The Ghosts of Blue Bell Hill

8/10/2024

The Ghost Bride of Blue Bell Hill by M.P. Pellicer

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
In 1965 a bride-to-be on the eve of her wedding day, lost her life and since then the stretch of road has been the scene of a phantom hitchhiker.

Accident scene of Cortina and Jaguar c.Nov. 1965

Suzanne Ingrid Browne was living the dream of most young women. She met R.A.F. photographer Brian Wetton in 1964 when he was posted to Australia. By 1965, they were engaged and set a wedding date for November of the same year. Wetton planned to leave the military, return to Australia and open a photography shop with his new bride.

Sue flew to England for the ceremony, which was to be held at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gillingham, Kent. She stayed with her future sister-in-law, and in the tradition of bidding farewell to her single days, she left with three friends to celebrate before the big day.

Patricia Ferguson died at the scene of the terrible accident at Blue Bell Hill

All was well until the midnight hour was approaching, then the screech of grinding metal sounded out in the night. The Ford Cortina the girls were traveling in had a collision with a Jaguar on Bluebell Hill near Maidstone. It was raining and the lighting was murky on this stretch of the road known as A229.

Judith Lingham and Patricia Ferguson both 22, died on the scene. Suzanne Browne and Gillian Burchett were seriously injured and rushed to a local hospital. Suzanne died on November 24, and Gillian was the only one to survive. Four months after the accident she was still hospitalized.

Judith who was a bridesmaid had her dress in the vehicle since she had picked it up earlier in the day.

Harry Bachaus, 29 who drove the Jaguar was not badly hurt, but his companion Sheilah Baird was held at the hospital but eventually discharged.

Suzanne Browne had known sorrow since she was a small child. She lost her father Patrick Browne in 1945, and her mother Ingrid in 1946. Four-year-old Suzanne, and her younger brother Patrick were given over to the care of a cousin. After the accident her remains were returned to Australia, and she was buried in Enfield Memorial Park next to her parents.

The reason for the accident has never been disclosed and who was at fault for the crash.

The tragedy would soon have been forgotten if not for the spooky sightings by different motorists on the same stretch of road, leading some to believe it's haunted.

This road's history is ancient. It followed the route of Roman Road No. 13, constructed for military use when Rome occupied Britain from 43 B.C. to 410 A.D. It ran from Rochester to Hastings and was connected to the iron works in the area. In 1728, it became a toll road between the two towns, and in 1760 it connected to Cranbrook.

Blue Bell Hill has an ancient megalithic structure crowning the chalk hill known as Kit's Coty. Archaeologist date it back to 4,000 B.C. and it was part of a burial mound.

Illustration of Kit's Coty c.1791

Newspaper report of the Ghost of A229 c.1974

Reports of a lady hitchhiker or a woman that would run across the road became well known especially after the accident in 1965, however there are rumors that this strange woman was seen as early as the 1930s.

Interestingly in 1962, Bob Van de Peer, reported giving a ride to girl on the hill, and when he turned around she had disappeared from the back seat of the vehicle. This was before the fatal collision in 1965, leaving in doubt if the phantom hitchhiker were any of the girls killed in the accident.

In 1969, another late night traveler saw two persons walking toward him on the road. Suddenly they disappeared, but on a second occasion he saw them, and witnessed a car drive through the pair.

In 1971, James Skene described when he stopped for a girl in her 20s. He took her to Chatham, where she promptly disappeared.

Through the years there have been reports of a woman running across the road before she vanishes. Other stories are the typical female hitchhiker phenomena retold from around the world, where the woman disappears from the vehicle.

Blue Bell Hill c.1920

In 1974, Morris Goodenough was driving on A229 when his headlight illuminated a girl walking out from the edge of the road. There was not enough time to stop, and as he feared he found a girl prostrate on the road. He covered her with a blanket, carried her to roadside and left to find police after several cars failed to stop when he tried to wave them down. The only thing that was found was Goodenough's blanket when they returned to the scene.

Fearing she had crawled off, tracker dogs were brought in, but neither scent or blood could be found. Hospital admissions found no records of treatment to match the girl, or that corresponded to a missing person's report.

Ian Sharpe was another person who had an encounter with a ghostly figure at A229 at Blue Bell Hill. Like other drivers, he described where a girl appeared without allowing any time to avoid hitting her. He described where she stared right into his eyes before he saw the body fall beneath his vehicle. Expecting to find a bloody mess under his tires, there was nothing there.

It was difficult to dismiss the similarity of his experience with that of Goodenough in 1974, but both men did not describe a young woman as the three that were killed in 1965. However Sharpe's experience was a week away from the anniversary of the crash.

Brian Wetton c.Aug. 1964 (Source - self portrait)

Others just see a fleeting shadow-like figure race across the road without being able to distinguish who it is.

In 1999, Bob Prowse was returning to Maidstone to his home in Hawkhurst. He was on the A229 when he saw a tall, blonde man standing in the road surrounded by a blueish glow, seconds before he swerved and braked. When he looked back the road was empty. Not believing his eyes he reversed to where the man had been standing and there was nothing there. He said, "The strange thing is that he was just standing there — not moving — with his arms at his side, almost as though he was standing to attention."

Mr. Prowse was the brother of Dave Prowse who played Darth Vader in Star Wars.

In 2014, a film titled The Ghost of Blue Bell Hill was released about the eerie story.

Emily Trigg was found murdered in 1916. The crime has never been solved.

Perhaps there is more than one ghost who is haunting the area of A229; products of other tragedies.

In 1916, in a wood near Chatham off the Maidstone Road the nude and decomposed body of a woman was found. She was wearing only shoes and stockings. A pendant enclosing a bullet hung on a gold chain around her neck. It was believed this was the body of Emily Maria Trigg, 20, a servant who had been missing for over a month from the Rochester district.

About 35 yards away the police found her clothing bundled together, with evidence they had been ripped off of her body. On the other side of the road a handbag, a purse and pair of gloves were found. Inside the handbag was a photograph of a soldier. Later this was confirmed by her mother to be a friend of her daughter; a private in the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment.

Emily's body was discovered by John Jennings who was blackberrying with his two daughters. She was laying face down in the undergrowth. There were marks of "great violence" on her body, and it was believed she died from strangulation. She had a piece of calico torn from her clothing stuffed into her mouth.

She had left her place of employment on August 6, to visit her widowed mother who lived on Bluebell Hill between Chatham and Maidstone. She never arrived or was seen alive again.

Her route was a lonely one, which passed the wood in which she was later found. Her shoes showed signs she had been dragged a considerable distance.

Two months after her disappearance the inquest into the death of Emily Trigg concluded, and returned an open verdict. The police were unable in the absence of clues to carry the case further.

Medical evidence showed there was an attempted rape, but it was impossible to state the cause of death. It was believed more than one person was involved in the crime.

During the inquest, John Jennings who had discovered the body testified that he had been told by a farmer of seeing a young woman walking up Blue Bell Hill with a soldier.

This coincided with evidence given by Emily's employer, Miss Cooper. She testified that Emily told her she didn't like to be seen with a soldier who had spoken to her because he was a gentleman, and she was only a country girl.

However when Emily was last seen, she had turned to walk to her mother's house by herself.

On October 20, 1916 Charles B. Hicks, a gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery was arrested at Winchester where he was stationed, charged on suspicion of being involved in the murder of Emily Trigg. Within a day of his arrest he was released. The details of why he was detained and then set free were not disclosed.

A few days after Hick's arrest the body of a middle-aged tramp, who it was believed had died of exposure was found in Bridge Wood.

Emily was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary, and her murder was never solved.

Fred Sanders was hunting ghosts in 1939 in the vicinity of where many had seen apparitions

A229 is close to a route regularly used by Emily when alive. It was a lonely place then, and more remote in 1831 when it was the site of a grisly murder. John Any Bird Pell, 14 was accused of killing Richard Faulkner Taylor, age 13.

Like Emily Trigg, Taylor had disappeared and his body was found several weeks later lying in a ditch. He was decomposed, but by blood on his clothes there was no doubt he had been murdered. A doctor who examined the body said the boy had died of a throat wound inflicted by a sharp instrument. Soon a corroded, white horn-handled knife suspected to be the murder weapon was found. The knife belonged to John Bell, who had two sons John Amy Bird Bell and James Bell. They lived in a poor house close to the spot where Taylor was murdered.

When questioned, James the younger one confessed they killed Taylor in the wood and that he had been the look out. The brothers had planned to murder the boy who was known to carry money on certain days of the month. John Bell was executed by hanging, and his body was turned over to the surgeons at Rochester for dissection. Eight thousand people attended the execution.

In 1939, Fred Sanders a Chatham dockyard worker, was a ghost hunter by hobby.

He had gone looking for the ghost of an old man who was the bailiff to Ann West of Old Bay Hall who was then a ruin. She died more 100 years before and left instruction that she was to be buried in an open tomb, and her bailiff was to bring food and water to the graveside every day for a year. He carried out her instruction for a few months then disappeared.

Fred Sanders claimed to have been tapped on the shoulder by what he suspected was the bailiff when he went to the graveyard.

He told the newspapers that he planned to visit a lonely farmhouse near Rochester, where a servant girl who was suspected of stealing had hanged herself in the barn.

In June 1939, his next investigation took him to Blue Bell Hill near Chatham to watch for a ghostly horseman who was said to go galloping about a field, where he was murdered 100 years before.

Strangely his fiancée who accompanied him was named Emily Trigg, and she lived near the scene of where Faulkner's body was found 100 years before, and her namesake's body was unearthed.

Lady Mary Dering

In July, 1939 Fred Sanders the ghost hunter found himself in another churchyard near the village of Pluckley. This time he was accompanied by a fellow dock worker named Douglas Bennett. They went to lay the ghost of Lady Dering which was said to haunt the churchyard.

Allegedly Lady Dering upon her death was encased in four leaden coffins as ordered by her husband so her beauty would be preserved, which was not exactly accurate since she was 74 years old when she died in 1704, and her husband had been dead 20 years.

By December, Fred Sanders who bicycled to his destinations with sandwiches and a flask of tea, did a two-hour vigil in a graveyard near Rochester Cathedral looking for the ghost of Charles Dickens, who was said to walk the neighborhood at Christmas time. After this last excursion nothing more was heard of Fred Sanders. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he almost froze to death while traipsing around the graveyard.

While the reason as to why Lady Dering was buried in a leaded coffin was more of an urban myth, she indeed had not one but two ghost stories tied to her.

Walter Winans who took a pot shot at Lady Dering AKA The White Lady

She was born Mary Harvey, and came from a forward-looking, merchant family who gave her a well-rounded education. In 1645, at age 16 she married William Hauke, her father's former apprentice and her cousin, without her family's consent. Her father quickly had the marriage annulled. Three years later she married wealthy Sir Edward Dering, and set up home at Surrenden, Kent. She was tutored in music by Henry Lawes a court musician, and she learned to compose. She composed three pieces making her the first woman in England whose compositions were published under her own name.

In between her compositions she gave birth to 17 children, 10 which reached adulthood.

She is linked to a ghost known as The Red Lady who haunts the grounds of the church. This moniker came about because a red rose was supposedly laid next to her body. She is said to wander the graveyard looking for the unmarked grave of her stillborn child.

The second story involves The White Lady. Surrenden Manor dates back to the 12th century, and was destroyed by fire in 1952, while it was the Northaw-Surrenden Preparatory School for Boys. It was said that a ghost haunted the library, and she was frequently seen by Americans who used the estate as an extension of the embassy during the years between the World Wars.

In 1899, Walter W. Winans an American sportsman and millionaire had moved to Surrenden. One Christmas Eve he held a solo vigil with his hunting rifle for company to await the arrival of the ghost. The White Lady appeared and he shot at her, which didn't stop her considering she was a phantom. The bullet buried itself in paneling.

He moved out shortly thereafter in the fall of 1915. The estate was then acquired by the Canadian Government as a Convalescent Home for Wounded Soldiers of the Dominion.

Five years later Walter Winans dropped dead while racing horses at Parsloe's Park.

Ghost stories abound, and so does the list of suspects as to who is the restless shade seen through the years in the vicinity of A229.