Skegness Magazine

SKEGNESS HAS ITS GHOSTS?
INTERESTING POINTS RAISED IN Y.C. DEBATE
A legend of a ghostly bell which is said to be heard at times tolling off Skegness Pier head, and a suggestion that at least one well-known local hostelry had its ghost, were among the points raised at the debate held by members of the Skegness Young Conservatives on the subject of  “There are no such things as ghosts” back in 1947.
Coun. Reuben Rowe, Chairman of the Skegness Branch, presided over an attendance of nearly fifty members, and some interesting anecdotes were told during the course of the debate.
The case for the existence of ghosts was opened by Miss Sutton, who told of two friends of hers, a perfectly normal, happily married couple living in the north of England, who realised that separately each of them had seen an apparition pass through one of the rooms of their house. As a test they both sat up one night to see if they could see it together, and, contended the speaker, they did!
Mr. Tom Winning, for the other side, contended strongly that such experiences were nothing more than the result of an overworked imagination, and cited instances to support his statement.

THE DISAPPEARING COOKS
Mr. Peter Howard, supporting Miss Sutton, instanced the vision of the crucifix that was stated to have been seen in the sky, by hundreds of people, after a war time raid on Ipswich. He further mentioned a case, which he said had received a good deal of publicity, that of the disappearing ship’s cooks; two mysteriously disappeared in succession from the same ship, and the third received mysterious injuries and dare not sail. He asked if anyone could explain that.
Another speaker, telling of a ghostly bell that can be heard on foggy days tolling beyond Skegness Pierhead, said the town had ghosts on its doorstep. He added that it was well known that, a few miles out, was a church which had been swallowed up by the sea.
This suggestion was strongly opposed, and Mr. Peter Piant, leading the opposition, said that he did not question the hearing of the bells, but undoubtedly they were ships’ bells, sounded in fog.
CARRINGTON HALL GHOST?
A well-known Skegness Senior Conservative vouched for seeing an apparition on the stairs at Carrington Hall, an occurrence which so startled her that she sat down voluntarily on the stairs. Them same speaker alleged that a house in a well known Skegness Avenue might have claims to be haunted.
Another speaker told of an experience in a house in Kent when a radio, which had not been in use all evening, suddenly burst out in full blast in the middle of the night. Other debaters however, derisively referred to this phenomenon as “Shinwell-effect.”    ( laughter)
In a similar category came a story from Mr. Tom Williams, of a clock which, awaiting repairs, had been stopped for a number of years. One day, at midday, the clock suddenly struck twelve. Not another sound came from it till midnight when it struck twelve again. On the following noon, the same thing happened. According to Mr. Williams, he then threw it out into the yard, and nobody dare touch it for a week!

THE SHADOW OF A DOG
Mr. Hathaway told a story of his sister’s seeing the shadow of her dog  pass along a hedge, at a time when the dog was nowhere about. She was very agitated, but her husband assured her that it was purely imagination. On the following day they learned that the dog had been killed by a bus about the time that the shadow had been seen.
Mr. Tom Winning made the point that there was much which science did not yet know, and that 100 years ago radar, about which a great deal was now known, would have been looked upon as more impossible than ghosts.
He suggested that in another hundred years time, the ghosts of today and the ghosts of tomorrow would be on the best of terms with eachother, a remark which drew the that the space in which ghosts exist must be getting rather over- crowded.
A show of hands revealed level voting, and the Chairman gave his casting vote in favour of the existence of ghosts.