Ciaran meets - Harry Martindale (1935-2014)

In June 2006, I went to the Treasurer's House in York where Richard Felix had arranged for Harry Martindale to give a talk about his famous ghostly experience of 1953. Harry was fascinating to listen to and was delighted to be able to go with him into the cellar to see the exact place where he saw the Roman soldiers. He signed my copy of The Ghost Tour of Great Britain - Yorkshire which has lots of other York ghost stories in it!

The Treasurer's House, York

One ghost story stands out above all the others however and concerns Yorkshireman Harry Martindale who, in 1953, was apprenticed to a firm of plumbers in Micklegate, York. 

In February of that year, he had to make a hole in the ceiling of the cellar of the Treasurer's House to take a new central heating pipe. The old curator didn't really want Harry there, but the job had to be done. Harry stood his ladder on a section of old Roman road, about § 6 feet in diameter, which had been excavated in the § centre of the cellar floor at a depth of about 18 inches.

Harry Martindale talks to Richard Felix in the
cellar of the Treasurer's House, York

Just before midday, whilst he was chiselling away at the stone ceiling, Harry heard what he described as "just a blare of a note" which seemed to be coming from within the wall. He was four rungs up the ladder and, as he glanced down, he saw in line with his waist, the top of a plumed helmet with a person underneath it, coming through the wall! Gripped with fear, his hair standing up in fright, Harry stepped off his ladder, fell backwards and landed on his backside in the corner of the cellar.

What had come out of the wall was the almost complete figure of a Roman soldier. Harry watched in fear and amazement as a large horse ("like a great big carthorse") then emerged from the wall, with a Roman soldier sitting astride him. It was only when the horse reached the excavated part of the floor did Harry notice its bushy fetlocks.

An artist's idea of Harry Martindale's story

Once the horse had cleared the cellar and gone through the opposite wall, about twenty, Roman footsoldiers followed, walking in pairs.   They were small, dark men, and
each carried a large round shield on his left arm and a
spear in his right hand, with a long-bladed, dagger-like
sword in a sheath, hanging from a belt round his waist. "I
could see them, and all they had to do was glance at me
and I'd had it, but not one of the soldiers looked in my
direction,” remarked Harry.   Like the horse, the soldiers too
seemed to be walking on their knees until they reached the
excavated section when it was clear that they were walking
on the Roman road.   One soldier carried a long, trumpet-like instrument, which looked very battered & worn and was obviously the source of the noise heard moments earlier.

Harry Martindale

Harry described the soldiers as having plumed helmets, beards and wearing ‘shiny tops’ over green tunics.   Round their waists they had short, red ‘skirts’ with strips of leather hanging down. They had thongs tied from their ankles up to just below their knees.   For many years it was thought
that Roman soldiers tied these thongs just above the ankle, but in the 4th century they tied them right up to their knees.   Another factor dating these ghostly soldiers to the 4th century was their shields.   It was widely thought that Roman soldiers only used one type of shield, the ‘scutum’, which was very large and rectangular in shape.   However, an archaeological discovery recently made at Hadrian's Wall showed that auxiliary troops during the 4th century used round shields, similar in size, shape and description  to those seen by Harry.   This fact was not known in 1953.

Harry Martindale talking to us in the Treasurer's House in York

As the last pair went through the opposite wall, Harry hurriedly made his escape, frantically scrambling up the cellar steps to
the ground floor, leaving behind all his tools and ladder. He was met by the old curator who saw him and said, "By the look of you, you have seen the Roman soldiers!"

Harry was in such a state that he went back to Micklegate and "told his boss what he could do with the job at Treasurer's House” before calling in at his doctors on the way home. His doctor immediately signed him off work for two weeks suffering from ‘shock’.

Harry only talked publicly about his experience for the first time in the early 1970s, in a TV interview and needed his medical records to confirm the exact date that he had visited his doctor nearly 20 years before. 

Harry Martindale later joined the police force and worked for a time at York Assizes.   During the late 70s and 80s he would take visitors on ghost walks around York, but had to stop doing them because of ill health.

For the past twenty years, Harry has not spoken of the events of that day in 1953, until Richard Felix persuaded
him to tell his story for his DVD Ghosts of York

Harry Martindale passed away on 21st October 2014, aged 79.