Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Park Mistress of Hornby Park

Posted on July 19, 2017 by LancashireFolk

This little ghost story has some folk elements which are hard to ignore. A woman named Meg Brackin was out in Hornby Park one evening, looking for kindling for her fire. She came across another woman and wondered what she … Continue reading →

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Fairies in Sacks – Poachers Beware!

Posted on June 14, 2017 by LancashireFolk

In his book Welsh Folklore, published in 1887, Elias Owen mentions the following story from Llandrillo in Denbighshire: Nearby was a little valley called Cwm Pennant, after the river which ran through it, and the valley was believed to be … Continue reading →

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Weir… and perhaps a witch…

Posted on May 11, 2017 by LancashireFolk

In Weir, an area of Bacup, there was once a young woman who was married to an old man and dissatisfied with her lot. When night came she would steal away from her husband’s bed and go wandering, but where … Continue reading →

Posted in Bacup, Uncategorized, Witches & Wizards | 2 Comments

A Boggart Did It – Proved In Court!

Posted on April 19, 2017 by LancashireFolk

In 1869, a court in Blackburn pronounced, amazingly, that a boggart had been responsible for breaking numerous windows in the Union Buildings. A respectable-looking man called George Hindle had been accused and taken to court. The court heard how windows … Continue reading →

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Bramall Hall – Moved by the Fairies!

Posted on March 22, 2017 by LancashireFolk

Bramall Hall, on Hall Road in Bramhall, is several centuries old. Parts of the building date from the late 1590s. A short distance from the hall is Crow Holt Wood and this, so the legend says, is where the builders … Continue reading →

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Blackley Hall and Old Shay’s Ghost

Posted on February 22, 2017 by LancashireFolk

Blackley Hall was a large and ancient manor house dating from Tudor times but by 1760 it was no longer used as one large family home. Separate parts of it were rented out by the Scholes family, who owned it. … Continue reading →

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The Grey Lady of Astley Hospital

Posted on February 9, 2017 by LancashireFolk

The building known as Astley Hospital, on Ley Road in Astley, is in fact an ancient manor house; the inscription on the lintel informs us that it was erected in 1650, by the Mort family. It was built on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Ghosts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 26 Comments

Manchester Folk…

Posted on February 1, 2017 by LancashireFolk

The manuscript of my next book, Manchester Folk, is finally with the publisher and compiling this new collection has been a joy. Apart from discovering magical places I didn’t previously know existed, it’s been very interesting to see how similar … Continue reading →

Posted in Devil Tales, folklore, Ghosts, Giant, Manchester, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Gamel and the Goblins – St Chad’s Church, Rochdale

Posted on November 23, 2016 by LancashireFolk

  Long ago, when the Saxons inhabited this land, a man called Gamel (about whom several stories are told) chose a place by the River Roche to build a church. By nightfall he and his workmen had laid the foundations … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, goblins, moving buildings, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

A Dream Of Murder in Bolton

Posted on November 8, 2016 by LancashireFolk

At the very beginning of the 19th century, a murder was solved by a dream and the story was vouched for by a very trustworthy source, the Reverend H. Alexander, pictured above, a prominent man of the cloth. A man … Continue reading →

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