Ghosts and Paranormal in Wigan

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Wait till Tonker sees this

Where is Skitters Wood?

Toofs.

Mac wrote:Toofs.

Yes Toofs

Transferred from the Kirkham ghost story thread, as Wigan ghost stories belong in the 'Wigan ghost story' thread !


I don't believe in ghosts either. Although I have felt a 'presence' like as though someone was there, watching me.
It was in a building I once bought in Frog Lane, whilst I was renovating it. I was working there on several evenings trying to get it finished and this wierd feeling came about me, as if my back was shivering and someone was there. I knew there couldn't have been anyone else there, because I'd have heard them come in. It was silent in that room. And cold, with only one window which was quite high up so you couldn't see out, or in.

When I read through the epitome of title for that property, I saw that it had been an undertakers place in the late 1800's to early 1900's and that cold room in the back must have been the chapel of rest.

Being a bit engineering / scientifically minded, I think there's an technical or logical explanation for it.
But who knows?

PS: it was number 49.

Is 49 still there, Tonker? I remember some of those houses being done up some years ago.

Google maps suggests 47 Frog lane is on the corner of Upper St Stephens St, and the opposite side of the turning is number 51 Frog lane. Spooky or what!

Yes, I looked earlier and wanted someone to shed some light on it.

Looks like it was converted into flats, with the entrance at the rear of the building in Upper St Stephans Street, with 2b Upper St Stephans Street being in the middle of it, perhaps Tonker will explain all

Just had a look on street view. I think the door was originally on the very corner. Since partially bricked up and window put in. It was a Post Office at one time. Hence the pillar box.

I remember the post office.

Sir Bob wrote:...... perhaps Tonker will explain all

I bought that shop and flat in 1981, off a Mr. T. Peet who lived in Cranbrook Way, off Whitley Crescent.  It was a bit knackered then, but it had a lovely cast iron range in the back which had been bricked and plastered over.  I uncovered it, when I discovered it was there, and it was like new.

Under the rotten floor, in the front, I found a big cast iron safe.  I drilled two holes in the top and lowered a light into it to see if there was owt in, but there wasn't so I left it there.
I did find, however, a full set of brass and some iron, Post Office weights (for weighing post), so that confirms the Post Office theory. Oh., and a couple of quid, in 'old money'!
Mr. Peet told me it was a 'Mace' shop at one time.

Next door, number 51, was a woman called Lily and her husband Stan (I think) and next but one was a friend of mine, John Ozcerklevich  (jpo builder).
I divided the upstairs into two bedsits and rented them out.  The downstairs was a hairdressers and I married the hairdresser!  (and she's a Wigginer!)

I sold that place to a guitar bloke from Worsley Mesnes.  I think his name was Russ.

Yes, one door used to be on the corner and one on the side, but it's been completely rebuilt now. None of it seems to be the same, bar the shape.

Flat Price Music.

Look what she did to his bouffant!

The legend of the Cherry Gardens on Wigan Rd says that a body of a baby was hidden in the fireplace and that his distraught parents still haunt the area today.A medium was invited to find out what was haunting the building. Following that a team of paranormal investigators held an overnight vigil and found that,along with the parents,there were a number of spirits in the pub,amongst them a man who had worked in the coaching house,who loved the Cherry Gardens so much he continued to live there after death.Also a lady spirit has been seen and heard in the living quarters looking for her son, who is thought to have died in the bathroom.

As with many of the other Wigan public houses and inns, there is said to be a tunnel travelling from the pub to various locations, including Haigh Hall and the local church. These particular tunnels are said to be home to a number of ghostly monks looking for a way out after hiding away throughout the Dissolution of the Monasteries during Henry V111 reign.

From Haunted Wigan by Sarah Carberry & Nicola Johnson

I love reading ghost stories,then spend half the night with one eye open..what am I.??

Spring Heeled Jack's ghost at Almond Brook

A correspondent writes:- About eight years ago a certain married woman, who shall be nameless, lost her purse, containing £3 16s. A man in the neighbourhood got on the spree, and was suspected to have found it, and swallowed it in the shape of "best British fours." The good man died a few years after, and the lady firmly believed that his spirit could get no farther than Fiddler's Green until her purse and money were restored. It appears that a number of old women and hair-brained crackies in every part of the country believe that Fiddler's Green is the purgatory of thieves and bad payers. To the surprise of our heroine something entered her house a short time ago just after dark. She could make neither head nor tail of it, and whether it had a head or tail was more than either she or any of the wise old women in the neighbourhood knew. It "woz sumot," but she never saw anything like it before. While wondering what in the name of owd Scrat it could be, she saw her lost purse on the floor, and then shouted to her husband, "Jack Wallop's ghost has bin un brought me pus back, but there's only £1 17s. 7d. in it, un heel have to go back to Fiddler's Green uf he dozent fotch rest." She told the story to all the petticoat philosophers in the neighbourhood, who held a grand consultation on the ghost from Fiddler's Green. They all saw something enter the house, but could not say what it looked like. One thought it looked like the ghost of Nan Cockle's pig that "wuz killed tother wick." Another was sure it looked more like Bill Twither's tom-cat that "wuz frozen to death some time since in a hare trap." One old woman said "it favured Jack Trump's donkey us wuz choaked eating Sal Wollop's carrots." Several agreed that it smelled of brimstone, and had red eyes as big as a frying pan, and that it jumped over the chimney after coming out of the house. Dick called the council of old women together, a lot of "crazy foos," and swore it "wuz nothur Nan Cockle's pig, nor Bill Twither's tom-cat, nor Jack Trump's donkey; it wuz noout no better nur wuz ten Spring-heeled Jack!" The old woman screamed out, "Good gracious! has Spring-heeled Jack's ghost come back? We'll all be lost afour th' eend ut world takes place!"

From Haunted Wigan/Wigan and district Advertiser 24th Dec 1890


Hair brained crackies?

Spring Heeled Jack

there were a number of spirits in the pub

Vodka Ghost
Whisky Ghost
Brandy Ghost

What about bitter and mild ghost

Who Haunts Haigh Hall?

Haigh Hall has a reputation for being haunted by particularly grisly and frightening spirits. There has been very violent poltergeist activity in the past, particularly on the top floor (aka ‘the Upper Tier’), which has subsequently been sealed off for decades. Injuries and nervous breakdowns have been reported by visitors, particularly among paranormal investigators. The last of these enquiries had such a disastrous outcome that one member was sectioned in a mental hospital. After this upsetting event, a ruling was made, declaring Haigh Hall’s top floor a no-go zone for amateur ghost-hunters.


http://paulfinch-writer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/gods-or-demons-who-haunts-haigh-hall.html

Ellen Jefferies Ghost

If you walk along the Leeds Liverpool Canal near to the spot where the old Pagerfield Ironworks once stood, you may bump into the ghost of Ellen Jefferies.

malevolent dopplegangers

Since I told the tale of what happened in Kirkham, I have not felt right since and last night looney tune was howling his head off

Shrieks, cries and insane laugher have been heard, while brief terrible smells have been noted – “like the stench of a pit filled with dead animals,” one former caretaker told me – with no earthly source ever traceable.

Fortunately I have no experience of such things, so will have to stretch my imagination.

I was told by an employee at the Hall that there was a good laugh to be had a t a psychic type evening.  The psychic concerned regaled the punters with tales of the ghost of a monk, and talk of monastery/church in the grounds.

Staff were amused as apparently it was blatantly obvious that the 'psychic' had done a bit of homework and come across 'Monk's Hill'.  The staff member told me that the name was just made up by woodland rangers as a means of identifying a particular area, and that there was no religious history there whatsoever.

Reminded me of that programme where the tv producers invited ghost hunters to a site, prior to their arrival/filming, the producers put various bogus history tales online.

The ghost of someone very specific, who had been killed by a horsed drawn wagon, came through.  All very accurate reports of the bogus history online.

Also news to me that the 'upper tier' of the hall was sealed off.

I saw a ghost in Morrisons today

It looked like a butcher, but alas nobody else saw it

The White Lady of Haigh Hall




The White lady is rumored to be the ghost of Lady Mabel Bradshaigh, a lady of the manor at Haigh in the early fourteenth century.She was married to the knight, William Bradshaigh. In 1315, William fled the country after his involvement in a rebellion against the Earl of Lancaster. Hearing nothing from her husband for many years, Lady Mabel eventually remarried. However, William returned back in 1322. He killed his wife’s new husband and resumed living at the Haigh manor house until 1333, when he fought another rival and this time was killed himself. In penance for her bigamy, Lady Mabel, made a daily barefoot walk to a stone monument just outside Wigan’s north wall, a total distance of about six miles! No one really knows how Lady Mabel’s ghost looks so creepy. She was not an evil person in life, though she was said to be unhappy in her final days. They say: “You must never look at her face, It’s vacant features has left many insane and forced to loose their minds.”

In penance for her bigamy, Lady Mabel, made a daily barefoot walk to a stone monument just outside Wigan’s north wall, a total distance of about six miles!

Daily?

It's two miles from the current hall to the gates on Wigan Lane.

Not sure where the north wall was, or is.