Do you believe in ghosts

A few stories from the web

'My mum works in a hospital, she told me that one of the doctors was walking through the corridors and he came across a woman who said there was someone having a heart attack nearby and needed his help,' she wrote.
'When he got there it was the woman he'd been talking to. He was clearly shaken by it and couldn't get his head around it. They checked the CCTV and saw him talking but there was nobody else there.'

'As a child I liked playing with magnetic letters on the fridge. One day I wrote "Teg is here". No idea why.

'A few years later we were looking at the deeds to the house and found it had been built on a field called Teg's Pieces,' she wrote.

Tommy I sure do..I too used to work in a Hospital ( Whelley),I could tell a few things..here's one..we had got all the patients into bed..cleaned,fed..stood in the kitchen and saw someone walked past the kitchen door and walk into the ward..went into the ward and there wasn't a peep out of any of the patients,all as quiet as a mouse.
Another one..a patient had died earlier in the day..putting the patient in the next bed to rest..had the curtains drawn of course,then some from the next bed pinched my bum..the nurse I was with saw the curtain move.

There's more but I'll leave it there.

Threre's things go missing in our house, you know where they are supposed to be but they've gone. Ages later you will find them in that spot.

My wife is a poltergeist.

My mum was a big believer in ghosts.  She once said she saw a cavalier running through the church grounds.

Maureen tell us more.

There was a particular ward..every time the night staff came on duty you could hear them give a sigh of relief,I inquired why and someone said that during the night they could hear babies cry..I myself had croup and diphtheria at the same time,but I was on the very ward that I finished up nursing on..

What I forgot to say was,the particular ward where babies were heard was a ward where babies died with the dreaded diphtheria.

St Helens aint in Wigan. I thought I'd save tonksmon the bother

The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain by John Ingram (1897).
Ince Hall, famous as being connected with one of the most curious beliefs in existence, is an ancient Lancashire dwelling. In Roby and Wilkinson's popular Lancashire Legends this old Hall is described as "one of those curious half-timbered mansions which are now becoming rare in this country. Its six sharply-pointed gables, and its long ranges of mullioned pointed windows, give it an imposing appearance from a distance; and on a nearer approach the remains of a moat are visible, which proves that it had once possessed means of defence. The estate connected with the Hall belonged to the Gerards for upwards of seven hundred years; the owners being descended from Walter Fitzothe, Castellan of Windsor., at the time when Domesday Book was compiled * His son William adopted the surname of de Windsor, but another son, Gerard, was contented to bear his ordinary patronymic, and became the ancestor of the Gerards of Bryn, now represented by Sir Robert Gerard, of Garswood Hall.
About the year 1368, John, the third son of Sir Peter Gerard, of Bryn, married Ellen, daughter and sole heiress of Richard de Ince, the representative of a very ancient family, dating very nearly, if not quite, from the Conquest. In consequence of this marriage, the township of Ince passed to the Gerards, who, for many succeeding generations, resided at the old Hall.
The tradition connected with the building now known as Ince Hall, which mansion was not erected till the reign of James the First, is thus related in the Lancashire Legends: "There is a story of wrong attaching to Ince Hall, which has given rise to the legend of ‘the Dead Hand.' One of its early possessors lay on his death-bed, and a lawyer was sent for at the last moment to make his will ; but before he reached him the man was dead. In this dilemma it was determined to try the effect of a dead man's hand on the corpse, and the attorney's clerk was sent for one to Bryn Hall in all haste. The body of the dead man was rubbed with the holy hand, and it was asserted that he revived sufficiently to sign his will. After the funeral a daughter of the deceased produced a will which was not signed, leaving the property to his son and daughter; but the lawyer soon produced another will, signed by the dead hand, which conveyed all the property to himself. The son quarrelled with the attorney, and after wounding him, as he supposed mortally, he left the country, and was never heard of more. The daughter also disappeared, but no one knew how or when. After many years the gardener turned up a skull in the garden with his spade, and the secret was revealed. When this took place the Hall had long been uninhabited; for the murdered daughter's ghost hung suspended in the air before the dishonest lawyer wherever he went. It is said that he spent the remainder of his days in Wigan, the victim of remorse and despair. There is a room in the Hall which is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young lady, and her shadowy form is frequently seen by the passers-by hovering over the spot where her remains were buried."

http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/folklore/ince-hall-ince-in-makerfield/

I saw a ghost of an old man when I was five years old, in our house on Montrose Avenue. My parents were there and never saw it.

So you've been into spirits from a very early age then

...and beer...and wine...and....

Over a century ago, a house next to the White Lion Inn became known locally as ‘the Ghost House’. Night after night the house was full of flashes of light, strange noises and many times stones were thrown. It all began when Mrs Winstanley, the resident there, was about to cook a meal for her family of seven children. She was having trouble with the fire, whose flames were a rainbow of colours, and she blamed the children, thinking they must have put paraffin or something of the like on the fire. Much as they pleaded their innocence, she chased them out of the house.
That night, two of the boys went to bed as usual and were repeatedly disturbed by the curtains, which were hung on a simple bamboo rod, falling onto their bed as they tried to sleep. Then knocks were heard in the room, a brick fell from the fireplace and lights flashed in the room although the house had no power source beyond candle and lamplight.
This performance became a regular occurrence, so that local people would gather outside, from where they could hear heavy stones being thrown and, of course, the mysterious lights. Eventually the children were so frightened that they refused to sleep there.

https://lancashirefolk.com/2013/11/14/upholland-church-street/

https://lancashirefolk.com/2016/07/20/red-clogs-a-coalminers-ghost/

Recently, whilst researching for Manchester Folk, I came across an intriguing mention of a ghost known as Red Clogs. No detail was given but with a little research, I discovered that he wasn’t called that because he wore red clogs – although his clogs were indeed red. Red with blood.

The story, brief though it is, says that a poor collier lost his life when working with a mechanical coal-washing hopper, which would wash soil and rock away from the coal and then crush it into chunks using rotating blades at the bottom of the machine. The collier leaned in to clear away an obstruction and fell. His feet were badly mutilated and so, naturally enough, his ghost was always said to be wearing blood-soaked clogs.

Most versions of this tale say that it occurred at Alexandra Pit at Whelley, near Wigan. Miners soon learned to blame any strange occurrence below ground on Red Clogs, and above ground his ghost is said to haunt the area known as Whelley Plantations.

However, Red Clogs is also claimed by Pidgeon Pit, close to Alexandra, Blundell’s pit at Pemberton, Bryn Pit, a pit at New Springs and by Taylor Pit in Wigan where it was said he was hit by a landslide. His ghost has also been reported in Foundry Lane, Pemberton, where the remains of several mine-workings still lie.

Further afield, in Merseyside, Red Clogs is said to haunt an old pit in Haydock, at Sutton Manor colliery and also Garswood colliery, where the collier is said to have either been ‘chopped up’ by machinery or simply fallen down a lift shaft.

As I continued to dig for information, I found that the ghost of Red Clogs is also said to haunt the brickworks on Walthew House Lane near Kitt Green, where the red clogs are explained as being stained with brick dust. At Marsh Green, children were discouraged from playing in the old clay pits at the redundant brickworks by stories of Red Clogs. At yet another brickworks (unnamed), the story says that the man died in an accident involving a conveyor belt and night-workers reported seeing his red clogs walking along the belt.

And in Lancashire, Victory Park football ground in Chorley is said to be haunted by the ghost of a workman who died whilst erecting the floodlights. His injuries caused blood-loss – and some of the blood stained his clogs. His name was Johnny, so of course he became known as Johnny Red Clogs. I think it’s likely that he was so named after the more well-known pit ghost.

Another, less gory story explains the Red Clogs in this manner… a young Pemberton boy was given some new clogs by his mother but was unwilling to wear them because they were not the usual black leather but red. His fears were realised when his school-friends taunted him about his pretty red shoes but when he complained to his mother she gave him no sympathy. Clogs were the chosen footwear of the poor because their wooden soles did not wear out; the iron patches on the bottom of the shoes could easily be replaced when they became too thin. And as the boy’s mother was indeed poor, she simply could not afford to buy more clogs for her son; he would simply have to wear them. The boy suffered constant bullying until at last he could bear no more and took his own life in Porter’s Wood. He was found by other children, coming home through the wood at the end of the school day.

I can imagine that children were undoubtedly entranced by this story, with which they could identify, especially if they were playing in Porter’s Wood. As time went on and the tale was retold by these children, it once again changed detail and location – Red Clogs was said to haunt a certain bridge in Aspull and children warned each other never to go under the bridge after dark… and more than one grown-up in Wigan remembers believing that Red Cloggs was a ghost who haunted the cellar of Dolly Gray’s sweet shop on Platt Lane!

This is a fascinating example of how a story, which may really be based on a horrible fact (the nasty death of a coal-miner) can morph into a ghost story and, as time passes, turn into an urban legend to rival any I have come across. It has travelled from the Greater Manchester area north to Lancashire and west to Merseyside. Where else does Red Clogs haunt? Let me know!

Youre a mine of information Lolly . Good reading

Yes, I agree, Tommy...She is special...

I believe that some folk have seen something they can't explain.

But no - I don't believe in ghosts.

"In between Appley Lane North and Miles Lane is a road called Skull House Lane. The lane takes its name from a cottage known as Skull House, which is located about halfway down Appley Lane North.
The story goes that in the time of the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers, Oliver Cromwell ordered that the monks of England should be driven out of their monasteries and killed, with their monasteries then razed to the ground. One canny monk fled from his monastery and took refuge in a large cottage in Appley Bridge. To try to avoid discovery by Cromwell's Roundheads, the monk hid in a small cubby-hole halfway up the house's chimney. He hid there for some time, until the Roundheads eventually discovered him, and tried to drive him out. They lit a blaze in the fireplace, and the searing heat and thick smoke eventually forced the monk out, whence he was killed. Ever since then, the monk's discoloured skull has remained on the mantelpiece of the house, in the living room.
The inhabitants of Appley Bridge tell that, throughout the history of the house, there have been many residents who have tried to get rid of the skull, and all have experienced disastrous results from doing so. According to legend, one threw it into the River Douglas at the bottom of Appley Lane North. Shortly after, the skull returned to the house and the offending resident drowned in the river. Another tried to get it as far away from the house as possible, and shortly after, the skull returned once again and this time, the house's inhabitant fell down the stairs and severely injured himself. Others have tried many ways to banish the skull, and all have met with misfortune or fatality—sickness, the death of a loved one, bad luck ... the list goes on and on. The house's current residents have, unsurprisingly, never tried to remove the skull."

http://stonechaser.blogspot.com/2011/05/appley-bridge.html

Fred have you ever felt a presence?

I have, Lolly. As a young man in an apartment in Canada. I woke up one night and I just felt someone in the room and I just knew that I should not look up. So, I pulled up the bedcovers and closed my eyes and went back to sleep. But, just this once in 73 years, so it must have been genuine..I'll never know.

I've woke a couple of times which felt like something was touching my hair..went to a medium with my Daughter who told me without any prompting of course that my lovely late Brother loves to stroke my hair when I'm asleep,which was a great comfort.as I adored him.

Aw, Bless...

These incidences happened about the year 2000 in our old house in a town called Wigan, in the north of England. I must have been about six years old at the time, and each event happened one after the other within the space of six months.
The first: I went upstairs for something, but I don't remember what. There was, or at least I thought so, somebody else with me upstairs because I remember always being too scared to go upstairs at night without someone else with me at that age.

Anyway, on the landing were four rooms in a row, with mine and my brother's room being the second. I walked towards it, and saw the door was open just a little but, enough to see the wall and a small portion of the floor. The light was on and I saw a shadow move across the floor.

More of the story here
https://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=9375

https://lancashirefolk.com/2017/02/09/the-grey-lady-of-astley-hospital/

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 site of an earlier hall and was originally called Dam House, after the nearby dam which powered a corn mill. In 1893 the building became a hospital and when the hospital closed in 1994, a Heritage Trust was formed to preserve the building for use as a community centre.

The gardens surrounding the community centre are open to the public. They are also haunted by a Grey Lady; Anne Mort, of Dam House. Anne’s family was rich, influential and Catholic, so her father was outraged when he discovered that Anne had become romantically involved with James Speakman, a young labourer who lived with his family in an untidy cottage nearby. James was clearly not a suitable match for Anne and her father forbade the pair to meet, but nothing he said could turn the young lovers away from each other. They continued to meet in secret, walking the paths that crossed the moss around Dam House, until Anne’s father decided he must take more drastic action. He went to James’ father and arranged to move the whole family to another of his estates, in Lymm, well away from Dam House. James was not informed until the last minute and when Anne went to find out why she had not heard from him, she found the cottage empty.

Anne never forgave her father and never forgot her love for James; she walked to his old home every day and wandered the paths they had walked together, gradually losing her mind. She died of her grief when she was only eighteen.

Now, Anne Mort is more commonly known as the Grey Lady, who walks in the grounds of Astley Hospital and the many paths and lanes nearby. She has been seen near the canal, around the old Leigh Grammar School and crossing Marsland Green. Those who have seen her – including a selection of burly workmen – say that she glides along, casting her eyes from side to side as if searching for someone. We know, of course, that the one she seeks is James Speakman, her true love.