Three Stories from the Haunted Black Country.
By Charlotte Duckworth
The Black Country’s fine medley of resident phantoms form part of Britain’s spectral heritage. The Midlands provide fertile soil for the intrepid ghost hunter – few areas are so rich in spectral lore. The following assortment of tales offers a taste of traditional Black Country hauntings…
Wombourne’s Phantom Riders
In 1960, a human corpse was discovered in the forest that lies about a mile outside of Himley village. The body was unidentified. Local people had spoken for years about strange goings-on in the part of the wood called by youngsters as “The Haunted Swamp.” People had felt an air of mystery and of foreboding in this quagmire that bubbled ominously like the lair of some departed animal.
It was described as a desperate spot for any man to die. Altogether, it was a place of utter desolation.
A few cigarette ends, ashes from a fire and discarded bottle tops surrounded the hollow where the body had been discovered. The tramp’s shelter was located close to the bog and a series of bubbles rose to the surface as if “something” stirred below.
It was not long before locals began to link the tramp’s demise with the local legend of the ‘Phantom Rider.’ The legend refers to the Midland connection with the infamous Gunpowder Plot against King James I in 1605. Although most of us are aware of the plot and its outcome, not so many people outside of the Midlands are aware of the scenes played out at Holbeche House, near Kingswinford.
Stephen Littleton, a relative of the lords of Hagley, had ridden to his house at Holbeche after the plot went horribly wrong and Guy Fawkes had been captured. With him rode Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Catesby, John and Robert Winters. With a retinue of servants and a wagon filled with gunpowder, they had crossed the River Stour, determined to make a last stand at Holbeche. While inside, the plotters built a large fire to dry out the sodden gunpowder. What happened then is easily predicted.
Stephen Lyttleton and Robert Winter managed to escape in the confusion and disappear into nearby Pensnett Chase. A young groom of Lyttleton’s, Gideon Grove, was severely wounded after fighting alongside his master. Although his clothes were alight and he was wounded in the throat, he managed to climb on to a terror-stricken horse, dash through the fire, smoke and the cordon of men-at-arms, and fled into Himley Wood.
But the fugitive was caught and killed by the pursuers, his body sinking into the dank and miry bog. Quickly, a legend was created that. On the anniversary of that eventful night, awakened from his murky grave by the pyrotechnics of November 5th, Gideon Grove rises up to re-enact his ghastly ride. Hoof-beats in the night, broken fences and trampled wheat, have long been accepted as evidence of the legend by a dwindling farming community.
Sightings of the Phantom Rider include an eyewitness who spoke of a glow in the sky in the direction of Holbeche House. They saw a rider dressed in black thigh-length riding boots, a dark velvet coat and a cocked hat mounted on a dappled grey horse, apparently travelling some three feet above the surface of the road as he passed the witness on his bike ride home.
Another eyewitness reported feeling scared to death when she was riding her motorcycle late at night. She told the local newspaper that it felt as if she were caught in the middle of a great stampede, as the noise of thundering hooves was all around her. Nothing, however, has ever been seen.
Could the tramp have been a witness? Was he unable to recount his terrible vision as he was physically frightened to death by what he saw?
The White Hart Inn, Walsall
The White Hart Inn at Caldmore Green, Walsall, has long been infamous for its hauntings. In the year of 1870, a gentleman cleaning the property came across a mummified child’s arm and a Cromwellian sword in the attic. These macabre discoveries are reported to have been relics of an old black magic ritual, and it is said that those bold enough to spend a night in the Inn’s attic have to endure sleepless nights. Footsteps and shrill pitched cries have been heard and a recent landlord, deciding to investigate the disturbance, found a small handprint on a dust-covered tabletop. The attic had been empty and locked for many evenings.
Even more recently, a licensee’s wife awoke during her stay in the attic bedroom to see a white apparition bend over her bedside. Mediums have identified the phantom as the spirit of an 18th century girl who committed suicide in the Inn. It is still unsure if her death was connected with the discovery of the infant remains in 1870.
The Ghost of Gibbet Lane, Stourbridge
Gibbet Lane is a short cut between Stourbridge and Kinver and has been used for many centuries. Strange, creepy sounds are said to haunt the underbrush that lies on both sides of the lane. Trees creak and groan in the wind and the scurrying of night creatures also break the stillness. People have reported uneasy feelings. They feel like they are being followed by something sinister and strange that haunts the night.
In times gone by, the bones of cutpurses and murderers hung in chains along the road. Their mortal remains left hanging for months; a fatal warning to others contemplating a criminal career.
The gibbet post was driven into the ground at the exact spot where William Howe was shot and robbed by a wealthy local farmer, Benjamin Robins, on a winter’s night in 1812. It was market day in nearby Stourbridge. Mr Robbins was wearing a well-filled money-belt, having sold some sheep. He had celebrated the sale in the near by Nag’s Head hostelry, before setting off on foot to his farm in Dunsley.
The victim was a tough individual. After being robbed and left for dead, he managed to stagger home leaving a trail of blood in the snow. He lived for ten days before dying on 28th December. On his deathbed he gave a description of his attacker.
His brother was quick to react. He rode to Stourbridge and ordered one hundred “Wanted” posters. The crime caused such a sensation that the famous Bow Street Runners, Harry Adkins and Sam Taunton (ace detectives of their time), were brought in by the local magistrate in a determined effort to bring the robber to justice.
They interviewed many locals which paid the dividends. Thomas Bates reported that he had noticed a suspicious character lurking in bushes. He described a man wearing a tricorn hat, a dark riding coat and carrying a pair of pistols stuck into his belt. Others reported similar sightings.
The investigators followed the trail and discovered their quarry was a servant of the Marchioness of Downshire, by the name of William Howe. He had some instinct that the Bow Street Runners were on his trail as he packed his bags and left without giving notice.
But Mr Howe was finally apprehended at the Castle and Falcon pub in London. He was sent in irons to Stafford Gaol to await trail. When on trial, after a mere seven minutes the verdict of “guilty” was reached and the sentence of hanging by the neck until dead (and then being cut down and dissected and anatomised) was carried out within 48 hours.
However, when the verdict was announced, the attending Stourbridge magistrate immediately applied for the body to be released to them and hung in chains near the sport where the crime took place. Recent murders in Kidderminster, Bridgenorth and on Whittington Common resulted in the request being granted as a warning to others.
Vast crowds gathered to witness the arrival of the body and follow the procession. The body was suspended in chains “for the moral benefit of the local population.”
The corpse swayed in the breeze for many months and was little more than a skeleton when it was stolen at night by a local surgeon, who felt his profession had been cheated from using the body for medical advancement.
The legend of William Howe became widely circulated and sightings of the phantom started to occur regularly during the last century. Howe’s spirit has been reported to appear as a malicious figure which glides rather than walks. One witness, who claimed to have lashed out at the spectre in fright, says he stumbled back after his stick passed straight through the ghostly apparition.
Equally disturbing encounters with the spectral shade of William Howe continued to emerge regularly in the local press. The old tale was enlivened once more in 1908, when a skeleton with a rusty dagger protruding from its rib cage was discovered near the ‘old gibber tree.’ It is now speculated that William Howe is not the only lonely shadow haunting the old lane.
The most recent investigation into the Gibbet Lane phenomena took place in December 1975, when three paranormal researchers hailing from Dudley kept a four-night vigil in the vicinity of William Howe’s haunting. Bill Oddy, Kevin Stokes and Roy Banks took scientific equipment and spent the December nights searching for paranormal activity. In a summary of their findings, they explained how they heard eerie tapping sounds, shared the feeling of being followed or being invited to follow a presence, and witnessed a black, human form crossing the lane.
But the researchers concluded that, due to their lack of convincing evidence, the surrounding countryside around Gibbet Lane is at peace. Perhaps the spirits are finally at rest...
LINKS
Every region of Britain has its ghost stories. Perhaps these are ways for us to remember the stories from history that don’t make it into the history books. Perhaps they also haunt us precisely because they evoke a sense of the past that’s all around us in Britain. For another ghost tale, take a look at The Ghosts of Furness Abbey in the Cumbria section.