Something spooky this way comes

This month, we asked our alumni community to share their spookiest stories from their time studying with us, and you didn’t disappoint!

A ghostly figure

Submitted anonymously, this story was too spooky not to share!

From my bedroom window, I’d often see a girl walk across the road into one of the other houses. It was only after seeing her for a while that I realised she was transparent and wearing something like a nurses uniform, but an old fashioned one! It just looked like a long skirt and top from a sideview but then I also realised I saw her tread the exact same path, every time. No deviation, no change; it was like she’d just disappear into the house. She wouldn’t slow down, just walk and then seem to disappear inside.

I saw this all winter of 1999-2000 but when nights got lighter, I didn’t see her again….

St Margaret’s poltergeist

Submitted by Jane who studied in Ripon. It seems like strange things happened after dark…

At night, flashing twinkly lights could be seen up and down the corridor. I never came out of my room late at night unless I absolutely had to visit the bathroom – there were no ensuites in those days! I also loathed having to walk back to the rooms after an evening in the Students’ Union for the same reason.

In my second year, we were moved out of our halls of residence due to an infestation of silverfish. I ended up in an attic room in the main building. That was even more spooky – I spent most of my time sleeping on fellow students floors until we could return to our rooms!

The most hilarious event was when The Exorcist was released and a group of us popped down to the Cinema to see it. After the film the males in the group refused to go back to their rooms alone in Owen House, so we sat up all night chatting in the common room…

Ure not going to believe it

After Ripon College decided to admit men, they had to figure out where they could sleep! Submitted by Derek, this is a story he gleefully told to his year six classes…

A student had a small room at the back of an old, Victorian house called Ure Lodge. The bedroom was on the ground floor of this large building, and to get to it, you had to pass through two doors and into a dark corridor. The doors had large bolts and could easily lock the room from being accessed from the rest of the building.

The student was revising almost day and night in preparation for the eight, three hour exams they would shortly take, and was becoming increasingly tired and more than a little worried. One evening, on returning to the room, he was surprised to find a glass picture frame behind the door. Strange because it belonged on the desk. But, the student thought no more about it.

A couple of evenings later, after eating a bowl of custard from a glass pyrex bowl, the bowl was placed on a pile of books. But, the following morning, they couldn’t find the dish. It wasn’t where they remembered leaving it. A quick search located the dish: it was on top of the bookcase. The student wondered how it had got there. Had they moved it while asleep? Were they working too hard? Were they just overtired?

The bedroom also had a large mirror hanging on the wall. A day or two later, they returned from College to find it off the wall and propped against the wardrobe. It was at this point they really began to worry. Were they doing this themselves, and just forgetting? Was someone else, somehow, doing it as a weird prank? Or was their another reason?

They needed to talk to someone quickly and so asked the College Chaplain to come to the room and talk things over. He came and they talked. Then he said a prayer. Nothing else moved.

And that was the end of matter.

Except for a meeting between the student and the Chaplain on the day the student was leaving College for the last time. He told the student that he had looked into what had occurred and had discovered something interesting. Prior to Ure Lodge being a College hostel, it had been an old people’s home. The rear of the building could be separated from the rest for a variety of purposes. The student’s room was used from time to time, when required, as a temporary mortuary!

The last person to lie there was an old gentleman who harmlessly, and for no apparent reason, used to move glass objects from place to place.

And how did Derek know about this spooky story? Well, because it was his room of course!

The Ripon ghost

In Gillian’s first year at Ripon, she lived in the main building. One Sunday, something happened she’s never forgotten…

At Ripon College, we had our main meal at lunchtime on a Sunday. We had to collect items for our tea from the kitchen on the Sunday morning. Tins of soup, beans, spaghetti, beard, crackers and cheese. The idea was that you made your own tea.

This particular Sunday, my friend Carol and I decided to meet for tea. She lived up the main road in Bartlett House, and we decided she would walk to my room for about 5 pm. The days were short and it was already dark.

When Carol did turn up and I opened my door to her, I was greeted by Carol in a bit of a state. She looked terrified.

Her route to my room, once she had entered the main building opposite the Porter’s lodge, was several wide ornate staircases which led onto the corridors which contained several swing doors. Carol told me that as she walked along the corridor between the doors, that she could hear the swish of crinoline material, as though someone was right behind her and following her. The swing doors would bang after she had gone through, which they never usually did.

Poor Carol kept calm until she reached my room. She didn’t run or look behind her. She couldn’t explain what she had heard or the terror she had felt, but she knew it had happened.

A midnight lecture

In 2017, Jennifer was walking through campus at midnight when something strange happened…

Cutting through campus from Percy’s Lane to City Res after a games night with friends, late November, I heard someone running behind me as I passed Holgate. Heavy, loud footsteps. I turned, but there was nobody to be seen. When I looked at the Holgate sliding doors, they opened with a swish for absolutely nobody to pass through – I was too far away to have set the inner doors off.

Clearly someone late for a midnight lecture….