3. Terrifying Toilet Ghosts and Free Flowing Spirits at The Cardigan Arms, Kirkstall
Listen to the Cardigan Arms Episode
Show Notes for Episode 3
Overview of Our Visit to The Cardigan Arms
In Episode 3 of the Scaredy Cat Skeptic Podcast, Sammi and I investigate some ghostly sightings at The Cardigan Arms pub in Kirkstall, Leeds. Plus there are bonus listener stories, with one incredibly spooky tale that takes us all the way back to the Prologue Episode, so don’t switch off until the end!
Photos from the Cardigan Arms Ghost Hunt
Full Gallery from The Cardigan Arms
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.
Sammi McEwan, Spiritual Adviser
Sammi McEwan has been a fantastic help throughout the setting up of this podcast. She is the official spiritual adviser to the podcast and has given valuable insights into hauntings. She's even helped out with protection rituals and other elements of ghost hunting that Scaredy Cat hadn't even considered. You can look forward to hearing directly from Sammi on our blog page and on future episodes.
Transcript - Episode 3: The Cardigan Arms
Hello, spooky bitches. Welcome to episode three of the Scaredy Cat Skeptic podcast. I’m Emily Dewsnap. Sceptic, drunkard and pathetic coward. In this episode, we’re going to the pub. Yes, that’s right. I’ve managed to combine my two favourite things. Spookiness and beer.
But just to kick it off, as always, I’ll give you a potted history of the Cardigan Arms Public House before we start on the reported ghost sightings.
So the Cardigan Arms sits at the side of the busy A64. Or, as it’s more commonly known, Kirkstall Road. Unusually, this isn’t the official name of the road either. That would be Commercial Road, but nobody really calls it that. There’s a sprawling history around Kirkstall Road, because it was the main road in and out of the bustling city of Leeds. And it marked a huge increase in wealth in the area, linking Leeds to Kirkstall Turnpike.
Leeds is a very old city with a lot of history and it appears in a lot of classic novels and things like that. Although, they usually just put L – – – for some reason. But yeah, it was quite a financial hub many moons ago and a lot of the old buildings were banks. The Cardigan Arms was not a bank, but it served passing trade and things like that. And there was a lot of trade to Leeds originally.
The Cardigan Arms and Its First Iteration
Commercial Road, or Kirkstall Road, as we all call it, ran right through the centre of the stunning Kirkstall Abbey. But now it runs alongside, thankfully, because I’m not sure the Abbey Ruins could stand so much traffic.
The first pub to be called the Cardigan Arms was built in 1806 before Kirkstall Road was even a glint in the landowners eye. It was named after the prominent James Thomas Brudenell seventh Earl of Cardigan, who owned a lot of property in the area.
He was infamous for leading the charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava in Crimea.
Sadly, he also had a reputation for being an utter scoundrel. He was a philanderer, an adulterer and a cad, and thus the legacy of Leeds’ “Lads, lads, lads!” was born. And his moustaches were pretty epic. It’s pleasing to me that the most metal of all clothing items, the cardigan, was also named after him. He’d be the envy of any hipster in 2023.
A Badass Feminist Lady of the Manor
All of this general arsing about meant that the Earl of Cardigan’s lands were heavily mortgaged, and he seemed to have no intention of getting his act together. By the time he died in 1868, he was in a shitload of debt, which was passed to his poor wife, Lady Adeline Cardigan. Who was probably secretly quite pleased she no longer had to deal with this massive manchild who was constantly putting her at risk of contracting syphilis.
She immediately auctioned off all their land in Leeds and began living the life of Riley. Lady Adeline Cardigan was an absolute badass. After she was widowed, she received several proposals, including one from Benjamin Disraeli, who was a lifelong friend of hers. She turned him down, because he had bad breath And in the days before toothpaste, everyone had bad breath. So he really must have stunk to high heaven. After this, she popped off to Paris for a much needed holiday. And, while there, became engaged to Dom António Manuel of Lancastre. Not one for traditional customs, Adeline insisted on merging her former title as an English Dowager Countess, with her new title as wife of a Portuguese Conde and styled herself the Countess of Cardigan and Lancaster.
See what I mean? What a legend!
A Very Suitable Arrangement
Dom couldn’t cope with the wet, English weather, and the pair briefly lived in Paris before Adeline returned home to look after her estates. They lived separately after this. I mean, I’m not going to cast any aspersions, but I feel an arrangement was in place that suited them both down to the ground.
Adeline was often seen scandalously wearing her first husband’s regimental trousers. She smoked in public and rode a pushbike to get around. Both of which were considered highly improper for a lady. It should be noted that those pesky suffragists were often seen wearing trousers and riding bikes, and Leeds has an interesting history of suffrage. Although there is no mention of the Countess of Cardigan and Lancaster in the suffragist archives that I can see.
Adeline wore thick make up and would organise steeplechases through the local graveyards. She also had her own coffin in her living room and would often get into it to me as on her appearance. She was the original Merry Widow.
I love it. It's so goth. I love it.
Finally, like her husband, had that coat with her and she was forced to declare bankruptcy and sell off all her worldly goods, The Cardigan Arms, along with the plot of land that was own, was auctioned off with the rest of Adeline belongings in 1888 and was bought by William Child for £6,850. A substantial sum back then. With the recent housing boom, money was pouring into Leeds, and the old rundown cardigan arms couldn’t take the footfall and was demolished.
Terrace houses began popping up all over the place and demand for a new pub drove the cardigan arms we know and love today to be built in 1895. So the Cardigan Arms as it stands now, is a surprisingly beautiful building. There’s something so very… Leeds about it, and I can’t really explain what I mean.
The exterior is sturdy with an imposing flourish. The inside has a feeling of old school masculine class. Like a stoic old grandfather with a pipe. There’s even the faint smell of old worn leather. The walls are panelled with dark wood halfway up. The top half is painted in dark mustards and deep reds. So it has a really cosy vibe with soft lighting. Leather topped tables are scattered around the place with round padded stools and cushioned pew like seating against the walls. The bar is round, dark wood with arched window panes above and hand pulls.
So the pub is a really Victorian old school type place. There’s lots of different separate rooms and they all have the original bells that you could have rung in the old days for more beer. And sadly those have been disconnected. So you can’t you can’t ring for bar service. But it would have been very handy during COVID, rather than the apps. But yeah, it’s full of old fashioned mirrors and beautiful, tiled fireplaces. I’ll post some pictures on the socials and in the show notes and you will see what I mean. But there’s a few in Leeds like that and it’s, it’s very exclusive to, sort of, Yorkshire. Yorkshire towns.
The Ghost Tales of the Cardigan Arms
So I’ll just give you some ghost stories. There aren’t actually that many. So this is quite short. But I’ll tell you where this ghost story has come from.
So on the 13th of October 2006, there were three reports from three separate women of a ghost sighting at the Cardigan Arms.
An Uneasy Feeling in an Empty Public Toilet
In one case, the woman said she’d been feeling uneasy since she walked into the empty toilets by herself, but she told herself she was being daft and carried on about her business. It wasn’t until she was washing our hands that her worst fears were realised. As she looked at her own reflection, staring back at her in the mirror, she saw a slight movement behind her. Refocusing, she was horrified to see that she was not alone. An old lady with long, flowing grey hair was standing beside her.
The woman whipped around, but there was nobody there. The old lady had simply vanished.
A Phantom Flusher
Shortly after this, another patron nipped to the loo. Same day. There are two toilets in the ladies at the cardigan arms. At the time one of them was out of service and the other was occupied. So the woman waited and she waited. Eventually, the toilet in the occupied cubicle flushed, but nothing happened. Nobody came out.
There was no further noise. She pushed open the door to the cubicle to check that whoever was in there was okay, but found that it was empty. So how did the toilet flush?
Impatiently Waiting
On the exact same day, another woman went to use the facilities at the Cardigan Arms and had just sat down when there came, an almighty banging on the cubicle door. Irritated, she barked that the person would have to wait. But when she came out of the toilets, there was nobody there.
All three women reported what had happened to the bar staff and it was filed away, along with many, many other reported sightings of elderly ladies that vanished and feelings of unease.
I couldn’t really find any more detailed tales. Plenty of people online talk about feeling that there’s something malevolent in some of the rooms at the Cardigan arms, there’s no real lengthy stories with, you know like “This is the ghost of this person and this is what happened and this is what they do.” But there have been enough reports for it to be ranked one of the most haunted pubs in Yorkshire.
What Are We Expecting?
So I’m not really sure what to expect from my visit to the Cardigan Arms. I’m meeting the wonderful semi McEwan and we plan to have lunch there. Yes, I’m sorry northerners. I have compromised on language here so that other people can understand me. I now call it breakfast, lunch and tea rather than the correct, northern way of calling it breakfast, dinner and tea.
So, yes, we plan to have lunch, which will give us an excuse to stay a bit longer and see if anything else happens. I’ve not been in the Cardigan Arms for a good few years for no other reason than that it’s in a slightly awkward spot if you don’t live in the area. If you’re in the city centre, there’s no reason to head that far afield. And where I live now is a good few miles from Kirkstall, so I don’t get many opportunities to go.
I believe that it’s been done up and is really nice now inside, which can only be a good thing. It was a bit of a spit and sawdust place the last time I went in. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I love an old man pub. Yeah, it could have done with a lick of paint and just a little bit of updating. It wasn’t the classiest place.
This Episode is a Bit Different
Anyway, I’m curious to see what happens. Given that the last two episodes are on stately homes and that some distinctly spooky things have happened there that I wasn’t I’m slightly worried I’m going to get interrupted by a creepy elderly lady when I’m mid-pee. I also have a bit of a fear of both mirrors and bathrooms since the white worm incident 30 years ago. So I’m going to be a bit jumpy taking photos, I think.
I’ve only had one spooky experience in a watering hole and that was also several years ago. I was in a pub in Nottingham with some friends and decided I needed the loo, so I finally found it, because it was quite hidden, and as soon as the cubicle door was closed, there was a cacophony of noise. Spooky whispers and horses hooves. I was absolutely terrified, and I’ll freely admit now, I ran out of there without washing my hands.
As it turns out, it was a theme pub and the sounds were very much intentional. No idea how I missed that at all. Especially since the place is called the Pit and the Pendulum. Roll eyes. Anyway, everyone thought it was hilarious, so I guess no harm done. Once my heart stopped pounding.
At the Cardigan Arms
TIMESTAMP: 00:13:24:19 – 00:13:27:21
Anyway, I don’t remember ever feeling spooked in the Cardigan Arms, but I do remember it being dingy. Places always feel creepier in the dark, don’t they?
So anyway, without further ado, let’s go and get a pint.
I’m at the Cardigan Arms this afternoon with the lovely Sunny McEwan. The vibe is… alive. I can’t really explain more than that. The building is clearly steeped in history and you can feel it emanating from the bones of the place. When we first arrived, we were the only ones here. I got here at 11:59 exactly. And then I had to wait a whole minute before ordering a pint, because I’m a classy bitch and I don’t drink in the mornings.
I’m a massive real ale fan. The darker and stronger the better. And they have a great selection of cask ales here. So I got my stout and I went for a wander around before picking one of the rooms and just settling down while I waited. I tried to get the guy behind the bar to talk to me about the ghost, but he was strangely cagey about it. He said that he had heard and felt some very strange things, especially in the storage rooms upstairs and, sort of, the other places that we know. Staff members can’t go without the right connections, but he wouldn’t expand on anything and seemed pretty pissed off that I’d even asked him, which was a bit discouraging.
Yeah, it was weird. Nonetheless, we are here to find ghosts and I will not be deterred.
The Toilets Are Not So Scary
where the ghost of the Gray Lady is said to be most seen banging on doors when people are trying to pee and scaring the bejesus out of them by appearing behind them in mirrors.
Strangely, this is the least gothic part of the whole building. Or the building wecan see as punters, anyway. It’s obviously one of the more recent renovations that we’ve made. The walls are freshly plastered and painted white. The doors and door frames are a pale, dark green. It’s light and it’s airy. There’s a stained glass skylight. It’s fine. It doesn’t feel scary at all. Especially, you know, because the rest of the pub is so dark and mysterious. It just kind of feels like a little bright spot in the middle of all this darkness.
Anyway, I’ve taken some shots in the mirror and I can’t see anything glaringly obvious that looks like an old lady.
Satanic Happenings at the Cardigan Arms
We did go back to the bar after my initial attempt because the bar staff had changed and we tried to speak to a different member of staff to see if they would be more forthcoming about the ghost. This guy said that he had heard things and seen movements out of the corner of his eye and all that kind of stuff. But he also said that’s not the creepiest thing.
Cardigan Arms has an outbuilding that’s been derelict for many years. I think it was stables, at one point. More recently, the owner made the decision to open the outhouse up and clear it out to see if it could be repurposed. But when they pried the outhouse door open, they were greeted with an unholy, dank smell. Shining their torches, they realised that things seemed very strange in there. There was candle wax over every surface. On the floor, someone had drawn a large pentagram in what looked like dark red wax. There were tables shoved to the sides of the room. But when the workers looked at what they saw, that one table had been nailed upside down to the ceiling.
A Mystery with No Answers
I’m not sure what the upshot was because the barkeep had to go and serve someone else, but there’s currently no outhouse with additional seating or anything like that, so they obviously didn’t open it up to the public. He did show us some photographs as well, but before I could ask him to send them to me, he’d already gone in.
To be honest, he was talking to us, but he wasn’t massively forthcoming. So I just don’t think the staff here either. They’ve been told not to talk to people about the spookiness or they just aren’t interested. I mean, they’re fairly young kids working on a Saturday. I can’t really blame them.
Right. We’re about to get some food anyway and see how spooky the burgers are. So I’ll clock off for now and pick it back up when we’ve been fed.
How Was Our Investigation?
So back home. Did we see ghosts at the Cardigan Arms. Sadly, no. Well, there was one incident, but I’m not sure you can trust anything that happens after four pints of strong stout.
It’s now Sunday and then reflecting back on yesterday. So after a few hours of milling around, casually chatting to people and not really getting anywhere, I was feeling a bit deflated.
I’d just said to Sammi, I was disappointed we haden’t really seen any evidence of ghosts or had any really good stories from anyone to get our teeth into, when I decided to go and use the loo one last time before we headed out.
When I went to the toilets, one cubicle door was closed and there was a woman standing against the wall. She was obviously waiting for a friend. So I went into the vacant cubicle. After some jiggery pokery with lady products, which I won’t bore you with, other than to say yes, it was very much a full fat codeine day. I was just finishing up when I heard an almighty banging on the cubicle door.
I jumped out of my skin and was instantly annoyed. If the woman who had been standing there had needed the toilet, why hadn’t she said so when I went in? I flushed and turned to wrench the door open, ready to give someone hell. Unless, of course, they were ill and desperate. But as far as I’m concerned, you don’t bang on the door like that when someone’s paying.
But there wasn’t anyone there. The other cubicle was empty and the woman had vanished. I stood there for a few moments, bewildered. My hackles raised, and I had that strange, tingly feeling you get when something spooky happens. The silence in the room at that moment was almost suffocating.
When I went over to the sink, I avoided looking in the mirror at all costs, dreading what I might see lurking behind me.
There had definitely been two of the people in the toilets with me when I went in, but I hadn’t heard them leave. The woman who was waiting was leaning against the wall and wearing jeans, so I don’t think for a second she was a ghost. She also didn’t do much in the way of smiling, so I don’t think she would have been playing a prank on me.
Honestly, I don’t know what to think. I was four pints deep by this point and I’d taken my strongest codeine for the endo pain. Opiates are notorious for causing hallucinations for a start. And I do have a habit of nodding off on toilets. I have sleep issues, I think I’ve mentioned. So I’m always shattered. So I’ve done many a micro nap in a pub toilet.
I also get exploding head syndrome and that sometimes manifests as several loud bangs rather than just one. I don’t know. It’s really funny timing given that I just mentioned to Sammi how disappointed I was and that we should call it a day. But yeah, whether I, whether I believe that it was actually banging and not just a strange micro dream I’m not sure.
Yeah, but a strange one. But I do promise I did wash my hands that time.
Scaredy Cat skeptic Ratings for The Cardigan Arms
So I’m just going to give you…. I’m going to give you my ratings
Potential ghosts seen by Scaredy Cat
If the banging on the door marries up with the experience of previous punters, but could equally be explained away by a heady concoction of opiates and alcohol.
Total
1
Scare Factor
Apart from the banging on the door, it’s a very old gothic, dimly lit building, so I can understand why people feel uneasy there. It’s my kind of place, so I love it. But if you like a bar that’s sparklingly clean and bright, then it could be unsettling to sit in such dark surroundings.
The story about the outhouse really got to me, actually. Especially because we saw photographs (and again, it’s a shame I didn’t get to send us any). So that adds a layer of spookiness as well. Something clearly went on out there.
Rating
Value for Money
Leeds bar prices these days are fairly astronomical. So by comparison, it was fairly reasonable for a pint of ale. I thought the food was a bit expensive, honestly, but it was tasty.
Rating
Family Friendliness
It’s a pub, it’s not a place for children.
Rating
Accessibility
Of all the places we’ve been, this one has the best access for disabled people and wide smooth floors with disabled toilets. Also plenty of places to sit down. I’m pretty sure the bar staff would all be smashing too if you needed a hand with anything. Just don’t get hammered if you’re on a mobility scooter. I’ve witnessed the chaos that can cause first hand
Rating
Time Spent
Five hours.
I would have stayed longer, but I had a big shop coming. The Cardigan Arms is the kind of place you can spend a whole day in. And if you get peckish, you can always order more food. There’s a beer garden with outdoor heaters too, which is always a plus if you’ve got smokers, or you just need a breath of fresh air.
Total
5
Beauty Spot
The Cardigan Arms itself is very beautiful to me, but I can it’s not everyone’s idea of a good time. The location of the pub is about to. It’s become more and more built-up over the years. Commercial road itself is a dirty, busy road with two lanes, a lot of traffic passes by. So even though the beer garden is hidden from view, you can still hear the cars whizzing by on the outside side. So it’s an ugly collection of cinemas, fast food places, supermarkets and cheap restaurants.
But you can’t deny it’s a striking building in itself.
Rating
Customer Service
The staff were a bit hit and miss this time. On a couple of occasions they were fairly rude, but then a couple of them were absolute gems, so I can’t complain too much. I would recommend the Cardigan Arms to the more hardened pop goers. If you want, like a traditional British pub with no airs and graces, this is probably the place to go. It’s it’s a fascinating place.
There’s a lot of history. There are floor plans on the walls. It’s pretty amazing. But if what you want is a traditional English pub that’s been cleaned up of it, then this probably isn’t for you. Definitely worth a visit if you like real ales, hearty meals and beautiful architecture. Or you could make a day of it and go to the cinema too.
Rating
Listener Stories
TIMESTAMP: 00:35:27:21 – 00:35:30:24
So I’m going to do the listener stories. I’ve got a couple of bangers again.
Two Tales of iNTRUSIVE sPIRITS
pERVERT gHOST!
Hello scaredy cats. I have a couple of ghost stories that I’ll share with you. I also have some death premonitions I can send in if you’re interested. [We are interested, Sarah, yes, please send those in.]
I’m also a scaredy cat sceptic. Things happen to me, but then I usually find a reason for them. [Very much like me.]
Sothe first story would have happened In the early 90s. I was living in a large Victorian house that had been split into Bedsits in the South west of Scotland. The house had an awful atmosphere, but I was excited to be starting a new life in a new town, so I overlooked it and moved in. Within weeks, strange things started to happen.
My locked door would open itself. The sash windows would push themselves up. Never when I was around, but I could nip to the loo, come back and they’d be open. I lived on the first floor and there was no way to access my room from outside without ladders.
[Again, Americans, the first floor in the UK is the what you would call the second floor.]
But the scariest time was when I was lying in bed with my arms behind my head and something poked me in the boob. Yes, my tit. I even felt my boob dip as if a finger had pressed it. It was an awful mix of disbelief and terror. I slept with the light on for weeks afterwards. Not long afterwards, I had the opportunity to move into one of the attic rooms and I was so pleased to go. It was a bigger room and I thought it would be less scary. Wrong!
Almost immediately, I started having terrible nightmares about something hiding in the built in wardrobe. One day, I was off work and everybody was out when I had to pop downstairs to answer the door. On the way back up the stairs, I was knocked into by what I can only describe as a solid block of air. There was no one else home to open doors and cause drafts. Plus it felt too solid as it barged past me. Another scary note was that one of the children who lived there started talking about his friend, a young boy who lived at the bottom of the staircase. Very creepy.
The final straw was when my mam came to visit, and the next morning told me that she woke during the night to someone stroking her hair. I noped out of there very shortly afterwards. I’ve never been sure whether these things were actual hauntings or if there was a practical reason behind them, but they were very scary.
Oh, and a few years later the house burnt down. But I suspect that may have been at human hands of faulty electrics.
I’m not surprised. You noped out, Sarah [shudders]!
Hijacking the Listener stories
I did live in a similar house, actually. So I’ll take this opportunity to give you another one of my ghost stories, because it leads nicely on from Sarah’s tale.
I moved into a flat in Kirkstall on my own when I left a partner in 2007. I’d never lived on my own before and I was super excited about it, honestly. Similarly to Sarah’s house, it was a converted Victorian townhouse split into these like tiny studio flats. But I absolutely loved it. The bed was in a camp bed that you pulled out of the cupboards. There were these high ceilings and big sash windows and the flat overlooked a beautiful graveyard.
Fairly often I’d get a taxi home. I was young, and I went out a lot. And the taxi drivers would refuse to drop me off directly outside my flat, saying that the place was haunted. But I always felt safe. Nothing too scary happened in that particular flat. Ooh! Apart from one terrifying thing that happened after an experience in Edinburgh. But we are planning on visiting Edinburgh, so I’ll tell you that story another time.
So while I was there in that flat, nothing particularly bad happened. But then a few years later I was going through another break up – there’ve been a few – and I needed a flat, so I contacted my old landlord. So, the studio flat, my flat, had been knocked through into the next door flat and turned into one luxury flat that was already left. But he did manage to get me a flat a couple of doors down from there. Same thing – converted Victorian house opposite the graveyard. But this flat was on the top floor, so it would have been the attic originally. And I had the whole floor to myself again and didn’t feel scared.
Well, not of a ghost, but I did have a stalker in that flat who latched on when I moved in, but that’s a tail for another day.
Until, that is, one winter’s day, I bought a fluffy headband to wear for the walk home from work. When I got in, I took a mirror selfie because… reasons. It was basically because I assumed I looked like a bellend. But when I got in, I thought I looked a bit like the predator and that was cool. So I took a picture. And so anyway, on the photograph, there’s a very strange streak behind me.
I’ve spoken about this on Instagram. There’s a video. If you go back far enough. Well, I’ll post a photo to the show notes.
I thought maybe it was a smudge on the mirror, but when I went to check, there was nothing there in fact, I’d done a quick, clean and tidy already because I knew the landlord was coming around and the mirror was clean. I took it off the wall anyway and I turned it this way and that. But there was nothing on it. I then took some more photographs to see if it’s something on the lens, but the streak wasn’t there. So then I checked the ceiling, my phone case, the frame, the mirror, anywhere. I thought there may have been something that could catch the light.
I have no idea what it was, even now. And weirdly, I still dream about the first flat, not the one with the smudge, the… the studio. I dream about it and very, very vivid ways. That leave me feeling strange and wanting to go back.
And this is odd. Sometimes I find myself on that road when I’ve gone for a walk, as if my feet have just decided that’s where I need to be. I never felt scared that I like I said, but I just keep ending up there. Whether it’s supernatural or just because leaving that awful relationship to live in my own space for the first time meant so much that I can’t let it go. I don’t know. I was there for over six years and when I had to move out, I was absolutely devastated.
So yeah, several times I just find myself outside without even realising I’ve walked there. The second flat didn’t quite have that same feel to it. I wasn’t scared, but I had very bad nightmares there. And the sleep paralysis was bad. It was constant, when I was in that second flat. I would feel like little feet walking on the bed at nighttime. And sometimes it felt like someone had moved my hair. I’d always check to see if it tumbled on its own, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like pressure. Much like Sarah’s mum reports.
Bed Shaking Action
On another note, Sarah also sent us another story. We love multiple stories. Keep them coming! She says…
The second story occurred when I was living with my boyfriend back in England in the late 90/early 2000s. The house we lived in felt spooky, but nothing ever happened until one night we came home from work to hear that the teenage boy that lived next door died in an accident. It shook us all and I felt very on edge. That night, I woke up and I felt the bed rocking. This still happens whether I’m alone or sharing the bed.
I have wondered about sleep paralysis. [I mean, I do. I get the bed shaking thing. I don’t think it’s the bed shaking. In my case, it’s… it’s my heartbeat. Because I have sleep issues, I have all kinds of equipment that I need to sleep with, like eye masks and earplugs. And I find that when I’m wearing earplugs, particularly, this happens and it’s… the… it’s like a banging noise, but the bed feels like it’s shaking, but it’s actually just. It’s just my heartbeat when you put earplugs in, it sounds like: bam, bam, bam, bam. Like someone’s running along the corridor or something. It’s really odd, but I’m not… I’m not suggesting that you’ve not had a spooky experience. I’m just saying this. That’s what I think it is. When it happens, when I’m having the bad shaking thing.]
Anyway, it stopped after a few seconds and I went back to sleep. The next day, I was moaning to my boyfriend about the bed. He is very sceptical and shrugged it off. That night I woke again to the bed shaking, but I then felt him wake. I asked if he was okay, to which he replied that he would be if the fucking bed would stop moving. We never experienced anything after that night.
We’ve spoken about this since and neither of us have an explanation. And those are my stories. Hopefully you’ll have enjoyed them.
A Brief Question of Time
I have a question for you. Something I’ve always wondered about. People say that spooky time is 3 to 4 a.m. Well, what happens when the clocks change? I’ve wondered about this more than I’ll admit to.
[I always think the same thing. Honestly, I would like to think that ghosts would continue to do their thing regardless of what the clock actually says. Because if they change their timing, then they’re aware of the world as it is, not as it was when they were alive. I’ve heard some stories where the ghosts just continue on their own clock, but I don’t know if that’s across the board. And I’ve heard a few people say that, yes, they change with the clocks, which I find very, very odd.
It’s like that thing about 3:33am being the witching hour, because it’s something to do with Jesus’ time of death. But the thing is, 3:33 in the UK or in America, it’s very different to 3:33 in Jerusalem. You know, that kind of thing bugs me because it doesn’t add up, really. But yeah, I don’t actually know. If anyone has any better answers. Just write in, let us know.
Sarah also says, Thank you for reading this. I’ll scream with delight if you read them on the show. Sarah.
Well, thank you for those!
The Lair of the Great White Worm… Again
An Unsettling Feeling Right from the Start
Oh my God guys. So this next one, this one had me nearly screaming. And when hear it, you’ll understand why, especially if you listen to the Prologue episode, the one about Primrose Lane. And if you haven’t, I would at least go back and listen to the story about the worm.
So I’ve called this one the lure of the Great White Worm. Again.
Honestly. All right, here we go.
This one is from Emma from Barnsley.
Hello.
I hope you don’t mind me hopping on this bandwagon, but I need to tell you about something that happened to me that also happened to you. I was listening to the first episode of your podcast In the Car with my kids. Well, the almost first episode, the little one you did before the main one about the house you grew up in. And it happened to me, not the little girl, but the haunted house and worms. I was so gobsmacked I had to pull the car over. I don’t want to do any spoilers, so I’ll just tell you from the beginning.
We moved house when I was ten and I was devastated. We’re from South Shields originally, but my dad’s a contractor and we had to move for his job. I didn’t want to move. I loved my friends and I loved mine and my sister’s bedroom and our house. But the new job was better, and we moved into this massive (well, I thought it was massive at the time) house in Kent.
It was this five bed and there was a big garden and one of four kids, two boys, two girls. and we all now had our own bedrooms. I used to share with my sister. It sounds like an improvement but I missed having my big sister in the bunk above me. We used to send each of the notes in the night and stuff. The new house scared me. I did not like it. It was just too big. I like a cosy space. I felt like there was an echo all the time, no matter which room I was in. Sometimes it sounded like someone talking back when we were speaking.
From Day Dot
Weird things started happening right away when we moved in. And I don’t mean once we were settled, it was instant. We were moving boxes into the house and it was like having a rowdy dog. My dad tripped carrying a load of crockery and everything smashed, so we had to stop and clean it up. But as the grownups were sweeping up my sister fell down the stairs and insisted she’d been pushed. She was winded and doing that thing where you can’t breathe. It was really frightening. I’d never seen that before.
The stairs didn’t have carpet, so she was in a lot of pain and my mam decided to take her to A&E to get checked out as she got old to leave the door slammed and the window pane and the door blew out. My dad said it was just the wind and then how to clean up the glass as well as the plates. But it was a really hot summer’s day and there was no wind.
I could tell my parents were like, not worried, but a bit baffled. We managed to get the rest of the boxes in with no trouble and stacked a lot of them in the living room and hallway. But just as we were finished, the stack of boxes fell over and broke some of our toys. Then Dad got the cool box out to make us drink and found that everything had spilled everywhere and the sandwiches were ruined with Vimto.
A Brief Respite
Things seemed to calm down for a bit, so we unpacked, but my wardrobe door kept closing when I was trying to hang my clothes up. I told my dad. But he said I was being silly. I knew I wasn’t. I knew something bad was happening, but I didn’t know how to tell anyone. I just knew.
My mam and sister came back from the hospital a few hours later and it turned out my sister had two broken ribs and was very bruised. Her face is all puffy and blotchy and she looked like a baby being fussed by mam. They had to put her on a pile of blankets while they put the bed up for her. I asked her what had happened and she said she was at the top of the stairs looking down at us when all of a sudden she felt hands on her back. And then she was in the air. Dad said she must have slipped coming down. But she told me she hadn’t moved. She didn’t say she was scared because she’s always kind of looked after me. But I could tell that she was.
So Many Spooky Happenings
As our parents were putting the bed up for her, I heard my dad yell and went over to see what was going on. The bed frame had collapsed on his finger and it was bleeding really badly. Honestly, just loads of stuff happened that day. So many things. I can’t remember some of them. I actually spoke to my sister about it recently and she said it was the scariest time of her life. She remembers loads of stuff I don’t too, and vice versa. We talked for hours about it. She’s been a lifelong sufferer of depression, but it started when we moved house into that new house and it didn’t stop after then either.
It was all just little things, but so many it was hard to ignore. Cupboard doors opening by themselves, doors in the house slamming, things breaking. The cooker would turn itself on. Us kids were in trouble all the time, even though we hadn’t done anything. That went on for all of the summer. Mam was scared we could hear her arguing with Dad when they thought we were asleep in bed. She wanted to leave. We all did. But Dad was adamant that we should stay and kept saying it was all just bad luck.
The Lair of the Little White Worms
One day my little brother was playing in the living room and I heard him shout for Mam. I went to see what he wanted and saw he was playing with something on the floor. But then I realised that he’d pulled up a floorboard and there were all these little worms crawling everywhere. I ran outside to get my mam.
The floorboard was patched up, but we kept finding these little white worms everywhere after that. They were in our clothes and sometimes in our cereal, and the bin was always full of them. They smelt really funny. And if you picked them up, your hand smelt for ages. We got pest control out. The man who came said he’d never seen anything quite like it. And then he just left and we ended up getting the house dumped proofed and rerendered. And there were holes in the walls.
Mam had just decorated, so she was very upset and it felt like a cold mist had kind of come down on all of us. We did see some worms after that, but nowhere near as many. So we figured that the problem had just been the damp.
Place Where Worms Shouldn't Be
But at this point, my sister started saying that there was a woman in her room at night that stood in the corner. She had a long, white dirty nightie on and long dark hair, but she never saw her face. My sister wasn’t playing with me at all by this point, and we didn’t talk like we used to. Just another reason to hate the house. I blamed it on us not sharing a room anymore.
My sister’s room was in the converted loft because she was the oldest and it felt like she was on another planet to me. She would have been 13, so she was starting to get all stroppy, like a proper teenager. It made me sad. My mam actually listened to what my sister was saying about the weird woman and spent a night in the room with her. But she didn’t see anything. But my sister insisted it was happening most nights.
On one night she woke up screaming blue murder and woke us all up. She said the woman usually faced the wall and just stood there all night. But this night she had turned around and where her eyes should be were just black holes with those white worms coming out. Dad just shouted. He shouted at us a lot when we lived there. We all started tiptoeing around him. And then he started working a lot more. So we were on our own most of the time. We only spent one Christmas in that house and he spent Christmas morning golfing with some of the guys from work.
So when my sister woke us up that night, he went mental and actually smashed one of the controllers from Megadrive in a rage. Then he disappeared and didn’t come back all day. It was miserable all the time. I just wanted to leave. And I wanted to leave without Dad, too. He was being so horrible, but he hadn’t always been and that made it worse.
One Giant UberWorm
And then one day, I was up early, like you, Scaredy Cat. It would have been Autumn and it was quite dark outside. I went into the bathroom and I turned on the light and then jumped out of my skin. There was something white in the bath. It looked like a tangle of shower curtain, but we had one of those glass shower curtains. I immediately thought: “Oh, God, it’s that woman with worm eyes!” But I was too scared to move. And then I watched this thing get up out of the bath. I realised it wasn’t a woman. It was one big worm.
And I mean giant. It was bigger than me. I remember looking up at it, and then it kind of crashed onto the bathroom floor and slithered off out of the bath and out of the bathroom door. There was a squidgy slithering noise, and when its tail had gone, I chased out into the hole screaming for my mam. But the whole thing was gone. It was just gone.
It was very smelly after that, though. And of course I got yelled at for waking the family up by dad. But even he could smell the strange smell. It was so uncannily like what you said. I burst out crying when I heard it. I’ve told several people about it over the years, but they just think I’m mental. Or a liar.
Not the End of This Horrible Haunting
That wasn’t the end of it neither. I never saw the giant worm again. But a few months later, my brothers were playing by the pond in the back garden. It was winter and the pond was frozen over, so I think they were trying to skate on it. My little brother fell in. Luckily, my dad was home that day and my older brother ran for help. Dad ran out to pull my little brother out of the pond. Little brother insisted that big brother had pushed him in and held his head under. But that couldn’t have happened because Big Brother ran for help straight away. Obviously, they both got shouted at by Dad too.
But that was it for my mam. She packed our bags, she put us in the car and we drove up north to my grandma’s. We stayed with her for about six weeks. Dad did follow us eventually we moved into a small house that we loved, but we all remember what happened in that house. Even if it’s all slightly different for each of us.
Dad seemed to mellow up after that, but we were never that happy family again. Or maybe we weren’t ever that happy underneath it all. And I only noticed after the first move. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you what it was or anything. Just know that you’re not alone. And I believe you because the exact same thing happened to me.
Some Additional Notes
If you find out what it was, can you tell me?
[I feel like it’s been going on so long that I’ll never know. I’ll never know what that was. But, you know, you never know. I wasn’t expecting someone else to have had this experience. So maybe one day…]
Emma also says: I have three kids of my own now. And when I pulled over listening to your podcast, they all wanted to know what happened. So I told them if they ever see anything
like that to tell me straight away. Also, they think your swearing is hilarious [oops], so I’ve had to swear them to secrecy and tell them not to do it in front of the teachers at school.
Love the podcast. My favourite was the one at Bolling Hall with the little alarms. My kids are desperate to go now. I’ve given you five stars on Spotify. Are you doing the Patreon thing? I feel like I’m in the in-crowd, now we have a shared experience, so I’d definitely sign up.
Patreon for Scaredy Cat
Well, firstly, yes, I am planning on setting up a Patreon. I write a lot of blog posts, so going forward I’m going to do those as little audio files so patrons will get access to those and any additional episodes, plus outtakes of which there are many lots of swearing on the outtakes, let me tell you! It’s surprising how many tangents one person with ADHD talking to themselves can go on, really. I’m having to think about the tiers at the minute, so if anyone has any requests, let me know. I’ll probably start a listener stories episode too, at some point, if we keep getting bangers like the ones we’ve had so far.
Patrons will get first priority when sending their stories and requesting locations and that sort of thing. I was also thinking about doing some sort of challenge too. Like the patrons want Scaredy Cat to watch The Exorcist or try a Ouija board or something. Although I’m not saying: Blue Lady Blue Lady, you killed your blue baby in the mirror. I don’t believe in it, but I do believe in self-fulfilling prophecies and planting the seed. So I don’t want bad fortune brought on by my own anxiety responses, please and thank you. I’ll have a proper think. I’ll let you all know when it’s up.
What the Actual F?!
But like more importantly, what the actual fuck Ema? Oh, and you and your name’s Emma. People call me Emma all the time. It’s one of the reasons I ask people to call me Em, but they still get it wrong.
[So I’ve recorded this after I recorded the episode I messaged Emma back and she confirmed that people call her Emily all the time. So it happens both ways. They are different names. My friends Emma and Emily are different. I’m not interchangeable.]
But what the fuck? I can’t even… it’s the same thing. A big white worm… and I have no words, which is somewhat tragic for a podcast host. To begin with, I skim read the story and I saw the story about the little white worms, and I thought it was a strange coincidence. But I wasn’t expecting you to have seen the actual white worm. You looked it right in the face thing… area. The face area. And lived to tell the tale.
Tell you what? I’d take the worm over the wormy eyed lady any day, though. She sounds terrifying. And then you’ve got that unhappy family with a teenage girl thing again. Poltergeists seem to love it. the fact that all those things were happening to all of you sounds scary. I’m not surprised your mum got you out of there. Good on her. Sounds like your Dad needed a kick up the ass too.
Honestly, I’m blown away. I can’t… I can’t believe it. Thank you so much for sharing. I mean, I thought it was a brain burp, but now I’m genuinely worried I’m haunted by a big giant worm.
SO Many Thanks!
Well, on that note, on that bombshell, I want to wrap up, really. How are we doing, guys? We’ve been loving putting the podcast out. We’d love to hear what you think of us, if you’ve got no suggestions or any comments. If you have no feedback, give us a five star rating on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
And importantly, do you have any stories that you want to share with us?
Visit the website for more information. ScaredyCatSkeptic.co.uk and that’s sceptic with a K, there’s a contact page there to submit your stories.
If you have a location you think we should visit. I’m still just doing the UK for the minute. Drop us a line. You can find us at ScaredyCatSkeptic.co.uk.
And we’re on all of the socials. Twitter is… @scaredyskeptic. Sorry X (Ridiculous!) is @scaredyskeptic.
I am now on threads because why not? And that is at @scaredycatskeptic. Insta, Tik Tok, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn @scaredycatskeptic.
And I’ve been absolutely shit at staying on top of social media recently. It’s not because I don’t want to post anything it’s just that it’s such a big distraction for me. I really love doing social media and I’ve had a couple of hard deadlines with my normal job that I just couldn’t miss.
Don’t forget to like and subscribe and all that good stuff, and I look forward to sharing more spooky tales with you all. Special thanks to Tom Bramall for the concept art for our scaredy cat mascot, Maude.
Thank you to Sammi McEwan for coming to the Cardigan Arms with me and for all her insights.
Our music is by Diamond Tunes,
And if you want a transcript of any of the podcast episodes, there are full show notes on the website.
Anyway, 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 The Cardigan Arms? Did you see anything spooky?
