Otherworld North East Research Society Journal 01 | Page 41

Journal 2007

around the area that was the Officers’ Mess, and ghostly footsteps have been heard in
many of the hangars, following unsuspecting visitors around.
Newcastle upon Tyne’s Castle Keep (mentioned earlier as part of the Crime and
Punishment section) was used as a joint fire-warden and air-raid post during the War, with
the ground floor being used as an air-raid shelter. The Keep itself escaped the ravages of
the War, but occasionally men in wartime uniforms are seen in what is now the Museum
Room on the first floor, usually standing in one of the western window alcoves.
There are also a few stories of a phantom plane being heard crashing into the ground at
High Marley Hill: could this be the replay of the death of Sergeant J. Graham of the Royal
Canadian Air Force, who flew his Hawker Hurricane into the ground there on the 10th
February 1942? Unfortunately there have been no visual sightings of this event, only the
sound of the engines and the subsequent crash, so perhaps we’ll never know.
Over recent years, two Second World War sites in particular have drawn interest from
paranormal researchers. The first is the North East Aircraft Museum, near Washington in
Tyne and Wear, which has hit the paranormal headlines in local press with its ghostly
goings-on, and the second is Harperley Prisoner of War Camp, near Firtree in County
Durham. Both are detailed below in the following two Case Studies:

Case Study HPC05 Harperley POW Camp, Firtree, Crook, County Durham, DL15 8DX
Investigation Date: 30th-31st July 2005

Harperley POW Camp, or Camp 93, was erected in 1943 over what was once farmland. It
was constructed to house Prisoners of War during the Second World War, and was

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