Don't go to Bala tonight mister...

[kebabking]

strange thread title i know...

anyway, years and years ago i read a ghost story containing the above line - all standard stuff, nightime drive through North Wales, picks up a young hitchiker, weathers crap, hitchhikers tells him not to go onto his destination tonight - Bala - driver falls asleep at the wheel for a second or so, scares himself witless and lo! the hitchiker has disapeared. bloke has the collywobbles, stops at the next town (might have been Corwen..) and books himself into the hotel.

the inevitable happens, he's chatting in the bar and mentions the hitchiker and the place goes quiet. turns out the hitchiker is the spitting image of a local boy who was killed in an RTA years ago - at which point someone walks in to say that the road to Bala has been closed by a massive landslide. dun dun deeeeerrrr...

i've tried a search for the story (i'm adamant that that very line is used), but my googlefu is obviously a bit shit - does it ring any bells for anyone?

 

[planetgeli]

No, but cool story bro

and liked for the thread title

 

[Celyn]

Rings bells all right, but I can't be sure if that's not just because there's a whole lot of "spooky hitcher/driver" stories.

Hmm. Will rack brain, and if I can identify the story, I'll post here.

 

[bimble]

dun dun deeeeerrrr...

What happens next?

 

[kebabking]

What happens next?

if its anything like the last time i stayed in Corwen - the Owain Glyndwr Hotel on a foul winters night after about 6 hours drive that should have taken 3 - the staff would have been brilliant. they would probably have rustled up eggs, chips and gammon at 10.30pm to an absolutely exhausted traveller who walked in 10 minutes earlier. beer, fire, food, bed.

the Berwyn Arms on the A5 is a bit plusher, and the food is spectacular, but the OG would have done the business when it was needed.

 

[Calamity1971]

Tried that line here but no results
Enter a quote, get the movie and time it showed up...

 

[celtichris]

The story is caller HUW or HUGH but I can't remember the name of the author. I'm attempting to look for it too. I'll let you know if I find it.

 

[kebabking]

The story is caller HUW or HUGH but I can't remember the name of the author. I'm attempting to look for it too. I'll let you know if I find it.

embarrassingly i think it might have been in a Readers Digest book of spooky stories - i read it at my nans, now dead 20 years, and her bookshelves were 90% readers digest compendiums...

 

[tim]

This thread has picked up mysterious poster. Hopefully, they will issue an enigmatic warning before vanishing.

 

[Celyn]

The story is caller HUW or HUGH but I can't remember the name of the author. I'm attempting to look for it too. I'll let you know if I find it.

That rings a bell. And I think it was probably "Huw" because when I read the story, I would not have seen that spelling before. Trouble is I seem to mix it up with something by Saki.

 

[keybored]

That's uncannily similar to something that happened to me in North Wales. I too was driving one night in terrible weather and picked up a hitchhiker and naturally he asked where I was headed. I told him Anglesey and he said "No, don't go to Anglesey tonight". Of course I asked why not, and he said "Because it's a shithole mate".

 

[nogojones]

 

[blossie33]

I don't know the story but couldn't resist a bit of a google - haven't come across anything except it seems Bala is known for it's ghosts



. The Trapped Spirit
One incident I quote in full in Haunted Wales, because I enjoyed it so much, is a ghost story which concerns the creation of the Vyrnwy Reservoir in Mid Wales in the 1880s.
It is a fascinating piece of social history as much as anything else. The entire valley of Treweryn, near Bala, was drowned so the people of Liverpool could have clean water, so it's no wonder the locals resisted the scheme.
But one of the things that alarmed them most was that one of the first tasks was to blow up a big rock, under which they believed an exorcist had trapped a troublesome spirit more than 100 years previously - and they genuinely feared the ghost would be released in the process.
The local vicar, Rev Evans, recorded what happened when the Scouse navvies finally got their way, and it makes amusing reading, for they became just as caught up in the atmosphere of dread as the locals.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Spooky hitcher stories always remind me of a particular time in my life; I was maybe 20, just got back from living in London and me and a couple of other guys used to drive round the countryside at night if we had no booze money, cos one lad's dad had bought him a cheap Datsun Cherry and gave him petrol money to get him to college and back. One night three of us were out, the driver trying to scare us by taking country corners too fast despite the fact it was pissing it down, and we passed this kid around our age, hood up, walking along the roadside towards Grimsby. We stopped to see if he was ok and if he wanted a lift into town cos it was a dog of a night. He got in the back with me, it took him a while as he had this massive haversack/army style bag with him.

The three of us did some awkward chatting, asking him a few questions; he didn't seem to know anyone we knew and he was quite vague about places in town. Eventually I said, jocularly, "What's in your bag?" "NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!" he shouted, and I mean REALLY shouted. Made us all jump. The last couple of minutes of the journey before dropping him off were excruciating, none of us dared look at each other cos he was clearly a bit tapped and we didn't want to make each other laugh. When the car stopped he just opened the door and ran like fuck away from the car and round the corner, of course we all fell about laughing. Then we noticed the bag. He hadn't taken it with him. We knew we shouldn't open it, but we did.

 

[blossie33]

.....what was in it?

 

[Steel Icarus]

NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!

 

[blossie33]

 

[Sue]

@

NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!

 

[D4nskii]

Just on the off-chance this thread isn't also dead...

I got here by Googling the exact same line, as I was also trying to track the story down.

The story is indeed called "Huw", and I *think* it appears in "The Obstinate Ghost and Other Ghostly Tales" by Geoffrey Palmer, Noel Lloyd; published by Piccolo in 1972. I've just ordered a 2nd hand copy from Amazon to confirm, but the research seems to check out.

 

[Celyn]

A hundred thousand welcomes, D4nskii! That's great. Thank you for posting.

 

[MrSki]

Just on the off-chance this thread isn't also dead...

I got here by Googling the exact same line, as I was also trying to track the story down.

The story is indeed called "Huw", and I *think* it appears in "The Obstinate Ghost and Other Ghostly Tales" by Geoffrey Palmer, Noel Lloyd; published by Piccolo in 1972. I've just ordered a 2nd hand copy from Amazon to confirm, but the research seems to check out.

Helpful post but what about the user name?

 

[danny la rouge]

Helpful post but what about the user name?

As Leo Sayer might say, you make me feel like Dan, Ski.

 

[MrSki]

As Leo Sayer might say, you make me feel like Dan, Ski.

or AdamSki.

 

[D4nskii]

It's an old gaming nickname that stuck

 

[Sweet FA]

danski v D4nskii - fight fight fight!

 

[D4nskii]

Case closed

 

[kebabking]

Case closed

View attachment 138335 View attachment 138336

I think the pressing question is - did he stay at the Owain Glyndwr hotel in Corwen - or perhaps the Berwyn Arms?

(Cheers, will get the book - very grateful to you).

 

[kebabking]

right, the answer is that neither the town/village, nor the pub, is named in the story - the story says that he's driving on the little roads through the Clun Forest and then out into Wales and hopefully to Dolgellau while staying on the little roads: however that would keep him a long way south of Bala - he'd pop out at Newtown or Welshpool and then head west. the story doesn't say so, but can only assume he got lost and somehow ended up near Llanfyllin or Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.

or that the author just made it all up without looking at a map.

cheers dudes....

 

[andygosmore]

If anybody else is looking for the book, and stumbled on this post like I did I found another book that contains the story. I remember the book from about 30 years ago, I read it in bed frightening myself when I was about nine. Huw is the first story in this collection.

 

[kebabking]

If anybody else is looking for the book, and stumbled on this post like I did I found another book that contains the story. I remember the book from about 30 years ago, I read it in bed frightening myself when I was about nine. Huw is the first story in this collection.

I'm pretty sure that's the book I read it in - I recognise the cover illustration.

Even now, 30+ years later - perhaps nearer 40(!) - a've brooned ma breeks!