butcher hill/West park

Hauntings, spectres and other supernatural tales
jdbythesea
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Joined: Sat 02 Apr, 2011 6:14 am

Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by jdbythesea »

I seem to remember that one of the four shops was a (green?)grocer called Dinsdale's. Unless I'm getting confused I think they also had a shop on Queenswood Drive opposite the top of Ghyll Road. That too closed years and years ago. Haven't been along there in ages: probably demolished by now.

BLAKEY
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Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by BLAKEY »

jdbythesea wrote:I seem to remember that one of the four shops was a (green?)grocer called Dinsdale's. Unless I'm getting confused I think they also had a shop on Queenswood Drive opposite the top of Ghyll Road. That too closed years and years ago. Haven't been along there in ages: probably demolished by now.
That building is still there jdbythesea - its at the back of a long empty frontage and the left half of it is now a taxi (private hire car) depot - not sure what the other bit is but will look next time driving past and let you know. :) :)
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.

jonleeds
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Joined: Thu 31 Jan, 2008 4:59 pm

Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by jonleeds »

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the meaning behind the name of both the 'Hark to Rover' pub and the older 'Hark to Rover' cottages as thats quite spooky. From what I can remember the owner of the cottages either committed suicide or got killed somewhere and allegedly at the exact moment the persons dog began to howl as if it had some psychic link / knowledge that its master had passed away. Sorry I cant elaborate on it a little more but thats all I know of the story.

There are some quite eerie spots around West Park and with a name like Butcher Hill, you just know something must be dodgy about the place! about a decade back now in the ponds in Clayton Woods a young guys murdered body was dumped by the killers who hoped that it would be assumed to be a death by drowning. However forensic science proved there was no water in the poor guys lungs and the perpertrators were soon tracked down and sentenced accordingly.

I've heard from a few people that after taking one of the dozens of short cuts through the many local woods that they felt they were being pursued by an animal of larger than normal size - plus what wild animal would pursue a person anyway. A particularly chilling account I heard recently involved a friend of mine who decided to walk down from Ireland Wood to Low Lane in Horsforth along the edge of the old Woodside Quarry. Like the other peoples stories I've heard he says he heard crunching of leaves / twigs and the sound of feet padding along behind him so he quickened his step, alas so did whatever was following him..! eek! He got to the footpath over the railway bridge that crosses the Harrogate line railway and crossed the bridge and continued along the path adjacent with the railway heading now for the ring road to exit the woods as quickly as possible. He says that upon turning around to look back towards the bridge he saw 3 dark figures standing there which were... human in appearance, but they were not "... people" he told me...!!

This fair sent a chill down my spine as I often walk in these woods and a few times when I've sat down on a sunny evening and dozed off under tree I've found it to be dark upon waking. Prior to hearing this spectral anecdote I wouldnt have cared a jot about being in the woods after dark, but now I find the place has a more menacing feeling about it.
Have your fun when you're alive - you won't get nothing when you die... have a good time all the time! - Chumbawumba!

And no matter how things end, you should always keep in touch with your friends - Dave Gedge

jgl1954
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Joined: Tue 16 Feb, 2016 6:06 pm

Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by jgl1954 »

" He says that upon turning around to look back towards the bridge he saw 3 dark figures standing there which were... human in appearance, but they were not "... people" he told me...!!"

There is a lot on the internet about "shadow people". I think they are supposed to be interdimensional beings but who knows? I'm sure though that there is more than we know.
There have been people living in the area since neolithic times so there may well be a few who are still hanging around.

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tilly
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Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by tilly »

Hi jonleeds hope you are keeping ok i know you have been known to sleep in the woods at night i must say its not for me.
No matter were i end my days im an Hunslet lad with Hunslet ways.

jonleeds
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Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by jonleeds »

eh? No Tilly I dont make a habit of sleeping in the local woods, heh heh! but a couple of times I have been relaxing in one of my favorite isolated spots deep within the woodland away from passing dog walkers / kids on motorbikes etc and I've fallen asleep only to wake up and its been pitch black! Although one of the best nights sleep I ever had was in a hammock in some woodland on the side of the river Wharfe a couple of years ago when I attended a woodcraft / survival skills weekend.

Its important though to choose a pair of trees carefully that have no overhanging rotten branches which could come crashing down onto your head in the middle of the night. The first time I slept out in my hammock was on the Harewood House estate during the Tour De France weekend and about 2am I was rudely awoke because the rope I'd tied around the tree to hang my hammock from wasnt fully secure and all of a sudden I slumped to the ground. luckily I landed on my backside and the ground was soft..!

As if this wasnt bad enough after I thought I'd secured the rope and climbed back into the hammock I started to hear a series of low twanging sounds, kinda like an out of tune double bass, and as these twangs built to a sort of a rhythmic crescendo I found myself crashing to the floor again! Anyway third time lucky and I managed to fix the bleeding thing right and slept like a baby until quite late the next morning. Its quite a bizarre experience the first time you find yourself trying to go to sleep completely open to the sky / elements etc, especially in a woodland setting.

Throughout the night I saw numerous creatures scurrying along the ground, up tree branches which was quite entertaining as at first it appeared that someone was rolling little black balls along the ground, until I realised they were some kind of small mammal / rodent such as a shrew or vole. The best bit was I got awoken at dawn by the sound of branches cracking and foliage rustling and when I opened my eyes there was standing there in the half-light about 15 foot away from me some kind of deer which was staring at me in total bemusement.

Clearly I was the invader here having strung my hammock probably right across the path of its regular morning stroll. When I made the tiniest movement the deer went smashing away through the undergrowth. Anyway I've heard of these creepy shadow people but its not something I'm going to even indulge myself into getting paranoid about as I dont like anything that makes me feel alienated from the natural environment. Its bad enough that we all already live such modern lives totally divorced from the natural cycles / seasons etc.

I know there are sites of Neolithic stone hut circles within the Clayton Woods and its mind boggling to think about how those early residents of this area survived at all. Who knows what eldritch rites these primitive folk may have performed in the hope of pleasing their pagan gods, perhaps grisly macabre scenes such as depicted in 'The Wicker Man' were commonplace not far from the place where I live now just on the edge of the woodland? Often during the night when the traffic on the ring road has quietened and the air is still I fancy to have hearkened a distant scream... but then I think to myself that it must just be a fox as they make a hell of a racket...
Have your fun when you're alive - you won't get nothing when you die... have a good time all the time! - Chumbawumba!

And no matter how things end, you should always keep in touch with your friends - Dave Gedge

jgl1954
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Joined: Tue 16 Feb, 2016 6:06 pm

Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by jgl1954 »

I think some of this uneasiness in woods and fields is down to us not being used to the environment so much these days. Years ago I was walking on the edge of woods and I felt a great unease as though there was "something" around, so much so that I invoked the name of Christ and told whatever it was to go away. Another time I was in the countryside near Greta Bridge and it felt odd. Apparently there had been a Roman settlement nearby so it makes you wonder what lingering souls or memories are around.

jonleeds
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Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by jonleeds »

Indeed, although I'm pretty skeptical about these things it makes you wonder if there is some area of the paranormal that exists beyond our understanding and because its rubbished so much by science that a lot of research into this kind of stuff has been shunned by academia for fear of ridicule and wasting money.

Plus all the total cranks that profit by duping people do nothing to help any real studies of parapsychology. Sad really because we are left with the likes of Derek Acorah and Colin 'Ferret-Face' Fry to bamboozle people with their trickery and bollocks which I think is criminal to allow to be shown on TV.

How these people profit from the grief and desperation of bereaved families who really believe they are hearing messages from 'beyond the grave' from their deceased loved ones out of the mouth of these charlatans is beyond contempt! Truly these fraudsters are as morally bankrupt as the profits they earn from their deceptions are lucrative.

It makes me wonder if the now-deceased Ferret Face Fry is communicating with anyone from the other side?! My hope is he's suffering the tortures of the damned somewhere in hell in an especially dreadful place reserved for specifically for blasphemers such as him. If there is a God then surely their shenanigans must rate amongst the most unforgivable sins that no amount of repentance would account for. Long may they scream for ever in eternal agony!
Have your fun when you're alive - you won't get nothing when you die... have a good time all the time! - Chumbawumba!

And no matter how things end, you should always keep in touch with your friends - Dave Gedge

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tilly
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Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by tilly »

Hi jonleeds and jg1954 I remember camping in Parlington Hall Park with the scouts must have been when Queen Victoria was a girl.We had a walk in the woods it was pitch black i would not want to do that again the older scouts had been talking about a headless horseman who haunted the place, this was to put us in the right frame of mind before we set off i must say it worked.At ten years old you are just ripe for that sort of thing. I think we have gone off course with this thread sorry about that back to ButcherHill /West Park we go.
No matter were i end my days im an Hunslet lad with Hunslet ways.

jgl1954
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Joined: Tue 16 Feb, 2016 6:06 pm

Re: butcher hill/West park

Post by jgl1954 »

Yes, it's amazing how quickly topics go off at a tangent. Just to reply to jonleeds though, I saw a medium a few years ago who said quite obscure things that I had to ask my father about and which proved correct, so I don't think they are all shysters. She wasn't in it for the money either, charging only a nominal fee.

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