A real experience from our childhood house.......10 Hubbards Lane
There used to be a gap between number 12 and number 13 Hubbards Lane. It was an access to the orchard fields that were behind the single row of houses that lined the road down from the local secondary school. In the 70s and 80s the road was still very much part of the countryside and part of village life. A golden era for the kids who grew up there, little traffic and lots of playing games in the road and around each others houses. No internet. No social media. Insular.
As children, we used to refer to this access gap as "the slip". We would play cricket and football in there or simply mooch about as a gang. A few of the neighbours used to park their cars in there too, including "Stop Swearing Waring", In the summer we played out most evenings, the gang generally consisted of myself, Steven, Stuart, Mark, Eugene, John, the Mercer girls, my sisters and sometimes young Michael. We were all from the top part of the road - the houses that ran to number 12. We considered the kids that lived from number 13 onwards as "them" and not to be consorted with, they were the rough and poor kids.
It was probably the summer of 1977 or 1978, the little gang were sitting on the pavement outside our house, number 10, larking about, just as the sunlight was beginning to fade away. Suddenly there was a flash of bright light almost right above our heads. It was very close and definitely spooked us. We all jumped to our feet, chattering excitedly, speculating as to what it was - some kind of electricity flash perhaps? A low passing meteor even? It was certainly odd.
A little while later, maybe only 10 minutes or so after the flash, when the sun had finally set, we were called indoors and it was time for the gang to disperse. As I walked towards our house along the pathway that led to our front door I glanced left towards the slip, across our neighbours gardens and the tall wooden poled fence that marked the divide between number 12 and that patch of wasteland. To my suprise I saw a travelling light, but this time it was being held like a lantern by a tall greyish man dressed in what seemed to be rags. His arm stretched out with the lamp lighting his way. Who was that man? He didn't look like any of the neighbours and I knew them all by both sight and name.
I glanced away towards our house for a fraction of a second and when I looked back towards the slip the strange man had gone. Perhaps he was just out of sight and closer to the entrance of the orchard. I ran as fast as I could to the rear of our house and sprinted up the long back garden to catch sight of him again but he had completely vanished. There was absolutely no-one in the slip and no-one walking in the orchard. The grey man was gone.
I did however have a feeling. A feeling that I had witnessed some kind of apparation or timeslip. A ghost?
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