Haunted Bolton

By Stuart Hilton and Michelle Cardno

Discover the spooky side of Bolton with this terrifying collection of true-life tales from across the town. Featuring eyewitness accounts from a haunted room, sealed up for forty years at the Blue Boar pub, to the ghostly female resident at the Old Duke and the Westhoughton poltergeist, this book includes pulse-raising narratives that are guaranteed to make your blood run cold.Richly illustrated, and featuring eyewitness interviews and previously unpublished investigation accounts carried out by the authors and the Lancashire Hauntings team, Haunted Bolton will send a chill up the spine of all who read it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9780752481838

Book preview

CONTENTS

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Introduction

A Glossary of Paranormal Terms & Equipment

one The Hen and Chickens

two The Blue Boar

three The Old Three Crowns

four The Red Light Lady

five Westhoughton Poltergeist

six Experience with the Darker Side

seven Unwanted Guest on Tonge Moor Road

eight The Haunted Lanes of Bolton

nine Pretoria Pit Mines

ten The Unity Brook Inn and the Alma Inn

eleven Sweetens Bookshop

twelve The Nevada Roller Rink

thirteen Bolton Town Hall (Albert Halls)

fourteen Timberbottom Farm

fifteen The Deane Road Spectre

sixteen Manor Houses and Halls

seventeen Smithills Coaching House

eighteen More Haunted Public Houses

nineteen The Churchgate Tunnels

twenty Croal Mill’s Friendly Ghost

twenty-one The Belmont Sailor

twenty-two Haunted Miscellany

About the Authors

Copyright

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

WE would like to thank all the people who have helped us with the research for this book over the past two years. This includes, most importantly, all of our wonderful and skilled team members from Lancashire Hauntings, who freely gave their time and expertise on a regular basis and who diligently searched video footage for signs of paranormal phenomena.

A big thanks to the general public, some of who contacted us with their own stories and experiences; without you this book would not exist.

A massive thank you to all the property owners, families, trustees, and tenants who let us grace their homes, halls and buildings to conduct investigations and interview them for stories to use in this book; especially Bolton Library & Museum Services staff, who have been more than helpful. Thanks to Bolton History Centre staff for kindly agreeing to allow us to use some of the wonderful old pictures from their archives, and for going the extra mile. Thanks also to Westhoughton Library.

We gratefully thank all of our family members for the patience, support and inspiration they have provided. Thank you to Demi for kindly proofing the manuscript for us and providing a third set of eyes when needed.

We would especially like to acknowledge the help and support we have received from the late Paul Reid, who sadly passed away this year aged forty-four. He helped us gather our evidence with his unrelenting quest to uncover proof of the afterlife, and provided us with suggestions of some great locations and data. He was an extremely dedicated man in this field and loved what he did with a passion. Thank you, Paul, for all of your help.

And, finally, thanks to the spirit world for working with us and providing us with evidence throughout the hundreds of investigations our team have conducted over the last decade.

INTRODUCTION

Bolton has had its fair share of historical characters over the years, mostly born and bred in this great northern town, including: George Marsh, a protestant martyr who was burnt at the stake for his faith; Samuel Crompton, the inventor of the famous spinning mule; Sir Benjamin Alfred Dobson, textile machinery manufacturer and Mayor of Bolton; Sir Arthur Rostrum, Captain of the RMS Carpathia, the first ship to aid the RMS Titanic; Sir Ian McKellen, stage and screen actor; Fred Dibnah, steeplejack, engineer and television presenter, who was born in Burnley and educated at Bolton School; Stuart Francis, comedian, and It’s A Knockout and Crackerjack presenter; Peter Kay, comedian, actor, writer and producer, who, in his earlier career, worked in some of the buildings we feature, most notably St Gregory’s Social Club in Fansworth which was used as the setting of his television series Phoenix Nights; and Vernon Kay, television and radio presenter.

The execution of the Earl of Derby. (Reproduced by kind permission of Bolton Library & Museum Services)

Public houses are plentiful and many date back to a time when the horse and cart was the only means of transportation. Some of these pubs display their history on the walls for all to read.

Historically, there has been much bloodshed in Bolton, especially during the Civil War and in particular the Massacre of Bolton in 1644, when up to 500 soldiers and townsfolk were slaughtered violently by the Royalist forces led by Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Whatever the tragedy, Bolton always recovers in a true example of Great British tradition. From horrific tragedies, such as the Winter Hill air crash, to the Pretoria Pit disaster, nothing fazes the Boltonians – they pick themselves up, remember the dead with respect, and get on with life.

Stuart Hilton and Michelle Cardno, 2013

A GLOSSARY OF

PARANORMAL TERMS

& EQUIPMENT

AURA: Ethereal emanation or luminous appearance said to surround every human body and, perhaps, every living thing; an effluence of life force that may be electro-magnetic. It is related to the halo surrounding the heads in religious paintings. It was previously called Aureola.

BANSHEES: From the Gaelic bean si, meaning fairy woman. It’s loud, mournful wailing sound, heard at night, is thought to be a death omen. The banshee is common among Celtic myths, which originate mainly from Ireland and the west highlands of Scotland. To this day there are people who believe that the Banshee makes her presence known by shrieking and wailing, as a warning of death to the family over whom she exercises a form of guardianship.

CALL OUT: An activity in which a group of people will gather to try and call a spirit into a room or specific place in an attempt to make contact with it. The group will then ask the spirit a question, with the hope of receiving an answer. Works best with a medium in the group, who can sense the spirit within the room and relay what to ask in order to maximise the chance of a response.

CRYSTAL PENDULUM: These can be a great way of picking up spirit energy in an area; can be used in a static tripod holder, allowing it to swing freely in any direction – hanging down from a small silver chain. They can also be used by holding the chain, placing the crystal over the palm of the hand and asking the spirit to move the crystal round in circles.

DEMONS: Originating from the Greek word daemon, meaning a spirit, good or bad, but Christian dogma decreed that all pagan spirits were under the command of the devil and so demons became associated with evil – an association that has been acknowledged ever since.

DICTAPHONE: A digital device used to capture EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). Working on the principal that spirits exist on a different plane than humans, the Dictaphone picks up frequencies that the human ear cannot hear. Generally used in a call out.

DOWSING RODS: Originally used to locate ground water, buried metals, ores, gemstones, oil and graves, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation or ley lines, these rods are a popular tool with paranormal investigators. They allow spirit energy to manipulate them as a form of communication. They are also relatively easy for the spirit to move, requiring less effort than other methods of contact, like glass divination. Copper dowsing rods are excellent for picking up on magnetic energy, or EMF (Electro-Magnetic Fields), and tend to work as a directional tool (pointing in the direction of the spirit).

ECTOPLASM: Said to be formed by mediums when in a trance state. This material is excreted as a gauze-like substance from orifices on the medium’s body. Spiritual entities are said to drape this substance over their non-physical body, enabling them to interact in the physical and real universe. According to mediums, ectoplasm can only occur in dark conditions because the ectoplasmic substance would disintegrate in light.

ENVIRONMENT METER: This device is good for assisting the baseline tests prior to an investigation. It measures humidity, temperature, sound and also moisture. All of these readings can be affected during an investigation when a spirit is present. During call outs it has been noted that the humidity can decrease, only to rise again once the investigation has finished – this is also the