Ghost Trails of Lancashire: Lancashires Ghosts, Ghouls and Things That Go Bump in the Night

By Clive Kristen

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...

• Language: English
• Publisher: AUK Authors
• Release date: Jun 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781781662953

Book preview

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 term ‘Boggart’ is rare in Lancashire. The good people of Warton should therefore be delighted own such a creature.

Boggarts are skeletal or partly decomposed human forms. Their hair is long and lank and their red or green eyes are said to flash like the upper and lower orbs of traffic lights. Sightings are often sufficient to induce heart failure.

But Boggarts, even to the east of the Pennines, are inevitably seen as creatures of mythology. They inhabit moor and woodland - only entering villages late night often to pursue a drunk from hostelry to home. They sometimes worked in pairs.

‘So what happened to your wages, Harold? Have you spent it all at the pub?’

‘Of corsh not. I was grabbed by the boggarts and they took my pursh.’

Lytham

For many years Lytham Hall was owned by the wealthy Clifton family. An unidentified female member of the clan is said to appear regularly as that most popular of ghosts - the white lady. One particular bedroom is said to be particularly frequently haunted. Here the white lady walks accompanied by clanking chains.

St Annes

The Fylde coast has always been subject to erosion. Massive sea walls have been employed in parts, with some success, to hold back the sea. In former times however it was not possible to provide respite from the encroachment of the sea by pouring millions of tons of concrete.

***

At some point seaward of the dunes which divide St Annes and Blackpool it is said that the remains of the village of Kilgrimol lies invisible in mud, sand and sewage.

There may be some truth in this. The respected historian, Walter Thornber, in his ‘History of Blackpool and its Neighbourhood’ claimed that ‘an earthquake swallowed up the church of Kilgrimol’. As such mighty earthquakes are as common around Blackpool as quiet Saturday nights in summer this may be unlikely but it could just be that some seismic force out in the Irish sea - a mini tsunami perhaps - washed away the spit of land on which the village and its church were founded.

Another historian, the Reverend Bukpits, writing in the 17th century, claimed that the event happened ‘at the time of the missionaries’ - which presumably means the age of the Celtic monks in the 7th and 8th centuries. This, in turn, suggests that the ancient church and surrounding houses were wooden structures incapable of withstanding the force of the waves. The persistence of the legend is indicated by the repetitious use of ‘Kilgrimol’ as a modern place name.

The legend has it that the bells of Kilgrimol church (or oratory) can be heard sound beneath the waves on stormy nights. This is such a repeated assertion that locals will avow that it must be true. But that is like believing Tony Blair’s repeated claim that the Iraqi military had weapons of mass destruction.

Blackpool

My home town has always claimed to be Britain’s leading seaside resort. It may not have the style of Brighton but, if biggest and loudest is best then it must be the winner. The railways connected it to the world in the 1840’s. It was already a bustling upcoming resort with a promenade in 1881 an a population of just 14,000. It is now the third most populous place in the North West England and the most densely populated urban area outside London. Love it or hate it - the story of Blackpool is remarkable.

***

The famous Blackpool Pleasure Beach has more ghosts per acre than anywhere else in the north.

Even the Ghost Train has its own ghost. Affectionately known as Clogger it is said that he was a former fairground worker who wore distinctive and noisy clogs. His footwear can still be heard echoing down the dark passages. The Pleasure Beach has been noted over the years for misleading superlatives. Very few of the claims for ‘highest’, ‘biggest’ and ‘fastest’ have been true. But, as I recall hearing the sound of the clogs myself whilst unaware of the story it may just be that the ride could be claimed as the only authentic Ghost Train in Britain.

The Alice ride is held to be the home of a phantom hanging man. The Tunnel of Love is haunted by a blood spattered woman.

One of the first sections of the park to be developed (1904) featured Sir Hiram Maxim’s Flying machines. The ghost of a small female child, aged about nine, is said to have been seen regularly at the nearby gift shop. There is also said to be poltergeist activity here with items rearranging themselves overnight on the shelves.

In a bar that is tacky - even by Blackpool standards - Diamond Lil’s Saloon was a misguided attempt to create the Wild West on the Pleasure Beach. Lil herself is said to haunt the premises and to play tricks