[Lily]

There’s something eerie and slightly unsettling about driving late at night on a country road. Nobody else out there — just a couple of houses and lots of trees, all bathed in the pale glow of the moonlight. 🌙

It gets extra eerie if you happen to be driving in the middle of October, in one of those places that tends to get foggy and mysterious. No wonder there are so many folk tales about strange things lurking in the woods, ghosts haunting weary travelers, and cars that suddenly stop for no reason at all, leaving their passengers in peril.

Halloween is fast approaching and, while it’s not my favorite holiday, I do love a spooky story. I remember listening to my older cousins, huddled under a blanket fort with a flashlight, telling terrified seven-year-old me about a driverless car that suddenly appeared on the outskirts of town, dazzling other drivers with headlights that were far too bright, trying to force them off the road, bent on some unknown vendetta against an old lover or enemy.

So, I thought it would be fun if we all shared a spooky legend, myth, or something strange that happened to you on the road that years later you can't explain. Please share them in the comments!

What better way to spend an autumn night than retelling ghost stories? 🎃 Can’t wait to hear your stories... 👻

[Santa]

I was a lorry driver and was given some deliveries in the South of England. I was held up and had to stop for an unscheduled night out in Redhill, a place that was unfamiliar to me.

I found a factory estate and a nice space to park. I found a chip shop and, after munching on the fish and chips, settled down for the night.

I was woken up by a loud, pulsing, roaring noise that seemed very close, so I got up and opened the curtain to have a look. A hundred metres or so in front of me, there was a row of single-story factory units, and hovering over them was an enormous machine, all lit up, roaring away. For a few moments, I really thought that it was a spaceship or something.

When I wound the window down to get a better look without the fogged-up windscreen in the way, I saw it was a railway repair machine, the kind they use to wash and compact the ballast under the sleepers. The line was obviously on an embankment behind the factories.

It did give me a turn for a few moments, though.

[Nick]

We have a famous hill near where I live called Post Hill, that was the location of a POW camp during the Second World War - there are have long been "sightings" of a lone soldier standing at the roadside on suitably misty nights, right where the entrance to the area and it's footpaths are - whilst I've never encountered this spectre before, it has caught a few people out as the location is right on a blind bend into a dark, narrow country road.

[Lily]

@Santa I'd have had a heart attack, right there 🤣 or scream my lungs out, I've have watched too many aliens movies!! How long did it take you to go back to sleep?

@Nick Have you experienced anything weird? Something that made you scratch your head and go, “Well, what was THAT?” Not necessarily on a road, like in your house or while visiting a manor.

The only ghosts I want to encounter are historical ones. They must be so bored after haunting for hundreds of years. And Anne Boleyn’s ghost, she must have a lot to say.

[Rolebama]

Around 15yrs ago I was alone driving up the A1(M) in the Welwyn area at about 06.15. There were a pair of tail lights quite a way up in front, and a pair of headlamps a way behind. I was pretty much keeping pace with the car in front, but after a while, the car behind indicated and pulled out to pass me. I identified it as a Sierra. He then indicated to pull in front of me blocking my view of the car in front. As he neared the car in front, he indicated and pulled out to pass it. As he drew level with the car in front, it disappeared. I then saw the Sierra pull onto the hard shoulder. The driver started to walk back along the hard shoulder looking down the bank. I pulled up behind him and got out with a torch. Together we walked back along the hard shoulder looking down the bank, also checking the undergrowth at the bottom of the bank for any kind of disturbance. We both agreed we had well passed the point where the other car had disappeared. We walked back to our cars, still looking down the bank and checking undergrowth. Still no sign of the other car, and I told the guy that the other car just disappeared as he passed it. He agreed that that was what he thought. We looked at each other for a few seconds before both getting in our cars and continuing our journeys.

[Rolebama]

@Lily Hampstead Underground Station is on a crossroad. The road opposite is renown for a number of sightings. Including Charles Dickens sitting on a bench on the green writing. A gallows with a fresh body swinging in the breeze, and another body swinging from a tree which was used before the gallows was built. The usual stagecoach with four horses, and a lone horseman galloping along the green. Those are the most common of reports I am aware of, plus a variety of others.

[Lily]

@Rolebama This is a great ghost story, thanks for sharing it! 👻 It sent a chill down my spine, especially because it wasn’t only you who saw the Sierra disappear, but also the other driver. One exhausted driver imagining things? Okay. Two? Not likely.


I imagine you were very relieved to get home! 😐


And a sighting of Charles Dickens, now that’s a cool one!

---

Well, I’ll share my own “ghost” story. I wasn’t driving on this road, just walking, but it’s still a road — and thinking about that day still gives me shudders.


As you might know, I used to live and work in London, and my old company rented co-working spaces around town so we could meet at least once a month, usually in The City. I never noticed anything strange there (it’s normally incredibly busy), but one particularly dark Sunday afternoon, I was meeting some friends and my husband at a pub nearby.


I took the train from home and got off at City Thameslink, through the Fleet House exit. It was one of those rare days when you get a bit of London to yourself: not a banker, tourist, or family in sight. It was cold and foggy, and the sun was setting fast, so I started heading toward St. Paul’s Cathedral, where I was meeting my husband.


I passed an empty Starbucks — it wasn’t open to the public yet — so all good there. But as soon as I stepped onto the main street, I got the strangest, most unsettling feeling, like I was in danger or that something terrible had happened there. I’d never been on that street before, and I’m usually pretty cool and collected, so the feeling took me completely by surprise.


The closer I got to a pub on the corner, the worse it got. I started walking faster — didn’t see another soul — until I reached St. Paul’s. As soon as I turned onto the main street, it was like life suddenly came back to the city: buildings, buses, and shops all bursting back into colour. Suddenly, I was surrounded by people again.


I told my husband what had happened, and he said he’d always felt there was something eerie about that part of the city (understandable, given its past). We met our friends, had a drink, and let the whole thing go.


A couple of weeks later, curiosity got the better of me, so I looked up that street, and it turns out the pub I’d walked by is called The Viaduct Tavern, one of the most haunted pubs in Britain. The site opposite used to be a prison, and hangings took place there. The pub even used to host “hanging breakfasts”. Food and a show. The thing of nightmares.


I’ve walked down that street a few times since, and I still don’t like it. The whole City gives me bad vibes, and I don’t usually believe in bad vibes!

[Santa]

[QUOTE=Lily;147424]@Santa I'd have had a heart attack, right there 🤣 or scream my lungs out, I've have watched too many aliens movies!! How long did it take you to go back to sleep?

I'm not sure that I did. They were making a lot of noise, and I would have set off as early as I could after taking my compulsory rest.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Lily

@Santa I'd have had a heart attack, right there 🤣 or scream my lungs out, I've have watched too many aliens movies!! How long did it take you to go back to sleep?

@Nick Have you experienced anything weird? Something that made you scratch your head and go, “Well, what was THAT?” Not necessarily on a road, like in your house or while visiting a manor.

The only ghosts I want to encounter are historical ones. They must be so bored after haunting for hundreds of years. And Anne Boleyn’s ghost, she must have a lot to say.

I think aside from driving and road related oddities - I have a friend that believes we all have a follower - often an animal like a cat or dog. I also have another friend who kept seeing a cat at our house out of the corner of her eye, black and white markings, and quite young - we don't have a cat, and when we looked around the house there wasn't one that had got in or any way for one to get in or out - it was often coming down the stairs, or around the sofa when she would see it. Fast forward a a few months and I took a jumper off after a day of work and had what can only be described as claw marks down my inner forearm, and no explanation as to why they were there. I certainly hadn't scratched myself, nor had I been scratched - my arm had been covered all day and I'd been working in an office. My friend's theory was that it was my "follower" trying to get my attention!!

[Lily]

@Nick that's actually quite spooky. A follower is like a protector? Or like your spirit animal? Never heard of it before. 🙀
@Santa can't blame you!!