Northumberland wraith

My father did national service in the Army. After two years in the Royal Artillery, he did three and a half years in the Territorials (the 268 Medium Regiment). In the summer of 1955 – he believes it was August – he was on exercise at Otterburn Ranges in Northumberland. He and a colleague were driver/wireless operators in a Land Rover. They were acting as a “rear link” (something to do with relaying radio messages between different positions). Anyway, they were driving down the side of a valley where there was a stone bridge going over a small but fast-flowing river. As they approached the bridge, they both independently saw what appeared to be an old woman carrying a bag with a shawl over her head standing at the roadside, almost as if she were waiting for a bus – not that there was any marked stop there. She was totally grey, almost as if she were monochrome.

After they passed her and looked back, there was no sign of her. They both confirmed that they had seen her and went back to investigate. They initially thought she was a corporeal person who might have fallen into the river. It was just open moorland with a solitary tree nearby. The ground where they saw her standing was quite sandy. They left footprints, but could not see any others; and there was no sign of anyone having fallen into the river. They did report it when they got back in case it was a real person who had fallen into the river. Nothing more was ever heard about it. By that time, they both suspected that they had seen something out of the ordinary. My father pointed out on a map where he thinks they saw the old woman. It was a minor road that goes south to the A696 in the village of Otterburn. Gary Stocker By email