Page 26 - Thrapston Life October 2023

GLANCE AT
THE PAST
Eric Franklin looks back
As far as I know, there are no records of hauntings in Thrapston, although there are a few items which could come peripherally into this subject.
Following on from my March article on floods, this photograph by Joseph Howkins Mason of flooding by the Swan Hotel in 1875, looks a perfectly normal Victorian view of
this part of town. However, look closely at the wall to the right and you may see what appear to be five ghostly apparitions standing in the water. To allay any fears of hauntings, this was caused by photographs in those days requiring very long exposures and the five people leaving before the shutter was finally closed to complete the exposure.
In 1966, George Essex wrote some of his early memories to raise money for the new swimming pool in town, one of which was about the “apparition” which went:
ever claimed to have seen a flying saucer, but in the autumn of 1903, we did have an apparition that appeared at the bottom of the Sports Field near the Three Arches brook, (which can just
be seen at the top left of this picture from 1951 of crowds off to the Festival of Britain from Bridge Street Station). Who was the first to see it, I do not know, but before long a whole crowd had gathered on the road at the top of the field to indulge in excited and slightly apprehensive speculation. At last, a few bolder members, after arming themselves with sticks, launched a full- scale attack, only to find themselves beating, and for a time dispersing, the natural gases
that were producing the quite un-supernatural
“So far as I know, no one in Thrapston has
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