Tickets are now on sale for the horror stories night I’ll be presenting in Haigh Hall, Wigan, on April 26th this year. They are £5 each and can be obtained from Haigh Hall reception, or by telephoning 01942 828508 or 01942 832895, option 1. I’m not quite sure how many we have available in total, but given the venue there will be LIMITED availability – so it might be an idea to buy quickly, if you’re interested.
Haigh Hall is a Victorian country mansion, which stands on the sight of a medieval manor house, in the heart of its own extensive and very overgrown grounds. It is now owned by the local authority, but has a reputation for being one of the most haunted buildings in the whole of northern England.
Violent and tragic events occurred in and around the Hall during the Middle Ages, the English Civil War and the two Jacobite rebellions, and the consequences of these can still be felt today. Among the many ghosts believed to roam the eerie edifice, not to mention its acres of tangled, trackless woodland are Lady Mabel, an unhappy former chatelaine of the manor, whose faceless spectre is believed to bring disaster if it is ever seen, a truly nightmarish figure in an executioner’s hood (believed to be connected to the decapitation of James Stanley, the Earl of Derby, in 1651), a whispering, giggling spirit who always dares you to look over your shoulder at it (you are advised never to do so), and a snuffling, horse-like entity, which has reportedly shrieked at intruders and chased them, banging the walls and floorboards with massive hooves.
All kinds of other phenomena have been reported at the Hall, several paranormal investigations have ended abruptly with investigators either injured or suffering nervous breakdowns, and rumours are now rife that a secret tunnel from the Hall runs several miles to the cellar of Wigan Parish Church, and links with a temple to Mithras, which was uncovered during the excavations of an old Roman camp called Coccium. Mithras wasn’t a particularly evil god by standards of that era, but he was associated with complex initiation rites, animal sacrifice and much summoning of spirits – many drawn from the rocks and the earth, rather than the bodies of those deceased. So, draw your own conclusions from that.
As well as a tour of the Hall, which will be conducted by one of the regular guides who work there (and which may include the much feared upper floor, where some of the most frightening ghostly activity has been reported), I’ll be presenting a few of the spookier anecdotes involving the estate, and reading a new purpose-written novella, THE UPPER TIER, which is based on some truly terrifying events that occurred relatively recently in the building’s past.
Newcomers to this blog can check out earlier entries for more detailed appetisers re. the haunting at Haigh Hall.
A quick warning: this event is NOT for children.
No comments:
Post a Comment