Five places to go ghost hunting

As a child I was spooky, I'd tell the other kids about haunted woods and an old shed by the school field with a skull in it and at Halloween I was in my element. I love to read of scary tales and ghosts in local pubs or white ladies breezing across a road near midnight. Do you? 

Well if you like getting in the seasonal spooky mood, here are my five places to go ghost hunting.

The graveyard


Where better than a eerie walk that through a churchyard or cemetery before dusk, not on your own of course but such atmospheric places to take photos and get in the ghostly mood. You never know what pictures may reveal as one man found out in Weedon Bec cemetery in Daventry when it showed what looks like a spectral man on horseback.

Crunch, crunch through the autumn leaves and a wind creates a swirl of them scattering, was that a trick of the light or was somebody stood there? Through rusty gates and past grand memorials, just what will you see near Halloween.......?

The London cemeteries even have organised walks such as at Highgate or Brompton. I did a history walk of a local cemetery where the guide told us all about the occupants such as a huge 19th century man that worked with a travelling circus. Finding out about the people buried there made it all the more intriguing and perfect for an autumn walk to get the hairs on your arms bristling.
 
An old theatre


Last October I went on an organised ghost hunt at a local building that has been a theatre and a bingo hall over the years, as well as a few other activities taking place in the building - bare knuckle fighting and a room for the ladies of the night....I shall blog about it all in a few days. 

As you walk around by old red upholstered theatre chairs and imagine who has sat there in bygone times it's easy to feel a presence of the large personalities of thespians and the chatter of the audience. The Lyceum Theatre in Crewe has five ghosts - a ballerina, a child, the ubiquitous 'lady in white', a monk and of course an actor.  The theatre was built on the site of a Roman Catholic church and there is a tale that the ghostly actor and ballerina appeared to the cast of a play one night.


A woodland


The snap of  a twig, rustle of leaves and the smell of damp leaves. Past tree hollows and dips where the shadows lurk. Trees of autumn, the colours and forming skeletal branches and wondering what else can be found here. Well..... in a woodland in Macclesfield is the grave of England's last court jester Maggoty Johnson. Unusual in that of course it is unconsecrated ground. The tales passed on is that at Halloween time, if you run around his grave 13 times Maggoty will appear and perform for you. 

Battlefields


With so many lives lost, these repositories of souls have given an eerie sight of soldiers on a moonlit night or the sound of drums beating. Bosworth battlefield in Leicestershire is a place I'm well acquainted with, the end of the Plantagenant dynasty and where King Richard III was killed. There are tales of hooded figures and wounded soldiers, the feelings of being watched or pushed. You can go on an organised supernatural walk at Bosworth and see for yourself.

The Battle of Shrewsbury has a walk you can do around the battlefield and past a church. Nearby is a visitor's centre with a cafe so before or after reward your ghost hunting bravery with some cake.

The coast


The coast is a mysterious place as the sun sets....in my head I imagine smugglers in caves, lives lost in shipwrecks and ghostly galleons out at sea. As the sun dips behind the horizon and dark descends, the sound of the waves crashing on shore gives the murmur of voices - who can you hear walking on the sand.....?  

Sea mists add to the ambiance and phantom ships have been reported, annual sightings of these ships such as ones spotted from cliffs near Brighton and the longships of Solway Firth. 

Would love to hear if you have seen a ghost or if you plan to do a ghost walk. If anything they are great way to learn about history and a fun evening, especially at this time of year. 

Getting the chills in the village of Chillingham, Northumberland

 Back in the holiday cottage, on one of the picture maps of Northumberland, we had spotted a picture of some white cattle and as I'd also seen them mentioned in the local mythology book too I was intrigued to know more. Added to this, the local church looked a beauty and off we went to explore.......

There's a castle at Chillingham, an extremely haunted one with a torture chamber. The views into the estate are magnificent, bats on the gates and a vista with a bronze statue of Viscount Gough on horseback. Edward I used the castle as a fortress for his warring with the mighty William Wallace and then it became home to the Grey family. These days it's a privately owned attraction that you can visit. You can read more about the castle's history and ghosts here.

The white Chillingham cattle are an ancient herd and well hidden away, you can go on a tour to see them. Fierce in nature and not approachable, the herd of around 100 have no veterinary treatment and are left basically to their own devices. We saw no glimpse of them and with having the dogs couldn't go on the cattle walk or into the castle but nevermind for there was the church to have a look at and I was excited about the tomb in there.
 St Peter's Parish church, founded in the 12th century has some interesting graves in the churchyard and inside has a medieval tomb that is glorious - the best I've ever seen. It's 15th Century and is for Sir Ralph Grey and his wife Elizabeth with their effigies on the top of the tomb chest. Walking through the churchyard through the lush grass I found some nice 17th century gravestones with angels and lots of moss and lichen on them. The church is right next door to a gatehouse of the castle.   Nice box pews but not so keen on the modern east window and altar, very jarring with the rest of the church.
A very early grave slab now in the foundations of the wall as often happens.  There are traces of paint on the tomb and all the saints around the sides are such a rare survivor, normally such iconoclastic symbols were destroyed in the Reformation or Puritan times. Such beautiful detail of saints in niches and angels. This is why I love to look around churches, you never know what you are going to find and learn about.   Sir Ralph Grey with his feet resting upon a lion. You can often find old photos on the walls of churches, invaluable if you are into the history of them. This one shows how the church used to have a gallery, extra seating space up high. Very few churches still have galleries so it was great to see this picture.  Opposite is a gatehouse to the castle, I wonder how many many have passed this way over the centuries from there to the church. Maybe one of the ghost hunts at the castle would show us...

Chester Cathedral Christmas spirit

 A tradition of ours is going to Chester Cathedral at Christmas for the tree festival and their storybook recreations, this year A Christmas Carol. From the vision of the ghost of Christmas present looming over Eberneezer Scrooge in his bed to Jacob Marley in his chains, a wonderful way to explore the Cathedral especially with young children.   Then the trees lining the cloisters, so many varied decorations from fun and quirky red rubber ducks to traditional angels and baubles. At one point a door opened and out walked all the choristers in their red robes which was a lovely sight, all getting ready for choral evensong.   The Cathedral is spectacular at any time but around Christmas it's amazing with all the twinkly lights and the exhibition. It was fairly quiet too in the evening so a little eerie as we walked around, not that LB was scared at all. 

The Manchester Mummy

This is a story with connections to my home town of Sale in Greater Manchester but we start at the Birchin Bower manor house, Oldham with a wealthy lady called Hannah Beswick born in 1688. It is believed that she had a brother who had died or so they thought until they were about to fix the coffin lid, eyes flickered and a physician was called...... John Beswick was still alive!

The brother lived for several more years and this caused Hannah to have a terrible fear of being buried alive. She requested to the family physician, Dr Charles White that upon her death she be checked periodically for signs of life until it was absolutely certain that she was indeed dead. This is where is all becomes a little puzzling. 

"White Charles physician" by Book by Charles James Cullingworth, engraving by W. Ward (1809) after a portrait by J. Allen - Frontispiece of Charles White, F. R. S.. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_Charles_physician.jpg#/media/File:White_Charles_physician.jpg

Hannah died in 1758 and Dr White had her body embalmed even though there are no specific details of this being requested in the will. The amount of money that should have been left to the doctor is still disputed to this day, some say part of the will detailed money for a funeral so it is unsure as to why this did not happen. Hannah's mummified body was kept in an old grandfather clock case in White's home at Sale Priory, Dane Road, Sale for 55 years. Visitors would frequently go to look at this macabre spectacle. The casing had no clock-face, instead Hannah's face was in it's place, screened by a white veil.

source

White was a co-founder of the Manchester Royal Infirmary and was interested in anatomy, learning embalming techniques using a mixture of turpentine and vermilion. Did Dr White just want another addition to his macabre curiosity collection which included the skeleton of Thomas Higgins, a highway man from Knutsford ? 

The Dr died in 1813 and left Hannah to a friend Dr Ollier who in turn in his will left the mummy to the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society where it was on show in the entrance hall and known as the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower.

In 1868 it was decided that the mummy should have a burial since Hannah's initial request of being sure she was dead was undoubtedly true!  The ceremony took place at Harpurhey Cemetery on 22 July 1868 where she is in an unmarked grave that is now just a tangle of brambles and nettles.

Before the Birchin Bower manor house was demolished there were many ghostly sightings believed to be Hannah, perhaps unhappy that her real requests were not respected.

The tale of Maggoty Johnson

 Within a spinney in Cheshire lies the body of one of the England's last jesters, Samuel Johnson. Through the beech and horse chestnut trees his tomb can be found but why is it here in unconsecrated ground..........? Samuel Johnson born in 1691 was an entertainer - a musician, a dance master, a playwright and notably a jester for the Gawsworth Estate in Cheshire.  He was a wild eccentric and liked to be known as Lord Flame, playing the fiddle for the crowds and teasing with his wit. Samuel wrote a play called Hurlothrumbo (or the Super-natural) and it did extremely well at The Haymarket theatre in London but after this, his other plays were not as successful.

Upon his retirement he came to live at Gawsworth and it is said that he shot an arrow from the rooftops and said that wherever it landed he wished to be buried there upon his death. He got his wish in 1773 at the age of 82.

Known as Maggoty Johnson in death, he is buried in a vault in this small wooded area. There are two tombstones, the original thought to be written by himself and the adjacent one was added in 1851 to scorn the original's mocking of Judgement Day (you can see the text of the inscriptions below)

 As Halloween approaches, if you are to run around his grave 13 times he will appear and perform for you, bells jingling under the shade of the autumn trees. 

Gardens and ghosts at Chirk Castle

 On the autumn days, the castle garden takes on a new feeling, morning mists swirl and break away in the sunshine to show borders still full of colour from burnt orange echinacea to purple Michaelmas daisies. Deep planted borders attracting butterflies who have beat their wings over the summer into a shabby state and bees and flies, hungry as ever. 

But who else walks the gravel path, amongst the clipped yews and roses that climb, thorns scrambling for castle windows - tap, tap, tap....

Shapes that glide down castle staircases, do they venture out to admire this year's lavender or enjoy the views across North Wales. Do spectres like a bit of free time from haunting?

700 years of spook accumulation and I feel certain that one or two must walk around the grounds in those mists....I might have even seen one....