Entertaining Bridgetown winter festival ghost tours teaches local history to inspire next ‘custodians’

As the moon hovered amid the dark sky, a group of rugged up children, families and couples toured Bridgetown while holding lamps and listening to historical facts about the town from different characters. Bridgetown Historical Society chairman Richard Allen said when the ghost walks first started, the interest was completely “unexpected” and he had no idea how many people were going to attend. On the first night in 2017, 50 people turned up and on the second night 80 people attended the now popular ghost walks. Mr Allen said sometimes history could be perceived as “dry or “boring”, and knowing about ghost walk tours operating throughout the world, the society decided to create one for the annual Fridgetown festival. “The historical society was looking at a way to educate and make history available to the community in an entertaining way,” he said. Every year the ghost walks have been held in Bridgetown, they have been fully booked. “I thought maybe we might exhaust the local interest for a few years, but every year we’ve done it, we seem to get the same sell-out crowds,” Mr Allen said. “From the feedback we receive, a lot of locals come on the tour because they enjoy it so much and they invite family and friends down to the tour the next time. “It’s introducing history not only to the locals, but from people outside the region.” Mr Allen and his wife Mary Elgar joined the historical society shortly after moving to Bridgetown from Perth. “Within the first few months coming down here, we realised that there was a lot of work to do,” he said. “I have always been interested in history. In fact, that was one of the reasons why we moved to Bridgetown because of its history — and that it has retained a lot its historical character.” Throughout the ghost walks, Mr Allen plays the character Henry Stokes — who arrived in Bridgetown as a constable and left as a sergeant. He served in the town from 1888 to 1894, and was promoted twice. The ghost walks include historical characters dressed up in costume who appear at various places around town and reveal an anecdote about themselves. “The people that do the historical characters quite enjoy it. Some of them have got theatrical experience, and it’s good to get a crowd like that,” Mr Alllen said. “Anthony Fleming who did Robert Crawford outside the Freemasons, he’s been doing it now since the inception. He does it just about every year, so he really enjoys it.” Mr Allen said the historical society was aiming to introduce more “youngsters” in the ghost walks like Linden Hyde, 15 who played the railway station master Alexander Errington this month. “It’s important that people become acquainted with local history so they become custodians of the history,” he said. “We’re trying to pass to the next generation an interest in history, so they become the educators to their generation in 50 years time.”