In the News #2
Broadcaster's fright night with ghosts
Thursday, September 18, 2008, 1thisisnottingham.co.uk
BRIAN Tansley knows how to tell a good story. And a lifetime in local radio which has seen him interview more stars than you can shake a stick at, has brought a treasure trove of memories.
But the yarn I like the best doesn't mention any famous names... just a couple of ghosts.
Back in the days when Radio Trent was based in Castle Gate, Brian was working late one night in the studios, located below ground.
"Apparently, they had been used as a hospital in the past, going back to the days of the English Civil War," said Brian, in that cheery voice, instantly recognisable to local listeners.
All was quiet, most people had gone home. Brian was alone.
"I looked out of the studio window and I saw a Roundhead and a Cavalier talking to each other.
"Well, two weeks earlier I had been up to the university for a Sealed Knot Society event and I assumed it was a couple of their members who had come in for an interview.
"When I looked again, about 15 minutes later, they had gone.
"The only other person in the building was the news editor and when I had finished I asked him what the two soldiers had been doing there.
"'What soldiers?" he replied. 'There has been no one else here for three or four hours'! I suddenly felt icy cold."
Brian, 57, spends his working week these days with The Media Group in Ruddington, a successful business headed by former Central TV presenter Keith Daniell and his wife Alison.
Prison dungeon is uncovered
A forgotten dungeon has been uncovered under a tourist attraction in Nottingham city centre.
The 20ft (6m) hole, found under the Galleries of Justice, is thought to be an oubliette, where people were incarcerated hundreds of years ago.
The name means 'forgotten place' and was a dungeon where prisoners were thrown or lowered by rope.
It was uncovered as workmen were taking up the floor of the building to start work on a new visitor attraction.
Cathy Rowson, marketing co-ordinator at the Galleries of Justice said: "Prisoners were lowered into it and left either to starve to death or were fed and left to descend into madness.
"Considering it was a pit where no-one could get out of, it's highly likely there are human remains down there. Unfortunately we can't get the archaeologists down there to find out until we obtain funding."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7911398.stm
Published: 2009/02/25 20:32:51 GMT
© BBC MMIX
Ghostly museum image caught on film
Monday, May 18 07:45 pm
Press Assoc.
A ghostly image has been snapped at a museum prompting speculation that the spirit of the English scientist Edward Jenner could be haunting his former home.
A photograph seems to have captured a hazy image of a man sitting on a chair in the attic of the Edward Jenner Museum in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
The picture was taken by BBC photographer Chris Sandys, who said: "I don't believe in ghosts myself, but this is strange."
Mr Sandys, who was taking images for a story on the museum's new Ghosts In The Attic exhibition, added: "As soon as I'd taken a panoramic photo, I reviewed the image on the camera and straight away noticed this strange formation of light, shaped like a figure, through the doorway in the next room.
"Without moving I did a few takes to try and work out what had caused it but couldn't see anything. It was so weird."
Jenner was the pioneer of smallpox vaccination and the father of immunology. He was born in Berkeley in 1749 where he spent most of his career as a doctor in the town before he died in 1823.
Museum director Sarah Parker said: "There have always been stories of ghosts at the Edward Jenner Museum. We usually take them with a large pinch of salt. We are truly flabbergasted by the image.
"You can basically see through a doorway what looks like a figure reclining in a chair, only there is no chair there. Who knows whether it is Jenner himself?
"We have graffiti from soldiers previously billeted in the attic rooms from the late 19th century and perhaps this is one of them or even one of Jenner's servants."
