4. The Unhappy Spooks and A Look at Grim Life at Ripon Workhouse
Listen to the Ripon Workhouse Episode
Show Notes for Episode 4
Overview of Our Visit to Ripon Workhouse
In Episode 4 of the Scaredy Cat Skeptic Podcast, Scaredy Cat’s good friend takes her up the A61… to Ripon Workhouse. Where they discuss life, the universe and everything in between. As well as jump out of their skins several times at inanimate objects.
Photos from the Ripon Workhouse Ghost Hunt
Full Gallery from Ripon Workhouse
In this POdcast, we mentioned...
Emily Dewsnap, Scaredy Cat Skeptic Host
Emily Dewsnap is the host of the Scaredy Cat Skeptic podcast. She is a militant sceptic, despite growing up in a haunted house. This fascination with the occult has been a lifelong obsession... but that could just be the goth in her. Emily is also an artist by day, and drew Scaredy Cat mascot, Maud, up into the current form she takes today.
Tom Bramall, Character Artist
Tom Bramall is the character artist behind the Scaredy Cat Skeptic mascot character, Maud. He is also the reason we got in trouble with the ghost of a stern old lady when investigating Temple Newsam. Tom has spent the last six months listening to Scaredy Cat ramble about ghosts, so he deserves a heartfelt thanks.
Stephen Rodriguez, Fellow Sceptic
Stephen is a Starbucks addict and has a hand in keeping the NHS running, so I guess you could call him a superhero. Stephen is also the first guest to actually speak on the podcast. We discussed all kinds of things, from if ghosts exist and what they could be to what we think happens after we die.
Transcript - Episode 4: Ripon Workhouse
Hello, spooky bitches. Here we are at Episode 4 of the Scaredy Cat Skeptic Podcast and we’ve loved every minute of it. I’m Emily Dewsnap. Cynic, questioner and perpetual chicken. This month we have a guest for you. My friend Stephen took me up the A61 (ooh-err) to Ripon Workhouse, where it’s said the Phantoms of the damned are doomed to spend their existence in a poor house. Gliding mystery around their forever home.
On top of that, Ste and I got into a debate about what it is to die and what on earth ghosts might actually be. So we’ve got a bit of different content for you this episode.
A Potted History of Ripon Workhouse (00:00:46:16 - 00:01:07:03)
But first, as always, you’ll need a bit of background info on what workhouses in general are, and Ripon Workhouse in particular.
So, Ripon Workhouse was one of a series of buildings that was opened in the UK in a bid to assist the poor and hungry in finding food, shelter and work. In itself, it was supposed to offer succour to those in need that wanted and asked for help. As opposed to those damn outcasts that dirtied the streets and fell about drinking gin all the time, and not giving a damn. Hello, glorious ancestors! Them’s my people.
The first workhouses date back to 1388 when the Statute of Cambridge was introduced. It was designed to address the labour shortages that had been caused by a global pandemic: The Black Death. Starting in 1347, The Black Death, also known as the pestilence or the great mortality, swept the globe, wiping out people left, right and centre. And 677 years later, we’ve learned fucking nothing.
The Black Death Raged until 1353, because poor people have been treated like shit and made to do horrendous jobs for very little remuneration since the dawn of time. Working people did all the crap that allowed the rich to live in luxury while struggling to make ends meet, getting ill all the time and dying young. So, while the rich did contract the illness too, it was nowhere near at the same rate as those of the workers that were on the front line, keeping the economy afloat. Again – we’ve learned fucking nothing!
The Statute of Cambridge and the Workhouses
The Statute of Cambridge fixed the wages of labour and restricted their movements. It became illegal for labourers to leave their parishes in search of work, because if they sought out higher paying jobs in other areas, the wages would rise all over the country. This wouldn’t do. Because the rich didn’t want to give up any of their luxuries. So they arrested any poor people who dared to leave the parish they were born into. It’s like The Prisoner, but grimmer. I like a current reference.
In 1601, the act for the relief of the poor was passed. It made parishes legally responsible for those who lived within their boundary walls who were unable to work. Those too ill and/or too old. Kind of like a prison system/retirement home. It was proposed that the able bodied poor be offered work in a house of correction, which was kind of an early version of the workhouses. In these places, the persistent idler would be put to work as punishment for being poor.
The act also put forward that it might be a good idea to construct actual housing for the ill, disabled or poor. The first official workhouse was referenced in 1631 when the mayor of Abingdon announced:
[Cue terrible Queen’s English accent] We have erected within our borough a workhouse to set poor people to work!
That’s as posh as I get, folks.
This system expanded to other parts of the UK. Over time that included the north of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Although they were generally referred to as poor houses by the Scots.
Ripon Workhouse Was a Cruel Mistress (00:05:17:00 - 00:05:23:12)
There has been a workhouse on this particular site in Ripon since 1766. The workhouses in Yorkshire were strict places, and none more so than Ripon. Those travelling from Leeds, Durham or further afield were either turned away or subjected to a gruelling interview, after which they may not be accepted into the workhouse, and were subsequently turned away.
If their application for help was denied, they would be cast back onto the street and have to make their way back to their home parish on foot. Just for context, Leeds, the mothership of Scaredy Cat Skeptic, is 40 miles from Ripon. Imagine being half starved, clad in worn clothing and wearing shoes that were falling apart. Or no shoes at all. And having to walk 40 miles. In the north of the UK. Generally speaking, it’s very cold.
However, if those seeking help were accepted into the workhouse, they were mildly tortured before being granted access. Firstly, they were stripped naked and doused in freezing cold water. Their clothes were confiscated and their heads shaved. Whether you were a man or a woman, you got your head shaved.
They were given clothes made of incredibly rough hemp or linen that rubbed when they moved. Imagine the chafing! Ooh, the nipples. They would then be given a hard bed in a tiny cell which was locked at night.
A Day in the Life of Ripon Workhouse 00:05:17:00 - 00:05:23:12
A typical day in the life of a workhouse dweller went as follows:
6 a.m. – Wake up, wash in freezing water. Dress in rough linen and then attend rollcall.
6:30 a.m. – Prayers followed by breakfast, which was eaten in complete silence. Breakfast would usually consist of gruel, which was a thin watery porridge with no trimmings. So oats made with water, basically.
Exercise in the yard was at 7:17 a.m. very specific time. Every other time is on the hour… the half hour… at least rounded up to within 10 minutes. For some reason, the exercise was 7:17. No idea why. So you’d be exercising in the yard and the clothes that you would be working in for the rest of the day. And regardless of what the weather was doing.
8 a.m. – Work for temporary dwellers and vagrants would usually entail breaking up rocks, which is absolutely backbreaking work.
11 a.m. – Prayers
12p.m. – midday lunch, which was again eaten in silence. Men and women would be separated at all times. And if you were caught even so much as glancing a member of the opposite sex, you would be cast out onto the street. This was not a place of leisure.
12:30 p.m. – Exercise in the yard.
2 p.m. – More work for the adults. But this time the children were let off and sent to the schoolroom, where they would have planks shoved down their backs to make them sit up straighter. They would have what essentially looks like knuckle dusters strapped to their left hand if they just dared to be left handed. And if they slouched while they walked, they would have a different type of plank stuck to the back of them. And that’s before you even take into consideration the fact that teachers would have thrown big wooden board rubbers at them.
4 p.m. – Prayers and Religious Instruction.
4:40 p.m. – More work.
6 p.m. – Supper, which was of course… in silence. Lunch and supper would generally consist of vegetables that had been grown in the vegetable patch in the workhouse garden. So parsnips, cabbages, potatoes, that kind of thing. There was usually a hunk of bread which had been cut with chalk to make it go further and a couple of ounces of cheese.
There was also a cup of cocoa around this time and I was really surprised to read that there was a ration of alcohol too. But I guess this is England after all. I’m assuming it would have been small beer, but I couldn’t see the measurement of what it was or anything like that. It just said alcohol.
6:30 p.m. Religious Service.
9 p.m. – Bed. I mean, 9 hours of sleep would be a fucking blessing right now, let me tell you. But I feel like those conditions – no heating. In cold cells. In hard beds with no chance of ever getting out of that cycle. Or very rarely getting out of that cycle. Just a depressing place. So it’s no wonder. It’s no wonder that people feel that it’s haunted.
In fairness to the workhouses and the workhouse system, they thought of themselves as places where people could eat and work and learn a trade. So they could be released and maybe stand on their own two feet rather than begging until they died. Yes, it was grim, but there was some good intent, I guess.
Children would be taught to read and write, which would give them a better start in life. If they were older children, they’d be apprenticed to someone who knew a trade and the adults would be set back on their feet with a view to sending them back out into the world. And that did happen. Quite often people would end up back in the workhouses because it’s a deeper thing, the trade in the system and not the cause of the poorness of people and the homeless situation
What is Ripon Workhouse Like Today? (00:08:52:08 - 00:08:55:18)
So what is Ripon Workhouse like? From the road, Ripon Workhouse doesn’t look so big. It’s a kind of friendly looking building. It’s red brick and it’s got these two arches either side of the door (it actually doesn’t – that’s the main house at the back – oops). It has a friendly feel. It’s a bit like a school. And we were greeted by a very funny lady on reception who, when asked about the ghosts, sniffed and said: “I don’t hold with any of that nonsense.” She was absolutely charming, and if I could have put her in my pocket, I would have taken her home.
After that, we went into the main entrance area and we were given quite the history of the place by an absolutely lovely woman. She went into the ins and outs of what the workhouse would have been like back in the day. When I asked her about ghosts, though, she was very quick to say that Ripon Workhouse wasn’t actually haunted that nearly ended the episode there and then. But we persisted.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Unperturbed, we decided to investigate anyway. If it’s good enough for Most Haunted, it’s good enough for us. There are two sections to Ripon Workhouse. There’s a very worn stone staircase leading up to a waiting area where the poor down and out sort of waited on tenterhooks to be seen by the workhouse guardians.
After several hours they would be called into the guardian’s room, which would have seemed very grim to them. You have to remember these people have absolutely nothing. No money, no home, no job… no way out of the quandary of their destitution. So they would be waiting in this tiny little waiting room with a very small fire. Eventually they’d be called in to stand in front of these intimidating looking people and plead their case as to why they felt they were worthy of help.
It’s pretty dehumanising, really. Doesn’t everyone deserve help?
The Vagrants’ Quarters at Ripon Workhouse
Downstairs, there were more temporary lodgings consisting of very tiny stone cells with small high windows. These branched out from a long corridor with what can only be described as an instrument of torture at the end. It transpired that this was a chair for those who had fits and seizures and others who needed restraining.
The seat was worn and although clean now, had obviously been soiled many times. There was a belt attached to a pole at the back where these people would have had their heads strapped in. You have to remember as well, this was a time when people believed that epileptics were possessed by demons.
So as well as protecting the ill person in question, there was probably also an element of protection for the guards as well. But what a brutal thing to do to a person. There was a lovely kitchen with a big clock that the workers probably wouldn’t have had access to. There would have been some very specific people who were allowed in there to cook for the rest of the workhouse.
It had a big clock that chimed really loudly and echoed around the whole building. And there was a panel of buttons that Stephen let me touch. So now I’ll never know what they do. Cheers Stephen.
Why Can’t I Have a Hearse?
After this, we walked around the mortuary, which is actually rather peaceful, and then we went into the big house through the front garden.
The grounds at Ripon Workhouse are small, but you know me by now – I like a quaint little garden. The front gardens have wildflowers growing on either side of a manicured lawn. It was such a lovely warm day as well. And it was just a lovely place to be, really. Inside were two very grand rooms, with antiques and old fashioned furniture.
There was a very creepy clock in there, reminiscent of the grandfather clock in Stranger Things. And then there was a large hall with a modern art exhibition representing the labels that would have been applied to the people who lived there, including “hysteric,” which is when I chose to explain to anyone who wanted to listen that the vibrator was originally invented as a cure for hysteria.
Funnily enough, I’m sure a few women came forward after this invention to say that they felt that they were suddenly feeling a touch of hysteria coming on.
Paddles Not for Spanking
We spent some time in the school room pondering some kinky looking equipment before The most fascinating man I’ve ever met came into the room and demonstrated what these items actually were. None of them were paddles for spanking.
His name was Alex. He hails from Liverpool and he worked with the Beatles. The Four Tops and Michael Jackson. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He knew Michael Jackson so well. He just called him Jackson.
What a cracking gent! He was in his eighties, but he seemed pretty sprightly, despite having nearly been seen off by COVID. If you do make it to Ripon Workhouse at any point, do see if you can find him and ask him how he ended up in Leeds, because that’s how I ended up hearing his life story. And I don’t regret it. Not even a tiny bit. He’ll also strap you into all kinds of pedals and boards and explain that none of them are for spanking.
Creepy Ripon Workhouse Nursery
There was also a small room that looked like a nursery with books and stories, and there’s some interactive activities for children.
Scaredy Cat [SC]: Oh, don’t like Oh no. Oh they’re everywhere. No!
Stephen: Dolls? Yeah, that’s freaky… Jane dies of tuberculosis at age of 26. What a lovely story. Oh, right. Jane’s got a story and yeah they shed her head.
SC: She looks like the doll from…
Stephen: She looks like that doll right there!
SC: She looks like…. What’s it called? Toy Story
[laughter]
Stephen: Yeah. Bless. Poor Jane.
The Ghosts of Ripon Workhouse 00:18:55:15 - 00:18:58:18
So the hauntings at Ripon Workhouse. As you can imagine, life in the workhouse was not all sunshine and lollipops. Quite the opposite, in fact.
There was much discontent. And not everybody followed the rules. So there were murders and there were suicides.
So it’s no surprise that the rumours of ghostly sightings are plentiful. Since the workhouse closed its doors to the poor and reopened as a museum. There have been many ghost sightings, many. Four of the apparitions at Ripon Workhouse have been named as Nora, Bernard, Robert and Stan. Of the four, only Stan is particularly active. You can hear him swearing away in the nurses’ room on dark nights.
As well as this foul mouth fiend, there have been reports of banging throughout the building. This includes the sound of knocking that came from inside a closed coffin. When they opened it, it was empty. And knocking was also heard from the cell walls where the vagrants would have slept.
There was also, in the Vagrants Quarter, the sound of a clawed animal running around on the tile floor in the cells. People also reported seeing shadows cast on the wall, as well as a strange sense of being watched and followed around the building. We’ve heard about spirits attaching themselves to people before in the bowling hall episode, so I was very conscious that I didn’t want to bring something that I don’t believe in home.
Most Haunted at Ripon Workhouse
So, because this is a longer episode in general, because Stephen and I had several conversations that I really, really feel are important and should be on the podcast. Or relevant and should be on the podcast. I’m just going to tell you what happened when Most Haunted visited Ripon and you can go away and find the video for yourselves.
So when the TV program Most Haunted visited Ripon Workhouse, they found it incredibly active. I mean, don’t they always? It wouldn’t be much of a show without ghostly activity. I’m sure they’ve had moments of having to fake things. Because what Most Haunted do is try to prove the existence of ghosts rather than me, which is the opposite of trying to prove that they don’t exist. Even though we keep seeing things. Typical!
Firstly they visited the cellars for vagrants, which is where the dog has been seen and heard, and when the knocking happens. It’s right next to the mortuary or where they have the mortuary now. They began to ask questions.
They explained that the answer could be tapped out with one tap for yes and two taps for no. Host of Most Haunted, Yvette Fielding, asked if there were any spirits and received one tap for Yes. And then she began asking questions. And for every single question, she did receive one tap or two. Eventually, she began holding up fingers and the mysterious tapping accurately described the number of fingers that she was holding up.
Towards the end of their time, in the cells, a deep growling noise could be heard that sounded a lot like a wild animal And the same sound was later heard in the receiving ward. Funnily enough, all the ghosts encountered were exactly the same as those that had been reported by previous visitors and workhouse visitor assistants.
Hey, I would not be scaredy cat if I wasn’t sceptical, right?
A Ouija Board and a Missing Planchette
I’m very sceptical of Most Haunted. They set off a furore over a particular episode that turned out to be faked. So I am going to see them next year with the wonderful Barry Dodds. But I do take everything they do with a pinch of salt.
The team also reported finding objects on the floor of the receiving room as if they had been thrown to the ground by an unseen force. Some bars of soap had also been moved and some other items.
At one point, the team got out a Ouija board. I’m not sure why they chose not to use a planchette, but they decided to use their fingers to point to the letters and ask the spirit to tap and stop them when they reached the letters that spelled out its name. Taps were indeed heard, and the Spirit obliged them by providing the name Henry Lupton. The team looked up the name in the register of former inmates and found that Henry Lupton was listed as a five year old boy who was a scholar, which basically meant he was in school at the time and not a child prodigy.
Did We See the Ghosts of Ripon Workhouse? 00:22:58:23 - 00:23:07:19
So did we see the ghosts of Ripon Workhouse or experience anything spooky? Sadly, guys, not a peep. Nothing this time other than a strange feeling, actually.
I’m going to play you the conversation I had with Stephen about this room and the waiting room where people would be waiting. Stephen had a bit of an experience in there. So here you go.
Stephen Gets All Tingly in the Head
SC: So apparently, she said, this is where they’d come to wait to see if they’d got a place or not. And if they didn’t they’d have to walk back to Leeds.
Ste: Ah… oof
SC: That’s a trek innit!
Ste: Yeah. Heavy feeling in this room.
SC: Yeah. Yeah. Bit breathless, but it might just be the… stairs. Yeah, strange feeling.
Ste: Just a heavy. All I can say is it’s a heavy feeling. They had charging points, at least. So while they were waiting…
SC: Charge their iPhones?
Ste: Charge their iPhones while they’re waiting to be accepted… Do not enter with wet coats, hats or bonnets. Take them downstairs and put them on the peg provided.
SC: You best take your bonnet off.
Ste: Yeah, I better take it off.
SC: Phew… it sounds grim. If this is your best option.
Ste: I’ve got a weird feeling in my head. Like… pins and needlesy.
SC: Oh, really?
Ste: Honest to God.
SC: I can kind of feel like something like…
Ste: Are you just priming me. Is this a prime? Just priming me. We go to a haunted place, right? I have to prime myself. I’m going to feel haunted.
SC: No, I’m supposed to be disproving ghosts.
The Prison and Police Museum
I did ask the visitor assistant about ghosts, and she said that actually Ripon Workhouse itself has never felt active to her. She is quite tuned in to that kind of activity and said that she just felt nothing.
However, she has been asked to fill in at the old police station and refuses to go there. She said it has a horrible feeling to it that fills Her with dread every time she so much as went anywhere near the building. So maybe one day we’ll go there. But that wasn’t on my radar when we went to Ripon.
So the recordings from Ripon Workhouse were quite echoey because of the way the rooms were laid out. And the visitor assistant had a very soft voice. But I still think that the audio is clearer than from the lady story from Bolling Hall, so I’m going to play it.
Asking the Visitor Assistant About the Ghosts at Ripon Workhouse
Visitor Assistant [VA]: And if you got questions coming up then I’m here. Any questions. Just give me a shout.
SC: I do have a questions, but you’re probably sick of answering them.
VA: No, no, no…
SC: It’s about the ghosts.
VA: Ghosts in here?
VA: There aren’t any.
SC: Oh no. Goddamn it.
VA: I don’t think… I mean, I do The ghost walks.
SC: Oh do you?
VA: Yeah. And I don’t think I haven’t picked up anything in here.
SC: Interesting.
VA: Now, I would not say that if I was on my own 2 o’clock in the morning. It’s pitch black. Because goodness knows any building. And, you know, for me I think buildings soak up atmosphere.
SC: Yeah, you get feelings.
VA: You get feelings and I’m actually quite sensitive to that kind of stuff and I’ve not picked up anything here. Police and prison museum, for me, is different story. I will not go in that building on my own.
SC: Oh, ok.
VA: I will not. And there’s a particular place and I won’t tell you because I don’t want to wreck it. But it’s a particular place in there. First time I ever went in was when I came from my interview for here. And I’d been in here as a tourist. And I just said to them, can I go and look around the others. The courthouse and they were like “Yeah yeah yeah, go and have a look round.”
And I went in there and said to the chap on the desk what I was doing. Walked to wherever I was in the building and there was a particular place and my heart just went BANG. And it was like “Oh God!” And it was just sheer fear. And I looked around and I went back and talked to the chap on the desk and he said to me: “Oh yeah, he says. I’m sometimes on my own, he says. I hear his footsteps and doors banging. It doesn’t bother me.”
SC: Oh I’d be right out of there. And I’m sceptical, but I’m just like, no, no, no.
VA: Well, I’ve been in there a couple of times and in the exact same place. And people have said to me: “Oh, I bet it was such and such a place wasn’t it?.” And it wasn’t actually. So I don’t know what it is but it’s a physical reaction.
So when I do the ghost tours, I always used to tell that story down by the Police and Prison Museum.
If you come in here, they do talk about a poor woman who strangled herself on the stairs.
SC: Oh, yes, the lady on reception mentioned, yeah.
VA: Yeah. Yeah. And she tied a scarf around her neck and to the top of the stairs and then let herself drop. But there wasn’t a drop (sorry!) It’s the drop that breaks your neck, where as sliding downstairs, it was… there wasn’t enough drop and she was strangled to death. So we know that that’s true.
So the ghost people make a big deal of that. We do have ghost thingies, paranormal events.
SC: Yeah, I saw that, but I like to come in the day, because you see things at night and I think everyone sort of builds each other up, and yeah… I’m trying not to… I’m trying to avoid like gimmicky things and… yeah.
VC: No, I showed some people round who’d been o a paranormal event. And they were telling me what had gone on and where it was and how it had happened. And it was all pitched dark and all they had was one candle, between a dozen of them.
SC: Well, you’re going to start seeing stuff, aren’t you?
VC: Yeah, course you are. Course you are. But I mean, to me, as I say, I, I’ve never been I’ve never been in here when it’s been pitch dark and I wouldn’t mind coming in when they’re doing the paranormal just to see what goes on, really.
Stephen’s a Strange Experience
So I think as you can hear, Stephen had actually left the room when the visitor assistant was saying that you have to imagine just the immense pressure of waiting to find out if you’ve got a place in a workhouse. Which in itself was a horrible thing. But it is better than being on the streets. And she was talking about the waiting room and she said: “It’s got a strange heaviness to it.”
And when we went in there (bearing in mind Stephen hadn’t been there when she’d said that – he’d gone to the toilet) he said the exact same thing. He said: “There’s a weird pressure here. There’s a weird pressure on my head.” So that was that was a bit strange.
The Guardians’ Room
Then we went into the Guardian’s room.
Ste: That’s what I just did downstairs. Applying for relief… Phwoar – look at that! Jesus! that is a haunting stare.
SC: That is very clear. It’s all a little bit fuzzy, but then you’ve just got these guys eyes!
Ste: Yes, she’s haunting. She’s absolutely haunting. I’m not getting as weird a vibe in this room.
SC: No.
Ste: Don’t know why, it reminds me of school.
SC: I’ve got a funny feeling in my stomach. Like a nervous feeling, but I guess this is where they’re coming to hear whether they got in or not. So I guess it’s just association. Or it might just be that sausage I smashed earlier.
Ste: Probably the sausage. Yeah, this is the Guardians’ Room. Guardians of the galaxy.
SC: Oh no, it’s X-Men. I was about to say: “Oh, it’s on my T-shirt.”
Ste: Yeah, yeah. You’ve got an X-Men T-shirt. Wolverine… Wolverine… just just. Just to give the listener… listeners kind of, like, an idea, you’re wearing an X-Men T-shirt with Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast and Storm. And Wolverine looks particularly angry.
SC: I’ve really made an effort to today.
Ste: You have made… a proper effort!
SC: It’s a ripped T-shirt.
Ste: It’s a ripped T-shirt. It’s the perfect outfit to go, like, ghost hunting.
SC: I’m so tired.
Ste: She’s yeah, and she’s extremely tired as well.
SC: You’re not getting a ghosty vibe in here?
Ste: Errr… I’m getting an old wood vibe.
SC: Lot of creaking.
Ste: Lot of creaking. I’m just going to do something [footsteps]. Oh yeah, as soon as you walk in. There’s like that feeling. A weight in your head. Like a weighted feeling. Like this is where they waited. Yeah, this is where they waited.
SC: Yeah. Probably scared out of their wits…
Ste: A heavy feeling. Heavy feeling.
SC: You’ve been called here to meet the Guardians. Yeah. It’s ruined now you’ve said Guardians of the Galaxy.
Ste: Yeah, I’ve just ruined it. You’re just expecting Rocket to walk in. “What are you guys doing?”
Vagrants’ Cells Were Particularly Creepy
I felt quite strange in the Vagrants’ cell, honestly. I honestly don’t think it was helped by the fact that the old ticking clock that I was talking about that was in the next room… And at a time that wasn’t on the hour, the damn thing started bonging and I jumped out of my skin. We both did, actually.
SC: Oh! Ohhh… for fuck’s sake.
Ste: Oh! That’s just… that is like… excuse me! Hello!
SC: You can’t sleep in here!
Ste: Ah Jesus. Ah God damnit.
SC: I dated a guy from Harrogate who’d been homeless. Like 16 years before.
Ste: I thought you were going to say you dated a guy in Harrogate who used to break rocks. OK, that’s wrong! Why is it going off? It’s like 11:10.
SC: And what’s going off? Oh, it’s the clock on the wall.
Ste: Yeah, it’s the clock on the wall. I’m going to investigate.
SC: I’m coming with you… Oh that shat me up a little bit.
Ste: Yeah, the clock’s wrong. It’s saying its… I dunno… it’s not even lining up with the ten properly. Did you appreciate how visceral I went then? I’m going to investigate.
SC: Yeah, I’m liking this.
Ste: There could have been a ghost there with a bat or something.
SC: They do often carry clubs and things like that. Smack you over the head with them.
Ste: Yeah, I’ve seen loads of Scooby Doo.
The Epilepsy Chair at Ripon Workhouse
Looking back, I think that maybe we were both jumpy in there because it’s a long, thin corridor. With creepy, whitewashed stone cells coming off it. And I’ve already talked about how human beings are more likely to have spooky experiences in long, thin rooms because we can easily be cornered and it puts us on edge. Our ancient lizard brains raise their stoopid heads once more.
There was also the torture chair at the end, and it looked like something from a horror film. It reminds me of Session nine. That’s a great film if you haven’t seen it, by the way. Add it to your list.
But I’ll just play some of the audio from that from when we were talking about the chair.
SC: What the fuck is that? Look at the state of that!
Ste: Eww, that’s awful.
SC: Restraining chair. Oh, my God!
Ste: A restraining chair.
SC: This. I’m not liking this. Oh, fuck! It’s… It’s just a fucking sheet.
Ste: What?
SC: In there. It was… the wind was blowing that sheet on the table in there.
Ste: Oh lord. Oh I did the thing with the bloody sheet now. Yes, it’s moving and it’s scary. The chair is… here. There’s something coming off that.
SC: Yeah, I…
Ste: There’s something coming off that.
SC: I saw it from up there. That’s when I said: “What the fuck is that?”
Ste: There’s something coming off that. Like… bad juju.
SC: Yeah, it’s making… I don’t like it. Ugh.
Ste: The thing is, I don’t believe in, like, ghosts, Like…
SC: I don’t think they’re dead people.
Ste: I don’t think they’re dead people. But I think there’s a lot of types of energy that we don’t know how to record. There’s dark matter. Nobody knows what dark matter is, but it takes up a massive percentage of the universe.
Here’s the thing, right – nobody knows. Anybody that says they do know, no, I’m sorry, that’s just your ego. You don’t know. Nobody knows 100%. You’ll only know when you die. Yeah, just, that’s the sad fact that nobody knows. We all want to be in control. We all want to have some semblance of control. At the end of the day, nobody really, truly knows what happens when we die.
And belief. There’s a film called Dogma, and there’s a massive line in that film that was Chris Rock’s character said: “Belief that’s the problem. That word is a heavy heavy word. And it’s like an idea. You can change an idea, but belief is… you’re stuck with it. And I think I’m very much of… I don’t believe in one thing about ghosts or another, but I’ve got an idea. And my idea is like it’s just energy. I think it’s just like something traumatic happens, and that energy kind of gets recorded for lack of a better word in like an environment, or a room. That’s why you get haunted rooms, but you don’t get haunted parks.
SC: Yeah, yeah.
Ste: You know and… that energy. Like that chair, like, you know for a fact…
SC: I could feel that.
Ste: Bad shit happened in that chair. Dating back to what it was used for. You can just feel it. And that kind of shit just… yeah, it just gets recorded. And I think when people see things, or things happen, it’s kind of like something happens to activate that recording. Like the same kind of feeling activates that recording. Or something. I don’t know.
SC: Like an imprint?
Ste: Like an imprint.
SC: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I kind of feel the same way. Although I have this thing about death where… in my head. I can’t imagine it being different from before I was born. So nothing. That’s all I get. Yeah. And that’s terrifying somehow.
Ste: And we said, death. And we come out to see a coffin. That’s fantastic. You can’t. You really could not just time that. It’s a lovely coffin.
SC: My mum said to me the other day, if you could get your own car, what kind of car would you want? And I was like: “Honestly, Mom, a hearse.” Because I can get canvases in that. And she was like: “You can’t have a hearse.” And I was like: “Why not?!”
Ste: People would have to slow down for you, then.
SC: Yeah, nobody could, like, drive up my arse.
Ste: Who overtakes a hearse? God, that is just like bad karma right there.
SC: For some reason, there’s always like a build up of traffic right behind me.
So, no, sadly, no, none of your actual ghosts, just some strange heavy feelings. And that’s understandable. Bearing in mind the unhappiness that people would have felt while they lived there. We saw some exceptionally creepy photographs, which I’m going to post into the shownotes, which will be on the website as usual. And I’ve been through them and I can’t see anything that looks spooky. Nothing like the stairwell from Bolling Hall. Nothing like the lights from Temple Newsome.
Nothing like that.
Scaredy Cat skeptic Ratings for Temple Newsam House
So I’ll give you my ratings for Ripon Workhouse .
Potential ghosts seen by Scaredy Cat
Sad face. I love how I’m getting into it now. I started with a view to disproving the existence of ghosts, but this has been an eye opening experience. Honestly, it’s made me reassess how I approach things. Although, sadly, not this episode. Well, you can’t win them all.
Total
0
Scare Factor
Scare factor one out of ten. The vagrant cells were creepy, but it was just the epilepsy causing havoc.
Rating
Value for Money
Value for money. Six out of ten. It’s £9 to see the workhouse. It’s not enormous, but I appreciate that they have to look after the place. And the visitor assistants are very knowledgeable and there’s lots to see and do,
Rating
Family Friendliness
great for kids, I’d say, and it’s interactive in places, which is always a good sign for curious families.
Rating
Accessibility
There seem to be more left in this building, and the staff were just so warm and helpful that I can only imagine they’d be willing to help with anything you could need.
Rating
Time Spent
Three hours.
Time spent 3 hours for house and garden. Ripon is also very, very pretty. There’s plenty of parking on this. There are plenty of places to eat. There’s one of the best fish and chip shops in Yorkshire, and there’s great burgers at So!
Total
3
Beauty Spot
The house is pretty and the town is very pretty. It’s not sweeping countryside. you could walk out into the countryside and go for a walk for sure. But it is definitely a bloody place. The gardens were lovely and I bloody love a vegetable patch.
Rating
Customer Service
The staff were so good and so fascinating. When we were leaving, the first visitor assistant told us I would go to eight and it was all very much fun. Ripon Workhouse also runs ghost hunts. So if anyone has been on one of these and had spooky experiences, let us know. We’d love to hear from you.
Rating
Listener Stories
I know the this is the part where I normally do a couple of listener stories. and I do have a listener story for you, but it is quite short. And normally I would say the listener stories for me are my favourite part. But because we spend such a long time discussing things, we’ve run out of time, really.
I Lied - I have Two Listener Stories Incoming
Spooky Phonecalls
So I’m just going to do a really short one and it’s actually from Stephen. So Stephen binge-listened to all for episodes that were already out the minute, and that includes the Prologue. So obviously there’s like one, two, three and then before that there’s a Prologue.
And things that stuck in his head were the synchronicity from Bolling Hall and the haunted iPhone really got to him as well. There was also the Christmas story from Aberdeen. And the Haunted House in Kent.
And he rang me earlier right before I recorded it and said this:
That he had been listening to the podcast about the iPhone and the synchronicity, and it made him feel really strange, but he thought nothing of it. And then later on in the day, he got a phone call from a random number.
And normally he doesn’t answer, but he answered. And there was an old guy on the other end of the line saying that he’d had a missed call from Stephen’s number.
And Stephen said, No, I haven’t called you. Have you got this number from? And the old man insisted, you know, and kept asking him, have you tried to call me? And Stephen said, No, no. And then the call ended.
Later on, the same number rang him back and he didn’t answer, but the old man left a voice message and it was garbled nonsense. 12 minutes of garbled nonsense. And Stephen couldn’t figure out what he was saying.
The telephone number was a landline. When he searched for the telephone number, it came up with a place called Ashford, which is near Kent.
While not in and of itself too spooky, the fact that he got a phone call after listening to the podcast, it was from a random person who insisted that he’d been calling, and that it was from somewhere in Kent, which is where the big White Worm story came from, from our listener. Just all more synchronicities like from Bolling Hall.
So, yeah, that is our listener story for this week. And I’m sorry it’s so short.
Sorn Puddock
Actually, I tell a lie. I am going to give you just one more quick listener story, because we had another one that was very short. And I think we’ve got just enough time for that.
So I’ve had a message from Gina in Ayrshire. Nice part of the world. She says:
The night before my granny’s funeral in 1983 (great year. Year I was born), the family went out to alleviate some of the tension building up to laying granny to rest. We are in Ayrshire, in Scotland and we went to a local pub.
Having drunk a few cocktails, namely a Sorn Puddock, which is a bright green drink, we returned to granny’s bungalow. Sitting in the living room, the door flung itself open and granny’s familiar body odour wafted in.
The kitchen door opened and the kitchen light was switched on. Only my mum and I were in the room. No-one else. These doors were heavy, and certainly wouldn’t open by themselves.
I’ve made it a rule never to drink green cocktails ever again.
Well, actually, I tried to find the recipe for a sorn puddock and I couldn’t find it anywhere. So Gina, if you’re listening, if you could send me the recipe, I’d love to give it a go. Although, I have had some very similar experiences with absinthe, so yeah, I’m probably on your side with the not drinking the green cocktails.
But, yeah, that sounds absolutely terrifying. Thank you for sending that in.
SO Many Thanks!
If you have a story that you want to send us, please do send them. We’ve had some fairly long ones and that’s absolutely fine.
Sometimes, though, we will need some shorter stories just to fit in and around the rest of the podcast episode.
So do feel free just to send us your couple of sentence stories. That’s absolutely fine as well. I do really love having the listeners stories on and I think they really round off the podcast nicely, even if they’re not completely in keeping with the the place that we visited. So do please keep sending them in.
And again, like we say, it should wash out just some thanks and housekeeping. The show notes for this episode are as usual on the scaredy Cat skeptic website. ScaredyCatSkeptic.co.uk/scaredy-cat-skeptic-podcast. And there you’ll see a full list of episodes and credits. Thank you to everyone who has rated or reviewed the podcast so far.
It’s been a pleasure, honestly, to create this for your ears, and that’s why we do it. But a vast amount of work goes into every episode, so it’s always lovely to hear that people appreciate what you’re doing. If you haven’t yet, please do give us a five star rating on app on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every little helps. Do you have any ghost stories that you want to share with us, no matter how long, short, scary or silly, we want to hear it. Visit the website for more information. Scaredy Cat Skeptic Dakota UK and that skeptic with a K, there’s a contact us page for you to submit your stories. If you have a location you think we should visit again.
UK only just for now. So we start making millions so we can travel all over the world and find ghosts everywhere. Drop us a line. You can find us at Scaredy Cat Skeptic Dakota UK. And don’t forget that skeptic is about as cryptic for the international peeps. We’re also on all the socials we persist with X. Well, we’re on it for the time being, but I can’t say it’s our focal point for now.
And where on there it scared a skeptic. And. Instead. Tick tock, Facebook. YouTube. Unlinked. Scaredy cat skeptic.
I’m honestly thinking about sucking tick tock off because it genuinely scares me more than any ghost ever could.
Don’t forget to like and subscribe and all the good stuff and I look forward to sharing more spooky tales with you all. Hopefully will have even more spookiness next time. Huge. Thanks to Stephen Rodriguez, who spent ages talking to me about life, the universe and everything.
It was an absolute blast and I’m hoping he’ll come in another episode with me.
Special thank you to Tom Bramall for the concept art for our scaredy cat mascot mode.
Thank you also to Sammy McEwan for her insights into the spiritual side of things.
Thank you also to Sammy McEwan for her insights into the spiritual side of things.
The merch can be found on my business Redbubble account at Emily Dew Snap Redbubble JD.com. Please be aware that even though I’m Mark my mature content (i.e. my artistic nudes) as adult content, you may be able to see them or unhide them unintentionally. So just be careful if you if you’re looking with children. But yeah, well now you can get you can get pictures of the mascot mode. You can get pictures of the logo mode and you can get a spooky bitch t shirt.
Our music is by Damien tunes.
See you next time. Happy Hauntings.
Share Your Stories
Contact the Scaredy Cat Skeptic Podcast to be featured in an episode. We’d love to hear from you.
Share your tales of ghostly encounters and spooky adventures by sending us an email or filling in the Contact form below.
We want to know:-
What you saw
Where you saw it
What you think it was
Whether you believe in the supernatural
Why you do / don’t believe
Make sure to include as much information as possible and let us know whether you would be happy for us to use your name or not. We look forward to hearing your ghost stories!
Your Thoughts
Have you ever visited Temple Newsam? Did you see anything spooky?
