In County Durham ghosts were thought to walk most on St Thomas’s Eve and Day, haunting the earth until Christmas Eve put them to flight. The days between were held unlucky: on one of them, a Friday, a wait vanished at the foot of Elvet Bridge, and the Durham waits never played on Friday nights afterwards. Carriers on those nights feared the murdered woman who joined their carts between the Cradle Well and Neville’s Cross.
Durham ghosts from St Thomas’s Eve
20 December · County Durham
Lore and belief
The great season for their appearance is St. Thomas's eve and day, and they haunt the earth till Christmas eve, when the approaching festival, of course, puts them to flight.
From Henderson's Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties, p. 326. Read the original
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