Campus ghost stories
Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? With over 180 years of history, there’s no shortage of mysterious happenings at York St John. Whether you’re a ghost hunter or a ghost sceptic, some stories are too good not to share!
It’s a thought that every student has had at some point. When their favourite shoes are missing, or that vital textbook seems to have disappeared or even when their phone charger is elusive at the exact moment it’s needed: is this the work of a ghost? Of course, the shoes end up being hidden under the bed, the textbook behind the cereal and of course why wouldn’t your housemate borrow your charger? But some things are a little harder to explain. For years spooky circumstances have haunted students diligently writing essays…
Is The Grange haunted?
Every year, freshers eagerly move into The Grange to begin their studies at York St John. And every year, the rumours begin to trickle through. Strange noises, odd shadows and cold spots. Some students even claim to have seen spectres haunting the corridors! Last year we even heard than an enterprising student was offering solutions to these problems, for a small fee! But is there a reasonable explanation for some of these ghostly sightings?
Well, The Grange complex itself is quite an old building. The entire site was once the Victorian era workhouse, so if there was a place to have paranormal activity, this would, presumably, be it. But, could some of the ghostly issues be explained by the age of the building and an overactive imagination? Old buildings are known to occasionally make strange noises, or have unexplainable drafts. Could strange shadows actually be the work of housemates playing tricks, or other students just around the corner?
Was our Quad haunted too?
For over 150 years, students lived on campus for part of their course, if not the duration of it! If the walls could talk, what could they tell us? Well, probably plenty of things we don’t really want to know! But, during Your YSJ Reunion 2023, we heard an interesting story that might suggest something spooky happening in the quad too…
But this wasn’t the only spooky story. She claimed that many of the College’s rugby team lived in Temple Wing and that something kept spooking them. Enough that they occasionally moved their mattresses to sleep in pairs! Was this a prankster that was never revealed, or something more spectral?
Today, the bedrooms which were around the quad and in Temple Wing are now teaching and office space. Do posters fall down in academic offices every full moon? Is this the real reason we no longer have student accomodation on campus?
We’ll leave those questions up to you.
The grey lady
At our old Ripon campus, a ‘grey lady’ was rumoured to walk the College. Sometimes described as haunting the entrance, the ‘Golden staircase’, the roof, or the bedrooms, Ripon’s ‘grey lady’, was passed down through the generations of Ripon students. Others linked the ‘grey lady’ to another spooky sighting – the floating candle rumoured to be seen only at night, as if checking all the student were in bed! Over the years, many alumni claim to have seen the grey lady, but whether she still haunts our old campus is anyone’s guess.
A trick of the light?
When autumn arrives and the nights grow longer, campus creates a spooky atmosphere. Part of this is undoubtedly the shadows which fill campus, cast by students, staff and inanimate objects, they occasionally suggest something more spectral. There have been reports of shadow figures all around campus, including one spotted in the window of De Grey one night last year! Are these figures from our past still attending classes or a member of staff not bothering to turn the light on?
Ghostly ringtones
Our on site accommodation was much-loved, and much missed, by our alumni community. But in some of its final years, was it the site of paranormal activity? At one time, many of the blocks had phones but over the years, these were slowly disconnected. In the mid 2010s, Block G still had a disconnected phone, a relic of the past that students rarely paid attention to. They’d obviously tried the phone, to see if it worked, but as it didn’t even have a dial tone, they knew it was a bit pointless to try calling home.
One alum recalls that when they lived in Block G, complete with its equally creepy cupboard storage space, the phone wasn’t a source of mystery at all. It was just a fact of life in G Block. Until, one day, it rang.
Was the phone still connected to an internal network and someone simply dialled the wrong number? Had it actually been connected all along, and the day they’re tried it and heard no dial tone was a fluke? Or was this a phone call from somewhere else entirely?
Do you have a ghost story or sighting from your time at York St John, Ripon campus or Ripon College? Share your story with us by email alumni@yorksj.ac.uk.
