Photo source: www.spooky-thanet.com
DREAMLAND
Up to four ghosts are reported to haunt the now closed Fun Park, none of which fit in with the family ideals of the place throughout the years.
The park started off with humble and unsuccessful origins. Built in 1863 as a terminus for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway it was never used for that purpose as the railway inspectorate refused to sanction the line. The LCDR then leased it to their catering contractor Spiers & Pond who christened the place 'The Hall by the Sea' and opened what was one of the largest ballrooms in the country. However, the venture was unsuccessful and the comp nay pulled out.
This was to prove the turning point for the Hall. Margate Mayor Thomas Dalby Reeve bought the site for £3,750, including an un-commissioned railway embankment and adjoining allotments. Reeves son Arthur married Harriet Sanger, daughter of the famous Victorian showman 'Lord' George (he was never a real 'Lord' - During a court case between Sanger and 'Buffalo Bill' Cody (which Sanger lost) the latter was referred to as 'The Honorable William Cody'. Sanger quipped 'The Honorable William Cody? If that Yankee can be an honorable, then I shall be a ruddy 'Lord!' Instantly all his wagons and posters had the 'Lord' prefix added to them) and the fathers arranged to develop the hall. After Reeve's death Sanger replaced the original terminus with a new building and the Hall went from strength to strength, including having rockeries, folly abbeys ruin, ornamental gardens, a menagerie, bandstand, restaurants, a ballroom and roller skating rink. It is the roller skating rink that leads to the Parks most famous ghost legend.
In 1895 a Victorian strongman, known as 'Margate's Strongest Man' met a girl in the rink and she promised him a 'good time' outside. The rink was connected to the gardens by a tunnel and it was there that the girl informed the man she had changed her mind. He strangled her and threw her body amongst the plants. He was found out and subsequently hanged. It is in this are that most of the activity, including a woman's screams and an ominous presence. Could it be that both these people have come back to the scene of that fateful day?
Things came to a head in 1996 when the new £500,000 'Stowaway' ride was being built on the former site of the rink. Engineer Trevor Naylor was working with Dan Trippetts when ”We both suddenly felt cold as if something had walked right though us. It was like walking into a fridge” The experiences were enough to cause workman to down tools and refuse to work nights until something was done. Could this ominous presence be the strong man back at the scene of his crime? In the nearby are, which once were the gardens, as well as the woman's screams, sounds of howling animals (there once was a zoo in the grounds) have been heard.
Parapsychologist Consultant Andrew Green was called in 1990 for an incident in a different area of the park. Security Guard John Hiscock was locking up the park with Naylor when they saw 'Old Henry', a weight-guesser with a stall under the Scenic Railway who was a bit too friendly with females in the park, walk around the corner of an arcade and then vanish. They went to find him as he was never in the park that late but had no success. Hours earlier that day, which was also the day the Bembom Brothers signed the contract to take the park over, Henry had been found dead in his flat. Green concluded after visiting and talking to staff that 'I think there is a genuine presence here. I believe the staff are telling the truth and something or someone is haunting Dreamland'.
One final ghost believed to roam the park is, unsurprisingly, that of 'Lord' George Sanger. Sanger died in tragic circumstances, in 1911, aged 86. He was at his home in Finchley, North London when he accused his manservant, Herbert Cooper, of stealing £50. Sanger's relative, Harry Austin, sacked Cooper and replaced him with a man called Jackson. A few weeks later Cooper entered the house, attacking Jackson with a razor. Austin had been reading to Sanger in the next room and dashed out to intervene, being hit with a hatchet blow in the process. Sanger grabbed a heavy candelabrum from the mantelpiece but Cooper knocked it and it fell on Sanger's head. Cooper ran but Sanger, though having seemed to make a compete recovery, died that night. There are also variations on this story which refer to a gay lover (presumably Cooper) of Sanger's, but these are not widely documented.
Perhaps Sanger's happiest times in life were those at the Hall by the Sea? That would be reason enough for him to still want to visit, even after his death. However, it is just as likely that certain works have met with his displeasure, given the location of some of his reported sightings. Mike Harrison was cleaning the recently opened ice-rink (on the site of the former Garden Cafe and (I believe) where the children's play area Coco's is now) when he felt a presence behind him. He turned and saw a hazy apparition which lasted for about 10 seconds. Derek Davies, when managing the new leisure complex saw 'something grey' in front of him when checking that the squash courts were locked one night. A security guard witnessed the same thing two nights earlier. If it was the ghost of Sanger, was he upset at what is former pride and joy was being used for now?