Mundane pictures of the North

[cyberfairy]

Manchester Area Psychogeographic

Oooh, that's me occupied for the day

 

[machine cat]

Off for a wander today

 

[Dillinger4]

I am off to Manchester. I am going to the cinema but I might convince my friend to go for a long wander afterwards. It is fitting that we are seeing Before Midnight. All those films are about wandering.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Can alleged ghosts and legends be included?

Nah, they need to be real murders, preferably with chopped up bodies as they are obviously the best.

 

[Dillinger4]

Oooh, that's me occupied for the day

I love that kind of stuff.

 

[cyberfairy]

I love that kind of stuff.

Really well written posts as well. In bed with a cold and have stopped being so bored now

 

[cyberfairy]

Nah, they need to be real murders, preferably with chopped up bodies as they are obviously the best.

What if its the ghost of say, a chopped up Victorian prostitute?

 

[cyberfairy]

If I was younger, would start a band called The Chopped Up Victorian Prostitutes. They would be terrible.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

What if its the ghost of say, a chopped up Victorian prostitute?

But ghosts aren't real, so they can't be included.

 

[Dillinger4]

You can sometimes find really interesting historical information in books / stories about ghosts.

I don't believe in ghosts or anything like that, but I do have a few books such as 'Haunted Liverpool', because there are bits of info that you would be hard pushed to find anywhere else. They are often quite meticulously researched, but poorly written.

 

[cyberfairy]

You can sometimes find really interesting historical information in books / stories about ghosts.

I don't believe in ghosts or anything like that, but I do have a few books such as 'Haunted Liverpool', because there are bits of info that you would be hard pushed to find anywhere else. They are often quite meticulously researched, but poorly written.

I have Curious Cumbrian Walks and Curious Lancashire Walks where the 'curious' element often consists of an 'alleged' ghost or an actual murder. Makes walking five miles in the rain far more interesting. Also a good excuse to get boyfriend to stop at 'haunted' pub... I love the random italics in local books and sudden descent into the personal. Less so the confusion by the author between 'turn left' and 'turn right'

 

[machine cat]

Some very mundane pictures here. Only got me phone so apols for quality.

 

[cyberfairy]

I thought I took some ace ones last night whilst walking back from my friends and past the old industrial buildings being demolished. Unfortunately when looking at them sober, they are mostly blurred and crap.

 

[cyberfairy]

A lesson for us all...

 

[cyberfairy]

 

[neonwilderness]

Not a murder, but this photo I posted has a bit of story with it.

A footpath runs under the East Coast Main Line there, through what's locally known as Dead Man's Arch. Legend has it that a train driver was involved in an accident near that site in which some people were killed. The driver felt so guilty that he hung himself at the entrance of the arch, and if you go through it at midnight on New Year's Day, you will feel the sensation of bumping into the hanging body of the train driver.

Until fairly recently, the "gibbet" (probably an old lamp bracket) was still there. It was removed to make way for new 7'0" high fencing which has been going up all over the East Coast Main Line in recent years. This gibbet-look-a-like lamp bracket - in my opinion, was how the tale begun

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Not a murder, but this photo I posted has a bit of story with it.

Its easy to see how such myths emerge, and like you say, the gibbet-like lamp would be a good candidate, and the fact that it was a very local event that would have gained a lot of attention in the immediate area (as any suicide/murder/other type of unusual death would of course).

Its interesting to ponder whether in the past people were similarly sceptical to today, or whether more actually took the claims seriously. Humans are incredibly fallible to such false beliefs given our superb pattern-matching abilities, so it makes me wonder whether those with more imaginative minds (certainly more than mine - I'm totally unimaginative!) are more likely to believe the claims.

Its an issue which has always interested me - and I would absolutely love to sneak into one of those daft haunted house events where people stay over just to scare themselves stupid, and wander round in a white sheet pretending to be a ghost. That would be hugely funny!

 

[neonwilderness]

Its easy to see how such myths emerge, and like you say, the gibbet-like lamp would be a good candidate, and the fact that it was a very local event that would have gained a lot of attention in the immediate area (as any suicide/murder/other type of unusual death would of course).

I think it's probably party true, but has probably suffered from Chinese whispers. I live nearby and remember it being a popular story when I was younger, although there was never any first hand accounts of it.

There used to be a station there, so it's quite possible that someone could have been killed by a train there (I think it's happened since too). But the bit about the driver killing himself is probably made up or exaggerated (I'm not sure if it's high enough to hang yourself there) and the bit about New Years Day was probably just tagged on to explain why no-one has ever experienced a haunting there

Its interesting to ponder whether in the past people were similarly sceptical to today, or whether more actually took the claims seriously. Humans are incredibly fallible to such false beliefs given our superb pattern-matching abilities, so it makes me wonder whether those with more imaginative minds (certainly more than mine - I'm totally unimaginative!) are more likely to believe the claims.

I reckon people are more sceptical these days due to being better informed by the internet and the like. Everyone loves a good ghost story though

 

[cyberfairy]

 

[cyberfairy]

 

[cyberfairy]

Its easy to see how such myths emerge, and like you say, the gibbet-like lamp would be a good candidate, and the fact that it was a very local event that would have gained a lot of attention in the immediate area (as any suicide/murder/other type of unusual death would of course).

Its interesting to ponder whether in the past people were similarly sceptical to today, or whether more actually took the claims seriously. Humans are incredibly fallible to such false beliefs given our superb pattern-matching abilities, so it makes me wonder whether those with more imaginative minds (certainly more than mine - I'm totally unimaginative!) are more likely to believe the claims.

Its an issue which has always interested me - and I would absolutely love to sneak into one of those daft haunted house events where people stay over just to scare themselves stupid, and wander round in a white sheet pretending to be a ghost. That would be hugely funny!

Read a brilliant book about the history of ghost stories and the class, politics and prevailing religion of the time that lay behind them. It was a well written dense proper history, rare in the ghost book field http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/26/natural-history-of-ghosts-roger-clarke-review
I once met a munted guy on the way back from a festival on a bus in Bristol. He had had a LOT of pills and was on his way to a psychic evening. I always wondered how that went...

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I reckon people are more sceptical these days due to being better informed by the internet and the like.

I think you're right about the internet, and the decline in religious beliefs is probably also a driver to increased scepticism.

Anyway, we need to get back to mundane things!

Who's going on a mundane trek today? We need more pictures of dullness to whet our appetite.

I'll go out tomorrow to try and find more.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Is there some wording on that stone bracket? I can read 'INDE' but wonder what it says in full, unless I'm just imagining it like a ghost text.

 

[cyberfairy]

Is there some wording on that stone bracket? I can read 'INDE' but wonder what it says in full, unless I'm just imagining it like a ghost text.

That's what I was trying to get- love a ghost sign There were three or four in a row all with faded writing on but with a cold and a Samsung phone, was not able to take brilliant quality pics..

 

[farmerbarleymow]

That's what I was trying to get- love a ghost sign

Its just our deluded imagination as it is not really there!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Just had a quick dig through my photos from years ago and here are a few interestingly dull ones. This one is of some graffiti in the gay village - a copy of the album cover of Transformer.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

A bored Queen Victoria keeps watch over some bored Mancunians.

SpookyFrank

I said I'd dig through my photos to find one of this drab building being constructed, to show the much nicer buildings behind it (apart from the mundane white tower block of course). Shame they built this and therefore blocked the view.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

A delightful brown office block around Spring Gardens.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

A pair of phone boxes. Mundane in their heyday, perhaps not so much now as they are few and far between. But a pleasing sign of continuity and boring Britishness.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

And the obligatory mundane cobbles.