Haunted Folkestone - new works

Haunted Folkestone

 Paul Harris has been collecting ghost stories from Shepway for many years - enough to fill two fascinating anthologies.  

As part of our residency at the GHost CLHub we invited artists to make work in response to these stories.

Sarah Doyle "Crying Boy" Photograph by Sarah Sparkes

Sarah Doyle “Crying Boy” watercolour on paper, 9” x 7”, 2011

 Sarah Doyle has made a painting in response to a story in Paul Harris’ ‘Shepway Ghosts’ about the ghost of a young boy at the Royal Norfolk Hotel:

 ‘A waitress rushing to and fro from the kitchen to the bar noticed a young boy in brown ragged clothing “like an urchin of Dickens’ time” sitting on the stairs. Twice she passed the boy by who seemed unnaturally still and quiet. When he was still there when coming back from delivering an order she asked if he was alright.

“He started to cry, and looked at me with tears rolling down his cheeks, his eyes were bright blue, and then he just vanished, right there in front of my eyes,” The waitress explained

Linda Barck "Mary" Photograph by Sarah Sparkes

Linda Barck "Mary" drawing on glass with hair, silver leaf and silica, 2011                                                                         

"With sorrow and some intrigue I read theses stories of sudden and brutal death, young women that had their lives taken in acts of suicide, murder and war. As an aftermath their ghosts are now said to haunt the places where their lives where cut short. These drawings on glass with hair and silver leaf are reflections, mirages of the past while literally reflecting the present.   

Mary was brutally murdered after refusing the advantages of one of the chefs at her work place. Her ghost is said to haunt the Burstin Hotel (former Royal Pavilion Hotel) in Folkestone. She is still running from her murderer.  Her ghost appears, reflected in mirrors and glass, wearing a white dress with long flowing, black curly hair.

Edith (Edith Mary Grimes), killed by a German bomb in 1917. Her ghost is said to haunt 14 Tontine Street in Folkestone, where it tries to prevent people climbing the stairs to, presumably, where the impact of the bomb would have taken her life.

Jane Doe took her own life after a fight with her lover. She is said to haunt the Clifton hotel, Folkestone, in the very room where she committed suicide. Her ghost is described wearing a nightgown and emitting great sadness, sorrow and misery.

Additional Reference to Mary & Edith; Terry Begent, Go Folkestone Newsletter December 2007. Reference to 'Jane'; 2003, http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/50965/4c63

Jacqueline Utley, "Katherine, Elizabeth and the Grey lady" Photogragh by Sarah Sparkes

Jacqueline Utley "Katherine, Elizabeth and Grey Lady" Watercolour paint on old paper in frame,12 cm x 10cm, 2011                                                                                                                                                   

Jacqueline Utley makes still life paintings from abandoned ornaments and objects. Jacqueline talks of place in painting she attempts to arrive at ''where the observed and imagined can sort of merge together'' “In the Ghosts of Shepway by Paul Harris I became drawn to female ghosts in the stories especially Katherine Eve of Romney Marsh, Elizabeth of the New Inn and the Grey Lady of the Ship Inn, Dymchurch. I began to think of the loneliness of the three women ghosts. Katherine wandering the shore, Elizabeth in the New Inn and the Grey Lady of the Ship. I decided to make a drawing of the three women ghosts together imagining they may take some comfort from such a meeting”.

"Apparition in the Burstin Hotel" Photogragh Sarah Sparkes

Linda Barck came to assist at GHost CLHub over bank holiday weekend, GHost took her to visit the location where Mary's ghost has been sited.  This photograph was taken in the deserted dining room at the Grand Burstin Hotel, but is this Linda or Mary who has been captured by the camera?