TALL TALES.

THE FOLLOWING STORY I FOUND WHILST LOOKING UP SOME HISTORY ABOUT THE IRON BRIDGE, SOUNDS LIKE TO MUCH SPIRIT OF ANOTHER SORT WAS IMBIBED ON THE DAY.



Last summer I and 2 friends decided to go to Ilkley to swim in the river by the iron bridge.

There were only ourselves and a family who were on the opposite beach having lunch on a blanket. 3 of us were skimming stones on the river where it is low current on the bend just before the iron bridge a popular place to sit and have lunch during the summer.
We were there for a good 2 hours without a break from the spot which we had chosen.
Without warning of any kind, a head appeared from the stillness of the water, it continued to rise exposing the shoulders and the rest of the body. It was a man in his late 30's. He had dark short hair; he was wearing an army jacket jeans and black boots. He continued to walk out of the water and made his way to the beach at the other side of the river; he made a direct approach to family having lunch on their blanket. This man was just a few yards from our position. Nobody entered the water whilst we were there all 3 of us witnessed this event but we didn't speak until this figure had gone out of view. He approached the family on the other side of the river but they appeared to not even see this, he walked past them onto a footpath behind. He then stopped and turned to face us he stood for a minute and then disappeared behind the foliage.
One of my friends then spoke whilst his eyes welled up with tears.. Non of us could believe what we had seen. On further discussion, we realised this man was not even wet as he strolled from the river. We sat for a further 30 mins in silence as we were all just completely stunned.
We then decided to go home and made our way back to my car which was parked on the country road by the entrance to the iron bridge. As we approached we saw the same man waiting by my car. 1 of my friends Kevin, who doesn't mind mincing his words said " enough is enough I'm speaking to this man to find out what he was doing and why we saw what we saw" We all approached as unified as we could be, but again the strangest thing happened. We all fell silent and couldn't speak or even part our lips. We just stared at him and then left quietly and got into my car. We then noticed this man/figure/ghost had disappeared, and just like pressing a button we found we could all speak with no problem and with plenty of enthusiasm. Lee was very upset and was very teary again, Kevin was angry and myself? Well I had seen many other things before so although I was shocked it wasn't a new experience for me.