Haunted Britain and Ireland

by Derek Acorah

  The Shakespeare, 16 Fountain Street, Manchester M2 2AA; Tel: 0161 834 5515

  Food is available in the pub or upstairs in the restaurant, which can also be booked for private parties.

  The Snickleway Inn

  A snickleway is an alleyway, and the Snickleway Inn in York is a traditional pub in a building which dates back to medieval times, when the old town was full of narrow passageways. It was renovated around 1580 and the timber framing of the Tudor and Jacobean rooms can still be seen. Rumour has it that it was once a brothel, but it has been linked with the pub trade since the seventeenth century.

  As may be expected with an old building with a colourful past, there are several ghosts haunting the premises. An old man has been seen entering the pub through the old back door – which is now blocked up – and sitting down before disappearing into thin air. He ran the pub at the turn of the nineteenth century. The current licensees have seen him twice. He is not always visible, but can often be heard grunting. Another former licensee and her cat also apparently haunt the bar and an Elizabethan man in a blue doublet has also been seen there.

  The stairs are said to be haunted by the ghost of a four-year-old girl who was killed by a brewer’s dray and by a young nun who broke her vows and had a child. A baby has been heard crying in the pub when there are no children present.

  A feeling of evil has been reported in the cellar and a medium who once investigated the premises sensed a presence there.

  Sometimes the whole pub is pervaded by the smell of lavender. During the Great Plague, which killed 3,512 people in York in 1604, lavender was used to mask the smell of rotting corpses.

  The ghost of Marmaduke Buckle is said to roam between a first-floor room in the Snickleway and the house next door, which is now a restaurant and tea room. Marmaduke lived a sad life in the seventeenth century – he was physically handicapped and was accused of witchcraft, so he spent most of his life shut away. By the time he was 17, he had had enough. He carved his initials, birth and death dates on a beam and hanged himself.

  The Snickleway Inn, 47 Goodramgate, York, North Yorkshire YO1 7LS; Tel: (01904) 656138.

  The Snickleway has possibly the smallest beer garden in England. Food is served at lunchtime.

  Tynemouth Priory and Castle

  Tynemouth’s castle and priory church stand on a headland looking out over the North Sea and guarding the approach to the River Tyne. The priory was founded in 617 and was the burial place of the early Northumbrian kings. It was destroyed by the Danish invasions of the ninth century and the present building dates to 1090. The castle was added in the fourteenth century for defensive purposes. Over the centuries both priory and castle have been used as landmarks and served as important fortifications against the Vikings, Scots and the armies of Napoleon. There is a monument here to Admiral Collingwood, a local Battle of Trafalgar hero. During both world wars the castle was used as a coastal defence and the restored magazines of the gun battery can still be seen.

  Nowadays much of the priory church remains, though most of the domestic outbuildings of the monastery have disappeared. Coastal erosion has played its part, but concrete piers have been erected to prevent further destruction.

  The ruins are haunted by the ghost of a Viking called Olaf who was badly wounded in a raid and nursed back to health by the priory monks. He stayed on and joined their community, but soon the marauding Vikings were back, and Olaf’s brother was with them. He was killed in the fighting and Olaf was said to be so heartbroken that he died soon afterwards. Now his ghost can be seen looking wistfully out to sea, gazing back towards his homeland.

  Tynemouth Priory and Castle, North Pier, Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear NE30 4BZ; Tel:0191 257 1090; Website: www.english-heritage.org.uk.Open daily 24 March–30 September.

  There is no parking on site, but the town car park is nearby. Many special events take place at the castle, including Twilight Tours where guides in medieval costume invite you to take a tour of the castle and priory and learn something of the myths and legends of this area.

  Tyneside Cinema

  Tyneside Cinema, as it is known today, opened as the Bijou News-Reel Cinema on 1 February 1937. The News Theatre building which houses it stands at the northeastern edge of a site occupied as early as 1267 by Franciscans, or grey friars. Their monastery was a spiritual home to which many people flocked, hence the street upon which it stood being called Pilgrim Street. The entry lane which the box office entrance currently opens onto is called High Friar Lane. After Henry VIII suppressed the monasteries in 1539, the land was granted to the Earl of Essex. Shortly afterwards, the monastery was razed to the ground.

  The next building to stand on the site was the Newe House, a mansion used by General Leven as his headquarters during the Civil War. Charles I was held there for 10 months until he was handed over to the Parliamentarians in 1647. The building in which the Tyneside Cinema is located is called the Newe House to this day, and this name can be seen above the Pilgrim Street entrance.

  The Tyneside Cinema has a rich and varied history of ghostly sightings. In 1996 a mysterious monk was spotted simply standing in an office corridor, and when staff, thinking that he was a lost member of the public, asked if they could help, he simply disappeared. The cinema auditoria have also been places where strange things happen regularly. In 2005, two members of staff on different levels of an auditorium noticed a hunched figure sitting in the stalls area of the Classic cinema screen. It would not respond to them and disappeared into thin air…

  In the early 1990s the cinema’s cleaning team refused to come back due to paranormal activity and sightings in the Electra, which is the Tyneside’s second screen. Almost every morning a single seat would be set in the ‘down’ position until the cleaners approached it.

  Other strange experiences have ranged from staff names being called out to lights being turned on when nobody was there to do it and the mysterious presence felt by a medium at a late-night vigil in 2003 – at the very same spot where the monk was seen in 1996.

  Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6QG; Tel:0191 232 8289; Fax:0191 221 0535; Website: www.tynecine.org

  Whitby Abbey

  Whitby Abbey is situated on a cliff overlooking the town and harbour. It dates back to the seventh century when Oswy, King of Northumbria, sent a princess named Hilda to found an abbey. She did so in 657 on the site of a former Roman signal station. She is now known as St Hilda and the abbey contains a shrine to her. The religious community, housing both women and men, became a busy cosmopolitan centre. It was destroyed during a Viking invasion in 867, but rebuilt by the Normans in the late 1070s. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century, it became the property of the Cholmley family, who plundered it for building materials for a mansion.

  Today the ruined abbey is a stark and beautiful place. It is Whitby’s most popular attraction, but it has an eerie reputation. St Hilda herself is said to haunt the ruins. Her ghost, dressed in a shroud, has been sighted in one of the windows.

  The other ghost haunting the abbey is also believed to be a nun, Constance de Beverley. She fell in love with a knight named Marmion and broke her vow of chastity. As a punishment she was bricked up in a cell and left to die. She is said to appear on the steps leading to the dungeons and to plead for her release.

  Ghostly voices can also be heard at the abbey on the old Christmas Day, 6 January, when a phantom choir is said to sing in the ruins.

  Whitby Abbey, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO22 4JT; Tel: (01947) 603568; Website: www.english-heritage.co.uk.Open daily.

  DEREK’S TIP

  If lone vigils are undertaken, ensure that people are in rooms far enough apart. Noises carry and are intensified at night. You do not want to confuse the footsteps or movements of another investigator with those of any possible spirit presence.

  Winter’s Gibbet

  Winter’s Gibbet stands on a wild moorland road above the village of Elsdon in Northumb
erland, a severed head still swinging from it. The head is a fibre-glass one. It is a grisly memorial to William Winter, the last man in England to be gibbeted.

  Winter was a gypsy and noted criminal. In 1791 he was charged with the brutal murder of an old woman, Margaret Crozier, who lived in a tower at Raw Pele, just north of Elsdon, and was reputed to have a secret hoard of money. He and the two women arrested with him, Jane and Eleanor Clark, claimed they had robbed the old lady but not killed her. However, evidence given by a shepherd boy, Robert Hindmarsh, condemned them all and they were hanged in Newcastle. The women’s bodies were then sent to the surgeons’ hall for dissection, but Winter’s was hung on a gibbet at Whiskershields Common. It remained there for months, until the clothes had rotted away, then it was cut down and the bones scattered.

  In Northumberland a gibbet is known as a stob and it was believed that rubbing slivers of wood from one on the gums would cure toothache. Bit by bit, pieces were taken off the original gibbet and finally it decayed completely. Around 1867 Sir Walter Travelyan of Wallington ordered a replica with a wooden body to be erected on his land. The body was often used as target practice and eventually only the head remained. Even that was frequently stolen and in 1998 the entire gibbet disappeared for a while. A joker left a miniature one in its place with a sign proclaiming that it would soon grow, given the current amount of rain!

  Though Winter’s body has long gone from the gibbet, it is said that the sound of rattling bones can often be heard there, especially on stormy nights, and that the ghosts of Winter and Jane and Eleanor Clark can been seen running from the old tower at Raw Pele.

  Winter’s Gibbet, Elsdon, Nr Otterburn, Northumberland

  Ye Olde Black Boy

  Ye Olde Black Boy is a traditional public house in Hull’s old town. It dates back to 1720, when it was a pipe shop. Later it served as a coffee shop and a brothel before finally opening as a pub in the 1930s. It is well known for its real ales, ciders and fruit wines. It is thought that the name refers to a Moroccan boy who worked there in the 1730s, when it was a coffee shop.

  There have been many rumours of ghosts in the pub. Bottles of malt whisky have apparently jumped off shelves by themselves and a pair of spectral hands has reached out from the panelled walls to grab customers round the neck!

  Ye Olde Black Boy, 150 High Street, Hull, East Yorkshire HU1 1PS; Tel: (01482) 326516. Live music on Thursday nights. Function room available free of charge.

  Ye Olde Man and Scythe Inn

  Ye Olde Man and Scythe Inn in Bolton is the fourth oldest public house in England. The vaulted cellar dates back to 1251, while the rest was rebuilt in 1636.

  The pub saw dramatic times during the Civil War. In the Massacre of Bolton in 1644 between 100 and 500 soldiers and civilians were killed, mainly in the centre of town, in front of the pub. Horses were used to kill the soldiers. Then after the war, on 15 October 1651, the Royalist Earl of Derby, James Stanley, whose family had originally owned the pub, was beheaded outside it for his part in the war. The chair he sat in before he was taken outside is still in the pub today and some say that the Earl is still around as well.

  Other ghosts are also believed to haunt the pub and many different paranormal phenomena have been experienced there. One woman once left her seat to find her hands covered in blood. The barman believed it had dripped through the ceiling, but there was no blood to be seen there at the time.

  Even though Ye Olde Man and Scythe Inn has a bloody, troubled past and, it seems, bloody and troubled ghosts to match – with James Stanley’s chair lurking ominously in the corner as a constant reminder of their silent, watchful presence – the staff are keen to point out that the pub is a happy, lively place to visit with great food, drink, music and banter.

  Ye Olde Man and Scythe Inn, 6–8 Churchgate, Bolton, Lancashire BL1 1HL; Tel: (01204) 527267; Website: www.manandscythe.co.uk

  The pub serves both traditional Lancashire food and more exotic dishes. The execution of the Earl of Derby is re-enacted every 15 October.

  DEREK’S TIP

  An obvious item for investigating at night is a torch but remember to take a supply of batteries too – mischievous spirits like nothing more than to drain battery power, leaving you literally in the dark!

  The Midlands

  Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester

  The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

  Brownsover Hall Hotel, Warwickshire

  The Castle Hotel, Castleton

  Edgehill Battlefield, Warwickshire

  Edwards No.8 Rock Club, Birmingham

  The Grail Court Hotel, Burton-on-Trent

  The Griffin Inn, Nuneaton

  Ladybower Reservoir, Derbyshire

  The Parade Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury

  The Red Lion, Wirksworth

  The Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford

  Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery

  Shrewsbury Railway Station

  The Shropshire Union Canal

  Stafford Superbowl

  Weston Hall, Staffs.

  Winnats Pass, Derbyshire

  I think that I may have mentioned in my book Ghost Hunting with Derek Acorah that Mr Richard Felix would argue that his home town of Derby is the most haunted place in the country. He refers to it as ‘the dead centre of England’! There are others, however, who would argue that point.

  The Midlands covers a huge area of central England where so much of our country’s history is entrenched. From the Civil War right through to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the Midlands was at the heart of events. Now that heart of England continues to beat with supernatural happenings that defy logical explanation.

  Abbey Pumping Station

  Abbey Pumping Station, next to the National Space Centre in Leicester, is a museum of science and technology. Opened in 1891, it originally pumped Leicester’s sewage to the treatment works at Beaumont Leys. It closed in 1964, but was preserved because of the magnificent Victorian engineering on display in the four beam steam engines that were used to pump the sewage. Three of these have been restored to working condition. The pumping station now holds special steam events and has exhibitions on light and optics, historic transport and public health.

  There have been many unexplained events at the pumping house, mostly around the engine house. Items have been moved around and strange noises have often been heard, particularly late at night when the museum is about to be locked up. The disturbances are supposed to be due to the ghost of an engineer who worked at the pumping station in the nineteenth century. He died there in 1890, when he fell over 50 ft from the top balcony down into the engine room. His friends commemorated him with an inscription on the basement wall.

  Abbey Pumping Station, Corporation Road, Abbey Lane, Leicester LE4 5PX; Tel:0116 299 5111

  Open February–November Saturday–Wednesday and certain Thursdays and Fridays during the school holidays. Open December–January for special events and private hire.

  The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

  The Alexandra Theatre in the heart of Birmingham is a well-established theatre which offers a variety of pre-post-West End productions, opera, ballet, musical theatre and other live performances. It dates back to Edwardian times and seats over 1,300 people. It is the home of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, formed by Richard D’Oyly in 1871, which performs the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Playbox Theatre, one of the leading theatre organizations for young people, also performs there.

  The theatre is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a former manager, Leon Salberg, who ran the theatre in the 1930s. His footsteps can be heard in one of the offices and though he has not been seen, his presence can be felt around the theatre, especially in the stalls.

  One ghostly figure which has been seen in the theatre is that of a woman in grey. It is believed that she is a former wardrobe mistress who died unexpectedly one night at the theatre.

  The Alexandra Theatre, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DS; Tel:0870 607 7544 (
tickets/info); 0121 643 3168 (group bookings)

  Brownsover Hall Hotel

  Brownsover Hall Hotel, near Rugby, is a Victorian Gothic mansion designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and set in seven acres of garden and woodland. It was formerly the home of the Boughton-Leigh family. In Elizabethan times, one member of the family, known as ‘One-Handed Boughton’ because his hand had been severed, used to drive round the estate in a coach and six. After he died, his ghost continued to do so. By 1755 the family had had enough of it and called in a team of 12 clergymen to carry out an exorcism. The spirit was persuaded to enter a bottle, which was sealed up and thrown into a lake in the grounds. There it remained until the 1880s, when it was found by a fisherman and returned to the family. After that a phantom coach and six began to be heard once more in the grounds.

  In 1939 a research establishment was set up in the hall under the direction of Sir Frank Whittle, father of the modern jet engine. The night watchmen and cleaners soon realized the place was haunted, as they often heard voices and footsteps when the building was empty, as well as the sound of horses’ hooves and carriage wheels on the drive. These phenomena have all continued to this day and the hotel staff have grown so used to them that they have become almost blasé about them!