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A Walk On The Weird Side


hilldweller

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Many years ago when I was a young daft single bloke (as opposed to now being an old dafter married bloke), I was "up to no good" one night over Sheffield Lane Top way. I lived at the time at Malin Bridge and faced a long walk back at about two in the morning. It was a cloudy and dark winter night and by the time I got to Herries Road I decided to take the direct route over Shirecliffe Tip rather than walk all the way around by the Five Arches.

All went well until I got to the old White Bridge (now demolished) by Neepsend Power Station. I walked up onto the bridge and looked down at the path down onto Club Mill Road which zig-zagged down the steep hill through the very spooky Wardsend Cemetery. The cinder track was about 6 feet wide and had high steel fences on each side. Towering over the fences were high trees and overgrown vegetation forming a sort of tunnel over the pathway. Through the shrubbery could be seen all the old tombs and monuments which were within inches of the fences.

At this point I had a bit of a think and decided that there was less to fear from the dead than there was from re-tracing my way all the back up the hill and around.

I walked slowly down to the first right-angled bend in the eerie silence and was about half-way down the second leg when there was a terrifying loud noise like thunder and clouds of black arose either side from the cemetery ascending to heaven.

I set off at about 200 miles an hour, skidded round the corners and shot out into Club Mill Road so fast that I almost landed in the River Don.

I turned around in time to see a huge flock of thousands of Starlings wheeling around against the dark sky.

My heart didn't stop thumping until I'd reached Hillsborough Corner !

That was the last time I took an evening short cut via Wardsend Cemetery.

HD

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I decided to take the direct route over Shirecliffe Tip rather than walk all the way around by the Five Arches.

Some of my friends that like skiing (I don't) don't like it when theyrefer to "Sheffield Ski Village" in my presence and I correct them by saying "Do you mean Shirecliffe Tip?" lol

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At this point I had a bit of a think and decided that there was less to fear from the dead than there was from re-tracing my way all the back up the hill and around.

I walked slowly down to the first right-angled bend in the eerie silence and was about half-way down the second leg when there was a terrifying loud noise like thunder and clouds of black arose either side from the cemetery ascending to heaven.

I set off at about 200 miles an hour, skidded round the corners and shot out into Club Mill Road so fast that I almost landed in the River Don.

I turned around in time to see a huge flock of thousands of Starlings wheeling around against the dark sky.

My heart didn't stop thumping until I'd reached Hillsborough Corner !

HD

You have not told us hilldweller what caused this loud noise and black clouds.

What really caused it!

As well educated men we don't believe in superstition, "We ain't affraid of no ghosts!", to us technical types everything has a logical and rational explanation, not myth, magic, spirits and devils which have no real existance.

So did you ever find out what it was?

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You have not told us hilldweller what caused this loud noise and black clouds.

What really caused it!

As well educated men we don't believe in superstition, "We ain't affraid of no ghosts!", to us technical types everything has a logical and rational explanation, not myth, magic, spirits and devils which have no real existance.

So did you ever find out what it was?

The loud noise was the racket from thousands of Starling's wings as they suddenly took to the air after I'd awaken them from their slumbers roosting in the trees. The black clouds were their sheer numbers, thousands of them. On a quiet night the noise was deafening.

HD

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The loud noise was the racket from thousands of Starling's wings as they suddenly took to the air after I'd awaken them from their slumbers roosting in the trees. The black clouds were their sheer numbers, thousands of them. On a quiet night the noise was deafening.

HD

Not afraid of no ghosts but those starlings are terrifying! lol

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You have not told us hilldweller what caused this loud noise and black clouds.

What really caused it!

As well educated men we don't believe in superstition, "We ain't affraid of no ghosts!", to us technical types everything has a logical and rational explanation, not myth, magic, spirits and devils which have no real existance.

So did you ever find out what it was?

As a technical type I "know" that such things cannot exist. However that doesn't explain the severed hand lit up in glorious technicolour that I saw for several minutes in the darkened empty room of an old cottage in Wardsend. I was about twelve years old at the time, very wide awake and I hadn't been ingesting anything that I shouldn't have. This was many years before holograms were invented and couldn't have been a prank because it was a 3D image and when I moved my head the the image was stood out from the chimney breast about a foot behind it. It faded out over several seconds. The cottage (still standing)dates from the 1600's.

Because of this I keep an open mind.

HD

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In the 70's I was parked on Lightwood Lane, asleep in the back of the van (that's a long story). The van was on a patch of Gravel at the side of the track with an open field at the side.

Very early hours I was awakened by banging on the van side and then footsteps crunching on the gravel outside. They went slowly towards the back of the van and stopped outside the back doors. Scared as I was, I grabbed (a piece of wood I think) and virtually kicked the doors open and flew outside expecting to be confronted by who knows who or what. Nobody there, not a sound, I walked all around the van. The moon was bright, not a soul in sight. (There's a song there) .

I drove over to the car-park on Rivelin Valley Road to finish My sleep.

I think that's the only time anything's happened to me which I couldn't think of an explanation for.

I still don't believe in anything "Super-natural" though,

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Hey I've started something here and provoked a bit of a reaction on supernatural experiences in the local area.

This topic really is turning into "A walk on the wierd side" (one word out from being a song there)

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In the 70's I was parked on Lightwood Lane, asleep in the back of the van

I drove over to the car-park on Rivelin Valley Road to finish My sleep.

Hang on vox. Lightwood Lane is near Norton Aerodrome in S8, south Sheffield and Rivelin Valley Road is in northwest Sheffield in S6.

You must have been scared to want to put that amount of distance between the supernatural happening and where you felt safe to spend the night.

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Hang on vox. Lightwood Lane is near Norton Aerodrome in S8, south Sheffield and Rivelin Valley Road is in northwest Sheffield in S6.

You must have been scared to want to put that amount of distance between the supernatural happening and where you felt safe to spend the night.

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Nice police speed camera picture vox

Looks like the fright probably cost you a £60 fine and 3 points on the licence lol

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Hang on vox. Lightwood Lane is near Norton Aerodrome in S8, south Sheffield and Rivelin Valley Road is in northwest Sheffield in S6.

You must have been scared to want to put that amount of distance between the supernatural happening and where you felt safe to spend the night.

I don't blame Vox at all, from what I can remember at the time I too wanted to put a great deal of distance between me and that apparition. I should add that about 10 years later one of my older cousins confided in me that she'd also seen the hand when she was about the same age as I was. She had woken in the night to see it over her head ! They hadn't told me at the time in order not to frighten me further.

HD

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However that doesn't explain the severed hand lit up in glorious technicolour that I saw for several minutes in the darkened empty room of an old cottage in Wardsend.

HD

Was it the same hand that the late ex- Beatle George Harrison saw in 1973?

Having mentioned The Beatles they had 2 brilliant explanations of paranormal phenomena in this cartoon film

"NOTHING IS REAL" (Narrated near the beginning)

"IT'S ALL IN THE MIND YOU KNOW" (The cartoon John, after beating the Blue Meanies with "All you need is Love")

Then again, at the time, they probably were under the influence of some substance that they shouldn't have been. :o

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Then again, at the time, they probably were under the influence of some substance that they shouldn't have been. :o

Wasn't 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'

on the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack Album?

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Wasn't 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'

on the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack Album?

On the original (1968) soundtrack album NO (half of it was insrumental stuff from the film by the George Martin Orchestra)

In the film itself YES

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was originally on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album (1967)

It may also be on the re-released Yellow Submarine compilation album (2001) but I would have to check that.

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Then again, at the time, they probably were under the influence of some substance that they shouldn't have been. :o

LSD was new at the time and therefore legal. I was five at the time but I've read a lot over the years about the Beatles.

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LSD was new at the time and therefore legal. I was five at the time but I've read a lot over the years about the Beatles.

It wasn't that new as it had been discovered by Alfred Hoffmann in 1943.

L.S.D. (Lysurgic Acid Diethylamide) was the synthetic derivative of naturally occouring lysurgic acid obtained from ergot, a fungus which grows on rye. Historically rye was used as grain for bread and contamination with ergot lead to hallucinations, madness and even worse symptoms including burning sensations, the loss of limbs and death due to the effect on blood supply. There have been many recorded outbreaks of wierd symptoms and "visions" (severed hands???) caused by ergot poisoning throughout history, the most recent being in France in the 1920's

It was used legally as "therapy" in mental hospitals after the war, presumably using the logic that if you were not completely bonkers before taking it, you would be after!

It was legal until the 1960's, when people like the Beatles and Timothy Leary made it widely known which sort of encouraged easily lead youths to "experiment" with it dangerously.

It should have been made illegal earlier, it is powerfully hallucinogenic even in minute doses.

Anyway Richard, you should have known better than to ask a chemist about what is, after all, a chemical substance.

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I was aware of the ergot fungus,

the fungus that grows on rye along with the madness

and deaths that it caused.

Never knew it had any connections to LSD,

thanks for the info Dave.

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I was aware of the ergot fungus,

the fungus that grows on rye along with the madness

and deaths that it caused.

Never knew it had any connections to LSD,

thanks for the info Dave.

Perhaps if more people were aware of what ergot poisoning is like and its connection with LSD perhaps the willingness of some people to take this drug would be reduced.

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Perhaps if more people were aware of what ergot poisoning is like and its connection with LSD perhaps the willingness of some people to take this drug would be reduced.

Here's an extract taken from a book that I have.

British Plants

And Their Uses

By H L Edlin.

Published 1951.

From chapter 16, Drugs And Poisons.

But the most remarkable substance yielded by a fungus is probably ergota.

obtained from Claviceps purpurea (Hypocreaceae:),

a parasite of rye and other grain crops.

Occasionally one finds curious black structures, like elongated grains, growing

amidst the ears of corn; these are the sclerotia, or resting bodies, of the fungus,

from which the drug is obtained.

It is poisonous, and when in times past heavily infested crops were used as a bread grain,

a dread complaint called ergotism resulted.

Whole communities in the rye-growing districts of Europe suffered from

this during the Middle Ages, continuing to eat the grain in ignorance of its

connection with the disease; some were afflicted mentally, while others were

crippled in their limbs.

Nowadays ergot is gathered as a healing drug, for when

properly prescribed it has the power of assisting childbirth and checking the

bleeding that may ensue.

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It is poisonous, and when in times past heavily infested crops were used as a bread grain,

a dread complaint called ergotism resulted.

Whole communities in the rye-growing districts of Europe suffered from

this during the Middle Ages, continuing to eat the grain in ignorance of its

connection with the disease; some were afflicted mentally, while others were

crippled in their limbs.

Nowadays ergot is gathered as a healing drug, for when

properly prescribed it has the power of assisting childbirth and checking the

bleeding that may ensue.

I have got some other details of ergotism somewhere, with more details about the reasons for the burning sensations leading to loss of limbs (naturally, not through amputation). There was a connection with some Saint or other, can't remember exactly so I will have to try to look it up, - it's in my 1975 chemistry course notes on "From myth and magic to modern medicine" by Dr. R.M. Scrowston of Hull University.

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I have got some other details of ergotism somewhere, with more details about the reasons for the burning sensations leading to loss of limbs (naturally, not through amputation). There was a connection with some Saint or other, can't remember exactly so I will have to try to look it up, - it's in my 1975 chemistry course notes on "From myth and magic to modern medicine" by Dr. R.M. Scrowston of Hull University.

I also had read abut the Saint connection,

but could I remember the name or where, No!

Wiki has an answer, under History. Saint Anthony's fire

also under 'Effects on humans and other mammals'

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I also had read abut the Saint connection,

but could I remember the name or where, No!

Wiki has an answer, under History. Saint Anthony's fire

also under 'Effects on humans and other mammals'

Thats the one Steve!

All the info I was going to look for, including the ergot - LSD connection is there.

Saved me a job looking it up! ;-)

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There's something WIERD about the spelling of WEIRD in the title of this topic <_<:unsure::huh:

I know FERODO only has 1 R in it,and HOBBIT has 2 B's

But I always thought, and was taught by Man Wright and others that I came before E (except after a C), with very few exceptions.

So how do you spell wierd / weird?

weird isn't it? :rolleyes:

or do I mean wierd, isn't it? :unsure:

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There's something WIERD about the spelling of WEIRD in the title of this topic <_<:unsure::huh:

I know FERODO only has 1 R in it,and HOBBIT has 2 B's

But I always thought, and was taught by Man Wright and others that I came before E (except after a C), with very few exceptions.

So how do you spell wierd / weird?

weird isn't it? :rolleyes:

or do I mean wierd, isn't it? :unsure:

If I was faced with that dilemma I'd probably go for "odd isn't it"

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