Sally In The Wood
Sally In The Wood
Sally in the wood is a place of paranormal activity on such a scale that it would be hard to match. This eerie stretch of road has been the site of 8 fatal accidents, 7 of which still can not be explained. Feared by all the locals and no investigation team to date stepping foot into the haunted wood, Sally in the wood remains a mystery to the paranormal community. With a history of witchcraft, sacrifice and in the nearby Brown’s Folly tower stepped in kidnap, toture, rape and murder, Sally in the wood is one of britain’s most haunted locations. If not one of the worlds most haunted locations.
Ghost Hunt at Sally In The Wood
Ghost Hunting At Sally in the Wood
Sally in the wood has been a site of terror for the locals. This area has a sinister feel to it and the activity has caused many people to flee from the area never to return.
The Forest
Forests still stand as possible the most difficult haunted locations to investigate. With all of the interference from nature in its rawest form there is always some form of logical explanation. However The Forest that lies on either side of the road of Sally in the Wood strikes terror into any passing person’s heart, even those who do not know anything about it. The forest’s history is steeped in black magic and witchcraft. These practises normally leave there mark.
Black shadows are seen darting in between tree trunks and sometimes standing on the edge of the forest watching passers by. Some of the braver folk has entered the forest upon a whim, and they never last very long. Howls can be heard echoing through the woods, despite the face wolfs have not been seen in the uk for 100’s of years. Reports of ferocious growls being heard right in your ear but when turning to investigate there is nothing there. One group of people fled in fear after an old women appeared to be coming out of the cave within the forest, she stopped, looked up, pointed directly at them and shrieked with laughter. Then disappeared right in front of there eyes. As further proof that this forest was home to darker things a baby’s cry is commonly heard, probably used in this sick womens practises to show her devotion to the devil.
Witchcraft plays a strong part in olde english history, with such practises as sacrifice. Sacrifice has been known to allow demonic entities to roam the world. Like a way to open the a door from our world to theres. This would give an explanation the the horrific activity within the forest. And the reason why it is said that no birds sing here.
Sally in the Wood Road
This road, tho it has no hazardous obstacles or anything in particular threatening has been the site to 8 recent car accidents, all of which resulting in death. There are countless reports of a girl in a white dress seen in the road. She stands at the side of the road watching cars pass by. She is also seen running across the road straight in front of cars with a face of terror. As if she is running from someone or something.
On one horrific account a young couple was driving home from a meal. This was a route they normally took and tho they had seen and heard odd things, they put it down to logical reason. As they sped down the empty road listening to the radio, a young girl with thick black hair over her face and glowing white stepped directly in front of there car. They swerved out of the way, thinking the young girl was suicidal. When they looked back she had vanished. Perhaps this spectral girl is the cause for so many fatal accidents ? Perhaps we will never know.
The Tower of Brown’s Folly
Brown’s folly now stands in ruin. But it was once an important outpost for soldiers during the 18th century, it is a eerie place to enter. A young gypsy girl is seen in and around the tower. On some accounts she has appeared, looked up then screamed at the top of her lungs. You can image the effect this had upon the victim. Strange sounds rescognate from the intricate cave system underneath the building. Heavy footsteps walking with a kind of rhythm as if marching can be heard. Also the apparition of a solider is seen marching up and down the tunnels, not paying mind to any people present.
Sally in the wood stands alone shrouded in such dark mystery that you can feel it in the air. Home to countless spirits, and even non human entities, this location is not one you should enter alone. Even in a group it is dangerous. You have been warned.
Ghosts of Sally in the Wood
Ghosts of Sally In The Wood
. Sarah Gibson
. Young Gypsy Girl
. Demonic Entity
Sally in the Wood is home to some formidable spirits. Spirits of a much darker kind that the ones who make the odd bump in the night.
Sarah Gibson
Sarah Gibson was an elderly women who was thought of as a witch, due to all the strange goings on around her cabin in the woods. In her earlier life she was married to a gamekeeper and lived on the grounds on a nobleman’s estate. Her husband died later on, doctors of the age where baffled and could not figure out just how he died, and Sarah appeared unaffected. She was then evicted from her home, and moved to a eerie cabin in the middle of the forest by Sally in the wood.
Henry Duncan Skrine of Warleigh Manor recall’s memories from his childhood in the 19th century, stating that nobody would go into the forest after she took residence within. There was strange goings on in the house, strange noises and dancing shadows. Upon her death the bailiff inspected the home, and to his horror found inside blood spatters, and countless bones of what appeared to be goats. Also found within the cave just behind the home. He burned it to the ground, but would never reveal just what happened to him within but he would never be the same.
Sarah Gibson is thought to be the Sally in the Woods witch often seen within the forest around the cave. The baby cries can also be sickeningly explained by the bones, and blood spatter. Not to mention all the children that went missing the area at the time. A Women of evil through and through. And she is still there today. Along with whatever she summoned
The Gypsy Girl
The Apparition of a young gypsy girl is seen frequently on Sally in the wood, as well as in and around Brown’s Folly. History states that this building was barracks for a local branch of english soldiers during the wars of the 18th century. There is an account of a one gypsy in particular who was imprisoned unlawfully here by the brutish soldiers, no doubt one of many. She was left to die without food or water. The White girl that is thought to be the cause of all the accidents is thought to be the spirit of this young lady. She was been seen in the back seat of cars, running across the road and standing in front of cars. Tho there is no record of her escaping, perhaps in death she is still trying.
Sally in the Wood in a place most refuse to enter. Ghost hunting can be something fun when calling out and receiving a bump in reply. But this level of investigation is dangerous. With spirits or things of this nature with a record of unexplained death in this area, we strongly urge you to enter with caution. Tho caution is not the method we will be using when we tackle this location in particular.
Sally in the Wood Location
Ghost of Sally In The Wood
Sally In The Wood Trail
Sally in the Wood
An intriguing enquiry regarding the origins of the road ‘Sally in the Wood’, which can be found just over the border in the parish of Bathford, Somerset, has led us to take a look at the origins of the name. The road forms a section of the A363 as it journeys through Home Wood towards Bathford. Explanations of the road name are many and varied, and they are also closely related to the parish of Monkton Farleigh in Wiltshire.
John Chandler in his book ‘The Reflection in the Pond’ gives us three versions of the tale. The first is of a supernatural nature, and was published by Kathleen Wiltshire in 1984. It tells the story of a young couple who knocked down a girl dressed in white when she ran from trees across the road in front of their car. Another version, this time by Maggie Dobson and Simone Brightstein relate that Sally was murdered in the woods or imprisoned in nearby Brown’s Folly, or that she was an actual road accident victim. Katy Jordan in her book ‘The Haunted Landscape’ mentions that Sally in the Woods does have the reputation of being an eerie place, where ‘no birds sing’, so you never know…
A Civil War element to the origin of the name has also been suggested. It relates to a skirmish that took place before the Battle of Lansdown in July 1643 when the Roundheads were ambushed by the Royalists. ‘Waller had made a temporary bridge across the Avon below Claverton, and crossed his troops by it to the Monkton Farleigh side, where they laid an ambush for their opponents, ‘in the Woodland-wald-grownd in the foote of the hill’’. The following day a fight appears to have begun and continued up to Monkton Farleigh and over to Batheaston. The term ‘sally’ at that time had the meaning of ‘a sudden rush out from a besieged place upon the enemy’.
The third and final version that we know of relates to a Sarah Gibson, baptised at Monkton Farleigh in 1732 and who married a gamekeeper from nearby Warleigh Manor in 1762. Unfortunately, upon his death she was evicted from their cottage. Her family had moved away to Bathford and she is said to have inhabited a little hut in the nearby woods through which the turnpike was driven in 1792.
Henry Duncan Skrine of Warleigh Manor, who was a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset in the 19th century, recalled his childhood memories of Sarah Gibson in which she was accounted a witch. ‘Her smoke-dried hut was like an awful cave to us children, and her thin shrill sepulchral voice still rings in my ears. At her death the carpenter who acted as sub-bailiff burned the cottage down, and declared to us children that he saw something on a broomstick go out of the chimney’! (Howells, 2010).
I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions on the matter!
As regards the origin of road names, it was very common for roads to be called after the people who lived in and around them. Sir Charles Hobhouse noted in his book ‘Monkton Farleigh’, published 1882 that ‘the majority have had their origin in the combined vanity and industry of man. Men, as David says “think that their houses shall continue forever, and call the lands after their own name”’. There have been many occurrences where road names have derived from, for example, the person who has a shop at the end of the lane, and other such associations.
I came across another ‘Sally’ road, this time just over the border in Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was called ‘Sally King’s Lane’. I wonder what the story of this Sally is?…