Hangman's Corner
Actually it's mydad's story but I've claimed it as mine since I tell it moreoften than he does. My dad is a lorry driver, one of the mostdown to earth people you could meet and one of those who thoughtit was all rubbish until one night....
It was about twenty-thirty years ago and there weren't that manymotorways in the UK so it was common practice for lorry driversto take short cuts through country lanes. My dad was taking sucha route one night and approaching a bend that was well known tohim. He tells me the bend was known as 'Hangmans Corner' due to adead tree with a single branch at right angles to the trunk,giving the appearance of a gallows, on the bend. Corny I know buthey, I'm just telling you what he told me!.
The road slopes down into the bend, curves left at the bottom ofthe slope and then rises again as you leave the bend. The resultof this and the hedgerow at each side of the road is that on theapproach to the bend you cannot see the road immediately aroundthe bend but you can see traffic approaching the bend on theother side. It was common practice at the time to watch forheadlights on the opposite approach. If no headlights werevisible it was ok to take the bend wide but if you could seeheadlights approaching you had to keep to the left (remember wedrive on the left in the UK).
So this particular night my dad was approaching the bend, saw nolights on the opposite approach and allowed the lorry to swingout to take the bend wide, on the 'wrong' side of the road. As heapproached the corner itself another lorry swung around the bendtowards him with no lights on!
My dad stood on his brakes, the other driver stood on his and thetwo lorries skidded towards each other. My dad said he could seethe look on the other driver's face and they were both literallystanding upright in their efforts to stop. Just as the lorrieswere on the point of colliding the other lorry disappeared and mydad was staring up the empty road.
He says he felt the other lorry pass through him like a cold windwhich chilled him right to his soul (I wish I could show you thelook on his face as he relates this bit!). He was going to stopovernight in a nearby layby but instead carried on until he gotwhere he was going. In the cold light of day he cursed himselffor being so silly and put it down to driver fatigue.
However, a couple of weeks later he was in the area again and washaving a drink in a local pub when a man walked in lookingextremely shaken up. The guy went to the bar, ordered a stiffdrink and preceded to tell the landlord the same story I havejust told. The landlord assured him it was ok, he wasn't goingmad. Apparently a lorry driver had been killed several yearsearlier when his lights had failed on the bend and quite a fewpeople had seen 'The Ghost of Hangman's Corner'.
My dad's been that way a few times since, but chooses a differentroute at night.
Cue spooky music............
Steve Howells - South Wales