1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:06,559 You're listening to the Paranormal UK Radio Network, the best in paranormal talk radio 2 00:00:06,799 --> 00:00:13,320 in the UK and around the world. Paranormal Dimensions is fortnightly on Mondays on 3 00:00:13,359 --> 00:00:20,359 the Paranormal UK Radio Network. Welcome to the world of your own terrifying imagination. 4 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:26,480 Since the beginning of time, people have argued about the existence of ghosts. 5 00:00:27,359 --> 00:00:33,960 They've been called variously raps, spectors, phantoms, apparitions, shadows or 6 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:39,960 shades. But everyone agrees that if there are such things as ghosts, they 7 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:46,119 are the souls of dead persons haunting living persons. You are listening to Paranoral 8 00:00:46,119 --> 00:01:42,439 Dimensions for the Paranormal UK Radio Networks. Hello, this is Ronald Kinsulla and 9 00:01:42,519 --> 00:01:49,480 you're listening to the Paranormal UK Radio Network, the UK's biggest paranormal network, 10 00:01:49,799 --> 00:02:01,359 and this is Paranormal Dimensions with David Young. Hello and welcome to the show. 11 00:02:01,599 --> 00:02:05,480 As you can told by the intro, we're going into the world of 12 00:02:05,519 --> 00:02:08,159 ghosts again now as you're here in the show. A couple of months ago, 13 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:13,159 my wife and I we were on a local tour in Colchester, which 14 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:15,680 is about twenty or so miles away from where we live here, and it 15 00:02:15,759 --> 00:02:20,680 was a ghost tour. I've seen it advertised on Facebook actually, and I'm 16 00:02:20,719 --> 00:02:23,800 so glad I did because the men I met on this tour who was doing 17 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:28,879 the tour. It was mister Raymond McCarthy, our guest on this occasion, 18 00:02:29,319 --> 00:02:31,919 and he amazed me with his knowledge of Colchester, so I thought I did 19 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:36,400 invite him onto the show and I'm really glad I have. So here we 20 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:43,039 go with Raymond McCarthy. Ray, welcome to the show. Yes, highlight, 21 00:02:43,159 --> 00:02:46,360 David and lovely to be on the show and they're nice to see me 22 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,879 again after these few weeks since. Yes, it was there, it must 23 00:02:49,879 --> 00:02:53,120 have been about two months ago now. I think we were on the old 24 00:02:53,159 --> 00:02:58,599 Cultures to tour. It's called the Cultures to History tours. Yes, So 25 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:02,960 what actually started you in that business? Was it in the paranormal side or 26 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:07,120 cultures to itself? To be honest, I was lucky enough to be able 27 00:03:07,159 --> 00:03:12,919 to retire at fifty about six seven years ago now, and we moved here 28 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,240 at the same time, so it's a big wrench. I've been in living 29 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:21,400 in Epsom in Surrey for the previous early five years. However, outside had 30 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,159 moved down here and effectively on me retiring, it made sentence for us to 31 00:03:25,159 --> 00:03:30,319 move closer. Unfortunately, I'd had a mild heart attack a few years before, 32 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:35,919 and of course trying to get across the bridge it can be difficult on 33 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,039 that. Yeah, but that's fine. So we moved down here. But 34 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:46,840 I realized, in reality, you are going to have to do something when 35 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:50,759 you retire. You can't sit there forever. And as I noticed that my 36 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,879 good wife, after thirty five years, was merrily digging the flower beds ever 37 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:59,680 deeper and ever wider, I realized at some point if I didn't do something, 38 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:05,240 be Actually so I've always I used to be a salesman for a living 39 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:10,240 thirty five years, so talking to people has never been a problem. And 40 00:04:10,879 --> 00:04:15,039 I find myself in Coulture staff, which I actually knew very little doubt. 41 00:04:15,399 --> 00:04:20,720 But I've always been fascinated by history. History defines who we are, and 42 00:04:20,879 --> 00:04:25,759 so I decided it would make sense to combine my two interests of selling, 43 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,959 being able to talk to people and sell, and also with a great history 44 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,639 we have here, and combine it by becoming one of the official tur guys 45 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:38,920 for the city. So I've done that. I had to then go on 46 00:04:38,959 --> 00:04:43,759 a course for which took about six or seven months to actually complete, much 47 00:04:43,759 --> 00:04:47,120 more intense than I thought it was going to be. And I'm sure like 48 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:53,639 myself, you remember years ago in school, come the summer holidays, you 49 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,680 go off, have six weeks of not picking up a pen. Ever again 50 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:01,360 while ago to remember for me, but yeah, yeah, yeah for me 51 00:05:01,439 --> 00:05:06,639 as well, and you've completely forgotten how to write in your hands will actually 52 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:10,600 do it well, especially now those are computers. I mean, I don't 53 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,040 I very really write stuff. Yeah, I have not done. My handwriting 54 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:21,120 is awful. Well, my handwriting starts off and deteriorates rapidly. And basically 55 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:30,879 there was a from I'm genuinely apprehensive about because I haven't done a written exam 56 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,079 for so many years now. As it turns out, luckily, as I 57 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,199 turned the first page, I knew the first question and literally from then on 58 00:05:40,319 --> 00:05:44,160 it was. It was absolutely fine, And at the end I was honored, 59 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:48,480 to absolutely honor to actually pass and become one of the new intake of 60 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:56,800 proxibly thirty new City guides for the New City of Culture stuff, as we've 61 00:05:56,959 --> 00:06:00,439 been given a new city status by Queen if in one of her last acts 62 00:06:00,439 --> 00:06:05,519 before she tragically died. Yeah, I do remember that was about ninety Sorry 63 00:06:05,519 --> 00:06:11,560 about twenty fourteen or something, was it? Well no, so literally the 64 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,519 literally not on the year she died. A couple a couple of years back. 65 00:06:15,519 --> 00:06:20,319 Now made a first Stitchy game because we because culture for those that don't 66 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:27,720 Answerware is actually Britain's very first city and it's the oldest city in Britain, 67 00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:31,319 founded by the Romans in eighty forty three, and in fact he is twenty 68 00:06:31,319 --> 00:06:36,160 five years older than London. So yeah, we have a rich history here, 69 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:41,279 as it turns out, and as it turns out, a very ghost 70 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:46,079 orientated paranormal history as well. Yeah, and so we come onto that. 71 00:06:46,199 --> 00:06:50,240 So once I qualified, it seemed I wasn't aware of anybody really doing other 72 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:55,959 tours and it's something to do that, but I ken't being asked, are 73 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,480 you planning to do a ghost And now I'm going to be totally honest with 74 00:06:59,519 --> 00:07:04,879 you, I'm not necessarily someone who's really deeply interested in the paranormal and all 75 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:09,639 the rest of it. However, I have, like nearly everybody, have 76 00:07:09,759 --> 00:07:15,879 had experiences happened when I was younger, especially that I really cannot explain and 77 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:20,439 defy normal explanations given to them. So it's not that I'm not open to 78 00:07:20,519 --> 00:07:27,399 these things or even cynical about these It's more that I really haven't considered it. 79 00:07:28,399 --> 00:07:32,279 Consider that I was learning about the rich two thousand year history of culture 80 00:07:32,279 --> 00:07:36,480 stuff, and this was being suggested by people as something to really look at. 81 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:42,079 And eventually, after really for the first six months, I didn't do 82 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:46,920 any touring. I had some medical problems. However, once I started and 83 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:51,079 decided to set up culture history tours, it seemed logical to actually do and 84 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:56,920 include a ghost because you quite rightly said, there, we have two thousand 85 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:01,000 years of history, and whether you're a cynical or not, I genuinely believe 86 00:08:01,079 --> 00:08:07,839 that the past and the tragic events have happened leave a mark, and that 87 00:08:07,959 --> 00:08:13,240 for some people, some people are definitely more sensitive than others. Remember where 88 00:08:13,319 --> 00:08:18,439 the city that the very first city that was destroyed by Budica or budh Sia. 89 00:08:18,639 --> 00:08:26,959 She's also known back in eighty sixty point, So if I just jumped 90 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,480 in, I remember being told at school it was Bodicia, but actually it 91 00:08:31,519 --> 00:08:37,200 seems to have changed over more recent years. I'm not quite sure why, 92 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:43,240 so I tend on I tend to say both different versions really for younger the 93 00:08:43,279 --> 00:08:46,559 older crowd. But the reality is, if you've got thousands of people being 94 00:08:46,639 --> 00:08:52,039 slaughtered, and it literally was slaughtered in an area, especially at the site 95 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:58,440 of the very first Roman temple, where that was the last holdout, I 96 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:03,639 genuinely believe that will leave a mark of some store that some people are more 97 00:09:03,639 --> 00:09:07,960 sensitive able to actually latch onto and find. Not everybody is going to feel 98 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,440 that, but some people aren't. I do genuinely believe they leave echoes that 99 00:09:13,519 --> 00:09:16,919 some people are more receptive to. Well, there is the stone takee theory 100 00:09:18,039 --> 00:09:24,240 that a lot of history gets transported into the stone of that area and it 101 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:28,519 can sort of get projected at some point as well. Well, I think 102 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:31,600 I'm probably someone who believes that as well. I think, well, I 103 00:09:31,639 --> 00:09:35,559 do. I think it's a distinct possibility, you know, Yeah, yeah, 104 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:37,960 I think as well. So we've got those events that happened here, 105 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:43,840 We've got with the Anglo Saxons that settled here, with the events all the 106 00:09:43,879 --> 00:09:46,440 way through the Middle Ages. But then we have in more modern times where 107 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:52,960 we have all the way throughout the city were basically tragic deaths, murders. 108 00:09:54,080 --> 00:10:00,440 We have of course here where during the Civil War of the sixteen hundreds, 109 00:10:01,159 --> 00:10:05,360 basically we were a center of where Matthew Hopkins, the witch Finder General, 110 00:10:07,039 --> 00:10:11,159 basically made his bass here and basically over two hundred people were accused of being 111 00:10:11,159 --> 00:10:16,240 witches and killed it. But you have such cases such as the Fox and 112 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:20,720 Fiddler pub, which is still there today, dating from late fourteen hundreds, 113 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,159 where during the sixteen hundreds a young lady there was accused of being a witch. 114 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:31,879 He was Matthew Hopkins was called and instead of taking her down to the 115 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:37,679 castle, were locked up and basically taunt hi until she confessed. And I 116 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:43,559 think it's probably because he was actually given lots of free beer instead. He 117 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:48,519 instead ordered her to be chained in these sellers where the drinks were, and 118 00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:52,480 then breaked up and hergo still haunts it even to die, and it's seen 119 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:58,600 on a regular basis. So once again those tragic events and lead their mark 120 00:10:58,759 --> 00:11:03,840 in the very foundation and building of everything that's around us. And I finally 121 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:09,879 quite amazing that every day people are walking past buildings in culturest and to be 122 00:11:09,919 --> 00:11:15,960 fair, also all over the country with no recognition of the sheer age of 123 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:20,320 the buildings and the events that have happened. They're not just bad events, 124 00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:22,879 but happy events actually happened there. And yeah, because you've got quite a 125 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:26,000 mish mesh. I suppose in any city, really you've got a mishmash of 126 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:30,279 very old building, he's a very new build he's all sort alongside each other. 127 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:35,240 Yeah. Unfortunately, I mean through the decades and through the centuries, 128 00:11:35,720 --> 00:11:41,679 the consideration of history really didn't exist until about the Victorian era. Were really 129 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,559 the first people that really had the money, the time, the wealth to 130 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:50,600 actually worry about older structures and started to preserve them all. To be fair, 131 00:11:50,639 --> 00:11:52,840 they did jazz them up a bit. So when you see a Jacobean 132 00:11:54,159 --> 00:11:58,919 and Elizabethan building the Tudor style with the black wood and everything, that's really 133 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:05,279 the Victorian jazzed up version of it. One of the reasons why those buildings 134 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:09,799 warp is because they were never painted black on the woodwork. That was the 135 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:13,120 Victorians done that, And of course the wood can't breathe, so then it's 136 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:18,639 to dry out on warps. So we have the the Victorians to thank for 137 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:24,240 preserving everything, but also they've damage things as well and giving us a little 138 00:12:24,279 --> 00:12:28,679 bit of a false kind of impression. Yeah, it's kind of disney s 139 00:12:28,879 --> 00:12:33,080 version of it. Yeah, but you're quite right. I mean the to 140 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,840 a certain extent. Certainly during the fifties sixties there was very much forget the 141 00:12:37,879 --> 00:12:41,960 past, looked at the new, and tragically not just in Culturester but all 142 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:48,519 over a lot of buildings which now would never have been knocked down. And 143 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:54,600 we're tragically lost forever however, but that doesn't mean that the tragic events are 144 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,840 happened in those places have necessarily been lost. Yeah, so I tell you 145 00:13:00,799 --> 00:13:05,120 that on that note, we've just recently lost that very nice crooked part ofn't 146 00:13:05,159 --> 00:13:09,320 we just just a day or so as we talk. Yeah, that's some 147 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:13,720 terrible accident, I believe. Yeah, it looks rather suspicious when you got 148 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:16,679 a bloke with a crane knocking the rest of it day as well. Yes, 149 00:13:16,639 --> 00:13:20,080 I'm sure it was. I'm sure it's all above board. Yeah, 150 00:13:20,399 --> 00:13:24,519 asolutely looked at it. I mean yeah, well, with that investigation stood 151 00:13:24,559 --> 00:13:31,639 on go. So we can't say to best we move on. But I'll 152 00:13:31,639 --> 00:13:35,919 tell you before we actually get into Colchester. You mentioned about some paranormal experiences 153 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:37,799 of your own when you were younger. Maybe you can tell us one or 154 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:41,919 two. A little bit about that. Yes, really the one that we 155 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,159 I mean, listen, we've all had that. I think it's fair to 156 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:48,799 say that most people, at some point in the wee small hours, we've 157 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:52,879 opened one eye, We've looked at the where our clothes were, and part 158 00:13:52,879 --> 00:13:56,799 of our brain has god, my god, it's a monster and ghost or 159 00:13:56,919 --> 00:14:01,480 with oh yeah yeah. However, when I was thirteen, I was a 160 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:07,360 boys camp basically in Essex. I'm not actually from Essex, I'm from Surrey. 161 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:15,200 And basically we were taken to a place called Baldly Rectory, which very 162 00:14:15,279 --> 00:14:18,159 famous in that. Yeah, the rectory was still there but completely sealed off, 163 00:14:18,159 --> 00:14:22,759 so all of the windows were bricked up. There was no windows there. 164 00:14:22,799 --> 00:14:26,039 We were taken there, and I still remember this vividly. We were 165 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,480 taking there in a transit van. We without twelve of us, around about 166 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:33,480 eleven o'clock at night, pitch black. Half of the people didn't want to 167 00:14:33,519 --> 00:14:35,960 after the kids did not want to leave the transit, so we left them 168 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,799 there. Some of us who were slightly more brave, but I think a 169 00:14:39,799 --> 00:14:43,240 lot of it was really bravado of youth. And we start to go and 170 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:48,879 shown round the outside of the rectory. There was still some light, and 171 00:14:48,879 --> 00:14:52,879 it's quite clear in my mind that the windows were completely bricked up at that 172 00:14:52,919 --> 00:14:58,399 point and there was nothing there. We were also shown where the cow sheds 173 00:14:58,399 --> 00:15:03,600 were, where we actually come across some pentangles that had been drawn, which 174 00:15:03,679 --> 00:15:07,720 was also started to get a little bit scary, even more scary later as 175 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:11,200 we kind of left there. I'll tell you in sequence. Actually, so 176 00:15:11,399 --> 00:15:16,360 basically we've shown round and then later we were we were back around the rectory 177 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:22,399 and literally I can see it now where the bricks out window was on the 178 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:31,159 top floor at the very top was sunny. Perhaps there was anything there, 179 00:15:31,279 --> 00:15:33,799 because it was. It wasn't just you know, we've bricked up on the 180 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,440 inside and there's a ledge there. Yeah, it was a fully bricked up 181 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:41,799 window, smooth level with the rest of the outside wall. But suddenly there 182 00:15:41,879 --> 00:15:48,279 is a light shining where really no light had any right to be. And 183 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:50,840 at that point me and a few of the couple of the others decided, 184 00:15:50,879 --> 00:15:54,080 you know what, we've probably had enough of this at this point, being 185 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:58,440 around about thirteen years old, and I remember going back to the van, 186 00:15:58,279 --> 00:16:00,919 not say anything as we went there, and just knocking on the van, 187 00:16:02,519 --> 00:16:07,039 being hit by the sound of screaming and inside, which was quite music, 188 00:16:07,559 --> 00:16:11,840 to say the least. But that's always stuck with me because I've got no 189 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:21,360 Yeah, by education, I come from the sciences. When I left college, 190 00:16:21,399 --> 00:16:26,480 I went to build raping missile defense systems in the nineteen eighties, so 191 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:33,559 on a practical science based person. But I had no rational explanation. I've 192 00:16:33,559 --> 00:16:37,759 got no explanations all that I can come up with that would explain that light. 193 00:16:38,919 --> 00:16:41,879 I know exactly what you mean. Funny, I thought you and I've 194 00:16:41,919 --> 00:16:45,600 got a similar background actually, because I was in the Mercury defense as well, 195 00:16:45,679 --> 00:16:49,639 all right, Okay, yeah, worked with Mark Ohs and GDC and 196 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:56,799 I was with Racil Decker Defense, and having thought that that was going to 197 00:16:56,879 --> 00:17:00,360 be my career, believe me, after what a year, I think it 198 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:04,440 was both decided it would be better if I moved on because it really wasn't 199 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:10,960 the career for me. At the other I spent like forty five years I 200 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:15,680 think in that business. Yeah, so I take it as a as a 201 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,960 badge of honor. But the fact that after I left the company is no 202 00:17:19,039 --> 00:17:25,839 longer there. It was my last thing. Well, they're again, they're 203 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:27,960 lost, I think it. But actually it was the wrong career for me 204 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:33,720 at that time. I was only about seventeen and eighteen and there. But 205 00:17:33,759 --> 00:17:37,480 I've always had that rationality, So I was one of those kids that at 206 00:17:37,519 --> 00:17:41,759 ten I was dismantling TVs radios building my own. I wanted to know how 207 00:17:41,799 --> 00:17:48,400 things work. So I'm much more on the focus on the more practical side, 208 00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:52,400 and that's whys and stuff here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's 209 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:57,759 it's some ways I find myself doing this. The more come by accident, 210 00:17:57,839 --> 00:18:03,799 the design, They're actually becoming more interested in the whole, the whole spectrum. 211 00:18:03,839 --> 00:18:07,839 Because I think it's fair to say, you come on one of my 212 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:11,400 trips and I hope i've certainly hopefully you've enjoyed it. Yea. Yeah, 213 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:15,359 You've got different people who have an interest in this. You've got yourselves much 214 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:21,079 more at this serious end, really looking at what possibly these things are. 215 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:26,119 For most people, it's entertainment. Yeah, and the ones that come on 216 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:29,799 the tour that is the vast maturity of people. But when you're all walking 217 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:33,519 around and you're actually explaining things that have happened in some way, in many 218 00:18:33,519 --> 00:18:37,480 ways, it's actually opened my mind to things that if I think back out 219 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:45,559 my practical background that I would I would have been very much less open too. 220 00:18:45,039 --> 00:18:49,400 So even even I'm feeling it, I actually started to open up. 221 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:53,319 And in fact, since you came on that trip a few months ago, 222 00:18:55,400 --> 00:19:00,160 I've actually now developed a whole another ghost to covering the whole timeester. Yeah, 223 00:19:00,559 --> 00:19:06,000 having done more research to seeing me again, then well this is a 224 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:10,039 part you're more welcome to come and you know, hope to see you there 225 00:19:10,039 --> 00:19:12,640 and that. Yeah, so that'll be launched in a few weeks time really 226 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:18,640 because one it's popular, people like it. But I genuinely think there are 227 00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:22,799 that's someone must subscribed described to me. But on the course that I was 228 00:19:22,839 --> 00:19:30,039 on training, you know, ultimately a lot of these are things that might 229 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:36,400 have happened. But a bit like Chinese whispers. If you've done Chinese whispers, 230 00:19:36,839 --> 00:19:40,720 you literally tell one person and then there's twenty people, and then you 231 00:19:40,799 --> 00:19:45,319 go to the last person and the version that you told the first one is 232 00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:52,599 now completely different. Facebook. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. But also 233 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:55,839 I think there's that, you know, fundamentally, there's a person said, 234 00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:02,759 but aren't these really just repetitions of small and that is true? And you've 235 00:20:02,799 --> 00:20:07,400 always got that there is a tendency to jazz things up to a certain extent. 236 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,720 But within that that story, and let's call it that, there is 237 00:20:11,759 --> 00:20:15,680 a grain of truth. And if over the centuries, and we are talking 238 00:20:15,839 --> 00:20:23,000 centuries in cultures, you're having repeat events, repeat reports, you know, 239 00:20:23,039 --> 00:20:29,079 which add credibility. You know who they are being by counsel workers who are 240 00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:33,799 shutting up. Some of the museums and places we work in are literally fifteen 241 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:37,559 hundred years old, two thousand. You know there is something there. If 242 00:20:37,759 --> 00:20:44,920 people who are working in a place are prepared to actually put an official report 243 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:49,200 in that something's happened, that has to add credibility to the stories from the 244 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:56,599 past. Yeah. Yeah, I just becomes a nice story to tell people 245 00:20:56,599 --> 00:21:00,680 of throwing your kids. So there is a lot of the is there seems 246 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:06,920 to be real truth because purely over the sandries things have happened too many times 247 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,559 for it just to be repeated. A great example is, of course, 248 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:15,680 the most haughty place in culture, Ster, which is the Red Lion Hotel 249 00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:21,519 right in the middle of Culture, dating back from fourteen sixty five, has 250 00:21:21,599 --> 00:21:26,240 had a long, long history of reported ghosts which have been seen by many 251 00:21:26,279 --> 00:21:29,759 many people, and I believe yourselves took us. You took us in there, 252 00:21:29,799 --> 00:21:30,759 didn't you. Yeah? Yeah, I took you in there and all 253 00:21:30,799 --> 00:21:34,960 the rest of it, you know. And that's a place where even now 254 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:37,880 there's still reports of things. In fact, I was in there the other 255 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:42,440 night talking to the night Pause and he shared a story with me that I 256 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:47,839 was not I had not heard before. And he's the guy who's there all 257 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,799 the way through the evenings man, So if you like, I could share 258 00:21:51,839 --> 00:21:56,359 it with you. Yeah, please do This building you're talking about, it's 259 00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:59,279 actually quite an amazing building, is it. Yeah, there's got a lot 260 00:21:59,279 --> 00:22:02,640 of these beams are things you were talking about? Are these the ones that 261 00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:07,440 have been sort of done by doctor in later but they're not the originals, 262 00:22:07,519 --> 00:22:11,279 and I think the vast majority is the Well, what you've got to recognize 263 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:18,000 is that fire was an ever present danger back in So there are regular fires 264 00:22:18,039 --> 00:22:21,200 in places like those, and it never to be. There's been tremendous changes. 265 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:25,799 Just think of the technology in your house that has changed in our lifetime, 266 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:30,559 you know, from the massive cut TV now to a flat screen TV 267 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:34,640 and now we're wandering around with a phone in our pocket that does pretty well 268 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:40,039 anything. Yeah, whereas before a computer. So just like that, the 269 00:22:40,079 --> 00:22:44,680 building has changed. However, the fundamental structure, the original structure, is 270 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:49,960 still basically there. There is also some rooms and part room part of them 271 00:22:51,039 --> 00:22:53,440 that are actually still the original. Not everything is going to be original. 272 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:59,319 I think that's pushing credibility a little bit too much that something's going to survive 273 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,920 all those entries. However, once again, it goes back to that that 274 00:23:04,519 --> 00:23:11,839 when things happen, they potentially leave an infrint that if the right person who 275 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:15,920 is sensitive to these comes across them, they can see it. Others can't 276 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:21,240 be. It's cynicism, and I think that plays apart, especially with globes. 277 00:23:21,279 --> 00:23:26,079 I'm afraid we seem to be more cynical about things. But came back 278 00:23:26,079 --> 00:23:32,359 to this story that was lit about three days ago in fact, so he 279 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:36,119 was the ninth porter there. And to give you a bit of a background, 280 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:40,279 you need to know that one of the most famous ghost stories there is 281 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:45,359 of a small child. So the three that are three ghost stories that is 282 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:51,440 actually famous for first one is of a monk or a priest who in the 283 00:23:51,519 --> 00:23:56,599 very early days went into save some children who were staying there. However, 284 00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:00,759 tragically he died in the fire and he haunts the reception area on a fairly 285 00:24:00,759 --> 00:24:07,240 regular basis. He's seen literally just looking down on people. The other story 286 00:24:07,559 --> 00:24:11,559 is, and it may be related to that one, is basically the story 287 00:24:11,559 --> 00:24:15,319 of the small child who has really well, there's two versions of it. 288 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:19,400 One he's never been seen by adult, but the other children imagine that parties 289 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:22,640 and stuff where the adults tend to go after the bar, the children are 290 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,200 left running around and playing around that. Lots of children have been I've been 291 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:32,200 playing with this boy here, but no adult has actually ever seen the boy, 292 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:36,880 although allegedly there is. According to the man address of the hotel, 293 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:41,039 there is a photo from nineteen twenties where they took a family photo where they'd 294 00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:45,480 hired the back room, and there's the blood image of a small child in 295 00:24:45,519 --> 00:24:48,880 the back that they swear is not part of that family at the time. 296 00:24:49,599 --> 00:24:53,000 But the story he told the night Palls are related to me, which may 297 00:24:53,039 --> 00:24:56,759 be related to that child, is that one night, round about three in 298 00:24:56,799 --> 00:25:00,799 the morning, there's a knock at the downstairs door. She's locked at that 299 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:06,640 point. He goes down and there's a man and woman and basically they asked 300 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:08,519 if they can use if she can use the toilet. He doesn't let the 301 00:25:08,519 --> 00:25:14,039 man in, he locks it, but takes the lady ups to the toilets 302 00:25:14,079 --> 00:25:18,759 and he stays in the front bar era where we were, and she goes 303 00:25:18,799 --> 00:25:21,839 into toilets which are just next to that. While he's there, he can 304 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:26,960 hear her talking to someone and when she then eventually comes out, she rather 305 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:36,240 roshop that small child to run around in the toilets at this time of night, 306 00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:38,680 and he basically said, well, there is no child here. There 307 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,640 is no one here apart from you and me, And she was adamant that 308 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,599 she's just been speaking to a child who was playing around in there. And 309 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:51,200 as they go, as he took her down, she's then still saying stuff 310 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:55,559 behind him about it, and then she's then telling her boyfriend husband as they 311 00:25:55,559 --> 00:26:00,119 merrily go, and he's absolutely element that is there was definitely no one there 312 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:04,720 at all, but she could see someone that had a conversation with someone. 313 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:08,079 Yeah, So it may lead into what had happened in the past, the 314 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:12,440 long distance pass, the repurse of the child, and that child may have 315 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:18,240 been one of those that died in the original fire, whether priest or a 316 00:26:18,279 --> 00:26:25,519 monk perish as well. She saw a solid being as such. He said 317 00:26:25,599 --> 00:26:30,799 he was sitting there and he could hear her having a one sided conversation with 318 00:26:30,839 --> 00:26:34,000 someone, as if she was being answered. So, you know, he 319 00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,160 said, well, what's your name? There's the answer, but he couldn't 320 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:41,119 hear the answer, but she clearly could and was having a conversation. Ask 321 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:47,079 him why he was running around in the toilets. I have no reason to 322 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:51,880 disbelieve him. I mean, he's you know, that's his job a bit 323 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:56,440 do that, and I you know, and certainly from her perspective, she 324 00:26:56,599 --> 00:26:59,880 believed it was a child she was talking to, but that would feed into 325 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,799 a things. It would have been interested to find out what that name, 326 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,359 but she came out with I didn't find out what the child died back there? 327 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,160 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Once again, it's like it's one of 328 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:12,880 those things that it's one of those things. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. 329 00:27:14,279 --> 00:27:15,039 You think, oh my god, I wish i'd ask that, or I 330 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:19,400 wish i'd done But you can only work with the information you've got there now. 331 00:27:19,519 --> 00:27:26,039 And and but it's not all. It's not only the the Red Lion 332 00:27:26,079 --> 00:27:30,880 that's of course, just over the road from there. We have the George 333 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,960 Hotel, which has been there nearly as long as the Red Lion. And 334 00:27:36,839 --> 00:27:41,480 I was booked just the other day to take some Americans around the city in 335 00:27:41,559 --> 00:27:45,480 general to and they've they've been here a number of times and stayed at the 336 00:27:45,519 --> 00:27:51,480 George. And the wife was telling me basically when she was there last time, 337 00:27:51,519 --> 00:27:56,440 which is about fifteen years ago, she's walking up to her room. 338 00:27:56,599 --> 00:28:00,599 She husband's behind that. She comes to a narrow set of stairs which kind 339 00:28:00,599 --> 00:28:03,599 of split, and as she gets to the top, there's a man in 340 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:08,319 front of her with his back to her, and he's really she's really surprised 341 00:28:08,319 --> 00:28:11,559 because she could hear no one up there as she got there, and no 342 00:28:11,599 --> 00:28:15,319 one went ahead of her. There was certainly no one going upstairs. And 343 00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,759 what she described to me was she goes he had a peaked hat, and 344 00:28:18,799 --> 00:28:22,359 I'm looking at the back of him. He had long hair which went to 345 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:27,440 the collar and was straight across, and on the back of the collar was 346 00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:34,799 a white kind of She described it as a piece of cotton that you would, 347 00:28:34,839 --> 00:28:38,480 you know, like a dollie yea. At that point, that sounds 348 00:28:38,559 --> 00:28:44,079 remarkably like someone from the sixteen hundreds, because that would have been the sort 349 00:28:44,119 --> 00:28:47,720 of dress that a well to do man would have been at that period of 350 00:28:47,759 --> 00:28:51,920 time. The cup was over there, yeah, over the shoulder than that. 351 00:28:52,319 --> 00:28:55,000 But the thing that really got me was saying she when she finished, 352 00:28:55,039 --> 00:28:56,720 she said, and then I looked down and realized he had no legs. 353 00:28:57,519 --> 00:29:03,160 I turned to my husband, who was just come up behind, and by 354 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,519 the time you turn back, the apparition had gone. But that place as 355 00:29:06,559 --> 00:29:11,160 well, is well known to have many hauntings within it, even though it's 356 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:15,680 just had a million pounds refurbishment, because it goes back once again, so 357 00:29:15,799 --> 00:29:19,799 many things have happened there through the Centris and that's just that's a new one. 358 00:29:19,839 --> 00:29:23,119 I literally learned that only this week, as well as well as the 359 00:29:23,119 --> 00:29:30,359 other stories that relate to the George. So you're getting an ongoing part of 360 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,359 stories basically going. So basically, I suppose for your people that come on 361 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:41,200 the tools, you're any stories every time, which, to be honest, 362 00:29:41,279 --> 00:29:47,039 is if you think about it makes sense because if you're always talking about an 363 00:29:47,079 --> 00:29:51,720 incident that happened x amount of centris again, yeah, yeah, and there's 364 00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:57,279 been no other sighting that gives no credence to it. Surely the credence is 365 00:29:57,359 --> 00:30:04,279 given if over the se interest is there have been reports of hauntings, experiences, 366 00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:10,519 you know, politicis activity whatever, that must get more credence to the 367 00:30:10,519 --> 00:30:18,680 original event. Other things are happening. Yeah, and you know once again, 368 00:30:18,759 --> 00:30:21,279 I mean, I mean, we haven't even spoke about the castle. 369 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:23,039 The castle. No, we're going to get to that, all right, 370 00:30:23,079 --> 00:30:29,880 Yeah, yeah, I mean I've got to say that the talk that you 371 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,039 gave on on the tour, it was actually brilliant. And we went to 372 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:37,079 the ruins of the abbey type, Yes, that's that's an amazing place, 373 00:30:37,079 --> 00:30:41,880 which I wasn't sure if I've been there before, but it must have been 374 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,319 a hell of a long time ago. But I didn't actually remember that until 375 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:47,839 still you took us there, and I thought, well, one of the 376 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,359 flakes of all the old archies and things, you know, Yeah, yeah, 377 00:30:51,519 --> 00:30:56,279 well that's some bottos or the remains of the monastery, which is I 378 00:30:56,359 --> 00:31:00,000 don't know if you remember. My very first question is who's been here before? 379 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,240 Were in all the hands? And then I asked a very simple question, 380 00:31:03,519 --> 00:31:07,039 who was some bosof of which everyone looks at me with blank face. 381 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:12,880 Yeah, And so the story of some Bossofs is that is interesting in itself 382 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:18,359 in so far that effectively think of him as the patron saint of travel. 383 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:22,319 But the English version, after being trained over in Europe, came here all 384 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:26,279 up and down the country. There are some Bossofs founded by him and people 385 00:31:26,279 --> 00:31:33,839 who followed him and eventually by about the particular monastery that the remains of the 386 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:40,279 monastery we were in was the first monastery of Bossofs in Britain. However, 387 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:45,279 during the Reformation of the fifteen hundreds under Henry the Eighth, where basically the 388 00:31:45,359 --> 00:31:48,759 Church of England was developed, basically they refused to go along with that, 389 00:31:48,839 --> 00:31:52,240 so it was pretty well destroyed at that point. And then during the Civil 390 00:31:52,279 --> 00:31:57,240 War of the sixteen hundreds between Charles the First and Parliament it was what was 391 00:31:57,319 --> 00:32:05,359 left was even more damaged in the actual in the actual cannon fire that hit 392 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,200 it. But interesting if you remember as we were walking through that build, 393 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:14,440 it's left in it and there are large columns there. There's part of the 394 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:20,079 front where you walk in the actual majority of that is actually made from the 395 00:32:20,079 --> 00:32:27,480 original Roman brick, that's what you're saying. Sitting and you can actually see 396 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:32,000 the original bill marks now who's to say what terrible history those bricks. Going 397 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,960 back to what we were talking about at the beginning, that the physical can 398 00:32:36,039 --> 00:32:40,079 hold terrible things, Well, that building is made from terrible, terrible things 399 00:32:40,079 --> 00:32:46,119 that have happened two thousand years ago in eighteen sixty hundreds if not thousands died 400 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:52,039 in the culture that they were slaughtered, and those bricks were just reused and 401 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:57,519 recyc and who knows what memories they'd hold and go into the very buildings that 402 00:32:57,519 --> 00:33:01,200 we're still walking today. Yeah, I imagine that cultures it is probably got 403 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:05,960 one of the bloodiest histories we've got in this country at all. Well, 404 00:33:06,039 --> 00:33:09,400 yeah, we say great pride from back in the Queen Mary. We've had 405 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:15,799 more people burnt at the stake here than any other city in Britain, which 406 00:33:15,799 --> 00:33:20,039 I'm not sure if it's a record. We're really proud of the certainly won 407 00:33:20,759 --> 00:33:24,160 the record, but yeah, yeah, I mean so as well as over 408 00:33:24,559 --> 00:33:30,759 two hundred people allegedly witches who are executed in around culture stuff. Really on 409 00:33:30,799 --> 00:33:35,559 the say so of Matthew Hopkins, known and better known as Fine a general 410 00:33:35,799 --> 00:33:39,319 and self appointed which I was going to say that apparent I only found that 411 00:33:39,359 --> 00:33:44,920 out recently I'm quite sure if it was on your tour or with Simon and 412 00:33:45,039 --> 00:33:50,079 Whistle which I went on up up in the Pendle Hill. Yeah, and 413 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:54,599 he was talking about that he was actually your self appointed. Yeah yeah. 414 00:33:55,119 --> 00:33:59,799 And in fact, if you if you remember on the two and this is 415 00:33:59,799 --> 00:34:05,480 my own supposition that in reality in modern Parliamce, he was a serial killer. 416 00:34:06,319 --> 00:34:07,559 Yeah, what do you think about it? But he was a serial 417 00:34:07,679 --> 00:34:14,559 killer. We were paying for the privilege. Yeah yeah, and that's really 418 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,360 nowadays, that's big. Yeah. But yeah, so, I mean, 419 00:34:17,599 --> 00:34:23,079 so he had over two hundred people executed on a very sorry say, spurious 420 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:28,079 information. But remember he was at a time when the ordinary person was being 421 00:34:28,079 --> 00:34:30,920 paid sixpence a day to work on the land. He was being paid twenty 422 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:35,920 five pounds to clear a village of witches, twenty five pounds of goods to 423 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:39,800 five thousand. He was making fortunes and that's obviously what that's obviously why he 424 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:44,239 was finding all these witches which probably won't be which world, which is at 425 00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:49,239 all exactly they were. Usually they were usually just like local ladies or whatever 426 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:52,519 that would look after people were medicines and things, weren't they usually Yeah, 427 00:34:52,599 --> 00:34:57,199 but not only not only ladies. There's a bit of falsehood that we think 428 00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:01,119 of them purely as women. Actually about there was over two hungred so relevant. 429 00:35:01,159 --> 00:35:06,960 Twenty percent of them here and culture were actually men, including a male 430 00:35:07,119 --> 00:35:12,079 priest of eighty five years old who a bit of a misconception of what we 431 00:35:12,079 --> 00:35:15,639 were able to do there. Couldn't be tortured as such, but what you 432 00:35:15,679 --> 00:35:20,679 could do is be locked up, be stripped, be not fed, not 433 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,480 watered, kept awake all the time. You're being watched all the time, 434 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:30,559 and it doesn't matter how big and strong you are over a period of time. 435 00:35:30,599 --> 00:35:37,440 And remember that I was deeping there. You're going to weaken, yeah, 436 00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:39,320 and you're going to admit to anything at the end of the day. 437 00:35:40,039 --> 00:35:43,960 But twenty percent of them are actually a male as well, when I think 438 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:49,159 that's always important to remember that because otherwise though here we are only a few 439 00:35:49,199 --> 00:35:52,079 months away from all Hello's Eve, where we're going to have lots of children, 440 00:35:52,199 --> 00:35:55,199 especially running around dresses which is and all the rest of it. But 441 00:35:55,239 --> 00:36:00,519 it's always I think important to recognize that these people are innocent, They're only 442 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:07,039 They're only crime in many ways was being the outsider. Yeah, personal difference 443 00:36:07,679 --> 00:36:10,440 the person you've had an argument with two years ago, or maybe you owned 444 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:14,880 the money too, and there was a lot of that that happened. You 445 00:36:15,119 --> 00:36:17,320 using the which and your problem goes away. Yeah, and they weren't worn 446 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,199 down by a mind elutrition like you see. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 447 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:23,719 And once again, it doesn't matter how strong you are, if you're not 448 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:29,360 getting food and you're not getting water within a few days, you will admit 449 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,840 to anything to get those And of course it was the confession that he was 450 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:37,239 after mainly about who else was in the coven, because the more people got, 451 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:40,280 the more money he got. That's yeah. So for these little corps 452 00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:45,719 up yeah, yeah, yeah. And of course the castle itself, which 453 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:49,199 is you know, no, it's the largest Norman castle in Britain, the 454 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:53,639 largest in Europe. Of course, that's twelve hundred years old history, yeah, 455 00:36:53,800 --> 00:37:00,159 yeah. But also of course it's built partially from the remains of the 456 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:05,360 Roman city in eighteen sixty recycling. Here we are in twenty twenty three, 457 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:07,320 and we think you're pointing out of those bricks up. Yeah, you can 458 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,719 see, we've been doing it for millennium. But of course, if you're 459 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:16,840 building a building harshly made up from a period where there's something absolutely terrible happens 460 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:23,039 that would tie into leaving its mark there as well. And of course we 461 00:37:23,159 --> 00:37:30,159 have the castle itself is built on the very first brick and water building ever 462 00:37:30,199 --> 00:37:35,320 built in Britain, which are actually the giant Temple of Claudius was there originally, 463 00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:39,440 and the foundations were still there, and that's where the final holdout for 464 00:37:39,599 --> 00:37:46,239 the Roman people of Colchester. That was the final holdout for two days before 465 00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:50,559 it was finally burnt with all of them alive, and then you tried to 466 00:37:50,679 --> 00:37:54,320 escape were then hacked to theft there. So those very foundations are steeped in 467 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:59,840 the blood of hunps of people. You can still see the standations, can't 468 00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:02,159 you. You can still, yeah, you can actually as a tour within 469 00:38:02,199 --> 00:38:08,880 the castle, because underneath the castle, those foundations are not solid. The 470 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:16,559 Romans, having invaded Greece twenty eight sorry but once twenty eight BC, had 471 00:38:16,559 --> 00:38:22,280 basically made use of the Greek's knowledge of mathematics, and one of the things 472 00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:27,719 they'd learn is if you build an arch, it will take tremendous loads above 473 00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,039 it. So instead of building a solid foundation, you build one with two 474 00:38:31,159 --> 00:38:35,920 arches all the way through. Basically one hundred and fifty foot long. Both 475 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:40,400 of these arches are about thirty five foot wide about thirty foot high, and 476 00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:45,000 it means you can build the whole foundation much cheaper, much quicker. And 477 00:38:45,079 --> 00:38:49,119 now if you do a tour, you get to go all the way through 478 00:38:49,199 --> 00:38:53,599 those and rounds. So in the very amazement of where all of that absolutely 479 00:38:53,679 --> 00:39:00,079 terrible thing happened above in eighty sixty men, Budica reaps the revenge. Yeah, 480 00:39:00,119 --> 00:39:02,719 I must do that one. We really having had a chance to do 481 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:07,960 that. Yeah, but we do you like that one. In fact, 482 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,760 I'll tell you what. We went to Colchester yesterday. I know I called 483 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:15,199 this show, but we tried to go to oh there's there's something up the 484 00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:21,599 top of the hill because we're in the English Heritage at the moment, and 485 00:39:21,599 --> 00:39:28,000 we couldn't actually park up there. So yeah, the town, let's it. 486 00:39:28,119 --> 00:39:30,280 Yeah, we drove all around and around trying to find so we couldn't 487 00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:32,760 find anywhere. Yeah, so we we ended up not doing it in the 488 00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:37,400 end, so I need to go back there and try again. Well, 489 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,199 if if it's the very top of the city, and if you're talking about 490 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:45,639 Jumbo the giant watertown, but I think I think there's an archway. Is 491 00:39:45,639 --> 00:39:47,000 an archway up there? Is that the one, yeah, which is actually 492 00:39:47,039 --> 00:39:52,719 the Bualken Gate, which is that's the one. Yeah, that's the Britain 493 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:59,079 very first is largest and it's only Roman gates still in use today. And 494 00:39:59,559 --> 00:40:01,199 I'll tell and if you want to do I'll tell you. We're apart from 495 00:40:01,199 --> 00:40:05,719 that. Literally there is a giant car park directly opposite on the other side 496 00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:07,199 of the road. You just missed the slip road and you'd been able to 497 00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:15,079 walk across there. So yeah, that's the ball, the leading into the 498 00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:17,400 top of the town and that. But but of course we've got the history 499 00:40:19,079 --> 00:40:22,960 of the Civil War so during which is you know, literally you know, 500 00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:28,000 brother against brother, father against son, a terrible time in English history. 501 00:40:28,079 --> 00:40:30,880 Funny enough, on the nineteenth from twenty of this month, we've got the 502 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:36,480 re enactment of the Siege happening in Coulstone. All throughout the city. We've 503 00:40:36,519 --> 00:40:39,679 basically got the sealed not people, they're going to be re enacting battles and 504 00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:45,119 stuff they're happened here, but you had real tragedies happen. A good example 505 00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:52,159 is of the on the top of some Mary's on the wall which is literally 506 00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:57,480 right against the Roman wall when the civil when the battle started, you had 507 00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:00,840 a guy at the top of the tower and he had a little handheld cannon 508 00:41:01,599 --> 00:41:07,880 firing about a three pound ball and he was merely firing away at the parliamentary 509 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:14,239 forces are outside of the wall. However, he was having a high all 510 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:19,239 time right to the point where they brought the giant cannons from London and with 511 00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:22,519 one blast blasting at the top of the church off and him with it. 512 00:41:22,639 --> 00:41:29,599 So he's having much of a good time. But you've got stories there relating 513 00:41:29,679 --> 00:41:34,400 to hauntings at the top of the city, and in fact still there today 514 00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:43,079 was actually the headquarters of the rebel forces inside of the wall, which is 515 00:41:43,079 --> 00:41:46,920 now solicitous today and actually you can go in there on special invite, and 516 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:52,480 they still had down at the bottom in the basement they have cannonballs and stuff 517 00:41:52,519 --> 00:41:57,280 from that period, but that's haunted from the ghosts of those people that fought 518 00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:01,719 in that battle and them so they after the sea ghosts and things. Yeah, 519 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:05,719 yeah, still still see the ring basis in fact that I've got a 520 00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:09,239 colleague of mine actually works there as a solicitor, and she herself had actually 521 00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:15,400 seen some things happened there which you can't quite explain, but once again you 522 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:20,039 would expect that with something where as we said, has happened. Yeah, 523 00:42:20,039 --> 00:42:22,679 if you're going to get it anywhere in England or we're going to get it 524 00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:29,039 there, Yeah, exactly, and literally that's only what a hundred yards from 525 00:42:29,079 --> 00:42:32,320 that pub. I mentioned the Fox in Finland where the basically that the young 526 00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:38,119 lady was bricked up in the center. So all of them there there is 527 00:42:38,159 --> 00:42:45,519 an incredible stories from the past that still resonate today and of course the biggest 528 00:42:45,519 --> 00:42:49,079 part of culture. So unless you mentioned that the castle, now, yeah, 529 00:42:51,079 --> 00:42:54,320 on any specific ghosts that are haunt cultures, a castle, well, 530 00:42:54,360 --> 00:43:00,239 I'm aware of I'm aware of three, and I'll stand to be corrected by 531 00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:05,239 any of my colleagues at that. And there is an interesting little story as 532 00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,559 well, so we may say. For so, what you have to consider 533 00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:10,719 is that when the Romans came, we tend to think of the Romans as 534 00:43:12,639 --> 00:43:16,360 from Italy. Actually by that time they were not from Italy, the Italian 535 00:43:17,159 --> 00:43:21,519 that there were still Romans in the army who were Italian, but by that 536 00:43:21,559 --> 00:43:25,639 time the Roman Empire had spread to Egypt. The Balkans to Yeah, so 537 00:43:25,679 --> 00:43:30,639 there y a lot of the soldiers are actually from those areas, fighting under 538 00:43:30,679 --> 00:43:34,719 the name of Rome, and of course they brought their religious beliefs with them, 539 00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:38,159 their food, all the things that you would expect. So drewn excavations 540 00:43:38,199 --> 00:43:44,760 that happened in the nineteen twenties on the walls they actually found mummified remains of 541 00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:49,400 the cats, which is something from that in Egypt where the cat has been 542 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,760 worshiped, and that would end with that. And there has been reports throughout 543 00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:58,119 the centuries of cats being seen running where really there are no cats. Now 544 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:00,480 I have a cat, and that if you, if you, if your 545 00:44:00,519 --> 00:44:05,280 wife owns cats, you realize very quickly that you're at the bottom of the 546 00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,519 pile when it comes through the higher with a cat weigh above. We've got 547 00:44:08,559 --> 00:44:14,719 two peoples. Yeah yeah, well yeah, so although there have been reports, 548 00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,000 as I point out as well, all I've got to do is open 549 00:44:17,079 --> 00:44:22,400 a can of something and suddenly my cap appears. So that may be one 550 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,760 of those things. However, we have a mumified cat which has definitely been 551 00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:31,239 found there and we're tired. Also on the underground part where the tunnels are 552 00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:37,360 reports of a fully clad Roman soldier, which runs again would make sense because 553 00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:44,559 the Romans soldiers were actually also the builders of the original temple. Yeah, 554 00:44:44,599 --> 00:44:47,599 they would use their labor so they wouldn't be go off, so they would 555 00:44:47,639 --> 00:44:51,679 be doing laboring jobs as well, and that would tie in with what we 556 00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:57,639 know about the place. We have a separate part where basically we have it 557 00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:01,559 is a jail and you go down these stairs and as you go down there, 558 00:45:01,599 --> 00:45:08,840 there is an automatic infrared system that then switches on voices and animations that 559 00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:15,320 flicker from the jail where the people, whether which is people who allegedby which 560 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:20,920 were locked up. And I've been repeated a number of times from different sources 561 00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:23,519 that one night, as you can imagine that although during the day the class 562 00:45:23,679 --> 00:45:28,960 is full of life, at night it becomes very a very different place. 563 00:45:29,199 --> 00:45:37,599 I can't imagine, pretty creepy at night. Yeah, you have to go 564 00:45:37,639 --> 00:45:39,599 around when they lock up that to go around and check things. There's always 565 00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:45,800 people who want to play maybe silly buggers. And however, this one is 566 00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:52,119 they went down to that area there's only one stairs down, checked everything. 567 00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:54,880 Everything was fine, but when they came back up, all of a sudden, 568 00:45:55,199 --> 00:46:00,519 they hear the voices and then the actual automatic system has then started playing, 569 00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:07,960 so that means it's detected something human size. They decided not to go 570 00:46:07,039 --> 00:46:10,760 down to double check for some strange reason. I can't really blame them on 571 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:15,639 that one, you know. So that one so we don't know what it 572 00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:19,960 was, but there's certainly that the other one I am aware of is of 573 00:46:21,159 --> 00:46:27,679 as we So during the Civil War there were two commanders of the what'll be 574 00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:31,280 known as the King's Forces, the Cavaliers, if you remember the cavaliers Roundheads 575 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:36,559 and at the end of the siege where they basically lost, they were executed 576 00:46:36,599 --> 00:46:42,679 at the back of the castle, and there's actually basically a memorial to them. 577 00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,360 And it's been reported to me that during and I'm not quite sure of 578 00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:51,440 the timeline, and when they were locking up one night, as they were 579 00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:57,760 basically walking along the main exit towards the front gates of the castle, that 580 00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,679 they hear the sound of marching coming down the great steps of King John. 581 00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:08,760 Those steps are the largest spiral staircase in any castle in Britain, four point 582 00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:14,760 eight meters wide. They hear footsteps coming down and then much of their shock 583 00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:19,079 instead of seeing a colleague or maybe someone who shouldn't be there. What they 584 00:47:19,159 --> 00:47:24,119 see walking straight then pass them. Basically two people dressed in camealier outfit which 585 00:47:24,119 --> 00:47:29,280 would fit with a timeline, and then disappearing out the wall heading towards their 586 00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:34,480 point of execution is certainly something. And once again with time with what we 587 00:47:34,559 --> 00:47:39,440 said at the beginning of the physical leaving a place for a marks we left 588 00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:45,559 because we have physical spot when they died outside as well as that in the 589 00:47:45,639 --> 00:47:52,480 jail and that period. The rest of the soldiers that with them were held 590 00:47:52,519 --> 00:48:00,400 in the jail until eventually sent off to be to Jamaica where most to dime 591 00:48:00,519 --> 00:48:05,559 in three to six months of disease. And we have reports of soldiers being 592 00:48:05,599 --> 00:48:10,239 seen marching up East Hill towards the castle. So there's been lots of activity 593 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:15,000 and a lot of it would make sense of the theory of that bad events 594 00:48:15,119 --> 00:48:21,079 leave a mark in the very fabric of certain buildings and at certain times people 595 00:48:21,119 --> 00:48:24,079 can see those. Yeah, I'm sure this happens on so I would say 596 00:48:24,079 --> 00:48:29,519 it's on every occasion, but I'm sure when you've got historic buildings with solid 597 00:48:29,559 --> 00:48:31,960 stone lot that I'm sure a lot of recordings to go go into those stones, 598 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:37,480 you know, and remember, of course that the building itself is made 599 00:48:37,039 --> 00:48:44,440 partially from the brick, the Roman brick from the devastation of eight sixty. 600 00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:47,840 So once again, whatever happened in those and believe me, there are lots 601 00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:52,159 of people killed in their villas and in their houses. Yeah, those those 602 00:48:52,199 --> 00:48:58,800 deaths would have marked those pieces of Roman brickwork, which are then incorporated into 603 00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:04,280 this massive bill. And I find it fascinating that here we are in twenty 604 00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:08,119 twenty three and you can not only see the burn marks from a D sixty, 605 00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:13,719 you can also reach out and touch the past. That I think it's 606 00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:17,800 fascinating to be able to do that. Yeah, yeah, that's an amazing 607 00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:22,679 city. Must say when you when you do these tours, are they mostly 608 00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:27,400 people from around the area? If you find or do you find those people 609 00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:31,280 that are busy in team Culchester and want to do the majority the majority of 610 00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:36,880 locals. But however, there is an increase in the amount of people coming 611 00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:42,559 into culture really as a tourist destination. I think I think we've I'm using 612 00:49:42,559 --> 00:49:49,199 the Wii here, but I think we've really not presented Culturester in the historic 613 00:49:49,559 --> 00:49:53,320 context that it should be as Britain's first sitting and I think that that is 614 00:49:53,360 --> 00:50:00,800 started that Actually, you know what, it's not just London an hour away. 615 00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:04,920 We have a tremendous history to share with you. The interesting thing, 616 00:50:05,079 --> 00:50:07,239 and you having been on the tour as well, if you know, I 617 00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:10,480 do a mixture of the history of the culture as well as we go, 618 00:50:12,039 --> 00:50:15,039 because I think you need to give context to If you just say, well, 619 00:50:15,039 --> 00:50:21,440 this is a what alleged supposed someone saw without giving the context of the 620 00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:25,440 background as to what happened, and it feeds into it, so you aren't 621 00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:29,320 having a better understanding. So you go, oh, okay, well that 622 00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:34,079 makes sense as to why there's a Roman soldier because of these events that happened 623 00:50:34,199 --> 00:50:39,760 here two thousand years ago. So there's a mixture of history. I'm always 624 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:43,719 very pleased though at the end of it, when I get the feedback, 625 00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:45,719 and one of my favorite bits is I hear the people who lived here all 626 00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:52,280 their lives and the phrase they always use is I've will pass that for X 627 00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:57,079 amount of years and I never knew that. Yeah, and it makes them 628 00:50:57,079 --> 00:50:59,800 look at their own city in a very different way. Well, it's like 629 00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,239 you said earlier, even you get you're hearing new things all the time. 630 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:07,840 New stories, So new stories, new bits of information, changes on information, 631 00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:13,639 so you know, you know you can yeah, yeah, this is 632 00:51:13,639 --> 00:51:16,039 where we are. That actually we've discovered something different now and that puts a 633 00:51:16,079 --> 00:51:22,320 different context on what we've told before. So the stories and when I say 634 00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:27,480 stories don't even be in the history, Yeah, history changes based on the 635 00:51:27,519 --> 00:51:34,199 information we gain. And also remember it's interpreted and some things are interpretive for 636 00:51:34,199 --> 00:51:38,519 political reasons because it fits the narrative. But it's not static. The history 637 00:51:38,559 --> 00:51:45,199 of this great country is not static. It's never changing, involving thing as 638 00:51:45,199 --> 00:51:50,039 we learn more about the way other people lived in the who basically, I 639 00:51:50,039 --> 00:51:53,519 mean, we have this idea and it's a common idea, and I get 640 00:51:53,599 --> 00:51:59,880 it that the past is another country. They've done different they've done things differently. 641 00:52:00,039 --> 00:52:04,400 It actually it's not because the past is our past. It's our living 642 00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:07,920 past. It's the very thing that makes us do what we do. That's 643 00:52:08,159 --> 00:52:14,239 I'll give you for instance. Yea, so one of the things we do, 644 00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:16,800 well, I don't know if you ever used the phrase I'm on tender 645 00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:20,400 hooks. Well, yeah, I suppose we all do at some point. 646 00:52:20,519 --> 00:52:23,679 Yeah, yeah, well that actually comes from the wall trade. Going back 647 00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:28,559 hundreds of years, and it's where they used to pin the basically the wall 648 00:52:28,639 --> 00:52:32,800 to dry on a wooden frame held by hooks called tender hooks. Now that 649 00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:37,440 it was the Romans that really kind of introduced how to treat wall with urine. 650 00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:44,280 Urine's important because it actually took out the landeling out of the wall because 651 00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:47,840 it contains ammonia. So by the Middle Ages and that Victorian times, we'd 652 00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:52,480 had a pot under under under our beds. They should wonder how they discover 653 00:52:52,559 --> 00:52:55,320 those things, isn't it well interesting? The Romans? And I've heard that 654 00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:00,239 the Romans were so enamored with the power of urine that they would actually use 655 00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:07,360 it as a mouthwash. Remember it's not even their own every act, which 656 00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:10,760 would have made kissing their loved one very interesting thing. But we ended up 657 00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:15,559 with the phrase and if you have i've swearing, and the phrase not a 658 00:53:15,599 --> 00:53:19,840 pots of pissing. Yeah, then you are so poor that you do not 659 00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:24,079 have somewhere to put to supply collect your urine at night, because they would 660 00:53:24,079 --> 00:53:27,840 then buy that off you the next day. Yeah. I mean that whole 661 00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:30,280 say speak for itself, really, didn't it? Yah? Yeah, So 662 00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:32,480 it's kind Yeah, So it's interesting things and things we still do today. 663 00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,920 The phrases we use, rituals we still use. The marriage ceremony is very 664 00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:43,239 similar to what the Romans sarily is. Yeah, and yet we do them. 665 00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:46,400 And it's like when we ask that eternal comedy question, what did the 666 00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:50,639 Romans ever did for us? To which my answer as well, how long 667 00:53:50,679 --> 00:53:54,079 have you got the real? Yeah? But yeah, they're not that we 668 00:53:54,119 --> 00:53:57,920 shouldn't look at them as the long distance past. They've got nothing to do 669 00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:05,119 with us. Actually, they in process in many ways, rituals and things 670 00:54:05,159 --> 00:54:10,159 that we still do today. The difference mainly is the technology that we that's 671 00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:15,039 changed. Yeah, well it makes wonder if say, it makesure wonder if 672 00:54:15,039 --> 00:54:16,760 we'd have our road system like we did if it worked for the Romans in 673 00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:21,440 there. I know we could actually complain quite a bit about potholes and stuff 674 00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:23,079 like that, but I'm talking about, you know, the road systems that 675 00:54:23,079 --> 00:54:29,239 we ended up with sort of you know and all that, well, not 676 00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:32,800 even that, and it was the road system literally we built on the Romans 677 00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:37,679 were the first one is to really build what classes the little straight roads was 678 00:54:37,320 --> 00:54:42,079 exactly, which is ironic if you ever go to Rome in the backstreetes. 679 00:54:42,119 --> 00:54:47,000 There's not a straight line there. Interestingly, and I also do a Victorians 680 00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:52,719 and a colleague of mine tolding. So of course the Romans built their roads, 681 00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:57,920 Yeah, and then the carriages they used to carry all their stock left 682 00:54:57,920 --> 00:55:00,960 the grooves in the roads. Yeah. Then when we came up to building 683 00:55:01,039 --> 00:55:05,840 the railways for the first time, what size did we use? When we 684 00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:09,800 use the size of the carriages that came from the Romans. So the railways 685 00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:15,280 gauge that we use is directly from the Roman roads. Well I didn't know 686 00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:20,920 that. So when we think of it at how modern it is, but 687 00:55:21,079 --> 00:55:25,599 actually when you look back, it's traced because of decisions made many many centuries 688 00:55:25,599 --> 00:55:31,119 ago. That which makes perfect sense if you think about it. The rutted 689 00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:37,159 road where that you know, out of the centuries of the carts, so 690 00:55:38,719 --> 00:55:44,320 were the carts. Yeah, and so you're going to use what's available, 691 00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:46,639 which is the normal cart, which has been set by what the Romans done. 692 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:51,199 Yeah, it makes sense to a lot of things we have to day. 693 00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:55,000 Yeah. So also, I mean I mentioned they're just in passing of 694 00:55:55,079 --> 00:56:00,599 Victorian age now, cause the Victorian Age is a massive informational time, really 695 00:56:00,639 --> 00:56:07,000 defined the modern world as we know it, the coming industrialization with the railways, 696 00:56:07,639 --> 00:56:12,519 the absolute opportunity and wealth, but at the very same time and literally 697 00:56:12,599 --> 00:56:16,960 opposite where the wealthy were. Funny enough, you mentioned it earlier you were 698 00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:21,280 looking to get to the balk And Gates. Well, that is right next 699 00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:23,280 to a pub called the Hole in the Wall there is. It's called the 700 00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:27,960 Hole in the Wall is because during the Victorian times, with the coming of 701 00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:31,199 the railway, it used to be a stop where you'd bring carriages and stuff. 702 00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:36,119 But then the railway comes, so they blew a hole literally in the 703 00:56:36,199 --> 00:56:39,599 Roman wall so their patrons could sit there seeing the trains come from London, 704 00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:44,719 so they could take a carriage down there or get a carriage down there to 705 00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:49,079 bring their patrons up to the home. And then directly opposite it was the 706 00:56:49,119 --> 00:56:53,800 workhouse. So you had the coming of the wealth with the railways, the 707 00:56:54,039 --> 00:56:59,079 rich sitting there looking for the railways to move back and forth to London, 708 00:56:59,519 --> 00:57:05,000 and directly opposite you had the poorhouse where the very families were broken up. 709 00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:08,960 People that were then faced from six in them all into six or eight at 710 00:57:09,039 --> 00:57:15,280 nine to basically pick what's called oakum, which is basically the navy used heavy 711 00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:22,079 ropes made of hemp dipped dipped in tar, and they had to hand unpicked 712 00:57:22,119 --> 00:57:25,199 those which repped their hands. And in fact, if you remember Oscar Wilde, 713 00:57:27,559 --> 00:57:30,119 that's what he got put into prison, that's what he had to do 714 00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:36,159 and literally ruined his health and that so we had real stories of absolute deprivation 715 00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:38,960 right next to the real stories of absolute wealth. And of course there are 716 00:57:39,079 --> 00:57:46,159 stories ghost stories throughout the city relating to that area as well. A lot 717 00:57:46,159 --> 00:57:51,280 of the pubs as you can imagine, you know, those dark alleyways, 718 00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:53,360 and lots of things happened. It's a wonder we haven't got a check the 719 00:57:53,440 --> 00:57:59,440 ripper of culture stuff really well, well, yes in modern days we have, 720 00:58:00,079 --> 00:58:02,880 we don't tend to do. It's all about that one, which fortunately 721 00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:07,719 was the tragedy only a few years ago. But I'm not aware of anything 722 00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:12,519 in the past. But certainly I'm aware of some tragic murders that happened in 723 00:58:12,519 --> 00:58:16,480 the dim distant past where even today, mainly around pubs, because really that 724 00:58:16,679 --> 00:58:22,079 was such a central part of people's lives during the late Talk. There are 725 00:58:22,079 --> 00:58:27,320 a lot of sailors and things from different countries that have come into culture well 726 00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:30,280 we were reports. So basically we've got the hive which is at the bottom 727 00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:36,679 and it was import and we have good access to Europe and that, so 728 00:58:36,719 --> 00:58:39,519 there was a lot of people coming in and all of us. Wherever there 729 00:58:39,559 --> 00:58:43,920 is wealth, there is always going to be people coming in. Amazing. 730 00:58:44,280 --> 00:58:47,760 It's also close to the Estuary that goes up to London as well, don't 731 00:58:47,800 --> 00:58:52,440 Yeah, yeah, so we're very close to so I've got no doubts all. 732 00:58:52,599 --> 00:58:58,639 And of course basically you've got to remember that here in Essex was really 733 00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:00,800 where the founding farm was an America. Most of them came from here. 734 00:59:00,880 --> 00:59:07,800 That's true over so we have tremendous links with not just the Old World but 735 00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:12,000 with the New World as well. You're act so far from like Billy Rickey 736 00:59:12,039 --> 00:59:15,840 where the mowflower came from exactly, So you know, we have there's a 737 00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:20,559 real rich history, not just here but all the way through Essex which links 738 00:59:20,599 --> 00:59:23,239 with our cousins in the New World. And unfortunately one of those things that 739 00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:30,000 links us is our friend Matthew Hopkins, who before he died wrote a handbook 740 00:59:30,000 --> 00:59:34,119 on how to find witches, which I'm afraid he went over and that belief 741 00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:37,840 culminating in many ways in the Salem witch Trials, when you had young girls 742 00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:43,039 believing themselves to be witches. Yes, yeah, yeah, So you know 743 00:59:43,119 --> 00:59:45,639 it's not just a good thing to explore, I'm afraid. Yeah, because 744 00:59:45,679 --> 00:59:47,800 it did spread to America quite barely, didn't it. Yeah yeah, yeah, 745 00:59:47,800 --> 00:59:52,239 but that's fair, you know, that's I mean, of course it 746 00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:55,320 was James the First of England, the so first of he was James the 747 00:59:55,360 --> 01:00:00,360 first of Scotland. Dedcame James first of England and he literally wrote the book 748 01:00:00,159 --> 01:00:06,400 on witchcraft, on a book called Demonology, which became the Handbook, and 749 01:00:06,519 --> 01:00:10,039 as he became a King of England, the belief in whence you spread like 750 01:00:10,199 --> 01:00:15,480 a cancer all the way through Britain especially, And remember when we've only just 751 01:00:15,559 --> 01:00:20,800 lived through a traumatic experienced ourselves with the pandemic. I remember standing there in 752 01:00:20,880 --> 01:00:25,639 wake Tross going looking at people fighting over toilet role. Yeah, and the 753 01:00:25,679 --> 01:00:29,880 world, I say, when the world were made, when I broke completely 754 01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:32,119 and you know, I watched some of who is fighting over because they wanted 755 01:00:32,199 --> 01:00:37,280 ten cue comers. Now what the hell they want? I've got no idea. 756 01:00:37,639 --> 01:00:40,480 But at a time when people are rapped with fear, the people to 757 01:00:40,599 --> 01:00:44,800 exploit it. And that's one of the things that Matthew Hopkins did. Because 758 01:00:44,800 --> 01:00:50,400 it was a civil war, people are fearful and there's always people to exploit 759 01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:55,480 that. What about during the wartime years, did there anything much happen historically 760 01:00:55,559 --> 01:01:00,559 there in the sorry in the wartime years? Yeah, because I know there's 761 01:01:00,679 --> 01:01:04,280 a lot of military base there isn't there quiet Yeah, I mean, I 762 01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:07,119 mean don't how much you know about it, but well a bit not. 763 01:01:07,559 --> 01:01:10,559 But yeah, culture there has always been strongly associated with the military. In 764 01:01:10,639 --> 01:01:15,559 fact, on the top of our town hall when it was rebuilt in and 765 01:01:15,639 --> 01:01:21,000 finished in nineteen oh five, there's actually four statues at the top which show 766 01:01:21,239 --> 01:01:25,119 and represent what the main incomes of the city are and basically one of those 767 01:01:25,320 --> 01:01:31,000 is soldiers. And we were most strongly associated during the Napoleonic period, where 768 01:01:31,079 --> 01:01:37,400 the garrison here became the largest garrison in Britain, of course, supplying troops 769 01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:43,440 going over to battle Napoleon during the tragedy that was the Napoleonic era, finally 770 01:01:43,440 --> 01:01:52,880 culminated in his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo. As to I am aware 771 01:01:52,920 --> 01:02:00,400 of some apparitions goes related to military, however, they seem to be outside 772 01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:05,320 of the main center. I haven't had it, though we did have We 773 01:02:05,400 --> 01:02:08,679 have Barracks Street, which literally was the Barracks Student and Napoleonic era. We 774 01:02:08,719 --> 01:02:14,159 have a number of buildings still now, but I'm not aware of any specific 775 01:02:14,239 --> 01:02:16,960 stories. But I am aware a little bit further out of certain things that 776 01:02:17,039 --> 01:02:22,199 happened that I don't because it's not in the main city. I don't get 777 01:02:22,199 --> 01:02:24,880 a chance really to talk about that as I'm try Yeah, it says, 778 01:02:25,079 --> 01:02:29,599 I guess I'm sort of trying to mention that because this this show goes out 779 01:02:29,639 --> 01:02:34,320 internationally and I'm just trying to bring in some people that might be interested in 780 01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:38,199 culture. So in Essex in general general, if we go, if we 781 01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:43,639 move further fields, of course, we've got the most beautiful village called Lavanon, 782 01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:47,239 which is really on the on the border Sussex Essex Sussex border, of 783 01:02:47,239 --> 01:02:52,840 course within eleven it was just near there where the US Air Force was based 784 01:02:52,880 --> 01:02:57,639 during the Second Mold and in fact there's a very famous hotel They're called the 785 01:02:57,639 --> 01:03:04,559 Swamp and during the Second World War years, basically all of the aircrew American 786 01:03:04,599 --> 01:03:08,639 aircrew would go in and sign a wall and that wall is now preserved out 787 01:03:08,639 --> 01:03:13,880 of the glass. And then since then the Americans, their families and everything 788 01:03:14,119 --> 01:03:17,440 over the years since they said well go there, Mary signed other walls and 789 01:03:17,480 --> 01:03:22,880 that's so it's a really historic place. And once again there are many many 790 01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:28,559 things happened once again enough to leave a mark, but kind of outside of 791 01:03:28,599 --> 01:03:34,880 my area. But if you're going to Lavinam is just probably the quintessential what 792 01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:38,360 you would imagine to be a chocolate box British village to be, but with 793 01:03:38,559 --> 01:03:44,199 more Grade one and Grade two listed buildings in it. Any place in Britain's 794 01:03:44,280 --> 01:03:46,719 very pretty. I think there's a big pink there's a big pink building there. 795 01:03:46,800 --> 01:03:52,519 Think there is there's a pink building. There's also the buildings that they 796 01:03:52,920 --> 01:03:59,480 used on to model the very first Harry Potter film based on the buildings in 797 01:03:59,519 --> 01:04:03,519 there. You've also got, of course, the the actual house from the 798 01:04:03,639 --> 01:04:10,239 nursery Rhynder was a crooked house in a crooked streets in the hind street there 799 01:04:10,239 --> 01:04:14,199 and it is when we say crooked or is it crooked? Yeah, that 800 01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:17,119 one's still standing. It hasn't been well yeah, yeah, we were talking 801 01:04:17,159 --> 01:04:25,239 about the cookie Yeah that that pink building I seem to remember that when you're 802 01:04:25,280 --> 01:04:28,480 coming in I think it's into stands. Did you actually fly over and it's 803 01:04:28,559 --> 01:04:30,599 quite it's actually quite obvious you can see it. Yeah. Yeah, I 804 01:04:30,599 --> 01:04:34,239 mean I urge anybody to go in there because it is so good and mutter 805 01:04:34,239 --> 01:04:39,480 of course round it you've got some other beautiful villages and the countryside. I 806 01:04:39,480 --> 01:04:42,719 mean literally you only have to drive a few miles outside of the coaster. 807 01:04:43,239 --> 01:04:47,960 You're heading towards Mersey Islands, some perhaps beautiful places, and the country side 808 01:04:48,199 --> 01:04:54,679 is is absolutely superb. Yeah. And also again a few miles further on 809 01:04:54,760 --> 01:04:59,840 from that, you're going into Suffolk. Now I style lived in sex Mondon. 810 01:05:00,760 --> 01:05:02,760 I think it's about nine years, getting off of nine years. That 811 01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:09,119 was apparently, as I understand it, the first Saxon settlement or one of 812 01:05:09,159 --> 01:05:13,280 the biggest earlier Sexon separate settlements, and I guess they all kind of run 813 01:05:13,280 --> 01:05:18,159 away when the Romans invaded. Well, well the Romans came first, so 814 01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:24,639 you had us Brits and then the Romans invaded in ad. Well maybe it 815 01:05:24,639 --> 01:05:27,920 was the other way around that perhaps all moved to. Yeah, the Anglo 816 01:05:27,960 --> 01:05:31,519 Saxons came and after the Romans. Yeah, and then the normal and of 817 01:05:31,519 --> 01:05:35,360 course there was a period of time where a lot of Vessex was actually under 818 01:05:35,360 --> 01:05:45,440 control of the Vikings. In fact, you know the if you pretty well 819 01:05:45,480 --> 01:05:48,840 dig a hole in cultures there, you're going to hit a couple of things. 820 01:05:48,920 --> 01:05:53,639 Firstly, fifty cent meters down in the city center, you're going to 821 01:05:53,800 --> 01:05:57,440 hit a layer of dash from a D sixty and it's only half a meter 822 01:05:57,599 --> 01:06:03,360 down. You go deeper, you are going to it basically Anglo Saxon remains 823 01:06:03,400 --> 01:06:08,519 of buildings and all the way around and underneath them. You're also going to 824 01:06:08,599 --> 01:06:12,079 hit Roman, which of course is great and exciting for people like me. 825 01:06:12,679 --> 01:06:15,920 However, less so if you're a builder trying to build a nice, new, 826 01:06:15,960 --> 01:06:18,239 shiny building, that's probably a little bit of an inconvenience. But we've 827 01:06:18,320 --> 01:06:23,639 uncovered some remarkable things, remember it. Of course, we're also at the 828 01:06:23,719 --> 01:06:29,440 home of the only Roman circus ever found when they've done chariot racing. And 829 01:06:29,480 --> 01:06:32,199 it always astounds me that how do you lose a four hundred and twenty meter 830 01:06:32,320 --> 01:06:36,440 building that helps steam thousand people. It's not as if it just fell down 831 01:06:36,440 --> 01:06:41,400 the back of the sofa, is it. It's you know, I find 832 01:06:41,440 --> 01:06:45,400 that quite remarkable that we can layer upon the layer history and all the great 833 01:06:45,599 --> 01:06:49,000 and all the transies and also all the good things have happened. They're still 834 01:06:49,039 --> 01:06:55,480 there. Yeahs to be discovered. Yeah, it's amazing. Well right, 835 01:06:55,760 --> 01:07:00,880 that's been fantastic talking to you. Now before we lose you. Now you're 836 01:07:00,960 --> 01:07:06,079 real site. You've got www dot Colchester dot col c h E S t 837 01:07:06,239 --> 01:07:14,400 E R History as h I S t o R Wife t Tours t O 838 01:07:14,559 --> 01:07:18,000 U. That's all one word, so it's culture History Tours dot com. 839 01:07:18,119 --> 01:07:24,159 Yeah, so if anyone's listening to this, yeah, please pay you a 840 01:07:24,239 --> 01:07:27,519 visit to that and you can actually book your toll with Ray. I guess 841 01:07:27,599 --> 01:07:30,320 have you got other people on the team or is it just there's just me 842 01:07:30,440 --> 01:07:35,559 and my wife much prefers me to me about at home. So basically there's 843 01:07:35,599 --> 01:07:43,280 six tours on offer at the moment, which covers basically the Romans specifically covers 844 01:07:42,840 --> 01:07:47,119 a general It's your city tour com in two thousand years of history of course, 845 01:07:47,159 --> 01:07:51,320 the obligatory ghost and which is to however, I'm about to add on, 846 01:07:51,360 --> 01:07:55,760 as I mentioned earlier, a second tour covering the top of the city 847 01:07:56,480 --> 01:08:01,400 and going to some of the ones which resonate greatly with the Matthew Hopkins and 848 01:08:01,440 --> 01:08:10,119 the poor torture and subsequent bricking up as a young girl, and also then 849 01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:16,039 the siege of culture Ster tour and so then a general tour of the outside 850 01:08:16,079 --> 01:08:21,880 of the castle which really gives you a good understanding of what was there before, 851 01:08:23,479 --> 01:08:26,840 what's there now, how it's built, and the great stories that go 852 01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:29,880 with that. Yeah, well, I think you'll definitely be seeing me again 853 01:08:29,920 --> 01:08:33,359 on these tours going to sound fascinating. I'll be checking about because that's certainly 854 01:08:33,359 --> 01:08:38,560 that new one that you're coming up with, but the other historical ones that 855 01:08:38,640 --> 01:08:42,399 interests me as well anyway, So I definitely wanted to the culture Ster tour 856 01:08:42,520 --> 01:08:45,239 that you do the inside of the castles or do you That's that's part of 857 01:08:45,239 --> 01:08:49,319 one of my roles that I do some casual work for the council and on 858 01:08:49,359 --> 01:08:54,479 a rotor basis, I do tours within the castle. But however, there's 859 01:08:54,720 --> 01:08:59,359 there's about twenty other reps that do that if you're interested in actually going to 860 01:08:59,439 --> 01:09:02,079 the castle. For the castle, it's basically you have to pay a charge 861 01:09:02,359 --> 01:09:06,000 to go into the museum, which I urge you to do there's some absolutely 862 01:09:06,000 --> 01:09:11,880 wonderful treasures. They're covering the through two thousand year history of culture and really 863 01:09:11,960 --> 01:09:16,560 of our existence in Britain. But also for an extra small charge, you 864 01:09:16,680 --> 01:09:23,760 get to go down into the depths through really time traveling down from the twelve 865 01:09:23,840 --> 01:09:29,640 hundred year old castle above down to the two thousand year old very foundations of 866 01:09:29,720 --> 01:09:32,720 the very first building, with a great tour up there, and then take 867 01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:40,760 you up through the the King John Stairs, the largest stairs in any castle 868 01:09:40,800 --> 01:09:43,760 in Britain, all the way to the parapets, where when you're on the 869 01:09:43,760 --> 01:09:49,520 top looking down you recognize really how powerful a statement the castle is. Yeah. 870 01:09:49,760 --> 01:09:55,199 Yeah, I've definitely got to do that and I will be doing it 871 01:09:55,199 --> 01:09:58,119 pretty soon. Well, Roy, thank you very much for coming on the 872 01:09:58,119 --> 01:10:00,039 show. He's been fantastic talking to you again and seeing you because I could 873 01:10:00,079 --> 01:10:05,680 see you on on my screen. Unfortunately audio listeners cult see you, but 874 01:10:05,680 --> 01:10:09,279 but we wo this will be a separate show as well. We can put 875 01:10:09,319 --> 01:10:12,720 it out on Facebook. So but as I say, well, I will 876 01:10:12,760 --> 01:10:15,920 be seeing you again and it's been great attention to you. Yeah, that's 877 01:10:15,960 --> 01:10:17,600 been great to see you again. I look forward to see you on the 878 01:10:18,000 --> 01:10:20,239 on my other tu, Well, I've got I've got your phone number, 879 01:10:20,279 --> 01:10:24,000 you've got my wind and all that. I'll be sending you an invite anyway 880 01:10:24,039 --> 01:10:27,159 for it to come on the you can become on the normal spur of the 881 01:10:27,359 --> 01:10:31,399 new that will be brilliant. Thank you. I'd appreciate that. So listen, 882 01:10:31,399 --> 01:10:35,159 thanks for your thanks for having me on their Paranormal Donations. It's been 883 01:10:35,159 --> 01:10:40,520 great. I hope you found it interesting. I hope you're absolutely absolutely yeah, 884 01:10:40,640 --> 01:10:45,840 no, come along to Coulta. And that's for everybody out there. 885 01:10:45,880 --> 01:10:47,359 If you're coming to Britain, come to you six and come to Colchester. 886 01:10:47,760 --> 01:10:51,479 Absolutely you won't be disappointed anyway, It definitely will. I could agree with 887 01:10:51,520 --> 01:10:55,399 you there. That's right. Okay, let you go there. Thank you 888 01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:58,319 great, it's been great talking to you. You might go. You go, 889 01:10:58,399 --> 01:11:03,199 Thank you boy, Thank you. Ray really enjoyed that and I will 890 01:11:03,239 --> 01:11:08,920 be seeing you again soon. Okay, right, my next guest. I 891 01:11:09,000 --> 01:11:13,000 did mention it a couple of shows ago that Spirous Malaris is coming back onto 892 01:11:13,039 --> 01:11:16,840 the show, and that show will be on Monday, September fourth. I 893 01:11:16,920 --> 01:11:19,640 think you'll find it's going to be a bit of an epic. There's a 894 01:11:19,680 --> 01:11:23,800 lot of things have happened since the last time Spiritus was on the show, 895 01:11:24,600 --> 01:11:27,760 so I hope you'll make the date for that one. If you don't know 896 01:11:27,800 --> 01:11:32,600 who Spirous is, he's the man who produced the alien autopsy from nineteen ninety 897 01:11:32,600 --> 01:11:35,800 five when it was going around the world and everyone was asking whether it was 898 01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:40,119 a real thing or not, and people still are believe it or not. 899 01:11:40,840 --> 01:11:45,079 So that Spiritus Malaris on Monday September to fourth. Now in between now and 900 01:11:45,119 --> 01:11:47,800 then, if you'd like to get in touch with me my email address, 901 01:11:47,840 --> 01:11:54,079 he's David Young two q N at yahoo dot co dot uk. That's David 902 01:11:54,199 --> 01:11:59,319 Young two q N at Yahoo dot co dot uk. Now, if you're 903 01:11:59,359 --> 01:12:02,159 going to be in Chester this coming weekend for Awakening, I'll see you there. 904 01:12:02,520 --> 01:12:05,520 Please please come and say hello if you see me. That's Awakening in 905 01:12:05,600 --> 01:12:10,479 Manchester from the twenty fifth to the twenty seventh. So I hope you'll join 906 01:12:10,560 --> 01:12:15,359 me for Spirous Beloris on the next show, that's Monday September fourth. I 907 01:12:15,399 --> 01:12:18,039 think you'll find it will be an amazing show, going to be definitely interesting. 908 01:12:18,159 --> 01:12:20,960 It's something you don't want to miss. Who was that? Have we 909 01:12:21,079 --> 01:12:24,960 got a coast in the place I'll need to go on your bestigate and I'll 910 01:12:24,960 --> 01:12:35,359 speak to you next time. Take care of your bum Bye bye, Spooky 911 01:12:35,399 --> 01:13:38,520 Anne. Paranormal Dimensions is fortnightly on Mondays on the Paranormal UK Radio Network