| TIMESLIP IN THE ABBEY |
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| I am lucky enough to live near to several places that are reputedly haunted. However, as a young child, there were several places that I did not know the history of, where I encountered strange occurences. The following tale happened when I was 11 years old whilst out bike-riding with a friend who I shall call Laura. * We had decided to take our lunch, ride down to the Abbey and sit in the sunshine for a few hours before riding further down the beach and having a swim. The Abbey was (and still is) a beautiful ruin with many legends attached to its history. I knew few of those tales... but I very quickly discovered some history in a most unexpected way. Laura and I rode the 20 minute journey to the Abbey and had already eaten our sandwiches. A teacher at our school lived in houses very close by, and so we had stopped enroute to have a drink and take a peek at the swan that had nested in the bottom of her garden. It was a truly marvellous day... already magical in my childs mind before we had even got to the Abbey gates. In the Abbey grounds, we dropped our bikes to the ground and began a game of 'tag'. There were few people in the Abbey that morning... but the ones that were there seemed quite happy to watch two girls having a laugh in the sunshine. It was so hot that our game didn't last too long. Laura wanted to find some shade, and so started exploring the Abbots lodge which was a ruin set slightly apart from the Abbey itself. I really didn't like the Abbots Lodge. It was dark and there were shadows that seemed to creep up and shift in the corner of my vision. The water that ran underground could hardly be heard... but if you strained to hear it, it was as though other things could be heard...voices, murmurings, whispers. Or perhaps that was just vivid imagination... I left Laura clambering over a half hidden stone wall, and wandered back out to the sunshine. All the other visitors had left ~ probably going to a local cafe to have lunch. I sat on the cool grass, lay back and started to watch the clouds overhead. The wispy shapes of the clouds were turned into dragons and birds with my vivid imagination... but I know that it was not my imagination that conjured the next thing to happen... I realised that I could hear voices, and guessed that lunchtime must be finished and the tourists and visitors had come back. I didn't want our bikes to be in the way, so I thought it would be best to move them nearer to the carpark and sit with them until Laura had finished her exploration. I sat up and called Laura's name. There was no answer. The Abbey wasn't that crowded, and surely she could hear me? The sun was bright in my eyes and I had to squint slightly as I started to look around me. The Abbey looked different in places. It's hard to explain... but it was as though the Abbey was shimmering ~ and the building itself looked darker. I heard people talking in the distance, and as I looked around for Laura, I saw a woman dressed in what I would have called back then 'old fashioned clothes'. |
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| * ALL NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED |
| She was about twenty paces away from me, yet I could see with detail her dress. The skirt was a pale blue colour, split up the front and showing underneath a blue petticoat with the most amazing gold-coloured embroidery on it. The edges of the split were bound with the same gold stitching, and this was also apparent on her cuffs. The top of her bodice was cut in a straight line ~ though the edges to her bodice, near to her chest and throat seemed faded somehow. It is that dress and the amazing embroidery on the skirt that I remember most from that encounter...it was just so beautiful. I knew there were other people around the Abbey ~ I could hear a mans' voice. The voice sounded as though I had put my hands over my ears ~ as though it should have been quite clear, but wasn't. I just stared at that dress. Suddenly, I realised my manners ~ it was rude to stare! I looked into the womans face and smiled at her. All the while I thought how Laura would love this, as I had assumed that there was some kind of historical event taking place ~ like a fancy-dress garden party. I said hello to the finely-dressed woman, and although I know she was talking to me back, no sound came from her ~ I didn't her voice at all. I stepped forward, looked around once more and called Laura's name. As I took that step, it was as though the sun had come out and shone the present day around me once again. Laura was stood directly in front of me, asking me why I was calling to her when she was stood so close. I looked over her shoulder to see if the woman in the pale blue dress was still there...but she had gone. "Didn't you see her...see them?", I asked. Laura had seen nothing that I had. I looked around. The Abbey looked 'normal' again ~ no shimmering or darkened walls, and I could see no-one else around us. Laura's account of the moments before I saw her standing in front of me were very different to my own. She had only been in the lodge for a few minutes longer after I had left, before following me outside. She had seen me already lain down in the grass, one hand sheilding my eyes as I looked upwards to the sky. I stood up, looked around and had called to her. Laura came straight over to me, and I had 'looked through her' (Laura's words), smiled and had said hello. I had stepped forward, according to Laura's account, and had stepped on her foot ~ which was when, simultaneously, I had called her name again, and she had put her hand on my arm. There were no other people in the Abbey that we could see. There were no voices, no lady in blue... Just Laura and I stood in the sunlight. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Through other people and reading through books, I have since discovered that, although an Abbey, the place where the above incident occured was visited by royalty and a royal entourage. During the 1500's the Abbey became a private residence. Perhaps this is where my 'timeslip' sent me? I understand that many may say that I could have been suffering from sunstroke, or had dreamt the whole scene. Laura's version of the day can vouch that I was not dreaming...and I suffered no ill effects from being out in the sun that day. |
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