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Hey #WyrdWednesday, wanna hear about an apparition of Roman Soldiers marching through the cellar of York House in 1953?
York House dates back to around the 12th century & is a big ol' place. In 1953, the National Trust decided to do some plumbing renovations in the cellar
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York House dates back to around the 12th century & is a big ol' place. In 1953, the National Trust decided to do some plumbing renovations in the cellar
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Harry Martindale, an 18 year old apprentice at the time, claimed he saw a soldier wearing a helmet emerge from a wall, followed by a cart horse & a further twenty soldiers, he said their feet and shins were invisible as they 'marched through the concrete floor'!
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Scared witless, he fell from his ladder and stumbled into a corner. And he was so terrified by what he saw that he took a fortnight off work with shock. Friends laughed at his story, so he kept quiet about his spooky sighting until the 1970s.
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He was interviewed by a group of academics for television, and York’s most famous ghostly tale was born! (This is a different interview btw, but still good)
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It emerged that an old Roman road ran through the garrison where the Treasurer’s House was later built, and was about 15 inches lower than the cellar floor. The story also gained legitimacy after Harry described several aspects of the Roman soldiers' clothing...
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The soldiers carried round shields on their left arms, daggers on their right side & they wore green tunics, all of which was considered historically inaccurate at the time.
HOWEVER...
* dramatic music *
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HOWEVER...
* dramatic music *
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Years later, an excavation in the city revealed that the descriptions of the soldiers' dress given by Martindale DID in fact match those of local reserve soldiers who took over the garrison when the regular soldiers began returning to Rome in the 5th century.
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The best part of this story? Harry recounted his story many, many times over the years and he never changed any of it, plus there are medical records to corroborate his condition after the encounter. He sadly passed away in 2014.
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All this appears to be a classic case of a residual haunting & Edmund Gurney's theory of 'Place Memory', where locations can record certain moments of high stress or emotion (that's it in a nutshell, but you should look it up if you're interested!)
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Try 'Phantasms of the Living' by Gurney, it's quite dense but has some ideas in it that will no doubt intrigue you. Or maybe not. Depends if that's your bag!
Keep it wyrd, my dudes!
(I've screwed up my numbers again, so enjoy this bonus tweet...)
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Keep it wyrd, my dudes!
(I've screwed up my numbers again, so enjoy this bonus tweet...)
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