Samantha Cameron and the Leek Connection

I read towards the end of last year a newspaper article that appeared in the Daily Mail claiming that Samantha Cameron the Prime Minister’s wife had ancestors who were slave owners and  did very well out of compensation when the Slave Trade was abolished in the early 19th century. Mrs Cameron was related to Rev William Jolliffe’s an industrialist whose company had been responsible for the building of a number of notable buildings such as Dartmoor Prison and London Bridge. Jolliffe was related to a family that had interests alongside the Sussex and Hampshire border  and controlled politically the town of Peters field a constituency the family represented for much of the 18th century. The Jolliffe family had interests in slavery that went back to the end of the 17th century in the Caribbean

The name “Jolliffe “intrigued me. Could she be related to the Jolliffe family that originated out of Leek in the 17th century?  It seems that the answer is yes. Sleigh’s history of Leek has a family table of the Jolliffe family. In terms of their Leek connection the family had a property in the market square which was incorporated into the “Red Lion”. Remains from Jolliffe Hall were discovered in March 1991. Their Hall long thought to be demolished many years before was rediscovered in the structure of the Red Lion Inn in Market Square. Workmen carrying out repairs found the remnants. The Red Lion was established as a coaching Inn in 1767 when the incorporation of the early structure into the Inn must have taken place. Chief conservation officer at the time John Leech considered the discovery one of the most important archaeological finds in Leek. It appears that the front of the hall was removed when the Red Lion was built and a second floor added with a flat roof. It had been long thought that the hall built by William Joliffe in 1627 had been demolished to make way for the coaching Inn.

 A daughter of the Jolliffe family Dame Elizabeth Ash married into wealth in the City of London and a dedication to her memory and the Jolliffe family appears on the Almshouses on the corner of Compton and Broad St with the date 1696. It was her brother Thomas Jolliffe of Leek born in 1617 from who the Prime Minister’s wife descends. Thomas was active in developing trading links with Russia especially in furs and fishing rights. From Thomas who was active in Parliament after the Restoration the line leads to John Jolliffe who married Catherine  Michell the daughter of Robert Michell the MP for Petersfield acquiring the seat in the 1730s. It was this branch of the family that the interest in slaves developed. The Ballenbouche Estate in St Lucia was worth £4,174 at the time of the abolition when it was inherited by William Jolliffe the grandson of John worth about £3 million for which they were compensated by the state.

Another brother of Thomas Jolliffe was William Jolliffe another successful merchant who owned Caverswall Castle He went into trade in London, where his uncle, John Joliffe, was already established. His growing prosperity was augmented by  fortunate marriages into prominent families. Although on his father’s death he inherited Caverswall Castle, he remained active in the city of London and was appointed alderman by royal commission in 1687. The appointment was superseded by the restoration of the charter in October 1688.As a historical side line one marriage that William Joliffe made was to Mary Hastings the daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon whose family were descended from the Plantagenet monarchs through George Duke of Clarence the brother of Richard III 

"Birth of a Nation" comes to the Grand Leek 1915

A few days ago I saw the film “Selma” which chronicles the fight for Civil Rights in the US in the 1960s in the Southern States of the USA. It is a story well known to me even as a child of 9 I can clearly recall the bombing of a Baptist Chapel that resulted in the death of four black girls. What resonated with me that these girls would have been the same age as me. The unfairness and the injustice of this singular event struck me at the time as a consequence of this I followed the Civil Rights Movement even from the distance of several thousand miles from our terraced house in Stoke.

 “Selma” includes  all the leading characters of the period Martin Luther King, George Wallace, LBJ and J Edgar Hoover and some of the events of the mid 60s which led to President Johnson signing into law legislation that ensured that Blacks could vote as many Southern States such as Alabama had made it difficult for them to exercise their democratic rights. The film is an honest one and , for example, shows Martin Luther in an honest light. It is not an exercise in hagiography.

This year sees the 100th anniversary of film that portrayed the American Black in a very different way. “Birth of a Nation” was the first Hollywood blockbuster and achieved a world wide showing. In 1915 the film was shown in Leek at the Grand and the newspaper reports of the time indicate that it was a popular film with the film shown over two weeks an unheard of showing at the time. It was a success repeated in many communities in Britain. The tone, feel and the message that it portrayed was as far as it could possibly be from “Selma”

  The film was directed by Southerner DW Griffiths and was his first major success. The film charged a high price for admission . It had a special score composed for the film and at its premier a  30 piece orchestra played. In 10 years the film had reached an audience of 50 million . It made Hollywood millions in profits. Beyond the money it made it wanted to send out the message of white supremacy over the black population of the USA. Thomas Dixon, author of the book and the movie, stated that his goal "was to revolutionise Northern sentiments by a presentation of history that would transform every [white] man in the audience into a good Democrat!"

In many cities the showing stirred racist violence against African Americans, and no wonder. White actors put on blackface and played evil African Americans who were grasping for political power over white people—except when they were intent on raping white women. The “gallant” Klan were shown as heroes  riding to the rescue of be leagued white communities. It projected an air of authenticity by using pictures of Lincoln and from the American Civil War, and quotes by noted historians such as President Woodrow Wilson.  The President was a noted racist and called it "history written in lightning" after it was shown in the White House.  When it was shown to members of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Edward White proudly confided to author Thomas Dixon, "I rode with the Klan, sir."

The movie also stirred the first large nationwide in the US Black-led protests and boycotts. So many black (and white) people marched on theatres that some mayors ordered the removal of lynching and other scenes, or cancelled showings. African American and other historians exposed the movie's lies, distortions, and omissions.

It is impossible to say what response the film had in Leek. Reading the local newspapers during the early 20^th century it is very easy to find disparaging and patronising comments about Blacks. Concert parties and glee clubs featured minstrel shows with whites blacking up, the use of language unacceptable to ears of people in 2015. Although the debate in Leek a couple of years ago about “Golliwogs” rather proves the point that old stereotypes die hard. It is worth noting that the “Golliwog” was created by the American  born  Frances Upton in the 1890s. It quickly became a term of racist abuse.

However it is some measure of progress that 100 years after Wilson welcomed fellow Southerner Griffiths to the White House Barack Obama welcomed the Black Director of “Selma” to the White House which must be a measure of progress although the tensions in US society remain

Leek Mechanics Institute 1847

In my searches of  the British Newspaper Archive I came across a heated debate held in the Swan in Leek on the 16th April 1847 over the issue of whether novels should be admitted to the library of Leek Mechanics Institute. Mechanics Institutes were an early Victorian institution in which progressive members of the local establishment could meet to cogitate on  the important issues of the day . They  provided a place where men could read the latest “improving” books and meet to discuss topical matters. The emphasis in such establishments was always on moral and intellectual development with a slant towards scientific  advance. In short what could be deemed useful knowledge. It was hoped that the developments of Mechanic Institutes  would help to turn workers  away from Chartism and other revolutionary activity

Clearly the donation of novels especially romances caused perturbation among the leading men of the town. There were some supporters of fiction, but there were opponents as well. Mr Russell thought that the reading of novels was “ evil”...depraving the taste and hardening the heart and creating a distaste for all that was real and useful”.. Mr Alsop thought that novel reading was a form of moral opium eating. Mr Challioner demurred from this view believing that works of fiction could be ethical. He cited the works of Dickens, Scott and Mrs Edgeworth in defence of the genre. The last word went to the Rev Goshawk who could have been a creation from the pen of Anthony Trollope in Outslopeing Obadiah Slope in sneering   at popular entertainment. He regarded the reading of novels as time misspent. He regarded the people who attended theatre, dance and music with “pity and contempt” Noting disapprovingly that some members of the Institute had been foolish enough to suggest the introduction of “tea dances”. The vote to admit novels was narrowly carried by 62 votes to 58.

 Of course many of these names live on in the street names of the town.

It led me to consider what novels were published in 1847. Many fictional works such as “Inundation” by Catherine Gore or “Patty or Beware of Meddling” by Charlotte Tonna published by Methodists Sunday School Union – which I would imagine even the Rev Goshawk would have approved are forgotten . But one novel of 1847 would almost certainly be known to the people of 2014 – “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte.  The novel detailing the lives of Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliffe set in the Yorkshire Moors challenges religious hypocrisy, notions of class and gender and morality. It would have been the sort of novel to have Messrs Alsop, Russell and Rev Goshawk reaching for a phial of ammonia to combat the shock. They would not have been alone. Graham's Lady Magazine reviewed the novel thus "How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors” Of course we know it for the various adaptations including the films, the TV adaptation and perhaps most familiarly the  Kate Bush hit single of 1978. Kate Bush recently completed a series of concerts for the first time in quarter of a century and her albums have once again dominated the charts. She has not won everyone over though as my daughter described her dismissively as “sounding like a mouse”.

King John- a misunderstood Monarch

In truth King John has had a bad press. He is usually considered one of the worst Kings ever to rule England which he did for 17 years from 1199 to 1216. John is in the same league as Edward II, Richard II and Henry VI in terms of  inept medieval monarchs. Cruel, militarily inept, untrustworthy, devious and sadistic are just some of the epithets that are usually directed against him. It culminated in the Barons forcing him to sign the “Great Charter” or Magna Carta in a field by the Thames curbing his dictatorial powers. I was thinking of him as a gazed down on his tomb at Worcester Cathedral. He asked to be buried in the same church as St Wulfstan, a local saint, so on his death at Newark( after according to one source eating unripe peaches and drinking too much cider) his corpse undertook a long cross country journey before it was buried beside the River Severn.

But Leek owes John a lot and perhaps his reputation needs to be restored.  It was John who granted the Market Charter to Leek in 1207 as he did for many other towns in the country. Liverpool got its charter in the same year. This was a consequence of the king needing to raise additional revenue as a consequence of losing all his family’s possessions and land in Normandy. John stands poorly in comparison with his brother the courageous Richard the Lion Heart who only spent a short period in England before going on the Third Crusade and in consequence bankrupting the country. John followed in the steps of his father Henry II who energetically got round the country administering justice. John was in his father’s mould in being a serious administrator. He was probably the first King since the Conqueror to know  England very well, crisscrossing the country in frenetic activity, like his father, personally overseeing the running of his land. His awareness of the country was assisted by his enthusiastic pursuit of game. John like all the Angevin Kings was a keen hunter and there is evidence that he hunted throughout the Midlands, the North and the West Country. As a consequence he was one of the few medieval monarchs to encourage the building of bridges and improving roads. He was also the first to recognise the pottery industry in Staffordshire as an order for 4,000 plates and 500 cups was made to supply a Christmas banquet at Tewkesbury in 1204.

John’s main problem was an inability to get on with the leading barons and the high handedness he frequently showed to them would eventually lead to the showdown at Runnymede. This can be demonstrated by his handling of the most powerful lord in these parts, the founder of Dieulacres Abbey, Ranulph Earl of Chester a very loyal and dependable knight. In 1203 John accused him of aiding his enemies in France and the following year of siding with the rebel Welsh. Despite these slurs Ranulph remained faithful aiding him  in the last rebellions of his rule and acted as executor of John’s will.

John was unlucky. The poor economic situation of England forced him to embark upon ever more ingenious ways of extracting money from the barons which caused ill feeling. The brutal methods that he employed to ensure their loyalty such as hostage taking only worsened the situation. The verdict of history on him must be that he had the ability and energy to be a great king, but all too often he acted like a petty tyrant

Oldest Pub in Leek

What is the oldest pub in Leek? There are a number of candidates including the Green Dragon, the Roebuck and the Wilkes Head. It is often thought that the Green Dragon has the record for the oldest pub in the town with evidence that the Green Dragon as the Swan was called prior to the 18^th century having a landlord running the pub at the end of the 17^th century. However the esteemed local historian John Band showed me a document that shows the existence of another “Swan” at least 100 years before the pub locals called the “White Swan” until its name change to the “Green Dragon” last summer.

John Band, a collector of 17^th century pamphlets and letters concerning the Moorlands during the Civil War, let me have a letter that complained about the behaviour of two early law officers in the town who in 1638 spent too much time in the “Swanne” and not enough time maintaining law and order in Leek. Their drunken condition had in fact led to a near riot in the town

“Andrew Simpson and Henry Whitticars seldom have kepte true watch but when they should have been watchinge in the streets have been drinkinge in the Alehouse, and burgulary hath byn committed in the towne and parties have escaped by reason of the neglecte of the watche. Francis Hulme a boy about sixteen beeinge sent on some business about eight of the o’clock by the mother of the said Francis unto the Swanne and the said Francis meetinge with the watchmen, beinge as it seems drunke, laid hands on Francis as hee was goein on his business and drawing him in and giving hem a Flagon of Ale which he refusing and goein about his business, the said Watchmen gave him opprobrious words and blowes.

Thomas Hulme his father came to his aid of Francis and a mass brawl broke out in the street and the watchmen “did dangerously wounde and stryke him”. Mr Ashenhurst the magistrate became involved and the pair were bound over to keep the peace. The Hulme family feared retribution from Whitticars and Simpson and the writer of the letter requested that the two disgraced watchmen be relieved of their duties.

What sort of place was a 17^th century tavern? I was reading the excellent notes from a CD “ Bawdy Ballads of Old England” which paints a contemporary picture of the clientele offering a “ ripe selection of bawdy songs, filthy ballads and scurvy rhymes bellowed out in ale blown voices in detestable boldness , the lubbers roar, the people run, the Devil laughs, God lowers and good men weep”. It is not surprising that the Hulme family did not want their innocent boy enticed into such premises

But where was the Swan? Malcolm and his partner Alison make a convincing case that their pub “ Wilkes Head”(its present name was acquired in the 1780s-)was during some point in its history was called “ The Swan” and during the early 17^th century would have stood on the edge of a vastly extended market square. The present market square is its size because of building encroachment during the 18^th and 19^th century.

Intriguingly the site of the “Wilkes” could be pushed back even earlier as documents also suggest an even earlier name of the “Phoenix” a name for a medieval tavern named after the disastrous fire that burned down Leek in 1297

Arnold Bennett and HG Wells- A Leek connection

2008 saw the 100^th anniversary of the publication of Arnold Bennett’s finest novel “Old Wives Tale”. Its publication date quickly follows that of Bennett’s great friend and rival HG Wells book “In the Days of the Comet” which was written in 1906. What links these two pieces of Edwardian fiction? They both have a Leek connection.

 Bennett knew the Staffordshire Moorlands and while the main setting of his books remained Stoke, Leek especially crops up in various guises in his work. In first appears as “Axe” or “Manifold” in one of his earliest novels “Anna of the Five Towns” published in 1902 and again in his collection of short stories “ Tales of the Five Towns (1905) and “The Grim Smile of the Five Towns” which have Leek and Rudyard Lake settings. This is especially the case in the later collection in the story “ Death of Simon Fuge” his short story on the artistic life and pretensions of Burslem in the 1890s. Rudyard Lake was a popular venue for a young man from the Potteries to visit in that decade with frequent train from Stoke.

  The Moorland connection is continued in Old Wives Tale. Sam walks to Axe (Leek) to tell his mother in law that he is become a father. Leek also played a role in perhaps his most popular literary creation Denry Machin in the “Card”. The character on which the novel is based HK Hales once in the 1890s cycled on a penny-farthing for a bet against a horseman to get from Burslem to Leek in the shortest time. Hales won.

Wells, who lived in North Staffordshire for several months in 1888, used  his experience of living in the area in a number of his novels and short stories prior to his “Comet” novel. The short story Cone with its gristly ending of a character falling into a furnace was based at Shelton Bar Steel Works.

 North Staffordshire with its industrial and squalid landscape had a profound impact upon his work, which stayed with him throughout his life.

But it came to me then, I am sure, for the first time how promiscuous, how higgledy piggedy was that jumble of mines and homes, collieries and pot banks, railway yards, canals, schools, forges and blast furnaces, churches, chapels, allotments hovels a vast irregular agglomeration of ugly smoking accidents in which men lived as happily as frogs in a dustbin.

I get the impression that Wells used the surrounding countryside to contrast with the hideousness of the industrial landscape which he experienced in his stay in Basford.

But back to the North Staffordshire based Bennett who was born in Hanley in September 1867 to lower middle class parents. Bennett professed to be a radical, and he remained throughout his life a hater of injustice, but his own belief system marked him out as a child of nonconformist certainties. He had a belief in industry, patriotism and thrift. He was of a class and from a geographical area. He soaked up every detail of the people and character of North Staffordshire. He was a laureate to the lower middle class and the provincial.

He regarded writing as a trade and at each year’s end would note the amount of words that he had written that year and how much he had been paid. One critic unkindly suggested that a sign should be erected outside his study “Articles written to order”

If he took a workingman’s approach to his craft he still remained a bourgeois and a little tyrant as well especially in his relationship with women, something that he shared in common with Wells. He was easily bored- he tired of his home, his car, his yacht and of his wife. He certainly recoiled from the area that has provided the source of his material. On his last visit through North Staffordshire he is alleged to have shuddered and pulled the blind of his railway carriage down. But behind his heavy set figure with his showy clothes, his heavy lidded eyes, his half open mouth and his slight speech impediment, was a shy man.

But he never wrote of a dull character and he made the ordinary interesting chronicling the lives of a stoical and defiant people. North Staffordshire belongs to him as Wessex belongs to Hardy or Haworth to the Bronte’s

His greatest novel was the Old Wives Tale. It also celebrates the commonplace although never in a dull way. It is the story of two women Constance and Sophia Baines who have different destinies. It charters their progress from running a drapers shop to old age. It contrasts the stay at home Constance who marries Sam Povey with the spirited Sophia who elopes with the dashing but wastrel Gerald Scales. It proved to be the most critically acclaimed of his books.

One of the admirers of Old Wives Tales was Wells who wrote to Bennett praising him for his efforts.

No further question of First Rank. A great book and a big one.

Wells came to live in the area following an accident he suffered as a schoolteacher when working at a school in Wrexham. The accident damaged his lungs and he went to convalesce with an old College friend John Burton, originally from Manchester, who was working at Wedgwood at the time. (It does seem odd that you would choose to stay in Stoke of the late 1880s with its appalling atmospheric pollution to recuperate from a lung injury!)  He went to live with the Burton’s at their house in Basford. He proved to be a very difficult lodger. He was fractious, touchy, quarrelsome, impatient and without much control. He behaved like Kevin the Teenager. In later life Wells did apologies for behaviour that he felt was very immature. But he did spend his time in the area in a productive way and it allowed him to explore the local scenery. He used this experience to colour descriptive passages on industrial landscape and as a metaphor for the hell of modern life. Although Bennett was living only 2 miles away: they never met in 1888.

Bennett wrote to Wells after the publication of the Invisible Man enclosing a review he had written and enquiring whether Wells time in North Staffordshire had an impact upon his writing. Wells reply was genial and a friendship developed which lasted until Bennett’s death in 1931. The men were of the same age, their social class was similar, and their writing practises were very alike to be bracketed together.

The impact of Shakespeare

It is St George’s Day and it is also the 450^th birthday of Germany’s National Poet. Before you think I am confused, Shakespeare for a time in the early 19^th century was venerated by German writers such as Goethe as having qualities that they believed that Germans  should aspire to. Of course although Shakespeare is English Midland born he has been adopted by many different cultures and is flexible enough to be turned into “West Side Story”, a Japanese film epic of Kurosawa such as “Ran” or modified and set as a recent “Julius Caesar” production in contemporary war torn East Africa. And he may have had North Staffordshire roots as Doug Pickford, a former editor of the Post and Times claimed he had ancestors who moved from Trent Vale to Warwickshire during the 15^th century. Perhaps he was a Stokie after all! As a form of proof I came across the word “sneap” in “Henry IV Part 2”.

I began to appreciate Shakespeare from an early age. I was first exposed to him through a BBC production of the “Age of Kings” and the very funny portrayal of Falstaff by Robert Hardy in 1962. I was given the” Complete Works” for my 10^th birthday and earlier this year when my daughter a volume when she reached that milestone. I hope she treasures it. It could be for her the beginning of a life long passion. Over the years I have seen many memorable productions, Robert Stephen in “King Lear”, Emma Thompson in “Midsummer Night Dream, Simon Russell Beale in “Richard II” as well as some of the infrequently performed plays such as “Pericles” or “Henry VIII”. I firmly oppose the argument that the plays have no relevance to the modern day a view expressed by a Stoke Councillor at a meeting I attended a few years ago. He cited “Romeo and Juliet” as having no significance, a poor choice, as it is a play that features arranged marriages, gang warfare and the relationship between the old and the young. What a fool!

It’s impossible to say when the people of the Moorlands first saw Shakespeare’s play. My guess is that during the 18^th century with improved roads touring companies would have visited. There is a playbill  I have seen of a production of “Othello” at the Red Lion in Leek in the 1840s as well as a 1877 “King Lear” at the Swan where one of the actors was accidentally stabbed. The Mechanic Institute in Russell Street would have had lectures and talks on the plays a tradition that carried on into the next century with courses put on by the Workers Educational Association. Shakespeare before the First World War would have been well embedded into the culture of Leek.

The “Complete Works” I bought for Phoebe contained an essay by the great Victorian actor Henry Irving rubbishing the theory that the provincial, low born Shakespeare could  not have written the plays, but they were created by the well- placed Oxford educated Francis Bacon 1^st Baron St Albans. I have always thought that this belief is founded on pure snobbery.  Three great cultural figures living in the 17^th Century Shakespeare, Newton and Bach all came from provincial towns- a fact that we who live and work in a provincial town should hold on to this April 23^rd.

Fairies of Cauldon Lowe

Belief in Fairies was common enough for people in the  past although in more recent times such opinions are considered idiosyncratic. In country areas however belief in them and in other fey entities such as elves, goblins and boggarts persisted well into the 19^th century.

Some months ago I was having a chat with an elderly former quarry worker from Cauldon Lowe who was telling me entertaining stories about his childhood including encounters with gypsies he called “ roadsters”. I touched on a legend I had heard of the area “The Fairies of Caldon Lowe”  well enough known story to have a 19^th century writer Mary Howitt produce a poem on the subject in the 1840s. (She was the first English translator of the children stories of Hans Christian Andersen) The old man told me that he had heard accounts of fairy’s dancing on an ancient burial mound on certain nights of the year.

The Leek priest and folklorist of the 1950s WP Wincutt researched a number of other places in the Moorlands that fairy traditions attached to them including Long Low close to Castern Hill where pixies danced inside a hill on Christmas Eve. Wincutt believed that a common denominator in most of these local stories was that incidents happened at sites of great antiquity.

 In another account a writer in 1901 described at Longnor a flickering light “seen moving as one moves . . . it has given rise to many tales of belated travellers having been beguiled by it and led into the swamp, where their bodies remain, and from whence their “boggarts” arise at night to caper and dance all over the countryside, to the terror of the inhabitants.”

Fairy lore has a tradition of thousands of years going back to before pre Christian times. Mischievous fairies have been said to abduct human babies and substituting them with their own children or “changelings”. They are accused of inflicting amnesia on their victims, drugging their victims and taking them to other worldly places filled with light. Medieval tales are full of encounters between humans and fairies where people when wandering back home find that life has radically changed.

One example from the Welsh border refers to a King called Herla who is invited by an Elf King to attend a feast. He and his entourage are let into a magnificent hall under a cliff where they are wined and dined until the meal ends and they fall asleep. On returning to the surface find that they have been gone 300 years and all has changed.

If we could remove the mythological aspect from fairy abductions and dress them a little differently, these folklore reports would be virtually indistinguishable from present UFO abduction reports which is an interesting conclusion to arrive at. 

The ability of fairies to cause mischief even into the 20^th century is illustrated by the fooling of the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle who was taken in by two young girls in 1920s Yorkshire photographed posing with fairies. Many years later Elsie and Frances confessed that they had faked the pictures with paper cut outs.

Ghosts of Staffordshire Moorlands- Halloween Special

A couple recounted to me a curious episode when they were driving on the A53 near Flash. It was early in the morning and on the road they saw dressed in a very old fashioned way a rider on the road. The man was wearing a long brown cloak with an unusual design at the neck and a pipe stove hat, in short he was dressed for a person from the early 19^th century. The couple were driving towards Buxton and were passing a path on the left which the horseman was turning to use. After only a few yards down the track the man and horse disappeared in mist in front of their eyes. The couple told me emphatically that they had seen something unexplained. They later carried out research which suggested the sighting was well known.

It is nearly Halloween and people will be out looking to see if they can experience a ghost. I have never seen anything although I did hear something odd in a Georgian house in Lancaster- it was the sound of a child skipping on bare floorboards in an empty carpeted room. I have frequently been told very strange incidents that have happened to local people. A Farmer told me that his dead father called to him over some fields at Rushton. A man claimed that a well in his house near Ipstones was haunted. A work colleague was clear that she saw the ghost of a child at a house in Leek. Locals in Bradnop claim that a ghostly dog haunts the grave of a dead Highlander. A friend researching a 19^th century murder in the Peak District got the uneasy impression that he was being watched when taking photographs of the scene.

People seem to believe in them and in increasing numbers, both in Britain and in the US. In the case of the later over 50% and the proportion has gone up markedly since the Second World War. And women are more likely to believe than men. The idea that the dead remain with us in spirit is an ancient one, and one that offers many people comfort; who doesn't want to believe that our beloved but deceased family members aren't looking out for us, or with us in our times of need?.

But I shall end by recounting another Moorlands ghostly horseman- the Headless Horseman- who rides the hills around Onecote. It is a well established legend which many locals will know. I was talking to a local woman whose grandfather farmed at Onecote. One autumn evening he recounted the story of the Horseman to his young grand daughter. As he finished the tale they could hear in the lane leading to the farm the clip clop sound of a horse getting closer and closer to them. The sound unnerved the old man as he feared that the spectral rider was near. Fortunately it was a van with a flat tyre making the “trotting” sound.

JRR Tolkien died 40 years ago this month

In September 1973 JRR Tolkien died. The creator of the Lord of the Ring trilogy was well known in North Staffordshire. His eldest son John was the parish priest at Hartshill and led the funeral service for his father. John Tolkien commented that his father was last in Stoke in Easter and had spent many Christmas’s at the presbytery. The Sentinel carried a picture of JRR sitting on a bench at Kibblestone Scout camp taken in the early 70s.

 He did have strong connections with Staffordshire predating John’s position as a local priest as he lived in Great Haywood in 1916 while convalescing from wounds received whilst fighting on the Somme.

Tolkien’s reputation as the creator of Middle Earth and the Hobbits remains very high nearly 40 years after his death. In 2003 in the BBC Big Read survey the Lord of the Rings was voted Britain’s best-loved book. I read the book in 1975 appropriately enough besides the fjords of Norway.

Tolkien did claim in a radio interview in the 50s that he also knew the Leek area and that a boy he stayed in Leek with his parents at the George Hotel. The hotel was demolished in the late 60s.

An intriguing question exists over the medieval poem “ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” written, it is alleged by someone who knew Leek and the Roaches well. Tolkien worked on the translation of the poem in the 20s

 The first references to Lud’s Church being associated with the Green Chapel, to my knowledge, only happen after the publication of a letter by Professor RWV Eliot’s to the Times on 21^st May 1958. He linked the poem with the Cistercian Abbey of Dieulacres beside the River Churnet about 1 mile from Leek. Some however believe that JRR also knew the legend.

The creator of the Lord of the Rings trilogy remained proud of his West Midlands associations. In a letter to the “New York Times” Tolkien described the geographic inspiration for the books the third and final volume of which was to be published in October 1955.

“ I am a West Midlander at home only in the counties upon the Welsh Marches; and it is I believe , as much due to descent as to opportunity than Anglo Saxon and Western Middle English and alliterative verse have a childhood attraction and my main professional sphere”

A Male Midwife announces his services- Leek 1799

Mr Thomas Birch advertised his profession with the address of his establishment in Market Square Leek. He hoped to follow the late John Wooliscroft who previous ran his surgery from the premises. Mr Birch announced in January 1799 in the “Staffordshire Advertiser “that he was Leek's male midwife and surgeon and  promised that he would apply himself diligently to the task. Mr Birch also required an apprentice.

Earlier  in the century  a baby was born with the assistance of a self- taught traditional midwife. The skin was scoured with salt to remove the “ slippery glue” from its skin. The baby was then wrapped up tightly in swaddling cloth. It was thought  swaddling was needed to protect the delicate limbs of the child , it kept the baby warm as well as for the convenience of the mother and resulted in passivity and therefore easier to manage. The infant could then be hung by a nail on a beam and left so that other tasks could be could be got on with.

The baby would be put to the mother's breast only after milk was seen to come, meanwhile it was purged. Oil of almonds, rose syrup and chicory with rhubarb were given. A strengthening glass of wine or in Scotland oatmeal and whisky was also taken. If the child had difficulty in suckling the midwife would cut through the skin beneath the tongue by finger nails kept long and sharp for the purpose.

By the end of the century that situation began to change as Thomas Birch would have recognised and taken advantage of. More men began to take over the role of the traditional midwife, partly this was due to fashion, but also the consequence of  technological changes. One development that began to be more widely used was the invention of forceps.( Women were thought not to have the technical ability to use them) There was also a class element as the middle class began to prefer a fee paying male practitioners at the birth to demonstrate their higher status . Society seemed to enjoy this mode due to an increase in an interest in science. By 1800 almost half the deliveries were attended by male midwives.

Irrespective of whether a child was born to a male doctor or female midwife the mortality rates of the newly born were extremely high in the 18^th century with around 1 in 5 babies not living to the first year , higher when epidemics swept the country. Nor should we suppose that the parents of the time were indifferent to loss, there exist enough letters and diary entries to suggest that infant death  effected parents as badly then as it does now.

Leek Cycling Club in the Edwardian Age

Some time ago the BBC repeated Alan Bennett's 1972 play “ A Day Out”. It concerns a group going on a cycling trip to the Yorkshire Dales in 1911. The piece is elegiac, funny and concludes poignantly. At the end of the play there is a reunion of the club in 1920 who stop before a First World War memorial to honour the memory of members of the club who did not return from the trenches.

I was thinking of the programme after an afternoon spent in Leek Library turning the pages of local newspapers of the Edwardian Era. A report of Leek Cycling Club's tour of the Isle of Man in May 1904 caught my attention. The anonymous writer of the article detailed evocatively an escapade that a group of friends made ten years before the outbreak of war, and I am sure that as in the Bennett play, some of the cyclists would have died in the war.

After a rough crossing from Liverpool the men meet up with old friends in the Smoke Room of the Talbot Hotel, kept by a Staffordshire man Mr Weston. They refreshed themselves and set out for a tour of the island. The camp-site is at the Union Mills near Peel. The weather conditions are poor( so much for the Golden Edwardian summer) and the camp site waterlogged . The party were forced to seek refuge in a laundry room where they make the best of it. The conversations are boisterous and good natured joshing occurs. It is obvious the men delight in each others company. Engaging fragments of comment illuminate the article- the erratic chiming of Douglas Town Clock, the novelty of an early telephone box, the Whit Sunday parade with children dressed in white and a military band playing Strauss.

Cycling by 1904 was a major leisure activity. It was made easier by a number of innovations in the design of the bike. By the 1880s springs were added to seats ( not for nothing were early bikes called bone shakers), later pneumatic tyres was invented. In 1891 Eduard Michelin had patented the inner tube making the speedy repair of the tyre far more easier. ( The intrepid adventurers of the Leek Club repaired punctured tyres at Rainhill on the way back). By the last years of the century Cycling Clubs were being created . Leek now is one of the longest surviving clubs in the country.

An early problem which Clubs tried to exert an influence over was the lamentable state of the roads. A particularly egregious example were the roads of North Staffordshire. According to the 1874 'Book for Riders' “ Liverpool to Prescott 8 miles of good road, then within 6 miles of Newcastle under Lyme a very bad bit full of holes”... plus ça change

Early women's rights campaigners in Leek 1872

I saw “Lincoln” at the Foxlowe some weeks ago. The film describes the struggles the American President had in getting through the House of Representatives legislation granting civil rights for slaves in the last days of the Civil War. In one incident a speaker argues against the proposition that Negroes should have the vote and mockingly describes an even more absurd suggestion that women should qualify for the franchise. The debating chamber erupts in derisive laughter.

That was in 1865, but only 7 years later the notion that women should exercise their democratic rights was earnestly debated in Leek. In October 1872 at the Temperance Hall, the site of which is occupied by the College, the following motion was passed without dissent at a well attended meeting.

“ That the exclusion of women from voting in the election of Members of Parliament is contrary to the principles of just representation”

Two formidable women addressed the meeting- Lydia Becker and Elizabeth Wolstenholme. These Manchester women can with some justification be described as some of the earliest exponents of women’s rights in the Victorian era. They set the path that was followed by others into the early 20th century.

Lydia Becker was the granddaughter of German immigrants. A scientist by training, Becker in 1868 moved the resolution that women should be granted voting rights on the same terms as men at the first public meeting of the National Society for Women's Suffrage in Manchester. In June 1869, Becker and others were successful in securing the vote for women in council elections. The following year women gained the right to vote and stand for election in the School Boards in England and Wales. She successfully stood for and was elected to the Manchester School Board.

In 1870 Becker founded the Women's Suffrage Journal. Soon afterwards, she began organising speaking tours– a rarity in Britain at the time. At an 1874 speaking event in Manchester organised by Becker, fifteen-year-old Emmeline Pankhurst attended her first public meeting in the name of women's suffrage.

 Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy was one of the most significant pioneers of the British women's emancipation movement; though she is now overlooked. She was central to every campaign Victorian feminists conducted.

A strong advocate of human rights, as the secretary of the Vigilance Association for the Defence of Personal Rights she earned the nickname of the parliamentary watch-dog from Members of Parliament anxious to escape her persistent lobbying.

Elizabeth Wolstenholme, who was pregnant at the time, married a poet from Congleton named Elmy at Kensington Register Office in October 1874. The wedding was a civil ceremony and true to her principles, Elizabeth refused to make a promise of obedience to her husband and to wear a wedding ring or to give up her surname.

She supported the rights of the disenfranchised to exert force in pursuit of the vote and Emmeline Pankhurst lauded her as first among the most determined of suffragettes.

Where Becker and Wolstenholme led , the Pankhurst's, Emily Davison and Leek's own Harriet Kidd followed. Poignantly, Elizabeth Wolstenholme died only days after women over 30 obtained the vote in 1918.

The mobile phone- 40 years on

The editor of the Sentinel in early 1878 was extremely prescient in his comments.

“We have the telephone which promises to annihilate both time and space and enables us to talk audibly to our cousins in America and to our unborn great, grand children in the 20^th century. The telephone has already established much. Its latest achievements is to enable London editors to hear by word of mouth what is passing in the House of Commons. The next thing to wish for is to be able to know what MPs, ministers especially ,intend to say before they say it”

In January 1878, when the editorial was written, the telephone was only 18 months old. It was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the United States. The first public demonstration of the telephone was in May 1877 in Boston. For the editor of the Staffordshire Sentinel to be so alive to the possibilities of such an infant invention is remarkable.

In the resultant 135 years we have all become aware of how central the telephone has been to our lives, more so since the invention of the mobile phone. In April 1973 a researcher for Motorola Martin Cooper made the first call on a cordless phone to a rival Joel Engel of Bell Labs whilst walking the streets of Manhattan. Later, he remarked how open mouthed New Yorkers were to see someone moving around making a call. Of course we joke about cumbersome and limited the first mobile phones were. I even remember the first time I ever saw and it was in peculiar circumstances. It was in the late 80s and I was in a Manchester night club. A very attractive blond was summoning a taxi with a phone the size of a house brick and lying on the floor was a very drunk Alex “Hurricane” Higgins the snooker player.

The mobile phone is now a ubiquitous part of our lives. And unfortunately people seem to abandon any sense of propriety in its usage. I saw a young woman give a love rival what for in colourful language while walking down Gladstone Street a few weeks ago. And the existence of more sophisticated equipment now makes it possible to buy train tickets amongst other things, keep in contact with work colleagues every waking moment,and to download various forms of entertainment. It also has a down side. I was in a pub in Leek recently and could not help notice that two men spent more time on their I-Phones than they did in talking to one another.

Ecton Copper Mine

On Oct. 13, 2010, 33 miners who had been trapped underground for more than two months returned to the surface after a successful rescue operation that inspired Chile and riveted the world. The miners travelled up a narrow, nearly half-mile rescue shaft in a specially designed capsule. The final phase of the long rescue effort took roughly 22 hours, The leader of the group was the last to be rescued. I came across an event 250 years ago which struck me as having parallels with the Copper miners of Chile

On April 20 1759 the following extract of a letter was published in the Derby Mercury. “We received an account from Ecton about 6 miles from Leek that the Sough through which men go into the Copper mine had fallen in; there were 15 men in the mine when the accident happened. Luckily there was a cleft in the ground left open which that they received their meat or they must have perished. The Inhabitants are generally employed in digging away at the earth. In order to release them it is feared it will take some time. The Accident was caused by excessive rains they fell on Mondays and Tuesday which caused such floods here”.

Copper mining began in earnest at Ecton at the beginning of the 18^th century although the existence of copper had been known about since the Middle Ages. It became one of the richest mines in the country and was considered a good investment as the rival copper mines in Cornwall were prone to flooding. Ecton did not suffer from drainage problems. It returned a healthy return of 40% to the Dukes of Devonshire the profits were used to develop Buxton as a Spa town. In its heyday Ecton boasted of a number of initiatives. Explosives were used for the first time in mining, boats were used underground shortly after their successful introduction at the Duke of Bridgewater's Collieries, an early use of balance beam pumping engine was pioneered at Ecton as was employment of a James Watt rotative steam engine in 1780. The mines were very deep( over 1300 feet) some of the deepest in Europe. A description of 1769 describes how little boys wheeled barrows on the dressing floor while young girls sorted the ore previously crushed by women with hammers. Wages started at 2d per hour for the children and up to 30d for the men. The age span of worker ranged from 5 to 60

The death of Robert Peel 1850

The death of Margaret Thatcher has resulted in heated debated about her 11 years in office. The divisive nature of her politics has split the nation ,but there can be no doubt that she was a transforming political figure. Her demise and the way in which the news has been regarded bought to my mind the death of another Tory Prime Minister 163 years ago.

In many ways there are many similarities between Robert Peel and Margaret Thatcher, gender aside. Both came from provincial towns, Grantham and Bury. Both were outsiders. Peel was a representative of the new industrial class- the family had made money in textiles. Thatcher was the daughter of a shop keeper. And bought success and eventual damage on their own party- the Conservative Party and both were driven from office by erstwhile allies. The issue that bought Peel down was him changing his mind on legislation that protected the price of bread, the Corn Laws. This policy was bought in after the Napoleonic Wars to protect the income of the landowners who were the backbone of the Tory Party. Peel repealed the Corn Laws in 1846 after pressure exerted by the highly successful pressure group the Anti Corn Law League. It split the Tory Party between those who supported protection and those in favour of Free Trade. The divide led to the Tories being out of power for 30 years. Repeal had a dramatic impact on food halving its price directly benefiting those on low incomes.

When Peel died in a riding accident in 1850 there was a universal sense of loss especially among the working class. This sense of grief was felt in Leek when a meeting was held in the Swan in September 1850 to consider what to do to honour Peel's memory who incidentally was a Staffordshire MP- he represented Tamworth.

Mr Doxey a working man spoke at the meeting said that as a consequence of Peel's Government “ We are in a state of peace, our trade was good, and we are blessed with an abundance with food and clothing within the reach of the working man. We have also our Mechanic Institute where knowledge was cheap and many excellent institutions, where the needy were carried for. He was an admirer of a great man , through whose influences the condition of the poor had so much benefited”

 A show of hands at the meeting proposed that money raised in Leek should go to the building of almshouses for the poor. Another view outlined in a poster addressed to the Working Men of Leek favoured public baths in the town as had been erected to Peel's memory in Macclesfield.

 I don't know what happened to the funds that were collected, but around the industrial north still exist memorials to the Tory Statesman. Peel Park's still exist in Bradford, Blackpool and Salford.

Do you remember April 1962?

Leek's first ever road safety rally was held on the new Cattle Market site. It attracted 59 motorists who undertook rigorous tests  .Drivers who exceeded the speed level, for instance, were penalised. April 1962 also the first use of the panda crossing in the country although it was not accepted their flashing lights caused some confusion. Road  users had a reason to be worried as national road deaths were double they are now. Little consideration was given to safety in car design. The newest range of Ford   the Zodiac was being advertised. Its selling points were the style and the speed. It could cruise at 100 mph. The women motorist who might be interested in buying a Zodiac need not be intimidated as the motoring correspondent wrote reassuringly “Ladies will welcome the lightness  of the controls, feather like clutch and the rising ratio steering making manoeuvring finger tip easy”

A survey carried out by McKenzie Secondary School in Cheadle revealed the popularity of smoking amongst the pupils  with 79 students smoking regularly. A number routinely smoked at home with a boy of 11 and a girl of 12 the youngest smokers. This should not be a real surprise as smoking was a common activity with many participating in the habit.  However medical opinion was already at this time pointing out the health risks. In the 1950s a  study of some 40 thousand doctors over 20 years, confirmed the suggestion, based on which the government issued advice that smoking and lung cancer rates were related.  The teacher  who carried out the research in Cheadle felt that a combination of  a lack of decent role models and peer pressure was responsible for the high number of smokers. He was surprised by the pocket money many of the students were getting, some as much as £1 a week!

A good news story about the young people was coverage of the Scouts Show over a three day period held at Leek Town Hall. I was intrigued to read that the founder of the Gang Show Ralph Reader had strong connections with the town having contact with local scouts since 1939. In 1961 he  visited Leek and was made guest of honour . The Scout Show of 1962 had high production values with favourable notice of two numbers “ Wedding Group” and “Brighton”. It was indicated that in the production of the show the Leek Scouts had been helped by London.

There was comment in the editorial section of the paper on the disenchantment that the electorate had with the local Councils which showed itself in low turnouts at elections. Councils excluded the press from its meetings (a position that was  being rectified in law following the passage of a Private Members Bill by one Margaret Thatcher). The editor believed that confidence in councils could only be improved if the community was better informed of Council's plans. Some of the questions that were vexing the Councillors of the time were the growing menace of vandalism in Leek Town Centre. Outrage was expressed at the removal of 22 tulips from a flower bed outside the Nicholson Institute and the growing problem of old buses being parked on Ladydale and being used as weekend bungalows.

The  Fox Destruction Society held its annual dinner at the Hotel Rudyard with 190 supporters and guests attending. The guest of honour Mr PM Johnson the Council pest officer felt that the society were doing a really worthwhile job in keeping down such a large number of pests. Although the thought occurred to me on reading this that if the society were really committed to keeping down fox numbers then they should have had one on the menu.

Windsor Davies former Leek teacher was now seeking fame as a TV actor. He had a lucky break when the actor John Paul fell out with the TV company over his pay and left. The TV program in question was the “Probation Officer” Davies who was about to begin a distinguished career in TV was contracted to take Paul's role and was being paid £160.

Madame Melbourne

I went to see a medium once. I went with a friend of my partners in a sceptical humour. I had been a psychic fair once before where a speaker believed that my natural suspicion was down to the fact I had been a Rabbi in a previous life. I presumed that the audience would be mainly female and elderly. I was wrong on the second count, as the audience of around 120 was primarily young women. There were 5 men. I wondered at the time why are women more likely to be interested in this sort of thing? It seems always to be the case.

I found an amusing case from a 1908 edition of the Leek Times. It concerned a fraudster who set herself up as a fortune-teller operating from 6 Cromwell Terrace. Madame Melbourne announced her business by means of a card she put in the house window. It read Madame Melbourne- Australian and scientific palmist. Her real name was the prosaic May Tunnicliffe when she appeared before local magistrates on a charge of using palmistry to deceive. The paper reported that she was “ showily dressed and wearing a quantity of jewellery”

The three principal witnesses were the wives of policemen. Mrs Ewell of Wetton and Mrs Salter and Frost of Waterhouses all had availed themselves of her services. Madame Melbourne was firm in her conclusions and usually wrong. She told a bemused Mrs Salter that she had 5 children. She was mistaken, but gamely Madame struggled on “ You have 4 children” again wrong. She seemed to have little luck with Mrs Frost either. Madame Melbourne went on  “ In 3 years time you will marry an old man (great laughter) who would love the very ground you walk on and give you everything that you want”.

Madame Melbourne informed the court that she had read the hand of the Chairman of Stafford bench, but local magistrates were less good-natured. The palmist did have supporters in Marie Hall and Mary Harlow two silk hands who believed the fortune-teller. The bench were unmoved and they fined her. I wonder if May Tunnicliffe saw that coming?

Ghosts

Ghosts prefer their own company. Apart from battlefield ghosts they raely make a collective apperance. They are also usually seen by individuaks. Rarely do people see ghists at the same time. This is a key argument against there reality. According to folk tradition the inabilty to see ghosts is down to the time that you are born.

As far as the genda of ghosts is concerned. In medievel  times most were male ans were most of the viewers of ghosts. This has changed in more modrn times more women appear as ghosts and women in the 19th century were in the fore front of folklorists and mediums and they formed the back ground of the SPR.

Rarley are the ghosts of children seen in the UK even though the mortality of children in the 19th century in the UK was extremely high yet the experience translate into spiritual manifestation. I was told the story of a child haunting featuring a terraced street in Leek although such stories are rare. This does not seem to be the case in other cultures where Scandanavian and Baltic countries have a tradition of child ghosts.

There are however a number of intriguing references to ghosts of adults appearing in the guise of children. It has been suggested that the 17th century examples reflect the long tradition of souls ascending into heaven in the form of children as a represenation of purity

Haunting times

Hallowtide the brace of days around Halloween is particularly linked with the appearnce of ghosts. Significantlt Hamlet’s fathers ghost appears on the 2nd November. In Catholic tradition  this is the brief period when the barrier between the living and the dead is at its most porous. In medieval England the religious observance around these days usually included the ringing of a bell. This observance seems to have been the most stubborn of Catholic practices with the Elizabethan church authorities pursuing prosecutions up and down the country.

Nowadays Halloween most associated with the imitation of ghosts rathers than concerns with their actuall appearance. As I will show people have been donning white sheets and roaming the streets in an attempt to frighten people for centuries.

Ghosts are noctural creatures although some have been seen in daylight. The night was a popular time in folklore for fairies, devils and evil spirits to be abroad. To early Christain if the God and the angels were cast in radiant light it naturally followed that darkness was the space in which the ungodly and the damned operated. Most ghosts were not considered evil. In the eyes of most people in the 16th century and again there are a number of examples from Shakespeare they returned to help the living, to right wrongs  and reveal injustice. As one 18th century sceptic observed in common reason, have no more to do with the night than day-light, and if the information was really providentially intended by them, day light and public places would be the properest for their appairation

In 16th century England esp aftre the reformation other excuses were required and the appearance of ghsosts was framed in demonic or psychological terms. Ghosts were dellusions which could be demonic in origin and as God allocated the night as the Devil’s kingdom it stood tio reason that the ungodly would be abroad at night

With the development of the enlightenment the considered view that ghosts were the product of an over active imagination started to prevail

MATERIALISATION

A friend of the Cornish historian Joseph Hammond described how the ghost of a miner appeard in front of him as a puff of smole/. Surprise turned to terror as the smoke asumed the shape of the dead miner.

Most accounts of ghosts have little time about the manner in which they appear as most would be a little stunned by the apperance

More detail is forthcoming about how they disappeared. In 1662 a ghost was described as “ gliding away without the motion of steps” An old labouerer in Cumbria recalled how in 1813 he saw  the ghost of a woman move away dressed well in an old fashioned way sudddenly leave the highway and rapidly ascend into the air. Ghsost unlike the theatrical ones do not sink into the ground and rarely walk through wall. Ghosts evidently respect physical entrances such as doors and passageways

Over the centuries ghosts are report to glow. An account form Wales describes a blue light that followed the corpse.

Many accounts that concern the existence of lights have long been acquainted with blue lights  known as will of the wisp. Jack Lanterns emanating from boggy places although there was an awareness the existence of such phenomina had a natural cause.

The poet John Clare had seen so many will of the wisps and considered them no more than bog vapours until one night he and a companion were entranced at seeing lights seemingly playing with each other

It robbed me of a little philosophical reasoning which I Had, he confessed, about them I now believe in spirits

Dress

In hios survey of folklore in the 18th century Francis Grose remarked that Ghosts commonly appear in the same dress they usually wore when living, although they are sometimes cloathed in white, but that is churchyard ghosts

White sheeted figures were sometimes seen on the strrets John Clare again recalled an incident in his Northampton shire village of the ghost of a widow recenlty drowned in a well who appeared in large white winding sheet. He and a neighbour investiageted but found nothing. Up to the 19th century it was common  for the poor to bury their dead in such winding sheets or shrouds. Only the wealthy could afford a wooden coffin

The sheet had been traditional been made of linen but a law of 1666 ordered that shrouds be made of wool to give a boost to the wollen trade

Because of the image that ghosts were swathed in white fabric the wearing of white clothes such as smocks could be a risky business on dark nights

It was reported that in 1851 a couple living in Alum St Ancoats Manchester were returning home from the market when the wife saw a figure in white in a alleyway which frightened her. She clung to her husband and exclaimed that there was a ghost. The husband pusued the figure was a young their called John Devine who had swathed himself in white calico cloth that he has stolen from a local mill. He was later prosecuted.

In another less staisfactory intervention a spooky white figure was seen in Hampstead in Nov 1836. Several people had seen a figure that seemed to swoop down . A young woman named Williams was so alarmed by the figure that she ran shrieking to PC Simmons who happened to be patrolling the area. They apprehenxed a pale figure who happened to be a solicitor called Sutton who had a percant for white clothing

There is a distinct tradition of the White lady. The folklore source There is a woman in white who frequents Westwood Hall in Leek. A Shropshire folkloist knew of several white ladies in the county

The sightings of naked ghosts are extremely rare. Therev are a few medieval examples such as the Rochester priest whose shivering naked appearance was symbolic of the way in which his estate had been denuded by executors

A more flesh and bllod example was the relative local experience of George Barlow a flashing Primitive Metodist fom winsford who was sentenced to three months hard labour in 1834. For three years a boggart appeared on roads around the town. The boggart took the form of a of a naked man causing much alarm to the local populace. The Macclesfield Courier reported that woman were frightened to venture out at night for fea of the obscene spirit. The boggart was  eventually laid after it appeared in front of a pub one january night scaring a female cleaner working inside the pub. Her screams alerted the pub landlod who maganed to overpower the naked Barlow.

Headless

The headless ghost is one of the classic ghost stereotypes present in folk tradition throughout Europe. It has been suggested that it is a shorthand way of talking about apparitions, like ghosts being dressed in white or rattling chains. It is a curiosity because death by decapitation was a rare form of punishment from the Middle Ages onwards and it was a fate usually reserved for the aristocracy as readers of the “Orrible History” series will no doubt remember. Such stories however do crop up throughout the country and for some authorities it was believed that they were often used to keep people off the streets so that criminals could engage in their nefarious activities. In 1804 a correspondent in the Morning Chronicle noted that a smuggling gang operating along the Pembrokeshire coast travelled in a hearse drawn by the imitation ghosts of six headless white horses in order to frighten off custom officers. 

Others have proposed that the preponderance of “headless” ghost sightings in the west of the country is that it is an echo of pre Christian beliefs. The Celts practised a cult of collecting heads as they believed that the soul was located there and at death the head is separated from the body as the soul departs. The severed head was a powerful symbol from them as indicated in the medieval Welsh tale of Bendigeidfran or Bran the Blessed whose head lies buried in the foundations of the Tower of London as a palladium against foreign invasion or the decapitation of the Green Knight in the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” the climax of which is played out some experts believe at Ludschurch in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Tales of headless ghosts often crop up all over the country and Staffordshire Moorlands has its own examples of such a phenomena which panicked the people of the area over hundred years ago. One winter’s night in the 1900s an Onecote farmer was returning from Leek market. He had a successful day at market and did not notice the sound of thundering hooves on that lonely moor coming up fast behind him. Suddenly, he was picked up and found himself seated on horse back behind a headless horseman. The horse galloped over hedges and through fields clearing obstacles effortlessly. Eventually the farmer was thrown from the horse dazed and injured near to his home, and shortly afterwards he died. Another local shortly afterwards encountered the dreadful spectre and survived the experience, but his horse and dog both died of fright.

Seven clergyman were got together to exorcize the spectre and managed to compel it to speak. The horseman told them that he was one of four evil spirits that were compelled to wander the earth until the end of time. A writer recording in the 1940s added two other elements to the story. It was suggested that it was the ghost of a peddler murdered by robbers who as a macabre joke cut off his head and set the headless body on a horse; or it was the ghost of a knight killed in the wars with the Scots whose horse was bringing his master home to the Moorlands.

I can well imagine on a dark night people in the remote country areas listening out in a state of fear for the sound of a neighing house and the clatter of galloping hooves on ice hardened ground thinking that the phantom was in the area.

Another headless ghost on a white horse and clad in armour is also alleged to hunt the lanes between Farley and Alton and in the neighbouring county of Derbyshire a lane between Great Longstone and Ashford in the water is said to be haunted by a procession of 12 men carrying an empty coffin thought by a folklorist to be a death omen. Isab

Invisable ghosts

Many repoted ghosts ove the centuries were not visable there existence was evealed by other senses than sight. There are many examples of people sensing something usually followed by a drop in tempreture..

 Such a visitation is reported in the Leek Post and Times in 1979 at the Red Lion. The landlord at the time Patrick Lister called in the Rector of Leek John Crowe after claiming that strange goings on were happening. The experiences included balls of blue light and drops in tempreture in certain rooms in the pub.

The idea that animals have a greater sensitivity is also widespread. Thee are numerous examples in English folklore.

The great gossip and the collector of tales John Aubrey  recorded a appiration near Circenster in 1670  and asked whether it was a good or bad spirit returned no answer but disappeared with a curious perfume and a melidious twang

The rustle of silk was a frequently reported auditoy sign of the existence of a ghost and defines a gender and a social standing as the poor could not afford silk.

An account of a haunting of an inn in Buckinghamshire

After a troubled night he told the landlord that he had bolted the room shut, and satisfied himself there was no entrance. He soon fell asleep, but was woken by a sound like a light footstep, accompanied by the rustle of a silk dress. He sprang out of bed, but there was nothing to be seen as his door was still locked. Returning to bed he fell asleep and again was awoken by the rustling sound of a stiff silken dress. Darting forward he tried to grab the intruder, but his hand closed on empty air. The noise passed through the door and there was silence

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In April  the Daily Mail reported on a case of poltergeist activity in the West Midlands. The case followed the classic type 

of poltergeist activity pots and pans thrown around the kitchen, blinds moving up and down, lights going on and off, doors locking themselves, chairs flying across the room, and cupboard doors opening and banging shut before being ripped off their hinges among other phenomena. The strange occurrences started a couple of weeks after Mrs Manning and her children moved into the Coventry council house. The disturbances became more malevolent when the poltergeist pushed the family's two dogs down the stairs resulting in horrific injuries to one of the pets, which resulted in it having to be put down. A chair moving across the floor on its own was also captured on film. The housing association who owns the property sent a priest who blessed the house and the phenomena temporarily abated for a couple of weeks before starting up again. Derek Ancora the medium was then called in who identified the source of the problem as Jim who died in 1900 at the age of 58 of a heart attack. Ancora exorcised the spirit.

The first poltergeist case identified in the UK was the Tedworth Drummer of Wiltshire. A sudden case of drumming began in the home of a local magistrate called Mompesson in the spring of 1662. Activity increased children were lifted into the air, shoes flung at a person’s head, chamber pots emptied on a bed and the leg of a horse forced into its mouth. The events were linked to an itinerant conjuror and drummer William Drury who had been arrested for trying to obtain money with forged documents. He was brought before Mompesson who let him off with a warning and confiscated his drum and told him to leave the district. The drumming started soon afterwards. There were reports that the drum was lifted by unseen hands and gave off booming hands. After several nights the sleepless magistrate had the drum destroyed but the noises continued. At this point the other strange manifestation began to be witnessed. Drury was suspected but this line of enquiry ended when it was found that Drury was in jail in Gloucester many miles away. A committee w set up by King Charles II concluded that no human agency could be deduced.

The Moorlands has its own case of poltergeist activity. In July 1877 the village of Butterton was subject to a bizarre occurrence a humble cottage in Back Lane and dating from 1617 the former home of Hannah Gould was subject to periods of sustained noise and thumping which struck terror into the hearts of the villagers. Hannah had died the previous February at the age of 80 and locals assumed that it was her ghost that was causing the commotion. Anxious villagers consulted with church elders. They contacted the old women’s son who was reluctant to become involved and still the noise was heard constantly and the local vicar Mr Cantrell who lived close by Back Lane. The next Sunday villagers gathered in old Hannah’s house where it is reported that the rapping continued and furniture rocked. Eventually suspicion fell upon a serving girl in the village who is thought to have engineered the event to gain access to the property.

What causes poltergeist activity? Aside from accusations of hoax and exaggeration, which although applicable to a number of cases by no means apply to them all, the most popular theory is that the poltergeist is caused unwittingly by a human agent, usually a teenage girl. Researchers believe that a troubled adolescent unconsciously manipulates objects using psychokinesis (PK), a type of energy generated in the brain. According to researchers at the Rhine Research Center Institute for Parapsychology at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, poltergeist activity is the physical expression of psychological trauma. However, more natural explanations are often the cause of what appears to be a poltergeist disturbance.  

Perhaps this might help to cast light on some poltergeist cases . However, this does not explain how enough power is generated to move objects such as heavy pieces of furniture, or to shower a room with stones, make objects appear from nowhere, or start fires, if accounts of such phenomena can be trusted. 

There are also a number of poltergeist cases where the people involved have no psychological problems at all, and where there are no adolescents in the household.

 How can we explain these?

 A further point is that there are millions of troubled teenagers all over the world, but the vast majority do not cause poltergeist activity to occur. Other researchers have suggested that 'spirit entities' are responsible for the phenomena, perhaps generating the power by attaching themselves to suitably disturbed teenagers. But the very nature of these hypothetical 'spirits' means that scientifically at least, they cannot be properly investigated. . However, if accounts of the more extreme unexplained occurrences alleged to be caused by poltergeist activity are themselves exaggerated, or even completely unreliable, which is entirely possible in older cases, then no further explanation is required.

Nevertheless, the inability to find a convincing explanation for the phenomenon, the significant amount of  cases exhibiting similar characteristics occurring over a long period of time in widely different cultures, and the bizarre but somehow consistent nature of the phenomena, make the poltergeist perhaps the most baffling and enduring of unexplained mysteries. 

Ghosts with no soul

The fact that ghosts appeared in clothing was taken by the rationalists of the proof of their no existence

In 1762 the autho of Anti Canidia an attack on superstitious belief 

How is the spirit , in it self immaterial and invisable, to become the object of human sight. How is to acquire the appearance of dress?

Animals

Only a few hauntings reported were of animals. Most reported concerend dogs and cats which is not surprising considering their claose associations with humans.

I understand that the present owners have also discerned the unmistakeable smell of wet dog in certain areas of the pub. My source thinks she knows the source of the smell. Many years ago the family had a gundog, a Springer Spaniel, which was kept because her grandfather enjoyed shooting. Unfortunately, the dog was terrified of guns and proved useless for the purpose for which it was bought. It did enjoy water- a fact that readers who are owners of Springer Spaniels will know. The dog used to enjoy jumping into a stone trough which was placed to slake the thirst of dray horses which at that time delivered the beer. Perhaps in death the dog is still searching for its master?

 In British folklore there are many stories relating to spectral dogs. There is a story of a dog that runs through a Devon village dragging a rattling chain as it heads for his master’s home in the hills