A Couple Of Ghost Stories

Fire Station Visitor

Fire Brigade Headquarters, Temple Back, Bristol

The Fire Brigade HQ in Temple Back
In 1975 the newly-built headquarters for the fire brigade was visited by a ghost on at least nine occasions.

It would walk through closed doors, lower the temperature of the central heating and then vanish all of a sudden.

A cook called Mrs Iris Rhodes saw it three times and once even chased it down the stairs with a glass of water thinking it was a fireman playing a prank.

She described the ghoul as between thirty and thirty six, with ruddy cheeks and wearing a large mackintosh - but there could be another explanation..

The Temple area of Bristol was once owned by the Knight Templars, an order of warrior monks suppressed in 1308 for heresy - in reality because they had become too powerful for medieval kings and popes to control.

While Mrs Rhodes believed it was wearing a mac, firemen who saw him reckoned it was actually medieval dress. The theory is it was one of the knights keeping an eye on development on the Templars' estate.


A Wizened Old Frightener

Various Bristol newspapers picked up on the story of a haunting in 1846 at the house adjoining All Saints Church in the city.

The ghost of a wizened old man terrified the tenants at the time, Mr and Mrs Jones.

Mrs Jones felt an urge to jump out of the window while Mr Jones was gripped with fear because of a flickering light that appeared on one of the internal walls.

Such was his trembling, so the story goes, that his body doubled up like a ball.