ROAD GHOSTS...
In 1992, a coronation took place in
Kent. Well, a coronation of sorts. For it was in the early winter of that
year that Blue Bell Hill's legendary ghost girl in the words of Michael
Goss, the 'uncrowned queen of British road ghosts' chose, finally,
to sweep aside the curtains of folklore and rumour and stride onto the stage
of reality. In the space of just four weeks, in October and November 1992,
three separate motorists reported knocking down a figure that ran into the
path of their vehicle late at night on Blue Bell Hill.
In the two most vivid and dramatic encounters,
the figure of a young woman stared calmly into the eyes of the driver as
she was run over. Subsequent investigation by police at the scene failed
to find a victim, or any sign of an accident.
Faced in both cases with a shocked and obviously genuine witness, the
police could only conclude apparently that these motorists had
encountered the famed ghost of Blue Bell Hill, to the evident delight of
the media. From the outset, little time was lost linking the sightings to
the tragic event that has, over the years, gained popular acceptance as
the origin of the haunting: the fatal car crash of 19 November 1965, which
claimed the lives of three young women, one a bride-to-be, just hours before
her wedding.
In spite of what the press have claimed for it over the years, there
are a host of difficulties in relating such rare and really quite fleeting
events at Blue Bell Hill with any confidence to the victims of the 1965
tragedy or, for that matter, to any other fatal crash that has occurred
there in the Hill's recent history. Nevertheless, as the most fitting, not
to mention the most widely publicised death-crash of all those that have
occurred on Blue Bell Hill over the years1, it was inevitable that the 1965
tragedy would become the focus for various rumours and/or 'sightings' that
have occurred there since.
But even as the press ran off with their favoured interpretation - one
based more on traditional or popular notions of the 'cause-and-effect' relationship
between violent death and hauntings than credible supporting evidence, events
at Blue Bell Hill were moving in an ever more unexpected and bizarre direction...
On the afternoon of 19 January 1993, I received a call from Claire Ogley
of Kent Today, asking me whether I had ever heard of the ghost of an old
woman being sighted on Blue Bell Hill. Answering 'no', I asked her what
she knew.
The menacing witch-like apparition she described sounded too bizarre,
too fairytale-like to be true except that a family, very much frightened
by the experience, had come forward to say that it had happened to them.
The family had come up from Aylesford, turning northward onto the Old
Chatham Road at the Lower Bell crossroads (a location, again, that features
as a reputed 'picking up' point for the ghostly girl hitch-hiker in the
early history of the case). Some 300 yards (275m) further up, at Kit's Coty
Cottage, the road makes a sweeping bend to the right. As the car started
to turn into the bend, they saw a figure start across the road from right
to left in front of them. Mr Maiden immediately slowed down.
At first I thought it was [somebody in] a fancy dress costume,
said Mrs Maiden. It was wearing a long dress, very old-fashioned,
that stopped mid-calf. It had a tartan shawl round the top and a bonnet
with a brim.
Mrs Maiden remembers remarking to her husband: "Somebody's playing
a prank.
But then the car's headlights fully illuminated the figure.
It was like when you trap a rabbit in your headlights. It stayed
dazed, hunched over without looking at us. As we got alongside it we were
almost at a standstill. All of a sudden it was 4ft [1.2m] away from the
car. It rounded on us really quickly and I saw the face. It was totally
horrific... very small, black beady eyes. It was like a wizened face. The
worst thing of all was the mouth. It opened and [it] was like an empty black hole.?
My mother was sitting directly behind me. At the same time I remember
we said, 'Oh, my God.'.............
CORONER ALWAYS SAYS NEVER TALK TO STARNGERS !!!!
CONTENTS