Ghost Story: A West Cumberland Coalmine by Tony Walker
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- #audiobook #horror #shortstories #classic
This is an experiment. This story is taken from my book: Cumbrian Ghost Stories and was a favourite at our live reading events. Once, a woman asked why I didn't tell it as a story as she thought that would be a better experience for the audience than merely reading it out.
I have started doing a distance course teaching me how to be a bard. Part of that is the art of storytelling. This is my first attempt at memorising the story and telling it to an audience.
Let me know how you think it works. You can compare it with the read version if you like too:
• A West Cumberland Coal...
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One of the rarest, most wonderful things in the world-a natural storyteller. In ancient times you'd have been a mage or a priest...
I am hoping to do more live stuff.
Yup. He would also be an oracle or sage in his off hours!
These are the otherworldly events that come to some of us, univited, often by accident, sometimes through friendship, sometimes through devotion, and, most dramatically, sometimes through love. May the soul of this poor man be blessed, in peace, and safely home with God. Thank you for telling us.
What a brilliant story. Thanks for sharing.
Absolutely perfect I love it, I really love the personal touch! Thank you Tony for never disappointing. You spoil us and you are such a good narrator and a naturally talented story teller. Some people just have it! You keep us hanging on every word.
🌟☮️🌟✡️🌟
I live in PA now, a place still "haunted" by the days of coal mining. I remember hearing you read this story...so creepy and claustrophobic. I love hearing and seeing you tell it this way 💜
Thank you. As I said, it's just an experiment. I may do more. Probably will. Who knows?
Big hands I know you're the one
Good point. The coal mines around PA truly have the "haunted" look and feel.
There was always a unique feel to the area when we would go hunting around them growing up. It was almost like being taken into the past.
That was a successful experiment, Tony! Thank you very much for sharing.
I loved hearing this one again.
Thank you.
☺️
Becoming a bard is a wonderful aim, Tony. Keep it up.
I like to think I’m pretty immune to the shivers, after OD-ing on Tony’s channel. But this one genuinely chilled me. Thank you xxx
I find your personal stories are usually the best stories imo
Wonderful story. I wouldn't have the nerve to get into the cage and travel down into the mine. I have heard the story twice now and I can't help thinking if they had better, more dependable light, his friend may have survived. May the Gods rest his soul.
Love this story and narrated so beautifully, Tony! ❤️
Glad you enjoyed it!
I thoroughly enjoyed your telling. Thanks.
Just brilliant. Thank you!!
Fabulous! And even more effective because it is a story of your family. This one genuinely spooked me.
I loved this-Thank you ❤️👍👍👍
Chills. My grandfather was a Pennsylvania coal miner on Barkley mountain. He worked for Jones & Bragg. I've always had a fear of the old mines.
A good story *Thank You Tony*👻 I think it takes brave men to go that far beneath the earth while they are still living
Fascinating and fantastic !
Chilling. I was imagining the mine walls and air and smell. The tension thinking about the lights fading and the thing with the silk...brrrrr. what a brilliant story. ♥️😍😮😫
O my heart is chilled. "Whether it came down with us..." Great work!
Exactly as i planned!! (Evil laugh)
Mesmerizing! All through the narration your detailed description of the mine, its history, of the people involved in the gripping story, your voice modulation and last but not the least the twist in the tale kept me in thrall.
Many thanks Sir
Thank you for listening and for taking the time to comment. It keeps me on track !
Lived in Pennsylvania and have had lots of friends in West Virginia. A coal mine story, especially a spooky one, told like this was, brings back memories. Thanks so much Tony.
Most Excellent! Thank you so much!
Thanks Norma
This was fantastic and I enjoyed it very much. I love the sound effects. You are a great story teller.
Thanks A. I enjoyed doing the sound effects!
Good morning. Coffee and a story!
Morning Andrea
Brilliant morning coffee & a ghost story on a pleasantly cool, overcast morning that feels like fall 😊
I'm doing the exact same thing in the exact same conditions here, in Englewood Ohio! For some reason it was a comfort for me to know that someone else is enjoying the exact same thing... Have a great day
Warm here!
My father was a coal miner all his working days, it's definitely a dangerous alien world. Great story, i spent the night in an old abandoned pony mine when I was a teenager. And this story gave me chills.Thank you Mr. Tony
Thank you dear Tony ⛏️⛏️⛏️
Brilliantly told story! Chilling.
Thank you Andrea
Oh, this is perfect to share around the camp fire 🔥 👀🖤
Thanks Silke
This was such a treat!
This was excellent. You're a great storyteller, I'd love to hear more like this!
More to come!
Could listen to you for hours. Would love you to include more stories from reality. Those always give an extra shiver!
I am plannng another one like this
I well remember you reading this one and I loved it---I just listened again, and you're certainly very believable in telling it as if this story actually happened to your Grandad. It works both ways, it's a good 'un! 😊
This is soooo good, Tony! Thanks so much for your story telling art and the shiver up my back!
I loved this. My dad was a miner in the 40s and 50's on the Northumberland/Cumberland border..a mine near Haltwhistle.. probably Plenmeller or Featherstone. . He was in his late 40s when I was born but never talked of his time down the mine, except to tell me of the plight of the pit ponies. He loved all animals and the pit ponies often got his 'bait' I used to ask my mum why they slept with the curtains open,she told me that my dad couldn't sleep in the dark and often would waken and run for the window..towards the light
He was a brave and gentle man .he was also in the Home guard at Featherstone camp during the war. I miss him loads
Thanks for these stories.. really enjoying them
I know featherstone castle
And the area in general
Some of the old camp is still there. They kept the SS there and attempted to de nazify'them with professors from Oxford and Durham universities. It's fascinating
Great story! My Gran's brother was a miner and was killed in the William Pit , Whitehaven in the '47 disaster. I would be fascinated to here any more curious tales from the mining community. Cheers!
Yes . I’ll be In Whitehaven tomorrow. I know the monument
@@ClassicGhost If they are named on it look out for Joseph Diamond.
My late Father was a miner for many years, and a member of Miners Rescue. Once the 'roof' of the bed dropped, and the only way through to rescue people was for someone to crawl under it. Father was 6'3", but slim, and as brave as ten men. He had to lie on his front with his arms in front of him, and pull himself forward a few inches at a time using his forearms. He did this for well over 50 yards. He was a legend.
Thank you so much for this brilliant storytelling!
I am a fan of ghost and horror stories, as well as crime stories, and this is the first time in years one has actually given me chills.
My grandparents would say you have the Gift of Gab, which is a tremendous compliment coming from my never-quite-Americanized Irish family.
You've made my week!
Oh Shanon, thank you. I am planning to do more like this, but for those who worry, I won't stop doing the readings either
That was different from the usual and I really enjoyed it.
Very, very good story!!
I'm so pleased to have found your channel. What a rare pleasure in such times😊
Late to the party but I had an ex boyfriend who was a hard rock stope miner for gold.There was no work doing that so he went coal mining in Alberta.He was absolutely dreading it and only lasted a few days.Said it just creeped him out.The biggest horror were the coveralls that were too expensive to chuck out but just that fine black powdery coal.😱Great story as usual Tony😁❤️🇨🇦
Wow, that was an incredible story. So well written and told as always. Even though I guessed what you were going to say towards the end it still gave me the shivers. Brilliant. :)
I need to learn more techniques though
Btw...Rockin' that Floyd tee! 🤘🎶🤙
Hi Tony, my grandfather was a coal miner in Pennsylvania. He worked with a lot of Welshmen, who had migrated there because of the rich coal deposits. He worked for many years and had his chest crushed when a huge block of anthracite fell on him, but he was a strong little bull of a man and survived. He retired after that but eventually died of black lung when he was about 75. I always remember he had a whiskey in his coffee every morning to help his breathing and he had many stories about the mines. What a terrible life, yet he was one of the most strong and cheerful men you could meet. Aren’t people soft now. We could never live the lives they lived
I listened to your other one and came across this. I could not pass it up because this was a live recording/livestream of your reading! I love the graphics.
Fine work! Yes, miners and we sailors are very supersticious!
Thanks!
My grandfather was also a coal miner, in Pike County, Ky. Mom was born in 1921, for reference. He also made and trafficked corn liquor, which he strongly preferred to mining coal. Who wouldn't? I'm longwinded, and I digress, but I already felt a kinship with you before I knew the mining culture in your background. Strange what comes through the screen. I have a question and I hope I don't offend anyone. I'm new. First comment and I'm old as dirt. My mother's family were, and still are, as we say, as mean as snakes and sharp as razors. Ma was until her dying day. It's pretty generally accepted by those not from there that Eastern KY is a dangerous place to do business. So much so that when I became a truck driver and asked where I should refuse loads, Pike Cty and Eastern KY topped the list. Above the Bronx, South Central, Detroit, etc. Get ready to be offended. Are Cumbrian coal miners as mean as snakes and as sharp as razors, or is it just us? Maybe just my family. I've always wondered and you're the first non US descendent from coal miners I've had the chance to ask.
There aren't any coal miners left here. I used to come across old men, but most of them have died off. My grandfather (actually called Anthony) was a gentle man. My grandmother was tough though. Scary to others, but not to me.
@@ClassicGhost Rd
Your great as usual ! But this I've said before ...
Thanks a bunch for sharing this true story but most importantly a "personal recollection" of a kind , maybe not rare as such but that few are willing to share !
Good on you and.keep going !
More to come
Great !
One of the creepiest stories I've heard for ages. Loved it.
+Lynn Ritchie Thank you Lynn
Mesmerizing, informative, insightful, and so beautifully rooted in real history and experience. What a wonderful account to help us understand and appreciate your wonderful story.
Thank you Rohan
I always liked DH Lawrence’s portrayal of miners. There are some great folk songs about miners and mining disasters too.
The story was excellent and very scary at the end!
Ha ha. I did lay it on.
@@ClassicGhost Yes you did indeed! I was convinced it was Dorothy!
Great ghost story. Thank you.
I love the Pink Floyd shirt. Wonderful telling of events as well.
Fantastic, Tony! Saw this on the tv and hurring to my pc so I can write a comment and give thumbs up. Love to feel as if we are sitting around a campfire and you are telling us a gripping tale. Love the visuals--Now we know what a coal mine REALLY looks like- those of us who never actually have been in one. Masterful work! Thank you!
I hope the quality is ok.
Claustrophobic, I could never work in those conditions underground. 😒 I tip my hat to those who do/have done.
Bless you, you have helped to heat and fuel the world.
I lived in West Virginia for a while and I had to dig in the mountain behind my house. I learned what it is like to dig horizontally instead of the usual vertical way that you dig a hole in the ground. It's 10X harder, and I got real appreciation for what coal miners have to do when they pick at the face of a coal seam.
I heard this somewhere Elsa also. Great story. Thanks
Just found this & I really like it!
Thank you !!
Mr. Walker your voice ends my day every night, your oratory skills are unsurpassed and your stories are at times pure magic, I want to sincerely thank you, #THErealSANDMAN.
Mr Sandman... I need to watch the Neil Gaiman Sandman. I hear it's good. But thank you!
A great story, thank you Tony.
That was amazing! I hope you have a lot more cause I feel a binge coming on. And just in time for Halloween!
I hope to get another recorded before next week
This was so good - thank you xx
You're so welcome, Sara.
Excellent story
Tony, how nice to see your elfin, tanned person and visualise the man behind the voice.
I like real life stories and they fascinate me, though I have a few questions which you may or may not have asked.
1. Did people die of TB in the 1960’s ? I thought it had pretty much been eradicated.
2. Did you try doing a local newspaper search and death notices for the miner named ? I’m sure something would have been placed into the newspaper, even if just a notice of the death down the mine.
3. The ghostly horror, shaped perhaps like a woman, doesn’t seem to eat people as it must get very hungry. Therefore it’s perhaps more of a psychological spirit manifestation. These are easy words, typed on a sunny day above ground. Having been under ground a fair bit, with an old torch failing I can say it’s a different world. Though I feel there’s enough danger without creating paranormal ones. The old miners used to talk about the ground speaking, and I have heard strange rumblings, as well as sort of creakings as rocks moved. I am sure the men working regularly got used to this and even understood what it meant for good or bad.
I will reply to some of these questions but not to others on artistic grounds. 1. Dorothy apparently died in the 1920s or 1930s. John Bragg would be say 40 in 1962 and Dorothy was his childhood sweetheart. 2. I remember reading this story in the West Cumberland Times & Star when I would be about 10, so early 1970s. 3. I remember being in mines, not coal mines and switching off the light to see and it is very very very dark. I like the ground speaking idea.
This was just great, Tony! You had my complete attention. The best ghost stories are the true ones. Thank you so much. Stories about the mines and miners are in a completely different category from all others.
Glad you enjoyed it. I think I'll do the Croglin vampire yet. Those are the ones that I will do live so I need to practise them.
I was born and raised in springhill Nova Scotia big coal mining town lots of death and disaster in the past
It is certainly a dangerous trade to be involved in.
Amazing story telling! I was a ghost hunter for many years way back when…long before it was even remotely accepted. I still absolutely love a good ghost story. I have heard - and experienced - many over the years. This was a great one and you tell it so well. I felt like I was there in the mine…listening…in the damp and the dark. Thank you so much for sharing this!!
A synchronicity. I was just sitting in the train thinking about a magazine I wanted to publish years ago called Haunted Places about two experiences of a pace with ghosts
There are no coincidences 😉 I have no doubt you’d have plenty of interested people-myself included. One of my cases actually was covered by the Discovery Channel years ago. Without saying too much here, it was the case that ended up being my last. It’s a fascinating topic and I’m amazed at the level of interest that has developed. I was definitely in the minority when I started out! I’d love to hear more-I know many others would as well. TY!!
Just. WOW.
Thanks, mate. Appreciated
I like this better than the read ones, you used a wider range of emotion in your voice and it works
+Di Smith I enjoyed doing it. It doesn’t mean I won’t do the other type
@@ClassicGhost Both is great
I have heard this story before can not remember when but I have definitely Heard it he stayed behind after work doesn't he
Thanks!
This is one of my favorite stories from the book. Any plans for another Christmas book? I really enjoyed the last one. A fun read by the fire!
I haven’t done any more Christmas stories. Yet
Instantly subscribed! 👍🙂
Stuart! Thank you :))
Great story. Better than most fictional stories.
Btw, is that a vintage FLOYD or a repro you’re wearing? One of my favorite albums. Gilmour is one of my favorite guitarists who I’m unable to duplicate (he does use a pedal board with about 20 units though).
Repro… but I really like that album
Hi Tony you look nicely tanned and rested. I thought at first you were growing "whiskers" which I think would suit you but maintenance, I know. Just an observation. Hope the heatwave from Hell is gone, ours left last night with my flapping hands urging it off and gone- I loathe humidity- makes one feel woozy, water-logged, sleepy but unable to rest well- it isn't the gentle summer sun, it's the WET you get in some climates. on today's tale, I think one of the worst jobs would be going down the mine- just from letting my imagination go whenever a disaster happens someplace in the world- horrid, I can imagine how you'd feel as the oxygen depletes. I suppose there is also a folk-lore-ish sp, association with the Underworld. Very interesting that you developed your story from family history- quite the romantic tale- the beloved and the blue silk... Dorothy- she need not have been physically there in life! A ghost can go where they didn't in life can't they?
Namaste (the drips seemed as her tears to my Romantic side-)
No, I used to have trouble keeping looking shaved with my very dark hair. Now, it's more grey. yes, it's been humid here but sort of pleasantly hot.
Classic.
Wow.
Thank you Scott!
I don't believe in ghosts or anything superstitious at all however I did find this entertaining. Im from Whitehaven and my great Grandad died in the 30s from a head injury down there and my Grandad nearly 90 whos very superstitious claims he saw a ghost down the mines when he was an eletcrician, don't believe him at all but find it quite chilling.
I know Whitehaven well. I've worked there for most of the past 20 years. But now working in Maryport. Very dangerous mines off the coast there of course.
Creepy AF!
Thanks Lisa. Grateful for your support
You look tanned and rested.
It’s been sunny :)
I would love so much to come and listen to you tell stories! Are you planning on doing any readings in California?
I wish!
@@ClassicGhost that's the way I feel about visiting the UK!
I believe Mr. Ballen did this story...
I think it’s mine
Maybe it was Draugr 😱
I like that idea. It takes me back to that cavern in Skyrim.
Cumberland mine? Like the Grateful Dead song?
I didn’t know that one. I’ve never really got into the Dead even though they are often compared with my beloved Hawkwind
@@ClassicGhost The Grateful Dead had a big following. The environment was the big thing. Most folks were outside the arena selling grilled cheese sandwiches.
VERY INTERESTING
I love the sandman
@@ClassicGhost I love The Sandman
If you only knew how many times I have listened. Olympia... nice eyes... spinning round
No one tells a story like you do....
I'd like to get better.
Great story, but the jump cuts kind of ruined it mate. Just a bit of feedback.
I used some b roll to cover the worst ones but I take your point
Your narrations are always excellent but I especially love the way you tell a story. It was great to hear a bit about your grandad and his pal as well. I hope John Bragg eventually found his Dorothy 🖤
We hope in the end he did
Love this story, you know how to create a great ending! Well done Tony!
Glad you enjoyed it. I am a true 'hamateur' 'ham actor?;