The Hooded Ghost of New Cut Road

by A. M. Esmonde
(UK, Wales)

I had almost forgotten about this occurrence, and was only reminded of it when driving down a particular piece of road but there seems to be similar sightings across the UK of large hooded figures.

It was in the early hours of New Years Day 1996/1997. I had finished work at a nightclub and a friend of mine picked me up, probably around 2am. Neither of us had been drinking and I should point out I reserve judgment on the paranormal. It was a crisp night and was lightly snowing on a bypass called New Cut Road, approximately a three mile stretch of road with barriers on either side, hilly ground on the oncoming traffic (drivers) side and the passenger's side consisted of a banking slope and trees further away from the roadside.

We were going quiet slowly on the 60 mile-per-hour stretch, possible 30-40 miles or less and were around the half-way point on the bypass and had just past a sign. There were no trees on the passenger's (my) side, just a drop and darkness with the moon highlighting the trees.

As the sporadic snow fell in the yellow and white lit air, I could see a figure beyond the barriers. It was large, around 7-8 feet tall, it appeared hooded with no features just blackness. I can only compare it to the hooded figure in the film the Frighteners (1996) and Lord of the Rings (2001), incidentally, by the same director.

However, and I know this a contradiction, the figure was transparent, but solid. A deep and intuitive feeling of dread and fear came over me, a giddy feeling of falling off a bike as a child mixed with a heightened fear of not wanting to go downstairs in the dark.

It felt ominous and evil, something I have never felt since apart from possibly sleep paralysis where you know you are dreaming but can’t wake up out of the dream.

I looked to my friend who could see it too. He gave out a yell and put his foot on the accelerator. The car skidded. If I had looked to my left as we passed the figure I would have come face to face with it. However, for some reason I turned looking right over my shoulder to the rear window, looking to the left side back window, between the passenger and driver’s seat.

In retrospect, it may have been to distance myself from the figure and passenger window. It, the figure appeared to lunge forwards as if to come through the back of the car. We drove on and as I watched it, it was lost into the darkness.

When we stopped the car outside my house the side of the car had a large film patch over the door and part of the window, it may have already been there and a coincidence, I can’t be sure. But the substance of film looked like a smear on a knife after cutting cheese.

I was so scared that I had to wake my family thinking that I may die that night and this figure was a warning or a sign of something to come like a Dickensian tale. Of course I’m still here. I couldn’t help but think this horrific experience meant something and we both returned to the area by foot days later, expecting possibly to find a clue, an injured person or even a dead body. We walked almost the whole length of the road and never found anything.

Sometime later the Times newspaper ran a story on a hooded figure sighting which give me some credence of the events, a kind of reprieve.

I have no idea what it was but it scared the living daylights out of me.