Ghost Trails of Lancashire

Clive Kristen

Description

Popular TV ghosthunter Clive Kristen takes the reader in search of grueseome events in his home county of Lancashire. The stories are woven into their historical context and take the reader to spooktacular places. From grisly murders to wronged women to unfinished business, Lancashire has a haunting story...

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 10 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781781662953
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
GHOST TRAILS OF LANCASHIRE


Clive Kristen

Publisher Information
Ghost Trails of Lancashire Published in 2012 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Copyright © 2012 Clive Kristen
The right of Clive Kristen to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.



Author’s Note
I am a Lancashire lad. It was therefore with some trepidation that I approached this – my fifth ( seventh including eBooks ) book of Ghost Trails.
Would there be enough material? Would enough be sufficiently spooktacular to engage the reader? I need not have worried. My home county was never going to let me down.
There is also increasing evidence of the advantage of eReaders for this kind of project. The reader can use the device as a travelling companion when covering the ground for themselves. It is easier and cheaper to update and improve editions.
As always I have tried to make sense of various accounts of some ghostly phenomena.
Sometimes this means combining stories. More regularly it is selecting the version which seems most credible.
Again I wish to thank my wife and travelling companion, Maureen, for her advice, historical notes and technical assistance. Again I thank Andrews UK, my ePublisher for encouraging the project.
So enjoy the book. Better still, get out there and enjoy the mood of the settings for these stories. Please take care not to upset local residents or the tranquillity of the countryside.
Good ghost hunting.
Clive Kristen



The Fylde
Woodplumpton
The lovely St Anne’s churchyard is a most suitable starting place. These old - largely Victorian - graveyards create a mood of sombre speculation. The Victorians themselves were much preoccupied with the transient nature of life and the certainty of death.
But Meg Shelton came from an earlier, more superstitious time. She was labelled a witch by the local populace on the flimsiest evidence. She looked a little strange. Her speech was fractured and sometimes menacing. She enjoyed the company of cats.
Soon after her funeral a large rock was placed on her grave to prevent her digging her way out. This was a less satisfactory solution to the usual alternative - drilling a metal rod through the stone into the ground the pin the deceased eternally into place.
The outcome was also worrisome for the locals. There were claims of wailing and sighing noises from beneath the ground. The rock was dislodged on three occasions. But there were no ghostly sightings.
Even today there are locals who will claim that Meg gave up attempts at a normal resurrection and began digging down. One day, perhaps, she will emerge in Australia.
Wesham
There was once a lady, named Laura, who lived close by the railway station. One night, as she was watching TV, she heard footsteps in the room above. She believed this was her son but was sufficiently worried to go and check on him. She found him asleep. Certain, at this point, that all was well, she went to bed herself.
Some time later she woke with a jolt. As her eyes began to focus in the dark she looked up at a picture above the bed. In this she saw a woman’s face framed by long black hair. But the apparition had no eyes and no mouth. As she turned on the light the ghastly face disappeared. She turned off the light and tried to get back to sleep. This was impossible. She turned on the light and forced herself to look at the picture again. It now featured two ghastly faces.
This kind of phenomenon is common enough. It can sometimes be explained by reflections or similar tricks of the light. Or it can be created at the threshold of dreams and wakefulness. It is the kind of experience that many readers will have shared and then later dismissed as hallucination.
But the distinctive difference here is what happened earlier. Laura was certain that someone was moving about upstairs and yet the only presence there was a somnolent son. Could it just be there were ghostly visitors - perhaps from some past time - who had returned to the property?
There is a possible link between this story and a tragic incident. There was an incident in 1953 at the same Kirkham and Wesham railway station. Two 12 year old local lads (Tommy Wilkins and Arthurs Meadows) took the short cut to the woods opposite the station. This meant crossing the tracks. A train heading to Preston (from Poulton) killed both boys outright.
There was a police investigation which failed to adequately explain how these fatalities had occurred. The coroner’s court later brought in a verdict of misadventure. The train driver was much traumatised by the incident and took early retirement on the grounds of ill health. One of the boy’s mothers - Kitty Wilkins - was so deeply affected that, some months later, she took her own life with an overdose of sleeping pills. Kitty and her son, Tommy, are both buried in the graveyard of St. Joseph’s church.
The house where Kitty and her son had lived was situated on Railway Terrace. This is the same address where Laura had later suffered her ghostly night time visitations.
Kirkham
It is alleged that at the former stable of the Bell and Bottle pub a young man was - at some unspecified time in the past - trampled to death.
The building was later converted into a restaurant where it is said that a sadly battered and bruised spectre used to make infrequent but notable appearances.
There are also hints of poltergeist activity at the same location. Trays dashed to the floor apparently of their own volition. Cups and glasses falling from shelves and hooks. Cutlery rearranging itself without human intervention. Power cuts occurring apparently without cause.
All this was seen locally as mischief rather than evil. And this, according to tradition, matched the personality of the young man killed at the stable.
***
The Mowbreak Hall ghost is in an entirely different league. Although it appears that the wraith is now retired there were regular sightings until the late 1960’s.
During the period of political unrest in the 1580’s the owner of the hall became involved with the Catholic cause of Mary Queen of Scots . He was arrested in London. It is said that the execution was particularly dreadful - with a dozen blows of the axe required to do what is normally achieved in two at the most. Even hardened observers fainted at the scene. The executioner had the fee for his services withheld and he was demoted to the reserve list. Similar fates have been suffered in more recent times by certain Premiership referees.
The ghost of the rebellious George made its first appearance at the hall at few days after the execution in 1583, Although occasional, the sightings of the ghost have always left an impression. The severed head is carried neatly in both hands in a bloody scarf or handkerchief. The eyes swivel from side to side. The lips move but make no sound . But around the phenomenon there are accompanying groans and hysterical screams. It is as if this apparition is bringing something of the process of his execution with him for all to enjoy.
It is said that that the ghost’s appearances coincided with moments of national disaster. A famous sighting took place on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Another was witnessed at the time of the evacuation from Dunkirk. The best I can do for the final sighting in 1969 is the announcement of the breakup of the Beatles.
Freckleton
At various points along the road that leads to Kirkham there have been sightings of a decapitated woman. In this case there is no head at all - just a slender body in a diaphanous petrol coloured dress, drifting some feet from the ground as if borne by the breeze. There appears to be no back story to explain this strange apparition.
Warton
A rocky outcrop of rocks is known as the Bride’s Chair. It is said to bestow a child on any newly wed woman who sits on it.
There is such wistfulness in this that similar legends are repeated in many parts of the country. The difference, of course, is that locals will tell you that the Warton Bride’s Chair is the real deal. Some years ago however a coach party of ladies from Leeds attempted to prove the chair’s baby making efficacy. Of the 37 ladies involved some eleven were pregnant within the year and half a dozen more within three years. As this is a score of (just) less than 50 per cent it would seem that the Bride’s Chair may not quite be the ‘real deal’ after all. But the score is still pretty impressive.
***
The once well known Boggart House, on the road leading to the Riverside public house, is no longer standing. It was demolished to make way for landing strips used by World War II aircraft.
Folklore has it that Boggart House was once the haunt of sailors who lost their lives in the Irish Sea. It is also claimed that a grisly murder took place in the house and that the screams of the victim can still be heard. I could not however find any record of this crime or any particular connection of Warton to the sea. The spot is however subject to whistling winds - most commonly from the coast - which can sound quite eerie particularly in fading light.
The name, Boggart House, is rather more interesting. Boggarts, and their cousins, the Barguest, are common enough folklore figures in darkest Yorkshire. Indeed, the ter