Funny Junks Picture Funny Junk Video Clips - FunnyJunkForge.com

The Tower of London is perhaps one of the most famous castles in all the world, and for several centuries of English history, there was not a more blood-drenched battlement in all of England. As testament to the Tower’s violent past, several spectral personalities have walked it’s ramparts for nearly 800 years.

One of the earliest recorded sightings occurred in 1241, when 71 years after his murder in Canterbury Cathedral, St. Thomas Becket was seen by priests at the Tower. It is recorded by the priests witnessing the apparition that the Archbishop’s spirit apparently objected to expansion work being carried out on the grounds and struck the new walls with a cross, causing them to crumble to the ground.

One of the most frequently reported spectral sightings is of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second of King Henry VIII’s wives. Anne Boleyn was one of several of the wives that Henry had beheaded. She has been seen many times over the years by the guardsmen patrolling the grounds. One of the sentries even faced court-martial charges over the spirit. It seems one early morning while on guard duty, he saw a figure in a brown velvet gown emerge from the mist and move toward him. He challenged the figure several times and received no reply. The guard approached with bayonet fixed, and as he did, he noticed that the figure’s bonnet appeared completely empty. The figure did not stop advancing, and the soldier ran it through with his bayonet. Bolts of white fire shot back down his rifle knocking him unconscious. Later that morning, his superiors found him and accused him of sleeping on duty; a very serious offense in the military. In his court-martial hearing however, the court had learned that Anne Boleyn’s spirit had again been seen just outside the little chapel where she spent her last night before execution.

While there are many more reported specters that inhabit the infamous Tower, one of the most frightening is that of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury. At Margaret’s beheading, she managed to get free of her guards and ran screaming through the yard. The ominous masked executioners chased her and when she tripped, dragged her screaming and kicking back to the executioner’s block. Margaret screamed and struggled as the men tried to hold her down, causing the executioner’s axe to miss three times. By now Margaret had gone completely insane, and fought all the harder. On his fourth try, his axe tore into only half of her throat. Her screams turned into bloody gurgles. On the fifth drop of the axe the executioner found the mark and Margaret’s head rolled silently into the basket. Margaret reportedly reenacts her horrific execution every year, on it’s anniversary.

London has several underground stations that have been the subject of some rather peculiar and unnerving phenomenon. Aldgate Station on the Circle Line has had a variety of strange sightings.

At Aldgate the line crosses over older sections of underground rail, and strange sightings are so frequent that they are recorded in the station log.

In one case, a late shift conductor watched as a track worker bent over the rails doing a bit of work. As the man worked, the conductor saw an old woman with white hair gently stroking the back of the man’s head. Within the next few minutes the man made a horrible mistake, coming in contact with the deadly 24,000 volt conductor rail. While he was knocked unconscious by the jolt, he was miraculously unharmed. The old woman was believed to have been killed many years before, falling onto a similar rail during the bombing of London in the Second World War. Aldgate station has had many such sightings. Passengers frequently report of hearing footsteps, in the wee hours of the morning, approach them and pass them by with no sign of anyone. Strange and mournful whistling is also reported.

Not far from the Marble Arch, in a narrow, winding cobble stone alley behind Hyde Park Corner, is a fashionable and quaint neighborhood pub. The pub, called the Grenadier, is a fragment of London’s past that belongs to the Waterloo era. The Grenadier once served as an officers mess for the Duke of Wellington’s regiments.

In those days, the main bar was in the cellars with the officers dining room in the pub’s main room upstairs. Still in use today, the old pewter bar was moved upstairs and is believed to be the oldest of it’s kind in existence.

The story goes that many years ago a young officer was caught cheating in a card game. His companions handed out immediate and brutal punishment of flogging him on the spot. He allegedly stumbled down into the cellars and died. To this day his ghost is said to haunt the pub. The story of the Grenadier haunting is well known, and customers from all over the world have left money attached to the ceiling of the main bar as a tribute. The pub has also been the subject of numerous television and radio programs, and was featured in the movie “Around the World in 80 Days.”

The disturbances are most acute in September, which incidentally happened to be the month the young officer was cheating at cards.

Several guests have reported distinctly seeing a figure of a man going up the stairs from the bar, only to vanish before he reaches the top. Employees have been frightened on trips to the wine cellars by unexpected chilly breezes and faint unearthly sounds. Numerous times, workers attempting to renovate the pub have experienced frightening events such as locked doors flung wide open, and have heard heavy foot steps, and loud banging. Needless to say, the pub has not received many renovations. It is fairly common for other peculiar events to occur day or night such as unexplained shadows along the staircase, loud knocking and rapping, lights switching off and on, objects being moved, and water being turned on.