THE OCCULT WORLD OF PATRICK McGOOHAN
Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner is as relevant now as it was 50 years ago says BRIAN J ROBB. Packed with allusions to the Illuminati, the police state, brainwashing, and hidden influences on society, it is a text that is still being unpacked five decades on.
optical illusion, but his friend pointed out that Frankby Cemetery was beyond the wall bordering the road at that point, and that a prankster could have easily climbed back over the wall and hidden after giving a fright to passing road users. Michael took the same route home, looking out for a chortling hippy walking along the otherwise deserted B5139, but there was no sign of anyone.
As with Peter, there can be little doubt that Michael had a genuine experience; but there is little likelihood of someone going to such elaborate lengths to scare passing motorists in such a remote spot at that time of night. Besides, as Michael pulled up very quickly, it left little chance for any prankster to climb back over the wall without being spotted. Although it could have been a trick of the light, Michael was surprised that he saw, and remembered, so much detail about the figure. Therefore, the file must remain open.
CHRIS’S STORY
Chris was a member of a Hertfordshire motorcycle club in the 1960s. Most, if not all, members were in their early 20s. At a monthly meeting (possibly October 1967), a fellow rider told how he had ridden down Roe Green Lane in Hatfield (now the site of Hertfordshire University) at about 11pm one night when his machine misfired. He pulled over to check the bike; but, as he did so, he became aware of an old lady standing in the road looking at him. She was in her 70s or 80s, with short curly hair, dressed in a long overcoat and holding a handbag. The rider was alarmed to see an old lady out on her own in the cold weather so late at night and asked her if she was alright. She stood motionless, saying nothing, and continued to stare at him. He persisted in trying to help, and asked where she lived, to no avail. After a while, the motorcyclist became a bit spooked. He started pushing his machine down the lane, and eventually got it started and rode home.
Most people at the meeting dismissed his tale as a silly “ghost story”, except one chap who lived locally and asked for more details of the old lady’s appearance. When this information was given, he opened the local newspaper he had with him and displayed the front page, which had a photo of an old lady. “Is that her?” he asked. “Yes,” said the rider. “Jesus Christ, that’s her!” The headline read “Local resident killed in road accident”. Apparently, on the afternoon of the day that the rider had his odd experience, an old lady had wandered into the road at that very same spot and been run over and killed by a car. Unsurprisingly, the club members all assumed the rider had seen the ghost of the poor old lady.
Chris and I agreed the acid test was to find a copy of the local newspaper, the now defunct Welwyn Times & Hatfield Herald, with the front page in question. The newspaper had been microfilmed, and is available to view at Welwyn Garden City Library or the Hertfordshire Archives. It had also been indexed on Hertfordshire Names Online, and I undertook a search for “Accident” on the recommended webpage, covering the period 1960-1969 to be on the safe side. From a full list of well over 100 cases, I excluded any that did not even remotely fit Chris’s outline description, finally arriving at 10 accidents in the Welwyn Times & Hatfield Herald and one in the Herts & Essex Observer that sounded relevant from the limited wording provided. I provided Chris with the summaries of these cases, and he forwarded them to his daughter, who still lives in Welwyn. She kindly agreed to pop into the library to investigate further. Unfortunately, she drew a blank. So yet again we are left with a tantalising case. I am confident Chris’s recollections are entirely valid, despite the urban legend like ‘punchline’ to the story, but the potential clincher of the newspaper with the frontpage article and photo proves to be elusive.
THE MERSEY TUNNEL PHANTOM
In The Evidence for Phantom Hitchhikers, Michael Goss refers to a girl being killed while riding pillion through the Mersey Tunnel and becoming its ghostly hitchhiker in residence. 8 He quotes Ms Theo Brown, folklore recorder for the Devonshire Association, who indicated in 1980 that she first heard the tale about 20 years earlier. Further research identified the following reference to the legend in relation to the Queensway Mersey Tunnel, as described by local author Tom Slemen: “In the 1960s a young woman riding as a pillion passenger on a motorbike in the tunnel fell off and died from her injuries. Not long afterwards the woman’s ghost was seen by scores of motorists – and even Tunnel Police – standing in the middle of the road trying to thumb a lift. On many occasions, drivers swerving to avoid the ghost have crashed, sometimes with fatal consequences”. 9
I approached Merseytravel, which is responsible for both Mersey Tunnels – the Queensway (Birkenhead) Tunnel and the Kingsway (Wallasey) Tunnel – asking for details of any pillion passengers who had fallen from a motorbike in the tunnel and died, either on the spot or later from their injuries. I also asked if details might be held of any episodes where Tunnel Police have investigated circumstances similar to those described by Slemen, although I doubted if any would exist.
Merseytravel put me in touch with Peter Bishop, who worked with Mersey Tunnels for 30 years up to 2013, rising from Technician to Acting Assistant Engineering Manager. He explained that Merseytravel often pointed people in his direction because he was familiar with the technical aspects and history of the tunnels, as well as the myths, legends and downright mistruths that had circulated over the years. He confirmed any relevant records would be held in the Mersey Tunnels Joint Committee or Tunnel Police record books, but these would have been long since consigned to remote storage or even destroyed.
There is indeed a story about the appearance of a young female hitchhiker, but it relates to the Kingsway rather than the Queensway Tunnel. She has been seen standing at the left-hand entrance portal to the south tube of the Tunnel, dressed in black motorcycle leathers, with her arm out, seemingly beckoning passing cars to stop and give her a ride. (The Kingsway Tunnel was opened in 1971 and has two portals, with two parallel running tubes). Described as young and blonde, she is perhaps not unlike Marianne Faithfull in the 1968 British-French film Girl on a Motorcycle.
Peter was aware of references to such sightings from comments made by various Tunnel Police officers, but there were two episodes where he had the opportunity to speak to the officers directly involved; these incidents were six to eight years apart, in the 1980s, and involved different officers. One officer was on his own, while the other had a partner with him. In both cases they appeared genuine about their experiences.
The approach to the tunnel portal is about 700 yards long and completely straight, with the last part being under the