Ghost Lights By the Church

Witness: Beckie
Location: Southampton, England
Date of Encounter: 1993-1994

I used to hang with a group of friends and we used to go to a place we called the "magic gardens." It was behind the university campus. There was an old air raid shelter to the far left 'round a bend, but there was a huge stone circle on the floor in the middle of four evergreen trees where we used to sit. We would often speculate on the reason for a stone circle and guessed it was used by hippie students and their black magic. We would spend the long summer days here, sunbathing in the day and just hanging out at night, playing hide and seek games and running through the woods that surrounded the gardens.

At night the place would get very cold and the mist would swirl in from the trees and the river. We were trespassing, but we only ever bumped into a few students who had no problem with us being there. It was fenced off and we used to climb over the high wire fences to get in there. The grass was soft and the ground spongy. The one thing I remember was the lights. We would often see lights floating around in the woods, white, sometimes red, we guessed it was just people with torches and we never knew what they were, but they moved very smoothly and slowly, not like people stumbling through the woods tripping on logs and stones. On the other side of the woods was a church and a very old churchyard. The lights would be here too and to the other end was a river behind the woods. We also heard hushed, whispery voices. Sometimes the lights and voices would freak us out so we would go and not come back for a few days but we always returned. It was like the place drew us to it. We would generally just walk around the area but always ended up at the magic gardens. We used to climb the trees and sit in the tops where you would get a good view of the whole are. There was also some stone steps and some kind of structure too. I'm thinking of going back there one day to see if it still remains by the river in the woods. I'll take a camcorder with me, and try to capture the lights.