DEATH, THE BOGGART AND ME
I have issues with boggarts. Not all boggarts, just one boggart in particular. This boggart killed two members of my family and had a hand in the death of a third.
The boggart is a creature that has
almost disappeared from our world. ‘Boggart’ is a word used in northern counties of England to describe any mischievous supernatural creature; a ghost, fairy, poltergeist, imp or demon. Boggarts are usually malicious and particularly revel in frightening people and animals. The word probably derives from the Anglo-Saxon bar-gheist, ‘gate ghost’,1 although other derivations have been suggested.2
Boggarts are traditionally associated with locations familiar to students of the supernatural: “Nearly every old house had its boggart which played ill-natured tricks on the inhabitants. Singly or in packs they haunted streets and roads, and the arch-boggarts held revels at every three-road-end.”3
The best-known of the boggarts must surely be the eponymous inhabitant of Boggart Hole Clough, in Blackley, Manchester, now an open park through which runs a deep, wooded ravine. This is the clough in which the boggart has his hole. The most famous boggart story concerns the boggart of Boggart Hole Clough. It is told in several versions, with varying levels of precision. The basic story is as follows: during a particularly cold winter, the boggart decided to quit his hole in favour of a nearby farmhouse. Once inside, the boggart caused endless mischief, being especially troublesome at night to the farmer’s children. In the words of Thomas Crofton Croker, who provides the most detailed (or most imaginative) account:
“You see that old farm-house about two fields distant, shaded by the sycamore
