Continuing the Collection of Compelling Tags, Under another bridge

Look, just because that’s two weeks running I’ve spent my Sunday morning skulking about under bridges, it doesn’t mean I’m going to make a habit of it, or reinvent myself as a troll. I promise. You remember last week I mentioned the splendid reader who had tipped me off to a good place to explore? Well, folks, they also shared a second secret spot and with today being so delightfully sunny, it seemed a good time to go into the darkness. Come with me… under another bridge.

OK, I’m being jokey about this, but this one genuinely spooked me. I’ve said on a number of occasions that I am absolutely definitely not an urban explorer—I’m an urban-stand-demurely-outside-the-security-fence-and-poke-my-camera-through-er. I don’t trespass, I don’t break in, I don’t scramble through windows or those oh-so-tantalising half-open doorways. I’m sensible. Today’s adventure was all on totally legal pathways, but it certainly felt like I was somewhere I shouldn’t be. This site spans two sides over a river, and is underneath a motorway, and getting to it involved clambering down into a ditch and back up the other side, and then squeezing down a very sketchy pathway where it was impossible to look ahead into the underway until I was right inside. This site is also more enclosed than last week’s—all of which meant my heart was racing like mad by the time I got inside. The photos don’t convey how very gloomy it was down there: you can kind of tell by how washed-out the outside bits look, but the phone camera has massively compensated for the light levels. It’s dark. The floor underfoot is uneven, muddy and slippery in places, and I nearly turned my ankle a couple of times on rocks and dips I couldn’t see. Unlike the gallery-like slabs from the last outing, the bridge here is held up with a series of arches which definitely gives it a different atmosphere. There’s something ancient, Medieval, maybe, about archways—it’s almost church-like down there. There’s constant loud traffic noise from above which echoes unpleasantly, and there’s the occasional splash from the river. It’s a very edgy, unsettling place.

I don’t think I’ve talked about it on here—odd, given the subject matter—but up until the last few months, I’d have said with total confidence that when it comes to the paranormal, I would be in what the Uncanny crowd call Team Sceptic. Oh, I’ve always wanted to believe in things, especially ghosts, predominantly because that would mean there’s something— afterwards. You know. After this ‘life’ bit. And that would be good, right, because the idea that this is all we get and we just…stop…fills me with the sort of cold dread that I have to stop thinking about because it’s just too terrifying to contemplate. But no, I’ve never seen one, never even seen anything that might have been a supernatural something. I’ll listen to all the stories and watch all the films, but they’re just stories, just creative people playing with ideas. I’m a massive fan of the vicarious scare and I’m fully on board with all the well-established benefits that imaginary horror in a safe setting can have. But anything more than that was always ‘out there’, something other people believed. These days… well. Let’s just say I’m wavering. I’ve read a lot of credible accounts lately, shared by people with absolutely nothing to gain from making them up, and it’s shifted my thinking. I’m not quite ready to order a Team Believer t-shirt yet, but if Danny launched a mug that said “Team Shit, Right, OK, It Won’t Take Much More Of This To Convince Me”, I’d buy it. (Yes, it would have to be an enormous mug. You get the idea though.)

…So, all of that is a long preamble to the next bit, because it does sound a little nuts and I’m talking myself up to it. As soon as I walked under there, something popped into my head, in the same way you’ll start down a familiar street and know that the chip shop is next door to the florists. In the same ordinary, no-nonsense way, I knew that people had died in there. Nothing dramatic about it, I just knew. And that, for me, is weird. It wasn’t one of those “ooh, I bet this place has a past!” moments. I’m not making it up, but I can’t explain it any better than that. I knew.

And, readers, that was before I ducked under one of the arches into the even spookier bit at the back and saw that there was someone standing at the end, a tall, wraith-like creature, perfectly still, staring at me. All in black, silhouetted against the bright light outside. It was a good thing he wasn’t moving, because I couldn’t either—frozen to the spot with pure fright. No idea how long I stood like that, probably only half a minute, but boy, it felt longer. I said some nonsense like “Look, I’m just taking pictures, I’m going, it’s ok…” and when he still didn’t move, when I still didn’t get murdered or possessed, I looked again and saw it was just an old leather jacket hung up on a tree. And my body remembered how to breathe again.

I felt like a bit of an idiot for talking to a coat, so did my thing and collected a lot of photos and was relieved to get out into the sunshine and headed back over the ditch to do it all over again on the other side. Oddly enough, the other side didn’t have the same oppressive atmosphere at all— it was just as gloomy, and in a way more overtly creepy with an odd shed-like building with old machinery in it—but it just felt different. I took more pictures and even had a go at a video, included below. (I’m still rubbish at them. I did think of attempting a voiceover but I have my limits!) I hope it captures some of the eeriness of the place, as well as the ever-present road noise.

Just after I’d come out the second side, on the way back to the main road, I had the strongest sensation of something large and dark following right behind me. (Again, I’m not making this up.) I did have a massive rucksack on today, and the sun was behind me, so it was probably just my brain seeing my shadow. It was still sloshing with whatever it is that spent adrenaline leaves behind, just filling in the blanks. Probably.

So, maybe, I’ve nudged a touch further into Team SROIWTMMOTTCM today. And if anyone I know IRL is reading this, honestly, I’m fine—overall it was another fun day out in perfectly normal Milton Keynes. But I’m going to stick to my usual haunts (sorry) for a while. No more underways for me.