#UnnaturalHistories – Northwest Nature and History

Tommy Stroo’s Ghost by John Charles Twist

Th’ moon wur sheignin’ rare, an’ breet,

An’ stars wur twinklin’ o’er mi heyd,

When aw wur walkin’ deawn th’ owd street,

Wi’ Tommy Stroo’s ghost bi mi seyd.

Unnatural Histories; The Crier of Claife

For generations, ferrymen operating the historic crossing betwixt Ferry Nab and Sawrey knew better than to heed these unearthly cries after dark, for they knew that these were no ordinary pleas but rather the desperate howls of a damned soul.

Unnatural Histories; Burnley’s Boggarts

Lancashire’s misty moors and ancient lanes are inhabited by all sorts of weird and eldritch beings; witches, spectral dogs and highwaymen have haunted these parts for centuries. Yet few of these mythical entities evoke as much intrigue and trepidation as the boggart.

Unnatural Histories; The Tragic Tale of Private Patrick McCaffery

In the latest addition to my Unnatural Histories collection I return to a part of Lancashire I grew up in to look deeper into the background of a ghost story we heard many times as children.

It is a tale of murder, trial, execution and haunting, and was made even more chilling for us as our tall red-brick town-house directly faced the black gates of the barracks it occurred in.

Unnatural Histories; Dandy the Dog, James Device’s Shape-shifting Familiar

A Tale of the Pendle Witch Trials and a Demonic Dog. Including a Chapter on the Design and Installation of the Eponymous Sculpture in Clitheroe, Lancashire

The Unnatural Histories Collection

The Tragic Tale of Private Patrick McCafferty Dandy the Dog Burnley’s Boggarts The Crier of Claife The Martyr’s Skull The Witch’s Seat The Fairy Hole Caves A Grim Discovery at Quernmore The Peculiar Tale of Peg O’ Nell The Story of William Southworth, Landlord of the Lower Buck Ralph Pudsey and the Silver Bit TheContinue reading “The Unnatural Histories Collection”

Unnatural Histories, The Martyr’s Skull

Deep in the ancient Forest of Bowland, at the heart of a medieval hunting estate, sits the old stone hall of Browsholme. At one end of the hall, in a dark library full of odds-and-ends from over the centuries, suits of armour, swords, muskets and even a piece of a zeppelin, stands a locked cabinet.Continue reading “Unnatural Histories, The Martyr’s Skull”

Ralph Pudsey and the Silver Bit, a Ribble Valley Fairytale

In Deepest, Darkest Yorkshire, under the shadow of Pendle, in the church of St Peter and St Paul, in the ancient village of Bolton-by-Bowland, can be found one of the most ornate tombs in all of Christendom. This is the final resting place of the medieval landowner and noble Sir Ralph Pudsey, his three wivesContinue reading “Ralph Pudsey and the Silver Bit, a Ribble Valley Fairytale”