Farnham
is said to be the most haunted town in Surrey, and one day back
in the Spring of 2004, it certainly lived up to its reputation!
Don't walk so close to me! A true and accurate report of a probable ghost encounter in Farnham, Surrey, UK
The reason that the two of us singled out Farnham for a visit, is because its parish church is a significant landmark on the Pilgrim’s Way, the ancient route from Winchester to Canterbury, something we are most interested in; parts of this building actually date back to the middle ages and it stands on foundations of a 7th-century Saxon church!
We headed towards St Andrew's via the West entrance, along a very old flagged pathway flanked by aged buildings: Apart from its lovely Gothic revival stained glass window, we found the interior of the church itself quite standard and a bit boring to be honest; so we left and went to have a look around to see if we could perhaps spot any unusual architectural carvings outside; the two of us walked in an anti-clockwise direction along the pathway as we continued our exploration.
Where the track splits and meets the path coming in from Downing Street, we were suddenly joined by a very strange young woman who seemed to appear from nowhere and began walking directly behind us; so close, that if we had suddenly stopped there would definitely have been a collision!
We were both thinking how incredibly rude she was.
People were sitting on benches in the grounds, and some politely looked up as if to say 'good day' as we passed them, but we noticed they were not acknowledging the girl, only us.
We furtively glanced over our shoulders several times and became rather concerned; not only because of her uncomfortably close proximity to us, but each time we looked, we saw that she was wringing her hands all the while; the girl was obviously distressed about something and we could even hear her breathing rapidly.
Just our luck I thought, to have a mad woman on our tails.
From what we could make out, she was dressed in something like a 1970's overcoat which had a fitted waist.
We continued on the upper path round the Church, hoping to get back out onto West Street and perhaps shake off this girl following right behind us; the situation was getting rather silly, so we stopped, (half expecting her to clip our heels when we did so) as we had whispered between ourselves that we were going to confront this person and ask her to either pass by, or at least desist from walking so close to us; but to our shock and amazement, when we turned around we saw that she had vanished!
Next, we quickly ran back to the Church grounds and checked everywhere, but the girl was not to be seen.
Later, we conducted some internet research hoping to find out whether anyone else had ever reported a similar experience for these parts, but couldn't find anything that exactly matched; however, we discovered the legend of how back in the 1970's, a young woman had climbed the tower of St Andrew's Church, Farnham and threw herself off to her death... although apparently, there is no official record of the claimed suicide.
Was this the very same girl that we had seen?
For us, our strange encounter was simply too coincidental for this NOT to be the case.
Don't walk so close to me! A true and accurate report of a probable ghost encounter in Farnham, Surrey, UK
The reason that the two of us singled out Farnham for a visit, is because its parish church is a significant landmark on the Pilgrim’s Way, the ancient route from Winchester to Canterbury, something we are most interested in; parts of this building actually date back to the middle ages and it stands on foundations of a 7th-century Saxon church!
We headed towards St Andrew's via the West entrance, along a very old flagged pathway flanked by aged buildings: Apart from its lovely Gothic revival stained glass window, we found the interior of the church itself quite standard and a bit boring to be honest; so we left and went to have a look around to see if we could perhaps spot any unusual architectural carvings outside; the two of us walked in an anti-clockwise direction along the pathway as we continued our exploration.
Where the track splits and meets the path coming in from Downing Street, we were suddenly joined by a very strange young woman who seemed to appear from nowhere and began walking directly behind us; so close, that if we had suddenly stopped there would definitely have been a collision!
We were both thinking how incredibly rude she was.
People were sitting on benches in the grounds, and some politely looked up as if to say 'good day' as we passed them, but we noticed they were not acknowledging the girl, only us.
We furtively glanced over our shoulders several times and became rather concerned; not only because of her uncomfortably close proximity to us, but each time we looked, we saw that she was wringing her hands all the while; the girl was obviously distressed about something and we could even hear her breathing rapidly.
Just our luck I thought, to have a mad woman on our tails.
From what we could make out, she was dressed in something like a 1970's overcoat which had a fitted waist.
We continued on the upper path round the Church, hoping to get back out onto West Street and perhaps shake off this girl following right behind us; the situation was getting rather silly, so we stopped, (half expecting her to clip our heels when we did so) as we had whispered between ourselves that we were going to confront this person and ask her to either pass by, or at least desist from walking so close to us; but to our shock and amazement, when we turned around we saw that she had vanished!
Next, we quickly ran back to the Church grounds and checked everywhere, but the girl was not to be seen.
Later, we conducted some internet research hoping to find out whether anyone else had ever reported a similar experience for these parts, but couldn't find anything that exactly matched; however, we discovered the legend of how back in the 1970's, a young woman had climbed the tower of St Andrew's Church, Farnham and threw herself off to her death... although apparently, there is no official record of the claimed suicide.
Was this the very same girl that we had seen?
For us, our strange encounter was simply too coincidental for this NOT to be the case.
