle - New York

Greywacke Knoll, Central Park, New York

​Ingfbruno, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

​New York’s Needle was gifted in May 1877 to United States Consul General by Cairo Judge Elbert E. Farman, as thanks from the Khedive for the US remaining a friendly neutral as France and Britain vied for control of Egypt and the Suez Canal. Transportation costs were largely paid by the railroad magnate William Henry Vanderbilt, eldest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The obelisk was transported seven miles to Alexandria and then put into the modified hold of the steamship SS Dessoug, which set sail June 12th, 1880. The Needle and its accompanying 50-ton pedestal arrived at the Quarantine Station in New York a month later. The ground was flattened so the obelisk could be rolled out of the ship and transported to an interim location off Fifth Avenue. Finally a steam engine pushed the object across a specially built trestle bridge from Fifth Avenue to Greywacke Knoll, just across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It took a mammoth 112 days to move the obelisk from Quarantine Station to its current location.

Jesse B. Anthony, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, presided as the cornerstone for the obelisk was laid in place with full Masonic ceremony on October 2nd, 1880. Over 9,000 Masons paraded up Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 82nd Street. The official ceremony for erecting the obelisk was held January 22, 1881. A time capsule buried beneath the obelisk contains an 1870 U.S. census, a Bible, a Webster's Dictionary, the complete works of William Shakespeare, a guide to Egypt, and a copy of the United States Declaration of Independence.

A small chest was also placed in the capsule, but its contents remain unknown to this very day.

The wonderfully named Henry Honeychurch Gorringe, who supervised the movement of the obelisk, claimed the prime advantage of the Knoll was its "isolation", and it was elevated, with the foundation firmly anchored in local bedrock, supposedly preventing collapse if Manhattan suffered "some violent convulsion of nature."

The League of Shadows

​In 1885 Gorringe died at the age of 43 as a result of injuries when he fell (or was he pushed?) from a moving train. 1885 was the year in which Gorringe published his book Egyptian Obelisks, which mainly explored his acquisition of Cleopatra’s Needle for Central Park. Gorringe was buried in Rockland Cemetery, Sparkhill, New York State. His memorial stone declares: “His crowning work was the removal of Cleopatra’s Needle from Egypt to the United States, a feat of engineering without parallel.” In 1886, his friends erected a replica of Cleopatra’s Needle over his grave, the unveiling drawing 500 people. Like the original obelisk in Central Park – it stands on its own knoll, overlooking the Hudson River.

There are far less stories of ghosts and curses linked to the New York obelisk than its London sibling, attributed by some to the elaborate Masonic ceremonies that prepared the plinth for the monument’s arrival, which may have pacified any unquiet ancient spirits.

​In 2011, the pollution-blighted Needle was inspected by Zahi Hawass (Minister of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities) who declared: “If the Central Park Conservancy and the City of New York cannot properly care for the obelisk, I will take the necessary steps to bring this precious artefact home and save it from ruin.” The London obelisk is in a better condition, but in 2018 Hawass also weighed in, “I went to see it yesterday and I was ashamed … If they don’t care, they should return it.”

Note: The 50-foot granite walls of Manhattan’s now demolished Croton Reservoir (completed in 1842) were constructed in the Egyptian style popular at the time.

New York

​unidentified illustrator of an article by T. Addison Richards, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Cleopatra (1999)

​Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising (1972); film director Donald Cammell was the god Osiris; Marianne Faithfull plays primordial she-demon Lilith:

LINKS

​Cleopatra’s Needle – London & New York’s Cursed & Haunted Egyptian Obelisks: https://www.davidcastleton.net/cleopatras-needle-london-new-york-city-central-park-obelisk-cursed-haunted-ancient-egypt/

​Hidden Alignments Documentary – NYC Masonic Obelisks: http://glasscapsule.com/2015/12/hidden-alignments-documentary-nyc-masonic-obelisks/

​The Mystery of the Central Park Obelisk: https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2020/10/cleopatras-needle-and-secret-of-new.html

​NYC – Cleopatra’s Needle: https://imagerysmith.wordpress.com/

​How Cleopatra’s Needle came to London: https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/how-cleopatras-needle-came-london/

​The Curse of Cleopatra’s Needle: https://hauntedpalaceblog.com/2022/06/07/the-curse-of-cleopatras-needle/

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Cover image of London’s Cleopatra Needle attribution: Canva Pro

The Unquiet Spirits of Clacton-on-Sea

​The Essex seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea is a peculiar place; a faded former holiday resort for London’s Cockney underclass, now best known for being the constituency of former (and maybe again, if he is re-elected on August 13th) Reform MP/leader, one Nigel Farage. Two of my articles on Mr Farage are linked below in Additional Reading.

I knew the area fairly well, as both my widowed grandmothers live in the village of Little Clacton, just outside the town. I used to stay with both for a week during the summer holidays as a kid. One of my grandmothers later married a faith healer, who held free surgeries in his consulting room at her bungalow. A decent old cove, he however did say I possessed ‘The Sight’, which was slightly disturbing for an imaginative youngster to hear, but there you go.

Clacton Pier

​On Clacton Pier by JThomas, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Anyway, the area has an interesting history. I was told of smuggling tunnels linking the nearby church of Saint James to the ancient cellars of local pubs The Blacksmith’s Arms, The Ship Inn and The Queen’s Head, presumably as part of a ‘Dr Syn’-style contraband operation organised by the local vicar(s). Other tunnels were rumoured to link the manor house, Giddy Hall, to the coast (unlikely, as it’s around 2.5m away), so the Clacton gentry were also presumably involved in the racket.

From Hidden East Anglia:

​From a genuine event has arisen an odd little legend. In 1806 the Cameron Highlanders were stationed in barracks at nearby Weeley. At the St. James’ Day Fair (on July 26th) a fight broke out outside the Blacksmiths Arms between villagers and some of the soldiers, with some of the latter being chased along the street. A soldier named Alexander McDonald had hurt his foot, and was caught, struck and slain. On the spot where his head hit the road, it was said that a hole appeared which could not be filled, no matter how hard people tried. His gravestone can still be seen in Weeley churchyard, with the inscription “late soldier in the First Battalion 79th Regt who in the prime of life was inhumanly murdered near Little Clacton”.

Little Clacton’s St James Church itself has a macabre history:

Prudence Lambert (1582): Prudence remarried two months after her first husband died in mysterious circumstances. Consumed by guilt, she hanged herself the morning after the wedding. As suicide was considered a grave sin, she was buried in unsanctified ground at the furthest edge of the churchyard. Legend holds this specific corner of the grounds is haunted by her restless spirit.

The Witch Trial Executions (1645): During the notorious Essex Witch Trials, local rector Henry Waite’s wife was executed for witchcraft, despite being said to be extremely pious.

Additionally, other Little Clacton women were accused of using "imps" to carry out their designs, causing long-lasting dark folklore to imprint the parish.

Nearby St Osyth's Priory is steeped in paranormal lore, most famously haunted by the ghost of its namesake, the Saxon Princess Osyth. She wanders the ancient grounds carrying her severed head after being decapitated by Viking raiders in AD 653.

St Osyth’Priory Gatehouse

​St Osyth's Priory Gatehouse by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Other paranormal sightings at the priory include a hooded white monk and a phantom nun who peers into local windows.

A short distance from the Priory sits a 16th-century cottage known as ‘The Cage’, which once acted as the local prison for accused witches. In 1582, Ursula Kempe and others were detained there before being tried for witchcraft. The Cage has gained modern notoriety as one of the most haunted houses in Britain. Investigations have cited both poltergeist activity (former owners reported being pushed, and CCTV has recorded slamming doors and disembodied voices) and apparitions of shadowy figures and sudden temperature drops.

Clacton itself boasts as variety of supernatural phenomena that continue to defy explanation, including the following:

​West Cliff Theatre Tower Road: Both Staff and performers at West Cliff Theatre have spoken of unexplained eerie noises backstage, footfall in empty parts of the building and the feeling that they are not alone after audiences have gone home.

​Wilson House, Leas Road (no longer standing): In the late-twentieth century, a ghostly white lady was said to have been seen by several schoolgirls when this building was a dorm. Sounds of heavy footsteps could also be heard walking along the corridors late at night.

​The Kingscliff Hotel: A woman in old-fashioned clothes has reportedly been seen walking through the corridors then disappearing without trace. Unexplained footsteps, doors opening by themselves and an uneasy feeling when parts of the hotel are empty have also been reported.

​The old ballroom at former Butlin’s holiday camp: Butlin's Clacton was used as a training base when the Second World War broke out. A soldier was supposedly stabbed and killed in a fight which occurred at the ballroom and took to haunting the area. The camp was demolished and the area redeveloped in the mid-1980s; the ghost left at the same time. There are no official police or historical records of a stabbing in the Butlin's ballroom in Clacton during the 1940s.

​St Johns Road: Phantom monks seen drifting along the roads in this area of Clacton.

​Clacton Pier: Spooky figures have been seen on Clacton Pier after dark, vanishing as people get closer. Workers have claimed to hear footsteps and unexplained voices when the pier is usually deserted. Probably drunk.

Old Kinema: Local history accounts say a fire was started by a projectionist who perished in the building in a suspected suicide in the 1940s. His damned shade disturbed cinemagoers and staff. The cinema was closed and demolished in early 1962.

Thornbury Road private house: In 2003, after a period of experiencing disembodied footsteps, doors opening and closing and electrical items working independently, the occupier saw the manifestation of a young girl. The occupiers were then dragged across the floor by their ankles and creeped out by the appearance of an evil old crone in the box room bed. I couldn’t find much, if any, supporting evidence.

​Jaywick Martello Tower: Visitors to this defensive tower, constructed to combat Napoleon, have reported hearing footsteps echoing through the empty fort, along with strange voices, and the feeling that someone is watching them. Sudden cold spots have also been reported.

Old Lifeboat House: During the late twentieth century, a shopkeeper who hired a room to store surplus stock reported that items would rearrange themselves overnight.

Private house along St Osyth Road: From 1975 until the building was exorcised in 1978, the family living at the house reported spectral singing, ghostly footsteps, and a wee girl, who all could hear but only their four year old son could see. No online supporting material aside from The Paranormal Database.

St John's Church: Ghostly figures have reportedly been seen strolling through the churchyard, whilst whispers and footsteps are heard when nobody else is nearby. The church dates back to the twelfth century and has inspired local ghost stories for generations. Smugglers apparently used the locale, adding to its unsavoury reputation.

Ghosts of monks, the victims of a homicidal innkeeper, a cavalier, a highwayman, and a man torn apart by a mob have all been reported at what are now the environs of the quaint Treasure Holt Garden Centre.

​What Happened To Clacton-On-Sea? A Town Stuck in Time

The Parish Church of Saint James, Little Clacton

​Little Clacton church by Robin Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

​Fun Fact: The "Clacton Spear", a Neanderthal yew spear found near Clacton-on-Sea in 1911 is the world's oldest known wooden spear at approximately 420,00-450,000 years of age.

Down by the Seaside by Led Zeppelin

Additional Reading:

Nigel Farage: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nigel-farage-pg-wodehouses-roderick-spode-made-flesh

Before Farage’s 5 million: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/farages-ps5-million-short-tour-british-sleaze

Sources include:

​The Paranormal Database: https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/essex/esspages/essedata.php?pageNum_paradata=5

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/money/gallery/2015/jun/05/your-spiritual-home-in-clacton

Haunted Hosts: https://hauntedhosts.com/haunted-places/essex/clacton-on-sea/

Clacton Gazette: https://www.clactonandfrintongazette.co.uk/news/25654622.clacton-group-snaps-photo-ghost-historic-pub/

Clacton Gazette: https://www.clactonandfrintongazette.co.uk/news/1169235.web-exclusive-ghostly-going-on/

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/10/clacton-byelection-nigel-farage-establishment-laurence-fox-reform

Haunted Isles: https://hauntedisles.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-ghost-of-st-osyth-october-haunting.html

Little Clacton Parish Council: https://www.littleclacton-pc.org.uk/little-clacton

St Osyth Museum: https://www.stosythmuseum.co.uk/buildings/the-cage

​The Essex Witch Trials: https://www.eastanglianwitchproject.co.uk/blog/essex1

​The Clacton Spear: https://www.exploringgb.co.uk/blog/the-clacton-spear-oldest-wooden-artefact-ever-found-in-britain

​Treasure Holt Garden Centre: https://www.treasureholt.co.uk/about-us/

Clacton-on-Sea Header image attribution:

​Mark Crombie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Midsummer Oak Tree Tales, Traditions & Dancing Skeletons

​​The oak is the national tree of England; symbolising Strength, Longevity, Wisdom, Spirituality, Nobility and Trustworthiness. Virtues sadly currently lacking in ALL England and the UK’s leadership cliques, regardless of party affiliation.

​For the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutons, the mighty oak ranked first amongst venerated trees and was associated with many of the supreme gods (or high ranking deities) in each Pantheon. Oak trees are more susceptible to lightning strikes than other trees, a perceived link with the Sky Gods. This is actually due to their tree’s natural high water content and their stature; all quite logical, really.

​England’s oldest oak is considered by many to be King Offa's Oak in Windsor Great Park (Berkshire), estimated to be between 1,300 and 1,500 years old. The Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire is the UK's widest oak with a 13-metre girth, it is estimated to be over 1,000 years old. Its immense hollow trunk was once used as a dining room, seating 12 people “with ease”.

​An ancient 450 yera-old oak looms over my back garden; sometimes a forbidding presence it also reminds one of the continuity of life in the English Shires. It’s the home to a colony of rather cheeky squirrels, who now gather each morning for the daily handout of nuts (twenty of the critters at the last count). On June 11th, 2026, a huge part of the oak suddenly collapsed in my garden almost breaking through my drawing room windows, necessitating the urgent attendance of tree surgeons. ‘Sudden Branch Drop Syndrome’, apparently.

This occurred AFTER I had filed my Oak Tree investigation. Eerily reminiscent of the ‘evil tree’ scene in the 1982 horror movie, Poltergeist.

My garden. (Author’s image)

Poltergeist Evil Tree scene

Sherwood Forest’s Major Oak in Nottinghamshire is between 800 to 1,000 years old and linked of course to the legends of Robin Hood. It is the largest by mass, weighing around 23 tonnes. The Marton Oak in Cheshire is approximately 1,200 years old, famed for its 14-metre girth:

The Marton Oak

​Hypercolius, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The oak has royal connections in England, probably with the last monarch to display much in the way of personality, intelligence and political acumen - Charles II. The Royal Oak was the tree in which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape Cromwell’s Roundheads after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

​The tree standing on the site today is believed to be a two or three hundred year-old descendant of the original and is thus known as 'Son of Royal Oak'. The original tree was destroyed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by tourists who cut off branches and chunks of bark as souvenirs.

​Restoration Day, more commonly known as Oak Apple Day or Royal Oak Day, was an English, Welsh and Irish public holiday, observed annually on May 29th, to commemorate the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in May 1660. The public holiday was officially abolished under the Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859, but in some parts of England the day is still celebrated with gusto.

Celebrations to mark the event included the wearing of oak apples or sprigs of oak leaves. Those who failed to wear a sprig of oak were pelted with bird's eggs or beaten harshly with stinging nettles. In Sussex, those not wearing oak were liable to be pinched on the backside, giving rise to the unofficial name of "Pinch-bum Day"; similarly it was known as "Bumping Day" in Essex.

​Events still take place at Aston-on-Clun in Shropshire, Great Wishford in Wiltshire, Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire, Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire and Membury in Devon. At All Saints' Church, Northampton, a statue of Charles II is garlanded with oak leaves at noon every Oak Apple Day, followed by a celebration of the Holy Communion according to the Book of Common Prayer. Oak Apple Day is also celebrated in the Cornish village of St Neot, with a vicar led procession through the village. In 2021, Oak Apple Day was celebrated at Eton Wick within sight of Windsor Castle, one of Charles II’s many homes.

Our old friend The Green Man is always depicted wreathed in oak leaves; here he is in his most savage aspect, as shown at the beginning of BBC1’s adaptation the Kingsley Amis’ classic chiller The Green Man (1990):

Generally, the oak is regarded as a benevolent plant but, as always, there are exceptions to every rule...

​The Midsummer Tree, Sussex

​The Midsummer Tree, by the Grove Lodge roundabout in Broadwater: legend says that every year on Midsummer’s Eve, June 23rd, skeletons would rise from the roots of the tree and dance underneath it.

A plaque states: "This tree, believed to be over 300 years old, was once celebrated in local folklore. Every year, at Midnight on Midsummer's Eve, it was believed that skeletons would rise up from its roots and dance to the rattling of their own bones until daybreak."

​In 2006, local paper The Argus reported that the tree was under threat from the Highways Agency as it was suffering from brown cubical rot. Following a campaign by neighbours and folklorists, the tree was saved by conservationist Chris Hare, who proclaimed, “This tree is a vital part of Worthing's heritage. The origin of the Midsummer Tree is to be found in England's pagan past, when Midsummer, rather than Halloween, was viewed as the most auspicious time to commune with the spirit world."

​The tale of the dancing skeletons was first recorded by Sussex folklorist Charlotte Latham in 1868, writing, “There stood, and still may stand, upon the downs, close to Broadwater, an old oak-tree, that I used, in days gone by, to gaze at with an uncomfortable and suspicious look from having heard that always on Midsummer Eve, just at midnight, a number of skeletons started up from its roots, and, joining hands, danced round it till cock-crow, and then as suddenly sank down again. “My informant knew several persons who had actually seen this dance of death, but one young man in particular was named to me who, having been detained at Finden by business till very late, and forgetting that it was Midsummer Eve, had been frightened (no difficult matter we may suspect) out of his very senses by seeing the dead men capering to the rattling of their own bones.”

​According to Chris Hare, there has been a gathering of would-be believers at the tree every midnight on June 23rd in recent years...

The Chained Oak, Staffordshire

The Chained Oak, near the village of Alton, Staffordshire

​Gary Rogers / Chained Oak

On an autumn night in 1821, the wealthy Earl of Shrewsbury was travelling through the village of Alton on his way home to the family estate of Alton Towers. Without any warning, an old woman (or man, according to alternative versions) popped up in front of his coach, startling his horses. The coach stopped to find why she was there, and the crone pleaded for the charity of a coin. The Earl cruelly dismissed her, so she placed a curse on him, croaking, "For every branch on the Old Oak Tree here that falls... a member of the Earl’s family will die.”

The Earl wasted little time with the wittering of the wretched old woman, dismissing any talk of a curse and headed back to Alton Towers. But that very evening, whilst the Earl snored in his grand bed, a terrible storm raged, tearing a single branch from the oak tree. That same night, a member of the Earl’s family mysteriously passed away. When the Earl awoke and learned the news, he was convinced of the hag’s curse, and thereby the power of the oak. The flustered Earl immediately ordered every branch of the oak tree be bound up in chains to prevent it from falling, and to this day, the old oak remains bound by chains.

A large branch fell from the old oak in 2007, but the Earl’s descendants confirmed that no-one had perished. Sadly, some of the oak has disintegrated, in part due to the action of chains; one had rusted so much as to cause the collapse of a large part of the tree. However, most of the tree still stands.

​The 16th Earl, John Talbot, appeared to have learned Scrooge-lesson of his predecessor and was widely known for his philanthropy and support of local schools and churches; earning him the nickname ‘Good Earl John’.

​In modern Alton life, the story of the chained oak lives on in Alton Towers theme park, where the story has been re-written and dramatised for the ride ‘Hex – The Legend of the Towers’, a walkthrough dark ride based around the chained oak legend.

​In 2014, an independent horror film based on the legend was released.

​Old Knobbley, East Anglia

A notable old Oak tree has stood in Mistley, Essex for 800 years, taking anchor around the time Bad King John signed the Charter of the Forest. Named Old Knobbley, due to its lumpy appearance, the trunk is 9.5 metres wide (more than twice its height), topped by gaunt branches.

Infamous 17th-century Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins lived in nearby Manningtree, making his name torturing those accused of witchcraft to extort false confessions, killing hundreds. Village folklore says some of the accused successfully sought shelter in the hollows and branches of Old Knobbley.

This is of course unlikely, but chimes with the folklore image of trees as protectors; comforting to think of Old Knobbley doing his bit to offer sanctuary to those in extreme peril.

One does wonder why Hopkins, with his propensity for arson, didn’t just set light to the tree and settle down comfortably to watch the fun.

​According to local legend, Hopkins' ghost is said to haunt Mistley Pond.

​Hywel Sele was a cousin of Owain Glyndŵr, self-proclaimed Prince of Wales, but was also friend of Henry IV of England and opposed Glyndŵr’s rebellion (1400-1415). After Sele was captured by Glyndŵr he accepted a gracious invitation to hunt with the ‘Prince’ on the Nannau Estate, but, after failing to kill the rebel leader Sele was slain and sealed up within the hollow of a gnarled oak tree. The oak naturally enough, was soon haunted by his shade, becoming known as Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils"), Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost") or simply the Nannau Oak.

APPENDIX - WALES: Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils")/Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost")

In 1778 one Thomas Pennant inspected the oak and noted that it was 27 feet 6 inches (8.38 m) in girth but that it was in an advanced state of decay, resembling the shape of a gothic arch. The oak collapsed on July 13th 1813; it was said Sele’s corpse fell from within it and was supposedly buried in the ruins of Cymer Abbey.

​And finally, The Oaks of Avalon

​The Oaks of Avalon iare a pair of ancient 2,000 year-old oak trees in Glastonbury (Somerset), named after the ancient apocalyptic figures Gog and Magog. Believed to have been originally part of a ceremonial druidic avenue at the entrance to Glastonbury Tor/Avalon, most of which was cut down in 1906 to make way for a farm. Christian belief has Joseph of Arimathea following the row of trees towards the tor upon his arrival in Albion.

​In April 2017, though already lifeless, Gog was badly damaged by an accidental fire believed to be from an incense burning candle, but was extinguished by the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.

LINKS:

​Meetings with Remarkable Trees - The Bowthorpe Oak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSoa2N3UDD4

The Folklore of the Oak Tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rCJjJCd3ug

​'Do not sit under trees', council warns park-goers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgdly19j6yo

The English Oak: https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-English-Oak/

​Walks in Somerset: In Search of the Oaks of Avalon, Glastonbury: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNgi2dzKmxc

​The Mighty Oak: https://walkingthewolds.co.uk/f/the-mighty-oak

​Trees: myths and folklore: https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/school-gardening/resources/curriculum-linked/trees-myths-and-folklore

​Sussex folklore explored: Worthing tree where skeletons are said to dance on Midsummer's Eve: https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/sussex-folklore-explored-worthing-tree-where-skeletons-are-said-to-dance-on-midsummers-eve-4464732

300-year-old 'haunted' Sussex tree where skeletons 'dance' once a year: https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24619238.worthing-story-midsummer-skeleton-tree/

​Midsummer Tree Worthing, West Sussex: https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/tree/?treeId=55875#/

​The Legend of Old Knobbley, East Anglia's Spookiest Tree: https://www.thorogood.co.uk/the-legend-of-old-knobbley-east-anglias-spookiest-tree/

​The Legend of the Chained Oak: https://burialsandbeyond.com/2023/12/18/the-legend-of-the-chained-oak/

​Old Knobbley Oak Tree: https://oldknobbley.com/

​Country diary: Old Knobbley – a tree of twisted branches and even twistier myths: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/10/country-diary-old-knobbley-a-tree-of-twisted-branches-and-even-twistier-myths

​Sleepy Hollow - The (Oak) Tree of the Dead (1999): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72_-phtcbEw

​Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl, Nannau Park: https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1149879

​Hywel Sele and the Demon Oak: https://geoffbrookes.co.uk/hywel-sele-and-the-demon-oak/

​Broadwater Midsummer Oak Tree, Worthing, West Sussex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6UCIXwPKzg

​Ancient Glastonbury oak tree known as Gog damaged in fire: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/27/ancient-glastonbury-oak-tree-known-as-gog-damaged-in-fire

​People are crying as they visit 2,000-year-old tree Gog that went up in flames near Glastonbury: https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/distressed-visitors-survey-damage-2000-38464

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