Ryecroft Hall was built on land bought from the Earl of
Stamford and Warrington by James Smith Buckley in 1849. James, and his brother Able, owned a pair of mills in Ashton-under-Lyne. The Hall is a large L shaped two storey stone built
house with basement and attic levels and a slate roof. The entrance porch passes beneath a Tudor
arch while most of the windows have two or three lights with double chamfered
mullions and transoms and hoodmoulds. The Hall was built to be a declaration of the family's wealth.
In 1851 the unfinished Hall passed to James Smith Buckley's son James. It
stayed in the Buckley family until February 1913. The new owner Austin Hopkinson was an engineer
who built built the delta works in Audenshaw where he invented and developed a
coal cutting machine.
Between the years 1914 to 1918 Ryecroft Hall served as a
voluntary Red Cross Hosptial with over 100 beds. The Hall was also a communications centre;
evidence of this remains on cellar doors and the existence of the map table.
When the Hall and grounds were given to Audenshaw in 1922 it
became a social centre for the urban district and so it remained until the formation
of Tameside MBC in 1974. It is still
used by small groups and as a venue for dance and exercise classes and as a
venue for the solmisation of marriages. Ryecroft
Hall, now grade 2 listed building, is the site of two Blue Plaques; one for Austin Hopkinson,
MP for Mossley between 1918 and 1945, the other to
commemorate Harry Norton
Schofield, the son of a local chemist who was
awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the Boer War.
The Ryecroft Séance
The room was set up with three big trestle tables, the sort
where six people can easily sit to down each side, two side by side and the
other across the end of the two.
Spanning the two side by side tables there was a movement sensor. At the head of the table was a skull, a
crystal ball a black candle and a white candle. There was also a circle of tea
lights on the tables. It looked really
spooky once the lights were turned out.
Everyone sat around the tables, little fingers touching the
little fingers of the people on either side of us. We were instructed not to break the circle no
matter what happened. The spirits were asked
to come forward and to let us know of their presence by knocking or tapping
somewhere in the room. At first nothing happened, then we weren’t sure if some
shadows were moving and if we could hear footsteps as if someone was walking along
one side of the room.
Then suddenly the movement sensor flashed. Then flashed again. While everyone was watching the sensor the crosswise
table began to rock. It was only a
little movement, from one side to the other then from one end to the
other. The movement sensor flashed
crazily for a few moments then the crosswise table moved, really moved. Many of the people it moved toward screamed
as the table shot a good twelve inches in their direction. I thought some one had pushed it but no one
had broken the circle of hands but the movement was smooth as if the table was
gliding. The table then moved back to
its original position without juddering or scraping along the floor. A few moments later the table moved again,
this time in the opposite direction, toward me, again there was no juddering or
scraping sounds and no one had broken the circle before returning to its
original position.
After the séance was over several of us tried to move the
table by resting our hands on top of it and pushing with our fingers as anyone
on that table in the circle would have to have done; we couldn’t make the table
move without really pushing down so hard that other people would have been
aware of it being a deliberate push. We
certainly could not move the table anywhere near as smoothly or soundlessly as
it moved by itself.
Furthermore, for the table to move in both directions it
would have required more than one person at different ends of the table working
at a team to get it to move like it did and I know I knew no one at the other
end of the table.
Built in A.D. 1247 this barbican is a34 feet long by 11 feet 6" widecovered passage with guard rooms on
either side and drawbridges at both ends. While the original height of the
medieval building is unknown it still bares the telltale marks of a portcullis
and of the great castle gate itself in its brickwork.
Between
1227 and 1258 the occupier is recorded as Tomes Herron, (also called William
Heron), the Sheriff of Northumberland. It is known that he liked to decorate the walls of
the Gate with the mutilated bodies of the many people he hung drew and
quartered along with corpses hung on the gallows and displayed in iron cages
and human heads on sticks.
By
1618 the castle was no longer as important and parts of it were leased to
Alexander Stephenson, a courtier of King James I. Stephenson substantially altered the
gatehouse, rebuilding the upper floors, and possibly added the brick house over
the top of the original, fortified gate. He, in turn, let it as accommodation; one tenant
wasmerchant Patrick Black who it isbelieved gave his name to The Black
Gate.
Carved
intoa stone high up on the south side of
the building is the date 1636 and the name John Pickell, it is known that he
used the Black Gate as a tavern at this time. In 1883 the Society of
Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne leased the property and spent over
sixteen hundred pounds repairing and improving it, including adding the top
floor and pitched roof,to use as a museumuntil 1959,meeting place and library right upuntil 2009.
In
the 1930s soldiers were billeted within the Black Gate; the names and dates
they scratched into a pair of wooden pillars in the first floor room are still
visible.Up until the 1970s a caretaker lived
in the top floor.
The investigation
The evening began with a séance.During this time the heavy tread of footsteps
could be felt vibrating through the wooden floor as though someone was pacing
one at end of the room even though no one visible was moving.A few possible taps and knocks were heard but
with it being All Hollow’s Eve there was a lot of competition from the bells of
the close by Cathedral of St Nicholas.
After splitting up the teams spread out
over the four floors. Talking boards
were used to communicate across the veil with some success; one team reported
that they received messages for one of their number in both the flat and the
first floor ‘hub’ room. While the
investigator was not making contact with the board the answers to his
verification questions were proved to be correct. Short
messages received for members of other teams throughout the night.
Activity on the lower floor ‘stone
room’ was very slight, with only the possibility of a stone being thrown. Unfortunately the makeup of this room makes
verification difficult.
‘Daniel’ did his best to communicate
through a crystal in the small glass doored section of the library; another
group reported the occasional unexplained tap.
‘Daniel’ again came through on a talking board in the hub room, he seemed
to remember talking to me on my previous visit there and recalled the less than
polite word he used to describe me!
‘Daniel’ has come through on many other
occasions and it is known that a “Daniel Fenie”, was active in the area in the
1880s. He reportedly cut the throats of
at least five women and three children.
Is it possible that this Daniel and the one who tried to communicate
with us are one and the same?
Pam’s group had great success with
table tipping in the flat; the table walked and span around in the back room, before
shuffling along and slamming into the wall.
It made quite a racket; I was on the floor below! Later when my group tried we got a bit of
activity but nothing like as much.
On the whole it was somewhat quieter
than previous visits to Newcastle; in fact we were beginning to think that
perhaps all the spirits had gone out to celebrate Hallowe’en, yet the people
who received personal messages, and those accompanying them, appeared pleased
with the results.
This was the first time we had started an evening’s ghost
hunt with a séance. Guests and Team
Members alike we gathered around the table in the Fireplace Room, this had been
the bake house for the Hall the evidence for this is the large fireplace where
renovations in 1910 revealed a hive-shaped oven. The table looked fantastic with its circle of
tea-lights headed by the skull (aka Fred), a crystal ball, small jar of
cleansing salts and its black and white candles. The impact of walking into a room that with
lights out has to be seen to be understood.
The séance began quite normal enough, with everyone seated,
feet flat on the floor little fingers touching the little fingers of the person
on either side of them, but hardly had we begun when the table started to move,
just a little bit, but move. Mark did
not even finish asking for a whistle before he got one and we could hear
footsteps moving around the room as we sat not moving.
Explaining how the K2 works.
Awaiting the start of the seance.
Later one of our old friends, Ian, came through on the talking
board; unfortunately he was still queuing at the bar for a drink but he did
manage to inform us that he died of a nosebleed. This is the same information that he provided
us with last time we ‘spoke’ when there were different people of the board and
none of our new guests had been previously informed about Ian. The table tipping once again had the table
bouncing from side to side and spinning around, it even tried to balance while
leaning over at 45os. All
this with just the very tips of our fingers just resting on the top of the
table.
The weather prevented us visiting the chapel this time but
Penrhyn itself did not let us down; with keenly felt cold draughts that cannot
be explained in a windowless door free space, shadows that move of their own
accord when everyone else is motionless, the sounds of footsteps and whispering
voices, the taps and bangs that come upon request and being followed around
from the moment I walked into the Old Hall.
Even Yvonne said that she’d seen something following me at one
point.
We will be visiting Penrhyn again, are you brave enough to
join us?
Yes we've been back to Yarm and once again the talking boards did a lot of talking! Our friend Jim came back through; last time he seemed quite concerned about having been, 'shot in me tit', as he put it. This time we managed to learn that he actually shot himself while cleaning his own gun. We also got someone who claimed he was a demon, but we just didn't believe him. While I was there I took photos of the stones incorporated into the building, I presume they are the names of the people who did a lot of fundraising etc so the original church could be built. Unfortunately I have missed one; guess we'll just have to go back so I can try again.
Yarm is mentioned
in the Domesday Book of 1086; it is thought that its name is derived from Old
Norse where yarum or from the Old English gearum, both words mean an enclosure to catch
fish. The areas Friarage and Spital
Bank preserve the memory of the Domninican Friars, often called Black Friars or
Friar Preachers, who settled in Yarm about 1286 and maintained a Friarage and a
Hospital in the town, until 1583. John Wesley, founder of Methodism and Tom Brown, hero in the Battle of Dettingen are also associated
with the town.
In
1822 the foundation stone for the primitive Baptist chapel was laid, the building
was completed in 1831. In 1897 the Main
Hall was added followed by the middle hall which joins the two halls together. This became a Methodist Church until it was
sold to Yarm Parish Church in the early sixties. The hall was used as the parish hall until it
was sold to the Emmanuel Fellowship Church in 1976.
Twenty
years later Yarm Town Council purchased the hall. Once a charitable trust was set up in July
1999to run the hall, the trustees decided to call it Yarm Fellowship hall,
as it had always been a community building concerned with Fellowship.
It
is said that people have been sent running from the building on many occasions
after they have seen the ghost of a monk or a hooded man has been seen in the
room upstairs. Shadows have been seen
passing the interior windows also children have been heard playing and even
tugging on people clothes. A man is reported to have been seen standing
in the corner of the back room only for him to disappear the moment you turn to
get a proper look footsteps are often heard coming from different parts of the
building.
Knutsford
is situated on the Cheshire Plain close to its neighbouring communities of Alderley Edge
and Wilmslow. It is recorded in the William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086
as Cunetesford ("Canute's ford"). King Canute
(Knútr in Old Norse) was the king of England (1016–1035)
and later king of Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden as well. Local tradition
says that King Canute forded the River Lily,
which was said to be dangerous then, here.
This is feasible as the River Lily, until given a channel to run in,
meandered over the valley floor and fed into the mere in an area still known as
The Moor creating quite a marshy area.
There is a wide
selection of pubs and restaurants which makes Knutsford a popular destination
for dining and drinking. The two main
town centre streets, Princess Street (also known locally as Top Street) and
King Street lower down, known as Bottom Street, form the 'hub' of the town. At one end of the narrow King Street is an
entrance to Tatton Park. The Tatton estate was home to the Egerton
family.
Ancient towns have
their own folklore, and Knutsford is no exception. One tale tells ofan
elderly lady who was buried in the Old Churchyard at Knutsford, with the
unusual stipulation that a small sack of unshelled hazelnuts be placed beneath
her head. Unfortunately the nuts proved
to be uncomfortable, so she turned in her coffin. As this made no difference she arose from her
grave one moonlight night, and proceeded to crack and eat the hazelnuts while
seated on her own tombstone. She then
folded the sack for a pillow; retired to her coffin and troubled the mortal
sublunary world no more. But unnoticed
one nut had rolled away; it sprouted, grew, fruited and thereafter its own nuts
attracted the attention of local truants.
Naturally
Knutsford with its narrow streets that still follow the old medieval layout has
its fair share of ghosts. The 300 year
oldLord
Eldon public house is reputed to be haunted by Annie Sarah Pollitt, Knutford's
first May Queen and daughter of James Pollitt the landlord in the late19th
century. Witness reports tell of seeing an
apparition that wears clothing dating from the 1800’s, flickering lights,
moving objects and an unidentified cold breeze.
Staff have reported sightings of the white shade in the lower rooms,
even the landlady, Laura Scullion, from 1999 - ?, has glimpsed the white figure. She had been sceptical about the myth when
she took over the pub but stated to a Warrington
Guardian reporter in June 2001, "We had just closed for the night and
I was standing at the bar with a barman when the white shadow of a woman moved
across the bar and into the tap room."
On the M6, that runs
close by the town, a terrified driver reported a glowing white lorry that
charged towards him travelling the wrong way down the motorway. The driver pulled onto the hard shoulder and
closed his eyes, he even felt the HGV drive past, but when he looked into his
rear view mirror immediately afterwards, there was nothing there. On another road, this time Tatton Mile, the
road running next to Tatton Park, at approximately 22:30hrs on the 19th
October 2009 a driver, driving with his full beams on, spotted the figure of a
man standing in the road with his hand out as if he wanted the car to
stop. As the car drew closer, the figure
vanished, causing the driver to swerve out of shock.
An older story takes
place close to the old turnpike on the A537 from Knutsford to Chelford in the
1800s; it was around midnight when a group of three people passed the
gatekeeper in a horse-drawn gig. The
gatekeeper noted that the young man in the centre was being supported by the
other two. The next day a dead body was
found by the road at Ollerton; the clothing and soft hands suggested someone of
some social standing. The clothes were
retained as evidence for many years but the identity of the body was never
discovered.
The story has passed
into local folklore and appears in Henry Green's 1869 History of Knutsford; a sequel to this event appears in Cheshire Notes and Queries for
1889. Albert A Birchenough recalled his
experience when in October 1872 he had been walking to Chelford; he had been
halfway through his journey having just passed Norbury Booths. It was a Sunday clear night with a starry sky
and the countryside was silent when coming from behind him he heard the rattling
wheels of a horse drawn conveyance. He moved
aside to let it pass, but it stopped some 20 yards behind him. Hearing the sound of voices and two or three
persons jumping down he turned and went back to ask for a lift, but there was
nothing there. A short while later a passer-by
came from the direction of Chelford, this allowed Birchenough to enquire if
there were any turnings nearby. The
reply was 'no' and the stranger put the noises down to the possibility of them
having been created by poachers. A
sensible enough answer perhaps, but it did not explain why Birchenough had
heard a gig.
However the most famous,
or at least most notorious, apparition is that of Edward Higgins. He lived for
some time in Heath House in what is now known as Gaskell Avenue, which is just
a few doors beyond the house where famousVictorian novelistElizabeth Gaskell once
livedas announced
by the wall plaque. Gaskell wrote about Higgins in her short story
The Squire's Tale, as did Thomas de
Quincey in Highwayman.
"Squire" Higginsas he was known to his friends in the local
gentry, appears to have been of good birth, and on
moving from Manchester, took up residence in Knutsford, Cheshire around1756, where he was accepted by
the community as a gentleman of reasonable means.
He
cannot have been short of money for he bought number 19 which is situated
opposite the Common, the house was at the time covered in ivy and known as the
Cann office as it had once been the place where scales and weights were tested.
His origins are
obscure, but what is known is that in 1754 he had been convicted of
housebreaking in Worcester and sentenced to transportation for seven years to
the American colonies. However shortly
after his arrival in Boston, Higgins stole a large amount of money from the
house of a rich merchant, bought himself a passage home and was back in England
within a few months.
The marriage of Edward
Higgins, Yeoman, and Katherine Birtles, spinster, is recorded in the parish
church register on April 21st, 1757, where she signed her name
as ÒKathruneÓ. It is not known whether
this was a normal spelling at the time or if she was illiterate.At
this time wives were not expected to be particularly inquisitive about their
husband's business affairs, and Katherine was probably happy to believe that
Edward lived on the rents from properties he owned in various parts of the
country. Higgins is recorded as a fit
and athletic man who rode to hounds, owned several horses and was reputed to be
very fond of his five children. As was
befitting a man of his standing Higgins and his wife dined with their
neighbours and so become familiar with the layout of his hosts’ homes, this
enabled him, at a later date, to sneak back for a spot of burglary.
On
one occasion Mr. and Mrs. Higgins were guests of Samuel Egerton, at his Oulton
Park house, while playing an after dinner game of whist Higgins took a fancy to
a jewelled snuff box which was lying on the table. As the roads back to Knutsford were dark and
dangerous the Higgins’s were staying the night; while the household slept; one
guest crept into the host's dressing room and took the snuff box which he then
hid outdoors for retrieval later. Naturally
thetheft
was discovered the very next morning; Higgins summoned all the servants and had
their rooms searched. There was, of
course, no question of searching the guests’ rooms for ladies and gentlemen did
not do such a thing. Mr. Egerton was
grateful for Higgins’ prompt action even though the box was not found.
Higgins,
apparently, was never one to resist an impulse; he was wandering along the Rows
in Chester late at night when one opportunity presented itself in the shape of
a ladder that some workman had left against the wall of a house in Stanley
Street. He climbed into a bedroom of a young woman who
lay asleep after returning from a ball to discover her jewellery scattered on
the dressing table. Higgins calmly pocketed
his booty, held his breath when the girl turned over in bed, and then made his
escape.Years later he was to
confess, "Had she awaked I would have had no choice but to murder
her."
Burgling
the homes of his Knutsfordian friends was not Higgins’s solo source of
ill-gotten income, when the nights were amenable he would muffle the hooves of
his horse, so as not to disturb the neighbours, and would head out to the
Chester Road where he would hold up a coach or two. Part of the road between Knutsford and
Chester had been turnpiked; the private company charged with collecting the toll
had greatly improved the old muddy wagon track consequently traffic on the
turnpiked carriageway was increasing.
This was too good an opportunity for Higgins to allow to pass by and he found
it easier to hold up a coach than to burgle a house as travellers usually kept
a few guineas handy to surrender to the first "gentleman of the road"
who stopped them.
Higgins’s base of
operations for his
highwayman exploits was the coaching house, the Royal George
Hotel, what better place could there be for a highwayman to assess the likely
bounty carried by a coach then the very establishment where the passengers
alighted for a spot of refreshment.
Higgins almost
came unstuck after a ball at the Royal George Hotel; he had
seen Lady
Warburton
of Arley wearing expensive jewellery and decided to waylay her carriage as she
journeyed home but her Ladyship recognised him and asked why he'd left the ball
so early.
Higgins is said to have
murdered an old woman on one of his ‘rent collecting’ jaunts. He returned from Bristol with hundreds of her
Spanish dollars but as Spanish dollars began circulating in the North West the fable says
the highwayman told a local gossip in a Knutsford pub about someone being
robbed in Bristol. The drinker, who
prided himself on hearing any news first in the town, soon became suspicious of
Higgins. Higginsleft
Knutsford hurriedly in late 1764. He had
been tracked back to the town after robbing a house in Gloucester and was
arrested in his own home by the local constables. He asked leave to prepare a few items to take
with him and was allowed to go upstairs, the constables never saw him
again. It is said Higgins escaped
through a secret passage that lead onto the Heath.
Leaving
his wife to sell the house and follow him, with the instruction not sell the
board, which hung over his dining room fire place that had painted in gold
letters 'Do Not Steal' Higgins set up a house in French Hay, near Bristol and again
lived as a gentleman, this time calling himself Edward Hickson.
Highwayman
Higgins’ luck finally ran out in 1767 when having told his wife he was
"collecting the rents" he travelled to Wales. After breaking into a house in Carmarthen
Higgins was spotted by two butchers who were suspicious of his being abroad so
late at night. It is said that Higgins put
up a good fight but their dog got the best of him. Unable to protest his innocence having been
caught with a piece of the broken key, the other piece of the key being still
in the lock, and other items from a chest in the house he had robbed in his
pocket Higgins was put under lock and key in Bristol.
Here
Higgins was identified as an escaped prisoner but he tried to get out of it by
handing over a fake official pardon. The
authorities realised that it was a forgery and his fate was sealed; Higgins was
sentenced to death. While waiting for
his sentence to be carried out he wrote, "I beg you will have compassion
on my poor disconsolate widow and fatherless infants, as undoubtedly you will
hear my widow upbraided with my past misconduct. I beg you will vindicate her as not being
guilty of knowing about my villany."
Squire
Higgins died on the gallows at Carmarthen on Saturday 7th November,
1767.
It is said that in the
dead of a dark and moonless night Higgins can still be seen riding his horse
through the streets of Knutsford on his way to visit a chosen house or, if off
on one of his highway visits, searching for a likely looking coach to stop and demand
coin of the realm from its occupants. On occasion late night revellers, while making their way home along the narrow streets, have seen and heard a phantom coach moving over the cobbles outside the Royal George Hotel. This too it said to be Higgins, this time off on one of his ‘rent collecting’ excursions.
Now
let’s look again at some of the Knutsford ghosts; Knutsford is in a low lying
area full of meres, (bodies of open water, often slow moving and deep), marshy
areas and small rivers, when the weather conditions are right these give off
vast amounts of mist, some light, some not so light and more often then not
white. As for the tale of the ghostly
figure seen on Tatton Mile, we have a tired driver in the late hours of an
October night with his head lights fully on.
Was it really some spectral hitchhiker or a trick of the mist and light
on tired eyes with a little bit of pareidolia thrown in for good measure?
In
the case of the ghostly HGV wagon, that stretch of the motorway is known to be
affected by fog and mist, could it not be the same although no time of day is
given for the event.
The
ghost of Annie Sarah Pollitt; we have a 300 year old building, this in itself
will lend to creaks and draughts, the flickering lights could be tired wiring,
a bad change over at the generator or even a faulty bulb. Again the apparition is seen late at night;
could it be tired eyes, a drift of mere mist invading the building, or even
having drunk a spirit or two too many?
As
for Highwayman Higgins; ghostly coaches travelling over the cobbles of the
Royal George, or the sound of a late night goods train, for these move along
the line that runs through the valley bottom much later into the night than the
passenger services do, (this was a regular occurrence particularly when ICI had
a big works on the outskirts of Knutsford), distorted by the open moor then the
confines of the narrow streets combined with a little mist and a few
beers?
And,
while it may sound sceptical to some, we must bear in mind that, not only are
there quite a few busy little pubs in Knutsford, but a portion of the town’s
income is based on tourism and what brings tourists better than a ghost or two?
Around
Haunted Manchester, Peter Portland. Publishers AMCD.
When the Hall and grounds were given to Audenshaw in 1922 it
became a social centre for the urban district and so it remained until the formation
of Tameside MBC in 1974. It is still
used by small groups and as a venue for dance and exercise classes and as a
venue for the solmisation of marriages. 
