AS AN HISTORIC TOWN Hedon must have the odd spooky tale to tell?
We are appealing to readers to tell us of any local ghost stories that they know about – whether tales based in historical folklore, or indeed any modern stories of the supernatural!
To start this quest we have borrowed the story from Geoff in Hedon’s website All about Hedon.
Hedon has its fair share of ghost stories, one of the oldest being that of John Coomber, a monk living at the Hospital of the Holy Sepulchre, which was situated on the west side of Station Road between the the old Hedon railway station and the Rosedale Community Health Centre.
The story goes that John, fell in love with an ambitious nun named Alice. Alice wanted to be Abbess and the only way to do this was to get rid of the Abbess Ruth. Alice persuade John to kill Ruth. He stabbed her to death and threw her body into Hedon Fleet, and so Alice became Abbess.
When the Hospital was celebrating the Feast of Stephen, Ruth’s ghost appeared and told what had happened. As punishment Alice was bricked up in a Cell with a hole just large enough for food to be passed in, and there she remained for the rest of her life.
Then Ruth’s ghost appeared to John and told him that if he didnt confess his sin to the rest of the monks, she would haunt him forever. This was too much for John so he took a rope and hung himself from St. Stephens Cross, one of the boundary markers of Hedon.
The Ghosts of John, carrying a rope, and Ruth are reputed to still wander and are said to appear near to the Hedon Station Crossing.
So has anyone seen the Ghosts of John and Ruth? Can you tell us more about this tale?
Hi
I lived in Hedon in the 70s and reading this has reminded me of something that happened to my Dad. He use to go shooting at a place called Sepulchre Bottom? somewhere in Hedon. One night he was out shooting there it got misty and looking through the mist all of a sudden the shape of a figure started rising up out of the ground in front of him. A large dark figure. He told my Mum and she told us but she said he would never speak of it. This would be mid 70s not sure of the year.