Victorian Railway Worker
First reported in Spath in the 1970s ...
When I recently returned to Uttoxeter, one of the first things I heard, or perhaps reheard, was the sound of train horns as they approached the Hockley Crossing. It was the sound of my childhood, long lost, but now returned with many other memories. It instilled in me the fact that the railway is a core part of the towns’ history and also ingrained in many people’s memories. That may be why we have had so many sightings of the following chap…
One good thing about Facebook is the net can be cast wide for interesting stories and the same story may well turn up time and time again, in a way the usual media cannot record.
In the mid-1970s, a schoolboy walking into town to school encountered a well-dressed, uniformed individual close to the A50 in the Spath, who appears to be a railway worker from the turn of the century, judging by his upturned collar. It appears he was no ghost as he asked the schoolboy a question. ‘Which way to London’? Our helpful boy pointed him helpfully to the town station, suggesting a train would probably be the best option. The man went on his way.
There have been two other sightings of him, always earnestly trying to find his way back to London. Just an oddity in a busy day to observers. On one occasion he was seen in the town centre, his attire making him stick out in the crowd as he strode purposefully, watch in hand along bridge street past the Wheatsheaf.
As I said previously, he does not appear to be a ghost as he has intelligently interacted with others. And seems only to have been seen in that mid-70s window of time. Seems he was lost, very lost, and a little confused, but not without the wherewithal to try and find his way home.
Maybe he was an accidental time traveler. There are many reports of such across the globe. Tales of Victorians turning up in Times Square in the 50s and killed in the traffic with pockets full of verifiable ID. Maybe our little uniformed man was one too? but if he was then getting back to London was the easiest of his tasks, going back 70 or so years might well have been a bigger problem.
(Below is a photo of a rail worker of the period who appears to have fit the bill in terms of the way he looked)
Here’s an account of the Victorian who appeared in New York in the 1950s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANN9Wc48dTY
