A rather strange article appeared in ‘The Port of Tyne Pilot’ newspaper in July 1840, tucked away between the shipping news and the births, deaths & marriages. The story of a ghost that had the whole of North Shields talking!
The paper described the ghost as ‘a boneless being’ who haunted a mansion house close to North Shields. They remarked that, “there is no wonder that the arrival of a ghost in this neighbourhood, in the second quarter of the 19th century of the Christian era, should excite extraordinary wonder”. According to the report, “old women (of both sexes)” were quick to believe in the ghost, while the better informed were more sceptical.
The owner of the house and his family were terrified by the ghostly goings-on: locked doors found open in the morning; strange noises coming from empty rooms; even “fire-irons seen dancing with themselves”!
Two local lads decided it was time to get to the bottom of the mystery and announced that they would like to “keep the night therein, in order that they might see and hear all the wonders of the Great Unknown”. And so, one Friday evening, they prepared for an all-night vigil in the haunted house, determined to catch sight of the ghost. The newspaper reports that one of them quickly fell into a deep sleep, leaving his friend alone, keeping watch. For what happened next, it’s best to go directly to the newspaper report (with apologies for the casual sexism!):
“ …. The other says he kept awake, bold as a lion, and sharp-sighted as an eagle, till a little before the clock struck one when, as he was looking at his watch, lo, and behold! a closet opened and out came a form in the shape of a woman without eyes, enfolded in a long flowing white garment, her right hand laid on her breast, and her left, slightly extended, pointing downwards! This vision put our hero into an ‘eerie swither’, and he cried out, like an hysterical lady, for help. His companion awoke, but the vision had gone; the inmates of the house were alarmed, and the young hero was found in an awful state of trepidation, trembling like an aspen leaf, and as pale as death.”
The paper went on to say that the unexpected visitor “set with fright the hairs on the young man’s head like quills upon the fretful porcupine”.
What happened next the paper doesn’t say. It’s unlikely that the mansion – wherever it was – still exists, but as for the eyeless woman … well, keep your wits about you when you’re out and about in North Shields late at night. You never know what you might come across!
