Ghosts

Mathon seems to have a rather fine collection of ghosts, though it is easier to find people who have been told about a ghost by someone else than to encounter the person who has actually seen one. Are the folk who see the apparition in a rather special class, and would some of us be so insensitive that we would not recognise a ghostly spirit if it appeared to us?

The ghost at Little Southend, which has already been mentioned, is well authenticated. A number of people saw and heard it. They all agree that there was nothing malevolent about it; a friendly ghost. That was not so with another phantom, which appeared on the staircase of one of the old farmhouses. Little is known about it, except that it was so unpleasant that the two ladies to whom it appeared were unwilling to discuss it, and one of them only told her daughter about it very late in her life. The Southend ghost ceased to appear after a time, and there have been no more reports of the other less pleasant one. It is as though they appear for a limited time and almost for a specific purpose.

One late evening a few years ago, a farmer was driving through the village, on his way home, after attending a meeting, at which he was careful to say, nothing stronger than coffee had been served. As he approached the “Cliffe Arms” he saw a ghostly figure cross the road between the houses and the pub. He noticed particularly that it did not appear in the rear view mirror. When he reached home, he said “I’ve seen a ghost”, and his appearance was such that he was believed.

The same man was told about an unusual experience by his maternal grandfather who was a clockmaker. He had ridden to Colwall on his bicycle to deliver a clock, and was returning home along the lane by “Old Country” Farm. At a point where there is a gate on opposite sides of the lane, a ghostly horseman came through one gate and entered the other in front of the cyclist, who arrived home shaken by the experience, and later, by the discovery that he was missing the ten shilling note that he had been paid for the clock. He rode back to the place where he had seen the apparition, and found the note on the ground.

Finally the area near the back entrance to Mathon Court, known in the past as the “Blue Gates” is also said to be haunted.

Football Team 1920

Football Team 1957