Blue Bell Hill, Chatham, Kent
Introduction
The ghost of Blue Bell Hill is one of the most famous ghost stories ever to come out of Kent. It has been reported in several national newspapers over the years, with many repeat experiences. Unsuspecting motorists have witnessed a woman running out in front of their cars late at night, often locking eyes with them before being hit and vanishing. No evidence of a collision has ever been found, nor has there ever been a victim found either.
It is believed to be the ghost of a woman who died in a tragic car accident in 1965, near the bridge over the Old Chatham Road. Two cars were involved in the collision, and three out of the four women in one car tragically died. One of the women was a bride-to-be, who was due to wed the following day. Is this the woman who continues to haunt Blue Bell Hill?
As well as the reports of the ghost jumping in front of cars, there have also been four reported experiences of a female hitch-hiker on Blue Bell Hill. Motorists pull over to pick her up, only for her to disappear from the back seat shortly after setting off.
Firsthand Reports of the Blue Bell Hill Ghost
Rochester Man in 1969
Four years after the accident, a man on his way home to Rochester late at night saw two pedestrians walking towards him when they suddenly disappeared. On another occasion, he witnessed the pedestrians again, walking across the road; however, a car drove straight through them this time!
Maurice Goodenough, 1974
In the early hours of 13 July 1974, Maurice Goodenough, a bricklayer from Rochester, drove through Blue Bell Hill when a “young girl” jumped in front of his car. “The girl just walked out in front of me from the edge of the road,” he said. “My car hit her with a hell of a bang.”
He jumped out of his car to tend to the girl, who he found lying in the road, with a cut to her forehead and grazes on her knees. He covered her with a blanket and tried to wave down passers-by, but no one would stop. He thought it would be unwise to try and move her into his car, so he rushed off to Rochester Police Station to report what had happened. They returned to the scene to find nothing but the blanket Goodenough had placed over her.
A search was called in the nearby area, but there was no success. The search resumed at dawn, with tracker dogs, but no scent, tracks, or blood could be found. A check on hospital admissions and a newspaper appeal for the missing child was carried out, but nobody stepped forward. Goodenough was interviewed by the News of the World that Saturday night and was still shaken and adamant that he had hit a girl. “I’m not going mad”, he said. “But where did she vanish? I’m still shaking from the experience.”
The Press jumped to the assumption that the girl must have been a ghost. Their research about the incident in 1965 and the legend of the hitch-hiking ghost resulted in the conclusion that the girl must have been a ghost. The fact that it was a girl, her appearance in the vicinity of the 1965 crash, her vanishing after the incident, and the fact Goodenough’s car wasn’t damaged, all point to this conclusion.
“Ghost Girl Seen Again” – A Headline from 1992
One Sunday evening in November, it was late when Ian Sharpe, a 54-year-old coach driver, was on his way home to Maidstone when a young woman appeared directly in front of his vehicle near the Aylesford southbound turn-off of the A229 at Blue Bell Hill. The woman strangely stared right into his eyes before he hit her, with the body going under the bonnet. Mortified, he slammed on his brakes and jumped out to help the woman.
“I honestly thought I had killed her”, he said. “You can’t imagine how it felt. I was so scared to look underneath, but I knelt and looked straight through – there was nothing there”. He then looked around the vehicle and at the side of the road but found no one. So sure he was of hitting the woman, he went to the police station at Rochester to tell them about the incident. Aware of the area and its reports, the police explained the legend that surrounds the area.
Nevertheless, the police returned with him to the scene, and sure enough, the search proved fruitless. Ian Sharpe later described it as the most terrifying experience of his life.
Also, later that month and year, two motorists reported hitting a woman wearing a red scarf near the Robin Hood Lane junction at Bluebell Hill. They searched and informed the police, but yet again, nobody was ever found.
Haunted Rooms Reader Story
Hello, during 1964- 1973, I was a member of the Kent Ambulance Service based at Medway. One Christmas Eve night while driving back from a Maidstone hospital in an ambulance, after taking a patient there, we were driving up Blue Bell Hill when suddenly my co-driver and myself noticed a person, in what appeared to be wearing a wedding dress, step out into the road, I slowed down, and my mate leant out the cab window asked her where she was going this time of night. All she wanted was a lift, so I jumped out and opened the rear of the ambulance doors, and she got in. When we drove into Rochester, I turned my head and called out to her, but the ambulance was empty.
That is a true story.
Paul Tona
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