September 4, 2012
The Grey Lady of Birmingham
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Anonymous -- Birmingham, United Kingdom -- Summer 1952
As a kid, three mates told me there was a Roman arena in Warstone Lane
cemetery. So, that night we went to see it. We had to climb over railings
half-way down Pitsford Hill to give us leeway should a policeman see and
chase us.
As we walked through the graveyard, my three mates were about
thirty feet behind me, and they looked frightened. Maybe they were more perceptive
than me, for then I saw 45 feet to my left what was clearly the ghost of a woman.
I halted. I was not at all frightened, for my mother
had always told me there were ghosts but stressed they were dead and
could't harm me. I just thought to myself, "Oh, mom was right, there are
ghosts."
The ghost wore a dress or nightgown with two scallops on the neckline under her chin The dress went right down to the ground. She had long hair that fell
somewhere below her shoulders. She appeared youngish, slim and fairly pretty. The apparition
she stared at me with a surprised look that seemed to say, "What are you doing
here?" She was light grey in colour, with all her features visible in
different shades of grey, as if she was made from glass and was filled with
smoke. She did not appear as a photo negative as I've
heard others say ghosts look like. In fact, she seemed as real person, only in all shades of grey and
sort-of opaque.
After staring at each other for about ten seconds, I turned
around and intended to ask my mates if they saw her, as well. They
had vanished without a sound! When I looked back at the spot where the
ghost had been, she was gone, as well.
My mates were no where to be found on Pitsford Hill, so I ran up it and round the corner of the street where I discovered them looking very
shocked.
"What happened to you lot?" I asked.
"We saw her as well!" one
pale-faced mate replied. Then, I noticed that one of them was actually
shaking in his hands.
Local stories I heard in later life claim she is known
as the Grey Lady, and her ghost is seen regularly walking straight through
the brick wall of the next-door Royal Mint. I've also heard that three men working in
the nearby railway tunnel dropped their tools and fled upon seeing her walk
through the brick wall of the tunnel. It is also reputed that a policeman
was talking to a taxi-driver in the middle of the night near nearby Key Hill
cemetery (seperated from Warstone Lane cemetery by a railway line and
Pitsford Street) when they saw her walk straight through a cast-iron urinal
and brick wall.
Local legend says it sent the taxi driver insane. I cannot vouch for the truth of these three
encounters, but I can vouch for my own. It is something I
cannot forget, for I can still see her image as clear as day in my mind,
even though it happened sixty years ago.
This confirmed for me that there is an
afterlife. I suspect many others
have also seen her, for both sites are fringed by four pubs, Hockley mail
sorting office, the Royal Mint, a few shops, several houses, and some houses
converted into small firms supplying the jewelry district.
Around a week after that first Grey Lady experience, I ventured into the same cemetary alone, but I did not see her again.