The 1989 mystery of the ‘Sicklesmere Spectre’ solved when reader David Kelsey stepped forward

Today’s nostalgia feature looks back to January 1998, when the mystery of the ‘Sicklesmere Spectre’ was solved by one of our readers.

A letter to the Bury Free Press from Andrew Chessum, of Sicklesmere, had described the ‘eerie atmosphere’ around the disused railway bridge to the north end of the village, which he and his wife frequently used for dog walks around dusk.

“In fact, we both tend to quicken our pace through it when walking alone,” his letter said.

It went on: “And so, when on a blustery January evening we spied the figure of a man and dog under the arch of the bridge ahead of us, it was a natural subject for a joke. ‘Look’ there’s our ghost’.

“My wife laughed and wondered if he might disappear in a puff of smoke.”

But then, after turning a corner, the mysterious figures disappeared, nowhere to be seen.

Mr Chessum said: “We continued towards the bridge and the silhouettes of the man and dog, by now some 50 metres ahead of us, rounded a bend and disappeared out of sight.

“Unperturbed, we looked up and down the road, expecting to see them on the footpath, but no-one was to be seen. At this point we looked at one another and realised our jokes might not have been quite so funny after all.”

WIthin days of the letter appearing in the Bury Free Press, David Kelsey stepped forward to say he believed he was, in fact, the phantom Sicklesmere Spectre.

He and his wife Pat owned part of the disused railway embankment, which was in their garden.

He regularly walked his dog Pip through the bridge and along the River Lark and on returning, they would cut through the fence into his paddock instead of continuing to walk up the lane.

Mr Kelsey believed this might be why they seemed to disappear in a ‘puff of smoke’.

He said the only phantoms he had seen appearing on the bridge were schoolboys, although he thought Pip might have sniffed out something not apparent to human eyes.

He said: “The dog does occasionally stop and stare into the blackness, so maybe he sees the odd spook or two.”