Welcome to my site dedicated to the Caterham Bypass Ghost.
1st uploaded Wed 18th March 2009
Last updated Mon 7th OCT 2010
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This website is bought to you by Surrey Paranormal
LATEST NEWS!!
07/10/2010
Work has been going on for the last couple of week to re surface the A22 at the location where the girl has been seen. I have had an email today from a member of the highways team who claims that some of the work men have seen a girl matching a common description while working during the night. As i get more info on this i will post the findings.
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LATEST INFORMATION!!!!
So far we (Surrey Paranormal) have had 7 mediums at the location. These mediums are split between Spiral Paranormal, Sussex Paranormal and our own two mediums. Without being prompted all 7 mediums have given me the same information regarding the girl(s). The information I have received tells me that there are 3 girls who haunt the A22 and show themselves to people in their cars and lorries.
There has been a crossing from Tillingdown Lane and a pathway that leads down to Crescent road then to Caterham town via Timber Hill Road (past the Police Station) since before 1860. The A22 was built in 1938/9 and opened in 1939. Reports of the haunting have been coming in since 1968 and maybe as early as 1964 however 2 separate mediums on separate occasions have told me that there is a woman who crossed the road from the Caterham town side over towards Tillingdown Lane, she reaches the other side to wait for her lover who never turns up! She dies in the scrubland of hypothermia. This was in 1920.
The other 2 girls (without going into too much detail) were attacked locally and murdered in the woods on the Caterham side of the By-Pass. I am at present trying to find any information regarding anyone being found or murdered/missing in the 60’s but so far, nowt! The information given to me by the mediums includes lot’s of other information about the location and the girls which will not be published. They also gave me information about the area and especially the Coaches and highwaymen in the area.
As more information becomes available i will post it here.
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A report was published this month (Sep 09) stating that the A22 at Caterham had one of the most reported sightings of a road side ghost in the country. I had also been asked to appear on London Tonight as they were doing a piece about the A22 Ghost. I was interviewed and it went out on Monday 28th Sep 09. I was also interviewed via telephone by BBC Radio Kent who also did a piece about roadside hauntings.
Also in the last couple of weeks my ghost hunting buddy and i have set up our own Ghost hunting group called Surrey Paranormal. Our intention is not only to investigate the Caterham By-Pass ghost but also the paranormal in general.
***HOT OFF THE PRESS***
Received this email at the weekend from a previous tenant, Carol Parker, who lives at one of the tied cottages near the farm thats close to the area.
“My son, who now lives in Plymouth, was searching the history of the Caterham area last evening, and came across your website.
With great excitement he phoned me to tell me all about you.
Myself, my husband and our three children used to live at Tillingdown Farm which is approached via the turning off the southward carriageway of the A22, just before the southern entrance to Caterham, and within the area of sightings of a ghost, as shown on your map. (There use to be an "AA" Box at the turning years ago.)
We lived there in the early 1970's, when it was a horse racing yard.
With my children, Peter and Aubrey walking and baby Fiona in a push chair, I used to walk down to Caterham to get food shopping etc. We would walk down a footpath to the A22, and cross to the centre of the road, which in those days was just a hedge, and get across to other side, through the woods and on down the many steps to the town.
It makes me shudder to think of the risk but I had no choice, I didn't drive a car.
I dont remember seeing anything unusual in that area, I think I would've been too busy watching the traffic, counting the steps and dragging the push chair!
However the farm was a different matter.
The 'tied cottage' we lived in was spooky, we were always hearing and seeing things.
There was a room at the top of the house that I hated going into. We'd hear footsteps outside the windows at night, but never found anybody about. Our sitting room door would be 'thumped' at the same time every evening. Toys would be moved. I would regularly see a figure, out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned and looked there was nothing there.
I was so scared, I used to sleep with the light on.
Our nearest neighbour was a cottage about 200m away where the stable lads lived. They too had many strange happenings, things repeatedly being moved within moments of being put down, bags, coats, tools.
We heard that a man had shot himself out side our house.
I used to go to the library to research the farm.
If I remember rightly the area was a battle ground during the civil war.
Don't quote me, it was a long time ago and I'd have to research the history books again to be sure!
I haven't been back to Tillingdown for many years. My children have driven up there, and our house is now sadly derelict.
Its sad to think of an unhappy soul forever wondering on the A22, sorry I haven't been able to help solve the mystery, but thought you might be interested in our time at Tillingdown Farm.”
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Since my ‘sighting’ i have been trying to find as much information as i can regarding this regularly seen specter! So here is what i have found out so far. If you have any information about the Ghost please email me and i will post any information you send if relevant.
My Story:
It was 5:40am in December 2008 and My friend and i turned off the M25 after spending the night Ghost Hunting at the Museum of Rural Life in Maidstone, Kent. We turned onto the A22 going north towards Croydon/London. About 2/3 of the way along the A22 Caterham Bypass myself and my friend saw a young girl walking across the road. She had shoulder length blonde hair, short denim skirt, summer top / T shirt, white tights and a 60’s style hat/cap. We both saw her and I didn’t think much of it but did wonder why a girl would be crossing the road at that time of the morning in December. I just thought she may be coming home from a party but she was wearing summer clothes. Also I did at he time think that she was not the right colour, she looked 'grayed out' like she was a black and white photo. She didn’t look to see how far away I was and when she got to the other side of the road she just looked into the trees which we thought a bit odd.
The only houses close by were on the opposite carriage way which were old 19th Century cottages and a farm. Apart from them it’s just fields so the likelihood of a party was remote. My friend said “You don’t think that’s the A22 Ghost do you?” I had never herd of the A 22 Caterhanm Bypass ghost before so I said that I had no idea. Later that morning I got onto the Internet and looked up any info on the Caterham Bypass ghost and was astonished when I found some reports describing almost exactly what I saw.
I have mentioned the sighting to people at work (I work for Surrey Police) and apparently it’s quite common. I also spoke to a local burger van owner (on the A22) who has seen the girl and he described exactly what I saw. There are some local over night refuse men who have seen her about 6 times and it’s the same girl in different locations but in the same general area. She was reported to the police 2 weeks ago and I’m trying to get the info from that report at the moment. I have spoken to other local people who know about the girl and apparently she lived in one of the near by cottages and walked out and got run down/killed in 1968. I have a few people investigating the case for me and I’m going to keep this website updated as and when i get further information.
Here is an image of the location of my sighting:
SO, There you go. There are more reports on the net to be found if you look but i need hard evidence which I’m trying to gather and will present as and when it’s found. If you have any information about the Ghost please email me and i will post any information you send if relevant.
Since my last update i have talked to Surrey Police and it seems that this ghost is quite famous. This is one of the UK’s most reported ‘Road Ghost’ sightings which is good news for me as i will be conducting investigations on that piece of road in the very near future. I’ll keep you posted!
Here is a piece taken from another site that i found only today (March 2009):
Police Hunt For Phantom That Terrified Drivers Source: ICCroydon http://iccroydon.icnetwork.co.uk/news/croydon/tm_objectid=17003141&method= full&siteid=53340&headline=police-hunt-for-phantom-that-terrified-drivers-name_page.html
An expensive police search involving a helicopter and sniffer dogs was launched - after a ghost was spotted on the Caterham Bypass. Terrified motorists called police after seeing the mysterious ghoulish figure walking across the A22 at the dead of night. Despite it costing an estimated £1,000, a police helicopter was deployed to search for the spooky female, who witnesses said was wearing ripped tights and a mini-skirt but had no features on her face. Officers with tracker dogs were also sent to the scene in the early hours of April 13 but nothing could be found. A spokesman for East Surrey Police said: "It was all very eerie. It's the weirdest thing I've come across.
"We had reports from a lorry driver of a similar incident on March 1, and we can't rule out that this is a supernatural occurrence." Father-of-two Matthew, who withheld his surname, was driving along the road at 2.30am on April 13 with two of his work colleagues, who are all floor layers, when they spotted the girl. The 36-year-old, from Whyteleafe, said: "We saw a young girl's figure cross the road in front of us. "We called the police and they said somebody else had also reported it.
"She was wearing black boots or wellies, a dark top and a beige skirt. We turned around at the roundabout and went back along the bypass. "The figure was still there. She was just walking across the road. All three of us saw her. It really freaked us out." Matthew is sure the girl was some kind of ghost. He added: "The girl did not have any features on her face. It made the hairs stand out on the top of my neck"
The mystery girl walked from the northbound carriage-way over to the southbound lane near the edge of the woods. An officer claimed spooky sightings at the site dated back to 1962. A spokesman from Surrey Police added: "A motorist who attended Kenley police station reported seeing a young white woman wearing a miniskirt and ripped tights run across the road in front of him and into woodland towards Tillingdown Farm. "Several other motorists contacted police to report seeing the same thing. "Witnesses described the woman as being in a distressed state and so officers, including a dog unit and a Metropolitan Police helicopter, searched the surrounding area but could find no trace of her."