Like most great legends, fables and myths the storyteller, in their role as the next voice in the timeline of its recounting , starts off with one or more of the following statements "I have not seen it myself", "Those who witnessed it have said" or "This is what I have heard".
This announcement gives a bit of scope for a personal embellishment of the facts, some poetic licence or a few white lies and red herrings.
I would rely on the the third position in the case of a tale told to me in recent days.
I was standing with a householder and looking out of a first floor window to their garden. Just beyond the back fence was the paralell arrangement of a two track railway line. I made the usual enquiries about the frequency of use of the line and if any resultant noise intruded on the occupation and enjoyment of the house. The combination of familiarity with the timetable over longstanding residence and the effectiveness in noise abatement of modern double glazing led the occupant to truthfully say that they did not notice them at all.
At that moment a double carriage service passed by from left to right and yes, there was no tangible accompaniment of the clickety, click, clickety clack stereotypical soundtrack of a train to be heard from indoors.
I made my usual joke of having failed to get the number of the diesel engine unit as just the once in my life have I owned a train spotters book and for a few weeks in a school summer vacation in the 1970's I had become a little bit obsessed with ticking off the listings.
In order to reclaim some respect following this admission I started a general conversation or, if you like, a different train of thought.
It was a story that I had come across in a roundabout way of a lady being thrown from a train on the very same railway line and more to the point no more than one hundred metres or so from our current location.
The incident in 1853 had led to the unfortunate demise of the woman some days later from the injuries sustained by the attack, thought to have been disguised as a robbery but with plenty of gossip about it being a falling out of an extra-marital affair between victim and perpetrator.
The story had elicited much local and also national press coverage.
My theme of locomotive based crimes and misdemeanours was continued by the householder.
There was mention of strange goings on at the nearby railway crossing gates involving the periodic manifestation of a lady on a bicycle.
My host was keen to state that "I have not seen it myself" but it was relayed that on some occasions of the gates being in the down and closed position for traffic the apparition in female form would appear.
Unusually for a ghost the figure had been clearly described by a number of startled motorists and pedestrians whilst held up at what is an awkward dog leg arrangement.
Tall, thin and elegant the woman wore normal day attire for the late Victorian or early Edwardian eras of full length skirt, matching jacket over a blouse and with fancy trimmings in contrasting cloth. Although probably quite a casual outfit in the day it would certainly strike our modern consciousness as being quite stiff and formal.
The bicycle, it had been agreed on by a number of witnesses, was a sit up and beg type with a high saddle and handlebar stance and a step through frame. Closer scrutiny may have included items consistent for bicycling in those years of a wicker basket and a skirt-catcher.
Those who had seen the figure offered varied speculation on her identity. Residents close to the crossing would compare their own notes and offer opinions on this when chatting together in the forecout frontages or over the back fences of the terraced houses, coincidentally dating from the same period as the appearance of the woman suggested.
As important as who she might be was the reason for her haunting presence in this specific location.
The authenticity of the claims of sightings appears plausible.
The railway line, first opened in 1846, was originally developed by the York and North Midland Railway before being run by the more famous North Eastern Railway (NER). It ran from the City of Hull at its southernmost point all of the way up the East Coast of England to the genteel seaside and Spa town of Scarborough, with stations at Cottingham, Beverley, Driffield and Bridlington as well as numerous smaller stopping off points along the route.
The style of bicycle was one of many brands emerging for public purchase from the late 1880's when innovations such as the pneumatic tyre (1888) and coaster brake (1898) made for easier use. In 1896 one writer stated that the bicycle and its accessibility had done more for the emancipation of women than anything else in the world.
The outfit of the figure suggested a middle class lady perhaps a teacher or housewife either at leisure or going about some related business. In that era the streets close by were popular for residential development including for wealthy merchants, a number of Dutch persons by birth who had settled in the business of horticulture in the district and an emerging Professional Class.
The road, crossing the railway line, will in that era have been little more than an unsurfaced track although reasonably busy as a route to and from what was a growing suburban area into the rapidly expanding regional city and port town of Hull.
In the case of this particular road crossing there will have been manually operated gates as part of the original operation. With a railway employee living in a tied house adjacent to the crossing for the purposes of operating the gates it was unlikely, but not impossible, that a road user would be at peril from being struck by a train appearing to rule out a haunting by a soul lost through such an accident.
Was the lady waiting at the crossing to wave to a lover or sweetheart?
Could the apparition simply be down to one of those time-warp aberrations that science fiction writers like to rely upon?
Perhaps the bicyclist was just a regular commuter on that route and continues to ride it in the supernatural world.
We may never know the truth.
It is an interesting story based on what those who have witnessed it have said.
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