Ian Gibbs - Victorias Most Haunted

Copyright 2017 by Ian Gibbs

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TouchWood Editions

1031075 Pendergast Street

Victoria, BC V8V 0a1

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The information in this book is true and complete to the best of the authors knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or the publisher.

Edited by Kate Scallion

Cover design by Pete Kohut

Interior design by Setareh Ashrafologhalai

Proofread by Claire Philipson

Photo credits on

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Gibbs, Ian, 1972, author

Victorias most haunted : ghost stories from BCs historic capital city/Ian Gibbs.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77151-213-8 (softcover)

1. GhostsBritish ColumbiaVictoria. 2. Haunted placesBritish ColumbiaVictoria. I. Title.

BF1472.C3G515 2017 133.10971128 C2017-900366-6

C2017-900367-4

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and of the province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

To my wife, Margaret,
in eternal gratitude for patiently
supporting my love of all things ghostly

The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

EDGAR ALLAN POE The Premature Burial, first published in

The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, 1844

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

VICTORIA IS THE MOST haunted city in the Pacific Northwest and local residents arent shy about letting everyone know it. In North America, half the population believes in ghosts; the other half dontor at least they dont want to admit they do. In Victoria, however, the proportion of believers is well above fifty percent. Those of us who actively collect and tell ghost stories soon discover that wherever we go people single us out to recount their personal encounters with ghosts, or to express a real curiosity about the spirit world. Fully twenty percent of Canadians have had a documented experience with a ghost, but it seems in Victoria theres a higher percentage.

For many years, the people who promoted Victoria as a tourist destination compared the city to a little bit of Old England. What did they mean by this? Granted, the scenery around Victoria is reminiscent of the rolling English countryside, complete with gnarled oak trees; we have many narrow winding lanes flanked by stone walls; we have stately old homes and castles, many with an Old World look; afternoon tea is a popular pastime; and even today youll find a lot of people walking Victorias streets in tweed caps and jackets. But what I think they were getting at is that our city is also well known for its haunted placesjust like Old Blighty. You cant travel far in England before yet another haunted castle, pub, hotel, or church beckons you to visit. Ian Gibbs was born in England, so perhaps his interest in ghosts comes naturally. He certainly has captured this aspect of Victoria with his stories about Hatley Castle, the Bent Mast, Bard & Banker, the Empress Hotel, Bedford Regency Hotel, Christ Church Cathedral, and many other places that would make any British ghost hunter feel right at home. Not surprisingly, haunted tourism is a niche that is growing quickly in our city.

Katherine and John Maltwood moved to Victoria from England in the 1930s. I suspect they were drawn here by some of that Englishness I have described. But Katherine was also looking for something elsesomething not immediately apparent, except to someone like herself who was versed in the arcane lore of astrology, Druids, and ley lines. The Maltwoods had lived near Glastonbury, one of Englands most supernatural places, famous as the final resting place of King Arthur, as the repository for the Holy Grail, and for the venerable thorn tree reputedly descended from a piece of the True Cross brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea. Mrs. Maltwood developed a theory that Glastonbury was at the centre of a giant zodiac radiating across the countryside, with Glastonbury Tor at the centre. All of this was part of the wider study being made at the time by other researchers about ley lines (lines of strong energy under the earths surface) and places of earth magic. When the Maltwoods moved to Victoria they purchased a half-timbered house at Royal Oak reminiscent of a Cotswold cottage. Their selection of that site was not a random act: it just happens to be on one of the major ley lines running through Victoria. There Mrs. Maltwood planted a slip from the Glastonbury Thorn. She never really left this perfect place, and her ghost is a fixture at the restaurant that now occupies her former home.

Ley lines are associated with haunted activity, so it is not a coincidence that several of the stories in this volume are directly connected to the ley line Mrs. Maltwood found. A casual observer might think the sites are unrelated, but nothing could be further from the truth. Only a few blocks away from the Maltwoods former home is Elk Lake Drive, a setting for one of Ians stories. If you follow the ley line in a southwesterly direction from there it will take you right past the Wilkinson Road Jail, another building featured in the book. The end of this ley line just happens to be at Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse, whose ghostly stories Ian has also brilliantly documented.

Many years after Katherine Maltwoods death, Ian Gibbs had occasion to work in the diocese office of Christ Church Cathedral. He devotes an entire chapter to the precinct around the cathedral and his own experiences there. Im sure its not a coincidence that the office stands on the site of the former bishops palace that previously was the home of the prominent Powell family. Dr. I. W. Powells ancestors lived at Nanteos in Wales and were said to be keepers of the Holy Grail that had been smuggled out of Glastonbury by monks fleeing in advance of King Henry VIIIs men. On the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral another Glastonbury Thorn has been planted. Next door to the cathedral is Pioneer Square, the old cemetery from 1855, where our Ghostly Walks guides have spent many hours telling stories about Adelaide Griffin and Robert Johnson; Griffin and Johnson have inspired two of my favourite tales, which Im pleased Ian has included in his volume.

Is it happenstance there is so much ghostly activity in this one small area around the cathedral? Not at all! The answer is simple: the cathedral precinct is situated right on another ley line. As a result, the site was destined to be one of extremely strong energy. Ultimately it was the place where Ian had the first of his many encounters with spirits in Victoria.