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Haunted Birmingham |
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| The
scene of the Erdington haunting |
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Is
this the most haunted road in Birmingham? Find out which parts of
the city are inhabited by ghosts. |
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Have
you ever seen a ghost? Many people claim to have had supernatural
experiences, and many of them have happened here in Birmingham.
So just in case you fancy doing a spot of ghostbusting this Halloween,
here's our guide to Haunted Birmingham.
| BLACK
PATCH PARK IN SMETHWICK |
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This
is a good place to start. Stories of a "ghostly old woman"
haunting this park near the Birmingham canal have existed
for about 50 years. They gained more credence and authenticity
when a Mrs Heeley told a local research group that the figure
of a very old woman had suddenly appeared in front of her,
whilst she was pushing her four year old in a pram.
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| Is
this Queen Henty's ghost? |
The
apparition was wearing a long black dress and a red cape. She
also had "beautiful long black hair for her age."
The exact site of the appearance was on a pathway a few yards
from a narrow bridge. The old woman is thought to be the phantom
of "Queen Henty," a gypsy who was responsible for
a Romany encampment that stayed in the park earlier this century.
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| CROSSROADS
OF TYBURN AND CHESTER ROADS IN ERDINGTON - Part 1 |
A nurse
from Good Hope Hospital was returning home one Sunday afternoon having
spent a few quiet minutes resting on a public bench. She turned round
to check that she had left nothing behind when she noticed a misty
figure dressed in a long grey garment. The figure remained for some
20 seconds before fading away. The nurse was unable to see whether
the apparition was male or female as the face was not revealed. There
were two events which occurred in the nearby area that could have
created the ghost.
| THE
DRUNKEN COLONEL - Part 2 |
One of
the incidents was a murder in 1745. There was a drunken Colonel of
the Duke of Cumberland's Regiment, who grabbed a passing lad and demanded
to know the way to a particular building.
Unfortunately, the lad had a deformed mouth and was unable to provide
the information. The Colonel, believing the lad to be a spy, ordered
that he should be decapitated. His body was tossed into the nearby
Pype Hayes Park and his head was thrown into a tree at new Shipston.
The skull was revealed when the tree was felled in the 19th century
and the headless skeleton discovered a week later.
| THE
GHOST OF MARY ASHFORD - Part 3 |
The alternative
suggestion is that the ghost is of Mary Ashford who was murdered following
a Whit Monday dance at the Tyburn Inn in 1817. A young farmer named
Thornton was tried for the murder and acquitted, but local people
were so convinced of his guilt that they hounded him until he was
forced to leave the area. He emigrated to America where he died.
A rather interesting postscript to this tale is that Erdington CID
borrowed the notes of this case following the murder of another young
girl on Whit Monday 1974. By coincidence, the man accused was named
Thornton. He too was acquitted. Both characters lived in Pype Hayes.
Another
mysterious sighting happened on Victoria Road in Aston on September
28th 1971. Two ladies, Mrs Bagley and Mrs Heath, were waiting for
their bus at quarter past eight in the morning when they spotted a
woman dressed in "a green frilly gown," standing in the
middle of the road. Both witnesses watched in horror as their bus
approached the woman. However, when it was only a few feet away from
the mysterious phantom, the green lady vanished.
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| Victoria
Road in Aston |
Months
later, at half past nine in the evening, Mrs McFarlane was walking
in exactly the same area of Aston when she was shocked to see a woman
in a "yellowish green dress," suddenly appear at the kerbside.
She hurried across the road and disappeared as she reached the pavement
on the other side.
The ghost may be that of an usherette from the Aston Cross Cinema
who was killed whilst crossing the road some years ago. |
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