Strange news from the north: the ghost sightings used for political gain over 17th century Yorkshire

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Supernatural activity could have led to the north being perceived as a magical place centuries ago

In the bitter clash between King and Parliament during the mid-17th century, nearly five percent of England's population was wiped out. After major battles such as the one at Naseby left deep scars in the nation's psyche, the uneasy peace across the Republic of England could have also been a time of ghostly sightings.

One pamphlet, published in London in 1659, reported on ‘The five strange wonders in the north and west of England’.  It revealed that an “Exhaliaton in the Air” had been sighted with two fiery pillars visible at noon over Marston Moor, near York, glimpsed as far away as Doncaster and Halifax.

Between them “intervened several armed Troops and Companies in Battail array” who exchanged volleys. The Northern army it states vanquished that of the South. 

“The north - and Yorkshire especially - seems to have generated a lot of reports of supernatural activity in this period that was keenly reported in the London based news sheets of the time,” says Imogen Peck, a researcher from Bristol University who has been delving into the archives to trace how the conflict featured in popular memory between the end of hostilities in 1647 and the resumption of kingly rule under Charles II in 1660.

“Perhaps the north being a long way away seemed somehow more magical and prone to such portents. But they were treated with great seriousness and the archives are very good.”

The writer of the pamphlet says that the “no man can conjecture a right” as to what the sightings “portend”. But he believed that the two pillars are Parliament and his Highness subduing “popish and foreign confederates”. He calls on people to unite for the recovery of long lost liberties.

“It's a pretty clear call to get behind the new Lord Protector Richard Cromwell at a time of profound uncertainty following the death of Oliver,” believes Peck.

The spiritual spin was often anti-republican.  The February 1650 edition of the royalist newsbook, The Man in the Moon, interprets the appearance of soldiers in the sky as a warning of God’s discontent and a harbinger that the war was on its way.

‘In the North are still heard in the night, clatterings of Armour, neying of Horses, discharging of Ordnance, cryings and shreekings in the Aire, that much affrightneth the Inhabitants, frighting their Cattell some nights 3 or 4 miles from their Pastures,” it says.

“These are strange Predictions, and questionlesse the Warning pieces from heaven to prepare us against ensuing Warres and Evills that hang over our heads”.

In the same year, another sensation report was published, titled “Strange Newes from the North”. It revealed an earthquake had struck Cumberland and Westmorland and three suns had appeared in the sky.

In Yorkshire, diverse bodies of armed men rode and marched through several towns for 12 miles around Malton. Cattle suffered strange accidents through fright.  These starling reports - it adds solemnly - were vouched for by “several gentlemen of known and approved credits.” 

“We should not be surprised that people took such reports seriously, but the political interpretations are sometimes laid on pretty thick,” says Peck.  “There is a vast amount of material still be to be properly researched covering the rest of country.”

• A two-day public conference will take place at the National Civil War Centre this Friday and Saturday (August 7-8 2015).

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Three places to meet ghosts in:

Chester History and Heritage
The Ghost Train, a spooky comedy film from 1941, screens here in September and October. Local historian John Whittingham also leads a ghoulish stroll around the haunted site of the old City Hospital before walking along the canal to the city centre where ghosts abound on October 7.

Bolling Hall Museum, Bradford
Bolling Hall was for many years the seat of two important land-owning families, the Bollings and the Tempests. During the Civil War the household supported the Royalist cause, and the house provided a stronghold during the 'siege of Bradford'. The White Lady has been spotted in the Ghost Room.

Exeter's Underground Passages
Exeter's Underground Passages have long exercised a fascination over local people, bringing stories of buried treasure, secret escape routes, passages for nuns and priests - even a ghost on a bicycle.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/military-history/pre-20th-century-conflict/art533303-strange-news-north-ghost-sightings-used-political-gain-17th-century-yorkshire