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Posted: 29-08-2005 14:23 Post subject:

There is a story about a ghostly drummer in Staffordshire, whch I came across recently in a book about Staffordshire.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/cudavlied/drummer.jpg

Posted: 29-08-2005 15:56 Post subject:

Duntroon castel, Argylle.
In the seventeenth century a piper was sent to spy out the castle, but was captured, apparently managing to warn the invaders by playing ' The Pipers Warning to his Master ' , which caused him to have his hands cut off.
A skeleten was found there during restoration work, with no hand bones, allegedly, and people see the Piper and hear him in the tower.

Posted: 30-08-2005 12:56 Post subject:

Drummers were used extensively for signalling orders during battles, this tends to put the drummers in a dangerous position, if you take them out, officers loose the ability to signal to troops/NCOs, they were also usually quite young so maybe it's just that there were so many of them were too young to understand the realities of war and that they are dead.

Posted: 30-08-2005 13:48 Post subject:

And of course not forgetting the headless drummer boy of Dover Castle:

Posted: 19-05-2006 03:09 Post subject: Re: Ghostly Drummers

Posted: 25-06-2006 13:03 Post subject:

Posted: 05-07-2006 03:38 Post subject: dummer boy

Woah really interesting versions of the drummer boy story.
If i may i will tell you mine.
The drummer boy ghost is actualy the ghost of a young lad who was painted with phosphorus paint and made to march around a graveyard, lighting up the dark and frighteming people. This was perfect cover for smugglers who made a fortune.
The lead content of the paint killed the boy, wich is why he still drums about this place.

Posted: 19-08-2006 23:22 Post subject: Re: dummer boy

Posted: 07-10-2006 05:41 Post subject:

there is supposed to be a drummer boy under the bridge at potter heigham in Norfolk. When I was at first school there I remember there being a new village sign put up outside our school that displayed this boy. We were told a story about him in assembley, when the sign had been first put up. The drummer boy was apparently attatched to some army group, returning after service during a war. (I dont remember now which one but Napoleonic sounds plausibly familiar.) He was making his way home and was by the riverbank, close to the under pass of the little bridge. We were told he had drowned after falling through thin ice. The beating of drums, according to the story we were told, was his attempt to attract the attention of his fellow soldiers, also on the return march to there respective homes, so that he might be saved from an icy death.

We were told that on dark winter nights you can hear him drumming.

All publications and stories I have looked up about potter heigham ghostly goings on, dont seem to know this story, but all the locals do.
It was an odd place to live. It didnt strike me as strange that my friends and myself where always allowed to stay out late, on our own, to go ghost hunting. We were 7 yr olds at that time, so really not a normal thing to have been happening. Nor somthing that the majority of parents would consider safe.
After moving from there to a town, I was only allowed out on Girl Guides night up until the age of 14 and never at any other time. So quite a change. But I think it demonstrates the oddity of the village.

Posted: 07-10-2006 08:27 Post subject: potter heigham

Skater of Hickling Broad

Location: Potter Heigham (Norfolk) - River Thurne
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: In love with a rich man's daughter, a drummer boy would skate across the frozen river to secretly rendezvous with his forbidden girlfriend. However, one winter night the ice cracked and the boy drowned - leaving his ghost to continue the drumming. A phantom female rower has also been seen on the river.

[url] http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/riverdata.php?pageNum_paradata=1&totalRows_paradata=55

[url] http://www.norfolkcoast.co.uk/myths/ml_potterheigham.htm

[url] http://www.norfolkcoast.co.uk/myths/ml_napoleonicsoldier.htm

[url] http://www.edp24.co.uk/Content/Features/SpookyNorfolk/calendar.asp

Potter Heigham, Norfolk

Sir Godfrey Haslitt married the beautiful Lady Evelyn Carew on 31st May, 1742. At midnight, during the course of the wedding celebrations, the bride was seized from the Hall and carried out screaming to a waiting coach. The coach tore down the drive and headed along the road towards Potter Heigham. Arriving at the bridge, the coach, which was travelling too fast, smashed into the wall and was flung, with it’s occupants, into the River Thurne below.

At midnight, on the anniversary of the fatal wedding night, the journey is repeated by the phantom coach. It was certainly seen as late as 1930.

[/url] http://noir-folk.tripod.com/tales.html#Potterbridge
[url] http://www.norfolkcoast.co.uk/signs/index.htm

Posted: 08-04-2013 12:02 Post subject:

I'm a bit late to this thread. Embarassed

But the subject of phantom drumming or tapping happened to come up in rl conversation the other day, and I remembered this discussion. Since it's a percussion instrument, perhaps a drum is much more likely to be misidentified than another sort of instrument with a more distinctive or unmistakable sound? Any sort of vague rhythmic banging could be interpreted as a drum from a distance, so maybe some of these phantom drummers are just natural sounds being misinterpreted, with the legend to match being created or drafted in from elsewhere later?

I know water dripping through limestone can sound remarkably like a drum in the distance, if the acoustics are right- there's a natural cavern near me that's a popular tourist spot, and the tour guides specifically point out the sound. I'm sure other natural phenomena could fit the bill.

Not that this applies to cases like Tedworth, of course, but maybe some of those really short-on-details urban legend type stories about a phantom drummer could be explained this way.