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Haunted areas of Newcastle;
St Andrews church - We went to take a browse of the church yard after we heard that there are meant to be 15 executed people accused of witchcraft burried there. As always, these people would have been innocent and the church was going crazy for power. We got as far as the second gravestone next to the gate when we were greeted by the caretaker of the church. We told him that we'd heard about the witches, so he walked us round to the back, explained that the witches were labled as 'not worthy' of gravestones back when they were executed and therefor were burried in one patch, which at the time was a large ditch in the graveyard where they threw the bodies of the witches they had gathered up to execute all on the same day on the town moor. Over time the bones had risen to the surface of the soil where there are still traces of full teeth, knee caps, jaws and other bones of the victims of the power hungry church. We were then taken inside the church back room where we were shown a large hole in the wall which peered out into the main church hall which was put there for lepors and people infected with the black plague so that they could watch the sunday service without spreading the desease to other people. The church was built to allow the deseased to attend church and the cemetary was a burial ground for those who were executed which we dicovered once we were handed photocopies of the original execution lists which was funny enough held by the church, not the prison.
We browsed through the list of witches and there appeared to be a lot more than just 15. There was another list which listed criminals who were all executed on the town moor, it says when and where they were held. It lists names, crimes and how they were executed on what date, mainly in 1600s - 1700s. We came accross a gravestone named William Winter who was burried closest to the back of the church, we found his name on the list later on, executed for murder. It is heard that there was a woman who was executed for witch craft for owning a black cat, she was called Beth Bell, but her name was nowhere to be seen on the records.
Once we entered the church hall, the air was very cold and heavy which gave us that feeling that something just wasn't quite right. We were then shown some indoor gravestones carved into the walls and floors, the oldest gravestone was found in the far corner with the imprint of a sword carved into it, this was on a raised concrete floor. Near by, there was another grave which we were told a story about, the grave was pulled up not so long ago to replace the concrete, the bones were gathered up and put into a box which was placed at the back end of the church. When the new concrete was ready to be layed, they placed the bones back into the grave, forgetting the skull. Since then there have been sightings of ghost wandering the church hall looking for his head. At the bottom of the risen stone, there still remains what looks like claw marks as if the corpse was trying to dig his way out of his grave.
Other strange happenings in the church involve a large strone falling from the ceiling and breaking right in the middle of the main hall, looking up, the ceiling was made from wood, the only stone was on the window ledges which were too afr to the sides for the stone to fall dead in the middle of the floor, plus there were stones missing. Amongst the papers we were given, there was a story of a young lady called Charlotte who attended the church where she met her lover. One day they had a dramatic fall out, this tore her lover apart who wanted her back in his life, he took a slow walk through St.Andrews cemetary at dusk and stopped when he saw his lover in her best victorian gown walking away amongst the grave stones, then she was nowhere to be seen. He visited her home the next day where he was informed that she passed away the previous morning. Sometimes at dusk she can still be seen wondering the gravestones in her blue gown looking for her lover possibally to tell him how she feels before she can leave for the afterlife.
On the second visit in the back church room, we were shown some photos taken inside the church with disposable cameras where balls of light and electricity could be seen floating around the room. We went streight back into the main halland tried to catch pictures with our camera phones, but we had no luck. Turns out that you can't pick up anything supernatural with a camera phone or a digital camera. You can pick things up through regular cameras, disposables and polaroids only. These are beleived to be trapped souls of those who were murdered under orders of the church or angels protecting the sacred grounds of the oldest church in Newcastle.
Castle Keep -
Elswick - Elswick once got infested with the black plague which affected hundreds of people, they were dying off very quickly. There were bodies in hundreds of houses, so people had to be sent round to collect these bodies and take them away for burial in Elswick graveyard. They would wander the streets with a handkercheif over their mouths, a large barrel and a bell shouting "Bring out your dead." Many of the men with this job would catch the plague themselves and die off very quickly. One man called Jack worked as a body collecter and caught the plague himself, though he didn't die so quickly like the rest of them, he carried on with his job and people would hear him coughing as he would struggle onto the street with his barrel. He was named 'Caughing Jack' or 'Coffin Jack' by the locals. Eventually he died from the plague and was burried in a seperate graveyard to the other plague victims. All around Elswick, people can still hear the caughing and the rusty wheels of the barrel struggling slowly down the streets.
The Miter - The miter is a very large building surrounded by high walls all the way round, well known to be a pub which the grounds within the walls were used to film the popular soap operah Byker Grove. The dark atmosphere sort of gives it away that is wasn't always just a pub, it's got more features of the Dr Jeckil and Mr Hyde castle about it like a castle house from a horror movie. I looked up what I could on the building, all I could find on the internet on websites linked to the history of the miter was medical research lists like ancient discoveries made from disecting the human body. This could mean that the building was built for medical research probably experimented on what was sold to them by the grave snatchers of the Westgate Graveyard. Most graves on Westgate road are empty due to grave snatchers selling the bodies to scientists around the UK. It was a pub from shortly afterwards and has been ever since which only closed down only the summer just gone.
We heard stories of a witch burning which took place in the yard of The Miter. This was when 3 women were found skinny dipping in the middle of the night and were accused of witch craft. They were taken to the miter where the 3 of them were tied up in the yard. The people then took 3 attempts to light the fire as it kept going out, they eventually got the fire burning and the fire burnt so slowly that it took them 3 hours to die. In yard of the miter people can still hear the screaming.
We went to investigate. We couldn't find a way in all the way round the wall except for a gate which we found last. We could see the original gate wide open, but this was from through looking through a locked council gate which had bee put up so we couldn't get as far as the original gate. The place was well secured with cameras and alarms. We asked a local if he knew a way of getting in, he told us that he beleived the gates were open during the daytime on weekdays, so this will mean going back. We were lucky to find a local as the area we found The Miter was practically a ghost town, looking accross the road I had never seen anything like it, the entire estate was boarded up, every house on every street, deserted. This estate was found opposite The Miter in an area called Olde Benwell where the Elswick street fights took place, people putting letter bombs through the letter boxes of anyone living on the estate, bricks in every window, eventually they all deserted the estate and left the place behind as a ghost town.
Quay side -
Claremount road -
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