Post by Joanna on Oct 11, 2013 2:27:30 GMT -5
Only Ghouls and Horses: Haunted Bromley Author Neil Arnold Investigates Equine Ghosts
BROMLEY, London, England – “I’ve often been fascinated by strange tales of reputed animal ghosts throughout Bromley, especially those concerning phantom horses,” writes author of Haunted Bromley Neil Arnold.
In the 1920s a young girl walking with her mother on Kingswood Road got the shock of her life when they both observed a black shape moving across a field in the distance. However, when the peculiar dark object was upon the frightened witnesses, it took the form of a ghostly horse with spectral mount. In 1972, the young girl, now an older woman, recalled: “As it passed us, we saw to our great astonishment the clearly-defined upper parts of a horse – as if seen above the top of a high hedge – bearing a rider on its back who wore the traditional tricorne hat, and the hair in a queue. The apparition had no legs and made not the slightest sound. It raced away across the pavement and disappeared into the fence of what was then Oak Lodge, home of the Darrell family ....”
This must have been a rather ghastly sight, but not as horrifying as the phantom coach and horses which was said to have terrified a Beckenham family in the 1960s. The Betts family reported several sightings of the coach and four, prompting Albert Betts to report: “... there was a bump in the night. I saw our ghost crashing through the greenhouse ... he ruined my chrysanthemums.”
Some may argue the incident was a hoax, but around the same time. a man by the name of Reg Filmer had been walking with his hound in the area when he heard the phantom coach and its equally phantasmal horses. “I heard the noise of horses and wheels,” he insisted. “It got closer and closer, but I could see nothing.”
A phantom white horse had once been recorded from Pickhurst Hill, too, with one witness claiming it crossed an orchard in the dead of night.
My favorite Bromley-related ghost horse story comes from Hayes, where it was once said that a phantom horseman rode. The story dates to around the 1920s and the ghost is said to be the specter of a Mr. Goodhart of Beckenham, who erected a 12-foot high monument as a memorial to his horse. According to the legend, on certain nights, Goodhart can be seen riding his phantasmal stallion. The apparition is said to vanish in the region of the Park Langley golf course. Imagine the reactions of some of those keen golfers upon witnessing such an arresting sight!
Source: NewsShopper, October 9, 2013.