A plaque in the 16th century Bassa Villa Restaurant (Formely Magpie House) at the bottom of Bridgnorth’s Cartway tells of a mother’s undying love for her two dead offspring, tragic victims of chance…and an innocent children’s game.
In the 1600’s the girl, Charlotte and boy, William were playing Hide and Seek and were inadvertently locked in the cellar of the Magpie House, which is close to the River Severn. Trapped, they had no means of escape when the river, high in flood, suddenly burst its banks, flooding the cellar and drowning the unfortunate children. The grief-stricken parents erected two marble images of the children, which can still be seen in the Terrace Gardens. But images of stone cannot replace flesh and blood, nor ease a grieving mother’s heart.
The Black Lady has been seen walking the house still, her soul tormented by the tragic loss. She cries, softly whimpering her sadness, or has been heard laughing gently in remembrance of happier times
excerpt from Bridgnorth Ghost Book by Mark Hartley & Julie Wareing
GHOSTLY goings-on are giving owners, staff and customers at a Bridgnorth country inn plenty of food for thought.
The latest in the series of paranormal activities at the Punch Bowl on the Ludlow Road was captured on camera on Monday morning.
“It would be an understatement to say I was frightened — it made the hairs on my arms stand on end,” said supervisor Charlotte Wenlock. “It just came out of the blue.”
Charlotte and barman Nick Guest – who was bottling up behind the bar at the the time – were in the lounge bar when the security camera picked up a figure inside the building by the front door.
“I don’t know whether it is a man or a woman, but it showed someone walking,” explained Charlotte. “I just caught something on the right-hand side of the camera and said ‘what’s that’, but when I went to investigate there was nothing there.
Adam Giles, who has run the Punch Bowl with partner Kate Walker for 18 months, said there had been “loads” of paranormal activity.
“It happens during the day and at night,” he said. “The most frequent is hearing a little girl crying.”
Other incidents have seen drinking glasses breaking by themselves, objects moving, microwaves going bang, figures walking through walls and lights blowing up for no reason.
Adam and Kate’s three-year-old son has held conversations with ‘Jessie’, an apparition of a young girl, in the inn’s living quarters.
Adam added that a medium has visited the Punch Bowl and that some of the ghosts had since disappeared.
The licence of the Punch Bowl dates back to 1740, although Oliver Cromwell’s troops were billeted at the site, when it was known as the Hundred House, during the Civil War.
Paranormal United’s View Point
We have recieved the footage from the security cameras here is our view point of view.
” From our experience at the moment I am inclined to think it may well be a moth very close to the lens. If such an insect is very close to the lense it would be out of focus and appear very blurred, and of cause appear a lot bigger than it really is. The movement of the shape is consistant with a flying insect of this type and a freeze frame at 10:00:50 does show what could be put down to a moth’s body and wings. I have captured such images on a night vision dv camcorder at Bodelwyddan Castle in the dark, when I could easily identify what at first in the viewfinder seemed unexplainable really was.
If this was shot with a fixed security camera I would guess the lens was between a 6mm-8mm as it is covering a small area, and such a lense and camera would cause this effect.”
For a second opinion we called in Phil Whyman (Most Haunted and Scream Team)
“I have checked the footage and am of the opinion that this is some winged insect flitting in and out of the camera shot. On some parts of the footage you can clearly see what appear to be wings. It also moves in the same general way that a bee, wasp or even moth might do.”
