Emma Weird Wiltshire
@weird-wiltshire
🌲🧚👻 Writer of strange & unusual tales. Ghosts, folklore & history from Wiltshire and beyond. Earth & nature lover. 👻🧚🌲 ☕ www.weird-wiltshire.co.uk
🧵The man lost his hand when he and his gang of poachers were caught out at the spot known as Bloody Shard Gate. The sergeant lost his hand but luckily not his life. His severed hand was reportedly buried at Pimperne Church with full military honours and haunts the graveyard looking for its body! 👻
🧵One type of ghost Wiltshire doesn't seem to have (much to my disappointment) is a ghostly hand. 👋 While I will keep on searching, I have uncovered one in Dorset. A ghostly hand, that of trumpet-sergeant Blandford, has been seen bobbing around the churchyard of St Peters, Pimperne.
🧵They said, in the old 1940s passageways that led to the more modern buildings, the ghost of an American airman had been seen, walking along the corridors. At night staff say they have an uneasy feeling in these atmospheric walkways and aren’t keen on the areas behind the old buildings. 👻 #ghosts
🧵Following the war the hospital was handed over to the local authorities and became the main hospital for Salisbury. There are no documented ghost stories associated with Odstock Hospital but the post room staff had a story to tell.
🧵Built by the US Army in 1942, the field hospital, located up on the downs about a mile out of Salisbury, was made from standard British and Nissen hut type designs. It dealt with many casualties following the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944, a total of 10 004.
What’s that on the tree-line? My first thought was, of course, it’s a ghost. It’s not! But, once again, this just proves real life is as weird as the world of ghosts. Why is this strange figure in hunting gear sat on a saddle looking across the field? Creepy!
Jack Russell in the heatwave. Batteries have powered down! 🪫 #heatwave
They watch as the sun emerges on the Summer Solstice, marking the longest day of the year before they turn and go back into the long barrow for another year. The story was told by local farmers, people up with the larks, who had witnessed the Priest and his Fae dog in years gone by. 🌞 #solstice
It is, as the sun rises across the landscape of magical Avebury, that the Druid Priest, swathed in white robes with long white hair, emerges from West Kennet Long Barrow to stand atop the mound with his Fae hound. A large dog with red tipped ears. #summersolstice #avebury #solstice2026
This is Mrs Ridout leading 'The Coombe Express', painted in 1878, by Frank Brooks. Mrs Ridout would convey goods from Coombe Bissett to The Shoulder of Mutton Inn, Salisbury. On the way home she would stop at The Swan for a final refreshment, sharing her ale with her donkeys using the same jug! 🫏🍺😊
🧵Four Late Neolithic to Bronze Age bowl barrows sit near the road. Cranborne Chase holds 395 such examples - one of the most significant ancient burial landscapes in Britain. Dr Clay was not the only one troubled by this threatening horseman on that lonely road. Was he guarding the barrows? 🧵👻
🧵Long bare legs. A long, loose coat. A horse with a flowing mane and tail but no bridle, no stirrups. The rider's face turned toward the doctor but he could make out no features. In his right hand, raised above his head, the rider brandished something threatening. Then he was gone. 🧵👇
🧵Midwinter, 1927. Dr R.R. Clay, village doctor of Fovant, is driving the road from Cranborne to Handley. Around 100 metres past Squirrels Corner, a horseman appears from the northwest, moving in the same direction. 🧵👻
I drove past my favourite Wiltshire pub sign today! Poor Kate and Wills look worse every time I see it (if that’s possible). 😂😂 #pubsigns #wiltshire
Come for a Saturday Stonehenge drive-by with me! 😊 #wiltshire #stonehenge
🧵It's Oak Apple Day in Great Wishford in Wiltshire! Held on the 29th of May, Oak Apple Day is a celebration to mark the restoration of the Stuart Monarchy in 1660. It involves making a noise with pots and pans at dawn, taking boughs of oak from Grovely Woods and proceeding to Salisbury Cathedral.
Lots of ‘3s’ on my thermometer/clock thing at Weird Wiltshire HQ yesterday! 🌞🌞🌞 #summer
Amazing facts about Fred: He could light a cigarette from a gas lamp-post and shake hands with people leaning from a first-floor window! 🪟🚬 Fred's hands could span two octaves on the keyboard of a pianoforte. 🎹 A penny would pass through his signet ring and his size in boots was 22½. 💍🥾
🧵Britain's tallest man, until his death in 1918, was 8 ft 4.5 ins tall and his name was Fred Kempster. For a while he worked as a gardener at Avebury Manor before heading off to join the circus. He fell ill in Germany just before WWI but managed to return to England before he died, just 29 yrs old.
Marlborough Mound is 19 m high, built in 2300BC. It's the 2nd biggest mound in Britain. Often referred to as Silbury Hill's little sister and is located within the grounds of Marlborough College. Legend has it, this was the final resting place of Merlin, and was once called Maerla’s Barrow. 🧙♀️
It's crop circle season again and there have already been some new creations. 🌾🛸 This awesome one appeared at Jack's Castle Plantation, near Alfred's Tower, on the 8th May. Photo credit, with thanks: Nick Bull at Stonehenge Dronescape. ⭐ #cropcircles #CropCircle #Wiltshire
🧵Then she turned to the church itself: "Any person who hereafter locks this door will die before the year is out." They didn't dare lock it for decades. Every time someone tried, they died within the year. Would YOU lock that door?
🧵The curse that kept a church door unlocked for over a century… In 1801, an innocent Romani man, Joshua Scamp was hanged for a crime he didn't commit; framed by his own son-in-law. When the local clergy later desecrated his grave, the furious Gypsy Queen laid her curses. Every single one came true.
Look what arrived in the post today? 👀 My pal @profjasperh-b.bsky.social has been busy again, turning historical titbits into funny and digestible bites! If you like history and a laugh, please buy An A-Z of WTFs in History. You won’t be disappointed! 😁 #history #books
Fancy listening to Rob and I wittering on about spontaneous human combustion this May Day weekend? 🔥🕯️ It's weird. It's terrifying. It could happen to you. It's spontaneous human combustion and you can listen to the How Haunted episode discussing 'human candles' here: how-haunted.podbean.com 🔥