46 FT389not theone who’dhad theexperience in
question; thathad been herfriend Steve
(pseudonym),whodescribed theincidentas
follows:“Itwas theafternoonof Sunday29July
2012and Ihad beentothe GreatHaywood
villageshop.Iwas walkingthrough the
woods withmy dog Tilly; we hadpassedSt
Stephen’s churchand wereheading towards
the canalwherethe narrowboatsaremoored.
As we passed underneaththerailwaybridge- just beforethe iron bridgethatgoesover the
Trentand Mersey canal–Icaughtsightof
something outof thecorner ofmy eye.Iturned
aroundtosee whoitwas,thinkingitwas
someoneelse outwalking theirdog, butnoone
was there. Indeed, therewas no one aroundat
all. Nevertheless, it feltlikesomeonewasthere
in frontof me, andthatlwas beingwatched.
Ihavehad many expe rienceslike this befo re,
wherelsensedapresence.So,usingmy mobile
phone,Idecided to takeaphotograph of the
areaby the wall of the railwa ybridgewhere
lsensed someone tobe.Itwas only when I
returnedhomeand lookedat the photothat
lwas shocked to clearly seethe image of a
youngwomaninfrontof the wall. Shewas
looking directly at me, andIconsidered that
shelooked startled,even though the imagewas
quitetransparent.She appearedto be wearing
aveil around herheadand carryingasmall
posy offlowers.(Ichecked andwhere a‘posy’ is
situatedon theimagether ewas nothing in the
actual wallthatcould have beenmistakenfor
one).Ithought shelooked around23 yearsold,although shecould be younger.Inamed her
‘Emily’as thatisthe name that cametome
when lsaw her.
Ishowedthe photo tomy friend Karen,
wholives locally, hopingthatshe might
shedsomelighton whothiswomanmight
be.She speculated therecould bealinktoa
young womanwhowas thevictimofafatal
roadtraffic accidentthathappenedinGreat
Haywoodat the MillPond in 1905,wherea
car hadcome offthe road intothe pond.
Interestingly,Tillydid notreactatthe time
of the incident, as some dogs candowhere
there is something ‘paranormal’goingon. By
contrast,my older dogBess, when she was
alive,often went ‘nuts’wheneverwewalkedby
the railway bridge andinthe woodscloseby.
Once, shejust refused to passby aparticular
spotinthe woods and barkedandgrowled
at something that lcouldn’t see; Iended up
having toclimb the embankment andwalk
across the top to theotherside!Karen later sharedSteve’s photowith a
localFacebookgroup.One responsewas
froman elderlygentlemanwho has lived
in the village all hislife.Hesaidthathe
recognisedthisyoungwomanand had
often seenher crossingoverthe nearby
Essex Bridge towardsShugboroughHall in
theeveningswhenhewas outwalking his
dog.Shehad passedhim and thensimply
vanished.
Thereference to theroad traffic accident
relatestoMrs Challenor,the wife of the
Town ClerkofHanley, and herniece,
whowere beingdrivenacross thebridge
at GreatHaywood Mill whentheir car
plungedinto themill pond.Thechauffeur
and MrsChallenorsurvived, but Mrs
Challenor’sniece couldnotbefound.The
pondwas draggedand divers from the
Manchester ShipCanalwerebrought in,ABOVE:The Mill Pond Bridge at Great Haywood seenona postcar dsent in 1905.The messageont he
revers ereads: “This isthe fata lspot at GtHaywood. Thebody has no tbeenrecovereduptopresent.”ABOVE:The canalbridgeat GreatHaywood,where‘Steve’sayshesensedapresenceand took thephotographthat laterrevealed‘Emily’(aboveright).RO
BG
ANDY