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Where the curiosity never ends…
Day Twenty One - Tony Liddell
Tony Liddell has been a field archaeologist for the last 30 years, seventeen of which he’s also been studying alleged paranormal phenomena in the North East of England. A sceptic in the truest sense of the term, his main interests in the field lie in historical psychology and lives in constant amazement at the things people can convince themselves are real… or not real… not being political here or anything…
You can follow the work Tony's work at Otherworld North East on social media
plus on there fascinating website www.otherworldnortheast.org.uk
Life moves in circles?
Back in the mists of time in my early teenage years, my dad and I would often go hiking and rambling around various parts of the North East at a weekend. One of the locations we visited was a local ruin that fascinated me at the time with its stories of strange occultist activity in the cellars and a Grey Lady that was said to be seen angrily moving through the ruins on stormy nights: unfortunately at the time the only angry soul we encountered was that of the gamekeeper telling us to move along!
Fast forward to 2014 and I found myself undertaking an archaeological/architectural survey of the same ruin. At the time, the ruin had been off limits for nearly a decade, with the only people getting in being those who had removed the trees and undergrowth ready of the survey, and members of staff responding to reports of trespass...
Sure enough the cellars were full of ‘symbolic graffiti’, and staff there mentioned that strange altars and other paraphernalia had been found there occasionally…
One late Friday afternoon, myself and a colleague were working on surveying one of the wall-heads, when we both heard the distinctive sound of someone crunching their way across the debris-covered courtyard toward where we were working. Presuming that someone hadn’t read the keep out sign and had jumped the gate, we went to turn them around… and while the footsteps continued past us heading into the ruin, there was no-one there.
For some reason, my colleague asked if we could finish early that day…”
Today's church door...
St Peter, Clippesby
St Peters is a pretty little church with a round Norman tower topped by an octagonal belfry which was added in the early 1900s. Other Norman elements that remain include the north doorway with its decorated rounded arches and columns. The majority of the church dates from the 13th century, with major alterations and restorations taking place in both the 15th and 19th centuries.