Demons…? At Vale End Cemetery…? I used to laugh at this idea. In November 1999, our research focused on haunted Gilson Road Cemetery.
One night when our team was there for an investigation, one of our lead photographers–and my closest personal friend–brought her teenaged daughter with her.
We had a mixed group that night, including believers and skeptics, new researchers and experienced ghost hunters. A few teens were with us.
The investigation went fairly well, with many manifestations and psychic experiences. It wasn’t especially scary. However, some people became frightened, including my friend’s daughter.
A side trip to ‘safe’ Vale End Cemetery
On their way home, the mother and daughter stopped at Vale End Cemetery. According to my friend, her plan was to take her daughter to a comfortable, familiar cemetery near their home, so she’d feel better about the evening. Besides, my friend wanted more photos.
They parked the car near the middle of the cemetery, as most of us do when we’re at Vale End. And, they strolled towards The Blue Lady‘s headstone.
My friend mentioned being near an attorney’s headstone (identified by the ‘Esq.’ notation on the marker), when something dark seemed to come up out of the ground. She couldn’t tell what it was.
Her daughter ran in terror back to the car. As my friend described the scene, she said that something screamed through her daughter.
They drove away in such haste, a branch took their outside mirror right off the car.
Some time later, the daughter called me at home. Fortunately, I was still awake.
She was terrified, and asked if anything follows people home from cemeteries.
I assured her that no, nothing follows you home. If ghosts could leave where they were, they probably wouldn’t be haunting.
A victim of haunted Vale End?
Five days later, her mother — Hollow Hill’s lead photographer — was found dead as she sat in her car in a busy parking lot in Wilton. Her death had to be sudden, or she’d have hit the horn on the car to get attention. But, she was a very physically fit woman, and younger than me.
The hospital declared it a heart attack, and I thought nothing more about the odd circumstances. Mostly, I missed my good friend.
A terrifying ghost vigil
The following spring, some of us began keeping vigil at Vale End Cemetery, hoping to see the Blue Lady.
One night, four of us were at the cemetery, chatting. Nothing dramatic was going on, although I’d measured some significant EMF levels near the large evergreen just north of the Blue Lady grave.
We were about to call it a night as darkness fell, when I decided to stroll over to the Blue Lady’s headstone for some last-minute photos… just in case.
I was feet away from the attorney’s stone that my friend had mentioned, when I spotted what I’ve since called ‘a little Grover guy’ about two or three feet from me. (Today, I might call him a little Elmo guy.) I paused, startled, but decided to keep walking. After all, if the Grover guy–who was a vivid shade of red–hadn’t bothered me yet, he probably wouldn’t. And, the figure seemed more amusing than anything to inspire fear.
Then, I walked into something like a force field. It felt as if I’d hit a glass wall.
My story continues at Fear at Vale End Cemetery.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
0 Responses to Vale End – possible demons
Leave a Reply
Buy the Book
Fiona's best-selling guide
to haunted cemeteries...
Click cover to see it at Amazon.com.Creative Commons License
All articles at this website by Fiona Broome are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For more details, see the About page.
I enjoy your podcasts and ghost-hunting experiences immensely. One minor note on the description above where you discuss the attorney’s headstone. It was very common–up to the late 19thC., especially in England but also common in America–to give the title “Esquier” to any person who would otherwise be called a gentemen. I’m not sure when the word began to be used as an honorific term for attorneys, but that usage probably dates from the early 20thC.
On a more important note–I see why you might be hesitant in discussing this event.
Best regards.
Thanks, Steve!
The stones noted “Esq.” are rare at Vale End. That’s one reason why my friend Nancy was so sure about which stone she’d been near.
Generally, people around Wilton were involved in agriculture, and I think that may be one reason why that headstone seems unusual.
However, you’re absolutely right about Esquire being a term used for attorneys and anyone else noted as a “gentleman.” My copy of the Oxford American Dictionary says, as the third definition, “A title allowed by courtesy to all who are regarded as gentlemen. In the U.S. it belongs officially to lawyers and public officers, and is freely used in the addresses of letters.” That particular use is dated to 1552.
The 1824 definition is, “A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public.” Of course, back then the words lady, gentleman and escort all had slightly different meanings than what we think of, today.
Cheerfully,
Fiona