Junior & Young Writers: Week 6 - New Forest: Ghost Stories

Hi Writers,

This week's theme stayed rooted in the supernatural as we scoured local ghost stories and had a go at writing our own.

Check-in: How was your week… as a haunted house room?

To describe their weeks, both groups conjured up some spectacularly spooky rooms. Highlights included:

A torture room (thanks, maths)
A room that closes in on you while waiting room music blares
A room with a tiny change every time you re-enter
An inflatable room slowly deflates around you

Question: What makes a great ghost story?

We discussed what ingredients make a ghost story gripping. Suggestions included haunted houses, murder, vivid descriptions, possessions, spooky atmospheres, strange weather, cults (specifically a cake cult), unexplained happenings, and inanimate objects coming to life.

Activity: Haunted Gallery

Everyone decorated a paper plate to add to our haunted 'granny plate' gallery. Each design was brilliantly creepy, bringing an eerie flair to the room.

Junior Writers

Indie: Spooky Doll
Elsie: Demon Knife Head
Eddy: Spooky Person
Evan: Ghost Floating Knives
Wilf: Evil Peas with Knives and Guns
Anna: People with Killer Smiles
Juno: Creepy Doll

Young Writers

Kristen: Portrait of a Trapped Man
Leo: Cannibal Plate
Sonny: Super Creepy Faces
Catherine: The Plate of Cryptic Prophecies
Daisy: Half Good/Half Evil
Georgie: Cryptid Girl
Berry: The Fortune-Telling Plate
Poppy: Short' n' Spooky
Ava: A Plate that Gives You Visions

Adding to our ever-growing collage of chaos at the art centre, Sonny also shared an illustration made at home of the fabulous cake cult created in response to last week's map-creating task.

Writing Exercise: Continue the Story

We read The Spectres of Buckland Rings by Henry Doman (Songs of Lymington, 1867), a poem rooted in local history. After uncovering facts about the site, the groups were challenged to continue the story. We asked:

Who was the woman in the poem?
Who was the Roman soldier?
Are they haunting Buckland Rings?
Who has seen them—and when?
Imagine you're camping there at night—what happens?

Junior Writers

Elsie: A girl's whistle signals trouble
Indie: Late-night exploring turns eerie
Eddy: A ghost recounts their tale in Old English
Anna: A ghost story with a comedic twist
Wilf: Friends ignore ominous warnings at the campsite

Young Writers

Sonny: Neolithic cave paintings and found journal entries
Catherine: A ghost-hunter gets more than expected
Daisy: A nightmare becomes real
Berry: A rainy, murderous camping trip

Writing Exercise: Phantom Coach Ghosts

We ended with a letter written by Andrew Lang, published in Notes & Queries (Feb 1, 1941), detailing a phantom coach sighting in the New Forest. Writers chose their perspective—ghosts, onlookers, even horses—and imagined what happened next.

Junior Writers

Wilf: The coach horse's perspective
Evan: A ghost spooked by an onlooker
Eddy: Fancy ghosts on a comedic journey
Elsie: The onlooker chasing the elusive coach
Indie: A ghost's diary entry with a strong character voice
Henry: A horse's detailed daily log
Anna: World-hopping ghosts across realities

Young Writers

Berry: A coach driver travelling through time
Daisy: A fake ghost and an unexpected twist
Leo: A ghost caught in a 400-year time loop
Sonny: A witness loses their sandwich to spectral goop
Catherine: A time-travelling coach racing into the future
Georgie: A ghost terrified by the man trying to follow her

The groups at Forest Writers provided plenty of spooky entertainment- from illustrated scary plates to unusual perspectives. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully, I won't have nightmares...

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Junior & Young Writers: Week 6 - New Forest: Ghost Stories