Sally in the Woods

Friday 25th April 2008

Sally in the Woods

This evening we found ourselves out on the hunt of Sally in the infamous woods just left of Monkton Farleigh and very close to the beautiful Georgian city of Bath.

A team of us met at the car park of Browns folly and once everyone had arrived we excitedly began our journey into the dark, creepy woodland.

As a child I used to go here a lot with my Dad for walks which often started at the woodland at Conkwell and continued across the main road into the Reputedly haunted woods of Sally in the woods.

The legend alters slightly usually being exaggerated for dramatic license but the common theme is a witch was supposedly living in the woods and kidnapped a young gypsy girl. The girl managed to escaped but the witch found her and killed her. Ever since the little girl is supposed to run out into the road in front of unsuspecting people driving through the woods at the dead of night and they fall to their death as they swerve off of the road to avoid her and over the embankment. The word Sally though is a very old English word for battle or skirmish. The area is full of well known battle grounds and an infamous one can be found just across the valley at Landsdowne where the bloody battle of Landsdowne at freezing hill took place.

To get to Sally you have to walk past Browns Folly which was our first port of call. The Folly was built in 1848 by Mr Wade Brown. The Folly stands regally on top of Farleigh Rise watching over the magnificent view. From this point you can clearly see the city of Bath.

We climbed some pretty step steps cut into the ground which seemed to go on and on for ever but eventually we managed to get to the top of the hill. The Folly was once open and you could climb to the top and admire the magnificiant view but it is now closed as the inside of the folly is far to dangerous due to neglect and the wooden platforms have gradually rotted away over the years.

We spent quite a lot of time here taking pictures and generally getting a feel for the place. While we were stood there I felt very uneasy where I was stood and didn't like being away from the team with my back to the woods so I quickly joined the group again. I have since found out that other more sensitive members present sensed an old lady stood behind where I was standing and one could even see her. She was pulling a hideous face and pawing the air near my back. The team member who could see her said she was asking permission to step closer to us and though she was not evil her motive where questioned. The team member told her to go away and the spirit lady retreated back into the woods. Our attention once more focused on the tower and even though the door is bolted these days we could wiggle our camera's under the door and take pictures of the folly's interior. These can be viewed on the gallery page.

We decided that it was time to move on so we began our descent into the dark woods. Once in the woods the path forked to the left and right. I felt drawn to the left but most of the team just naturally went right so I followed. While we walked along the path there were opportunities to go deeper into the woods on smaller paths but we decided to stick to the main one for safety. The woods did seem to get darker and more oppresive the further along the path we went. While we were on this path members heard various sounds which ranged from voices to growling but we have to remember these woods are open to the public so we cannot rule out other people or animals being around at the time.

To my surprise we found this path lead us right back to the Car park so we took this opportunity to have a break and then decided to go back and check out a cave that I had spotted while I had gone up there the weekend before to get my barings.

While we were on our way there the team stopped as some had spotted another cave entrance with a grill across it. I explained it was an old mine shaft entrance and while they were having a look a few of us stayed back chatting and taking pictures. while chatting I was suddenly a ware that someone had walked up behind me and started to talk to me. I turned around to my right and was about to say "sorry, what did you say?" when I saw no one there. I turned to my left as I thought it was my team mate but saw she was further on down the track taking pictures and I turned to my right again. The person I was speaking to asked me if I had heard that? I then asked did YOU hear that? We both had and had naturally paused in our conversation to allow me to acknowledge our new ghostly team mate. I cannot say what was said as I didn't catch it but I do know the voice was female.

After this we decided to walk onto the cave which is easy to access and not very deep. It is about 7ft long by 5 ft wide. We stayed here but didn't feel anything so after another chat we decided to call it a night here.

I would like to thank Twilight Shadows and Wessex Paranormal for joining us on this very interesting and fun evening. I think we have all agreed we would like to go back again to explore further.