Paranormal

The Dorsetarian

Sherborne Folklore and Ghosts
Folklore, Customs and Ghost Stories in Sherborneby Elisabeth Bletsoe Sherborne is a small market town in north-west Dorset; formerly a Saxon burgh. It evolved through the cloth, gloving and silk industries and boasts two castles, a Benedictine Abbey and the renowned public school for boys established since Edward VI. The town is embedded in varied countryside united by scarps of Jurassic ...

Well Dressing and Sacred Water
Well Dressing and Sacred Waterby Chris Tripp Water Worship - The Filly Loo Ceremony around the village pond, Ashmore. Water is the foundation of all life on Earth. Our bodies are mostly made up of it. A human being can survive many days without food in a hostile environment, but deprived of water for a much shorter period of time and our bodies quickly start to malfunc...

Folklore of William Barnes
The Folk-Lore of William BarnesBy John Symonds Udal I have been asked to write a short paper or article on "Dorsetshire Folk-Lore" for our "Year Book." But I feel some difficulty in doing so, for two reasons; first, because it is impossible in such a limited space to give any fair idea of what the folk-lore of the Dorset people consists; and, secondly, because I am myself just...

Some Dorset Superstitions
Some Dorset Superstitions By Hermann Lea In employing the term superstition, it is in the sense defined by Franz v. Schonthan : — Zwar nicht wissen — aber glauben Heisst ganz richtig — Aberglauben. (Not to know, but to believe; what else is it, strictly speaking, but superstition?) It is natural, no doubt, that superstition should decrease in the s...

Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy - A Dorset Novelist and Poet Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy was born on 2nd June, 1840, at Higher Bockhampton, a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford, some two and half miles east of Dorchester. The author's grandfather, Thomas Hardy (the first), settled in Bockhampton in 1801, in a house which his father had built for him. By trade he was a master mason but hi...

Easter Customs and Traditions
Easter Customs and Traditions By Robert Newland 'Easter Tide’ is the most important festival of the Christian year, symbolising the ‘Redemption of Man’ and the confirming of the fundamental belief in ‘Life Everlasting’. Easter holy week begins with ‘Palm Sunday’, which commemorates the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem before his tri...

Cerne Abbas
Cerne AbbasA Brief History of the Village with Local Legendsby Anon. Amid the rolling, grassy hills of the picturesque Dorset hinterland nestles a perfect gem of typical English villages - Cerne Abbas.Cerne, by its very geographical situation, might eventually have competed with Dorchester for the honour of being the county town, but all who love the unspoiled English countryside would not have...

Fossil Folklore
Sea Dragons, Fairy Loaves& Serpents of StoneFables & Fossils of Lyme Regis by Dr. Karl P.N. Shuker Dr. Karl Shuker and life-size megalodon jaws,Lyme Fossil Shop, Lyme Regis In July 2010, I visited Lyme Regis on Dorset’s south coast, a relatively small town but one that is to fossil enthusiasts what Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh-English border is to book love...

Skulls in Folklore
Skullsby Sabine Baring-Gould. In medieval churches, castles, and mansions where there is a parapet rising from the wall and obscuring a portion of the roof, this parapet is supported at intervals by corbels, that usually represent heads of either men or beasts, very frequently grotesque. These corbels are not of any great structural importance, though they add to architectural decoration. T...

Ghosts and Hauntings
Ghosts and Things that go Bump in the Night by David Kingston. The word Ghost is described in the Oxford dictionary as, "a person's spirit appearing after his or her death." But then what about the reports of horses galloping down the lanes on a dark night and other such apparitions? Why do certain countries, houses and places appear to have more than there fair share of Ghosts?Great Britai...

Paranormal

We have gathered some website links for further investigation. These links go to Dark Dorset recommended sites for further investigation.

The Ghost Club

The Ghost Club was founded in 1862, is the oldest organisation in the world associated with psychical research. Its prime interest focuses on paranormal phenomena such as ghosts and hauntings, but the club also covers other related subjects.

Paranormal Database - Dorset

An extensive resource site on past and modern ghost sightings, haunted houses, cryptozoology, and all things paranormal reported in the UK. This links to the Dorset database.

Dr. Simon Sherwood's Apparitions of Black Dogs

Find out about other black dog legends in Britain. Compiled and researched by Dr. Simon Sherwood, this site is a good introduction into the Black Dog Mythology with links to other interesting Black Dog information.

The Old Black Dog

Once the former Black Dog Inn of Uplyme. The Old Black Dog Bed & Breakfast Guest House now has its own website featuring the legend of the spectral Black Dog of Lyme.

Paranormally Active

Based in Dorset, Paranormally Active are a team that enjoy the research and investigation of Dorset's many Paranormal locations. The website aims to engage both sceptics and believers.