(Shadowtime Home)
'Mysterious Mitcham' is the online sequel to the original 'Strange Mitcham' , which contains stories not found on this website:
Second (2011) edition is now available.
Also available for Kindle.
'MYSTERIOUS
MITCHAM'
Contents:
Front Cover
Introduction
Receive Updates
Map
Part 1 - Mitcham:
The Phantom Cyclist
of Mitcham Common
(update to Strange
Mitcham)
A Dark Figure on
Mitcham Common
Tales from the Vestry
Hall
'Calico Jack': The
Playful Ghost of
Lacks the Drapers
The Faces on the
Walls: Hancock's
Cottages
The Haunted Cottages
in Tramway Path
The 'Haunting' of Hall
Place
The Legend of
Mitcham Fair
Remember the Grotto
The Phantom of the
'Folly'
An Apparition at
Woof & Sabine
Haunted Rooms at Fry
Metals
The Phantom Cat
Mitcham's (not so)
Haunted Mansion
The Kingston Zodiac
The 'Ghost Tree'
Ghostly Gardeners,
Medicinal Plants and
A Magical Tree
The 'Thing'
The Wrath of God
A Ghostly Experience
in Morden Road
Mitcham Clock Tower:
When Time Ran
Backwards
The Rosier Family
Legend
The 'Ball of Fire'
UFO over Mitcham
Common, 2004
UFO over Tooting
Bec Common, 1990
Part 2 - South of
Mitcham Common:
Carew Manor
The Ghosts of
Beddington Park
Beddington Parish
Church & Churchyard
The Figure in the
Alley
Under Beddington
A Spectral Cavalier
Other Information:
Author's website
The Mitcham Ghost
Ride
Strange Mitcham
(2002): Errata
Strange Mitcham
(2011)
Paperback:
Kindle:
Haunted Wandsworth
(2006)
Covers the London Borough of Wandsworth (Balham, Battersea, Putney, Tooting & Wandsworth):
Haunted London
(2007)
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A Dark Figure on Mitcham Common
The phantom of a young boy riding a bicycle may haunt Seven Islands ponds on Mitcham Common (see Strange Mitcham, 2002 for details of this story, as well as the update on this website.) Was the same phantom responsible for the following events, which took place during the late 1970s/early 1980s?
At around one o'clock in the morning, Christopher Patterson - an Inspector of Taxes then in his early to mid thirties - was walking across Mitcham Common.
Above: Beside Seven Islands pond on Mitcham Common. (James Clark, 2010)
'I was heading home to Norbury. I cannot now recall where from but think it may have been a visit to my mother, and that I was walking because I had missed the last bus. I was walking along the path that leads from the Blue House roundabout to the bottom of Manor Road.'
As Mr Patterson passed the Seven Islands pond to his right, a 'dark and very small figure' came out from behind a bush to his left. It was too dark for Mr Patterson to make out many details of the figure but he could see that it 'was about three feet tall, abnormally thin and narrow, and possibly male (no skirt)'. The darkness prevented him from seeing the figure's face but it seemed to him that it was staring at him intensely.
Mr Patterson remembers thinking that 'it was late for a child to be out on its own' and wondering 'if the whole situation was some sort of trap.' As he nervously walked past and continued on his way, the dark figure stood motionless, continuing - so it seemed - to stare at him. The unsettling encounter probably lasted no more than two or three seconds but the memory of it has stayed with Mr Patterson ever since.
'For some reason I have always found the matter a little embarrassing and, although I may have told one or two people about it over the years, I have generally tended to keep it to myself.'
'There is probably a rational explanation,' concluded Mr Patterson, 'but it was pretty scary at the time.'
[Source: personal communication with Christopher Patterson, 2004.]
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