Lancashire: Five Hauntings From Lancaster to Blackpool
0:00 / 19:21
Five places, one county, all of it on our doorstep. Adam, Oz and Frank tour five of Lancashire's most storied spots, from a Lancaster pub tied to the road to the gallows to a ghost on a Blackpool seaside ride.
We visit the Golden Lion on Moor Lane, where tradition says the condemned stopped for a last drink. Then Turton Tower near Bolton and the Timberbottom skulls. Then Hoghton Tower, where King James I visited in 1617 and, the story goes, knighted a loin of beef. Then the ruins of Wycoller Hall and its stormy-night horseman.
Finally we head home to Blackpool, where Pleasure Beach staff lore tells of a ghost called Cloggy on the 1930s Ghost Train. Real history, legends labelled as legends, and Oz rating every haunting by one strict measure: the parking.
The Grave Shift is a Ghost Haunt UK production. Hosted by Adam, Oz and Frank.
Full transcript
AdamA last drink on the road to the gallows, so they say. Two skulls that, the story goes, won't stay put. A rider who's said to come out only in a storm.
AdamAnd a ghost story on a seaside ride, with a nickname like he drinks in your local.
AdamFive places, one county, all on our doorstep. This is The Grave Shift.
AdamWe're on Apple, Spotify and everywhere else you get podcasts, so follow, subscribe, and tell a mate who likes being frightened.
AdamRight, evening all. I'm Adam, and with me as ever, the lads.
FrankFrank. Present, correct, and slightly underfed.
OzOz. I've brought the kit, though I'm not sure why, because we're not going anywhere tonight.
AdamIt's a compilation, Oz. Five Lancashire stories, one after another. A tour from the sofa.
OzFine. But I'll be judging each one properly.
FrankOn what? Evidence? You've never given a ghost more than one out of ten in your life.
OzOn parking.
FrankOn what?
OzParking. Every haunted place, I ask one question first. Where do I leave the car?
AdamThat's your criteria? Not history, not testimony, not atmosphere?
OzAtmosphere doesn't get you a ticket, Adam. A double yellow does.
FrankHe's going to give the Grim Reaper a star rating for disabled bays.
AdamIgnoring that. Rules for tonight: real history first, then the legend, then you two argue, then we pick the scariest at the end.
FrankAnd I'm saying now, they're all real until proven otherwise.
OzThat's not how proof works, Frank.
AdamMoving on. Stop one. We're going north, back to a city we've been to before.
AdamLancaster. If you heard our Lancaster Castle episode, you'll know the castle was where the county's prisoners were held and tried for centuries.
FrankIncluding the Pendle witches. Sixteen-twelve.
AdamIncluding them. They were tried at Lancaster in sixteen-twelve, and most of them went to the gallows.
AdamBut the gallows weren't at the castle back then. They were up on the moor, outside the town. Which means the condemned had a journey.
OzUphill, I'm assuming.
AdamUphill. The road out that way is Moor Lane. And on Moor Lane, there's a pub.
FrankOh, here we go.
AdamThe Golden Lion. An old pub, still on Moor Lane today. And it comes with one of the darkest traditions of any boozer in the county.
AdamLocal tradition says prisoners being taken from the castle to the gallows were allowed to stop there. For one last drink.
FrankOne last pint.
AdamAnd the story goes that the Pendle witches were among them. That they stopped at the Golden Lion on their way to be hanged.
Oz'The story goes.'
AdamI'm saying it carefully. It's tradition. Nobody's found a bar tab from sixteen-twelve with their names on it.
FrankIf it is true, though, that's the saddest thing I've heard. A last pint before they hang you.
AdamAnd that's the thing. Whatever you think about Pendle, those were real people, mostly poor, and a lot of them must have been terrified.
OzI'll give it this. The geography makes sense. Castle down there, moor up there, pub in between.
AdamAnd it's not only about the witches. The tradition is about the condemned in general, whoever they were.
FrankSo is the pub meant to be haunted?
AdamPeople love to say a place like that must be. But I haven't got specific sightings I'd stand behind. It's the tradition that gets you.
OzFinally, some restraint.
FrankRestraint! People had their last drink there before being hanged. You don't think something stays?
OzI think a story stays. That's different.
FrankA story is a kind of haunting, Oz. You just said it. It stays.
OzAnnoyingly, that's not a terrible point.
FrankWrite it down. Oz conceded in the first ten minutes.
OzI conceded a metaphor. Not a ghost.
AdamAnd the parking, Oz?
OzPub on a lane in a city. Probably on-street, probably tight. Two out of five.
FrankThe condemned didn't drive, Oz!
OzNo, they walked. Which tells you everything about parking in Lancaster.
AdamLater on, hangings moved to the castle itself, so that walk up Moor Lane stopped. But the pub's still there.
FrankRaise a glass to them if you're ever in. Respectfully.
AdamAgreed. Stop two. We're heading south, towards Bolton.
AdamTurton Tower. Sits just north of Bolton, out towards the moors.
FrankLovely spot, that. Proper old.
AdamIt started life as a pele tower. Medieval. Basically a stone defensive tower, thick walls, built to keep you alive when trouble turned up.
OzA panic room you can see from three miles off.
AdamPretty much. Then in Tudor times it was extended, so you've got this tough old tower with a comfier house grown onto it.
FrankLike a bouncer who's had a conservatory put on.
AdamToday it's a historic house. But the bit everyone asks about isn't the architecture.
FrankIt's the skulls.
AdamIt's the skulls. The Timberbottom skulls.
OzLovely name for a farm.
AdamTimberbottom was a farm nearby. And the story goes that two human skulls were kept there. Where they originally came from, nobody can tell you for certain.
FrankTwo skulls. Just sat at a farm.
AdamAnd here's the legend. Whenever someone tried to move them or get rid of them, there'd be trouble. Disturbances. Noises in the night.
FrankUntil they were put back.
AdamUntil they were put back. That's how the tale goes. Move the skulls, the house kicks off. Return them, it settles.
OzSo the skulls run a protection racket.
FrankBolton's oldest firm.
AdamVersions differ on how far people went. Some have the skulls thrown away and somehow ending up back. The details shift depending on who's telling it.
OzWhich is always a sign.
AdamAnd eventually the skulls ended up at Turton Tower. Which is where they're kept.
FrankSo the tower's got them now. And it's alright with that?
AdamAs far as I know, the tower hasn't complained.
OzMy turn. Old farmhouses make noise. Wood moves, wind gets in, animals get in. Put two skulls on a shelf and every creak gets blamed on them.
FrankAnd yet. People over the years all say the same thing. Move them, it goes wrong.
OzPeople telling the same story isn't people seeing the same thing, Frank. It's one story with good legs.
FrankYou'd say that about anything. If a skull walked in and ordered a coffee you'd blame draughts.
OzI'd say someone was carrying it. Look for the hands.
AdamTo be fair to Frank, there's a whole tradition of these. Screaming skulls, they get called. Old houses round the country with skulls that refuse to leave.
OzWhich suggests a type of story, not a phenomenon.
FrankOr it suggests it keeps happening.
AdamAnd that's the whole argument in one line.
FrankWhoever they were, though, they were people once. I'd not want to be moved about either.
OzFair. That bit I'd actually agree with.
AdamParking?
OzHistoric house, out in the country. I'd expect a proper car park. Four out of five.
FrankFour! The skull place gets four!
OzSkulls aren't my department. Tarmac is.
AdamStop three. West, towards Preston, and a place we name-checked back in episode four.
AdamHoghton Tower. A fortified manor house sat right on top of a hill between Preston and Blackburn.
FrankThat's a statement house. You can see it coming for miles.
AdamIt was built to be seen. And in sixteen-seventeen, it got the biggest guest it was ever going to get.
FrankThe King.
AdamKing James the First. Visiting Lancashire, and stopping at Hoghton Tower.
OzSame James who wrote the book on witches.
AdamSame James. Daemonologie. Which, five years after Pendle, gives the visit a bit of an edge.
FrankHope nobody in the kitchen looked at him funny.
AdamA royal visit meant feasting. Mountains of food, entertainment, the lot. Hosting a king could cost a family a fortune.
OzAnd here comes the famous bit.
AdamHere it comes. The story goes that at Hoghton Tower, the king enjoyed a loin of beef so much that he drew his sword and knighted it.
FrankArise, Sir Loin!
AdamSir Loin. That's the legend. That's supposedly why we call it sirloin.
OzIt's not, though, is it.
AdamIt's a famous story, not a proven one. Word experts will tell you sirloin comes from old French for the top of the loin, no king required.
FrankWord experts. Ruining it again.
OzFacts ruin a lot of things, Frank. That's their job.
FrankI'm keeping it. A king knighting a steak in Lancashire is the best thing that's ever happened in this county.
AdamWell, it's part of the place now, whether it happened or not.
OzLike the skulls. Story with good legs.
FrankSir Loin's got good legs. Well. Good rump.
AdamMoving on. Because Hoghton isn't just about dinner. It's got its ghosts.
FrankGo on.
AdamIt's what's been reported over the years. I haven't got a signed statement or names. They're reports, and I'll leave them as reports.
OzReported by whom?
AdamVisitors and people who've spent time there over the years. I haven't got a signed statement. They're reports, and I'll leave them as reports.
FrankA house that old, kings and feasts and centuries of people through it. It'd be stranger if there weren't stories.
OzExactly. It'd be stranger if there weren't stories. That's my point, not yours. The stories come with the age, not the ghosts.
FrankDid you just steal my argument and turn it round?
OzI recycled it. Very green of me.
FrankYou'd recycle Sir Loin if you could.
OzInto a sandwich, yes.
AdamParking, Oz?
OzHilltop house. You'll get parked, but I reckon you're walking up. Three out of five. Docked a point for the hill.
FrankA king made it up there, Oz.
OzA king had a horse, Frank. I've got a Corsa.
AdamStop four. East, right up against the Yorkshire border, into Brontë country.
AdamWycoller. A little village near Colne, tucked in a valley, old stone bridges over the beck.
FrankGorgeous. Genuinely. Like a postcard that's had a bad night.
AdamAnd in the village is Wycoller Hall. A sixteenth-century manor house. Now a ruin.
OzRoofless, isn't it.
AdamRoofless. Walls, the shell of it, a big old fireplace still standing. You walk through what used to be rooms and it's just sky.
FrankThe kind of place where your own footsteps sound too loud.
AdamNow, Brontë fans love Wycoller. A lot of them link the hall to Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre.
FrankFerndean, that's where Rochester ends up, isn't it? After the fire.
AdamThat's the one. Rochester, blinded, in a lonely house in the woods. And people suggest Wycoller Hall might have been the inspiration.
Oz'Might.'
AdamMight. It's a suggested link, not a certain one. Charlotte Brontë didn't leave a note saying it's this one.
FrankNobody leaves notes. That's the whole problem with history.
OzThe ghost, so the story goes, is a horseman.
AdamBut you can see why people make the link. Haworth's not far over the moors. It's that landscape.
FrankAnd the ghost?
AdamThe ghost is a horseman.
AdamThe legend says that on stormy nights, a spectral rider comes through the valley. Galloping, up to the hall.
FrankIn the rain. In the wind. Hooves on the stones.
AdamSome versions tie him to a family tragedy at the hall. But the details change depending on who's telling it, so I won't pin a name or a crime on anybody.
OzGood. Because that's usually where people start making things up.
FrankHe only comes on stormy nights! That's specific! That's a rule!
OzIt's very convenient. Stormy nights are when you can't see, can't hear properly, and everything's banging and howling.
FrankSo?
OzSo it's the one night you'd mistake a loose gate and a big gust for a horse. If he turned up on a calm sunny afternoon, I'd listen.
FrankHe's a ghost, not a pensioner on a day trip.
OzThen he should have the decency to show up when there's visibility.
FrankHere's my thing, though. That valley's been lived in for centuries. People rode in and out of there in all weathers.
FrankIf anywhere was going to hold on to the memory of a rider, it's a place like that.
OzThat's a decent point. The history fits the legend. I'll give it that much.
FrankTwo concessions! Adam, keep count!
AdamI've got it down. Oz, parking?
OzFrom what I've read, you mostly leave the car outside the village and walk in. Which I respect.
FrankSo what's that, five?
OzFour. Lovely walk, but apparently I'd be doing it in a storm with a horse behind me.
FrankHe's not chasing you! He's going to the hall!
OzHe doesn't know that. I'm in the way.
AdamRight. Last stop. And lads, we're going home.
FrankOh, yes.
OzHere we go.
AdamBlackpool. Britain's classic seaside resort. The Tower, the Illuminations, the piers, chips you'll regret.
FrankBest town in the world. Fight me.
OzI'm not fighting anyone on a Saturday night in Blackpool.
AdamAnd down at the south end of the Prom, the Pleasure Beach. Which opened back in the eighteen-nineties.
FrankI've been going since I was knee high. Lost a shoe on the Big Dipper once.
OzLost? Or threw?
FrankIt came off. I was seven. It's in the Irish Sea now.
AdamA ghost story. On the fake ghost ride.
FrankThe Ghost Train.
AdamOld-fashioned dark ride. You sit in a little car, it bangs through the doors, things jump out at you in the dark.
OzA ride specifically designed to make you think you've seen a ghost. Hold that thought.
AdamHolding it. Because here's the lore. Over the years, staff have told stories about a ghost on the Ghost Train.
FrankA real ghost. On the fake ghost ride.
AdamAnd they've given him a nickname. Cloggy.
FrankCloggy! That's the most Lancashire ghost name I've ever heard.
OzSounds like a lad who'd help you move a sofa.
AdamNow, this is local lore. Staff stories, passed around. I'm not telling you who Cloggy was in life, because I've no record to back any of it.
FrankBut the name, though. Clogs. You'd think it's the sound. Footsteps. Clack, clack, in the dark.
AdamThat's the obvious guess. But it's a guess. The stories are the stories.
OzRight. Here's my problem, and I think it's a good one.
OzIt is a ghost train. It is pitch black. It's full of machinery that clanks, bangs and moves on its own. That's the entire point of it.
FrankThat's what makes it brilliant!
OzIt's what makes it the worst place on earth to collect evidence. Every noise in there is meant to be a ghost.
FrankExactly. So who knows what's normal in there? The staff. And they're the ones telling the stories.
OzHm.
FrankThey know every clunk and every hiss. They're the last people to be fooled by a sound effect. And they still say something's off.
OzAlright. That's a better argument than I expected.
FrankThree! Three concessions! Adam!
AdamIt's three. I'll allow it.
OzCounterpoint. Ghost train staff telling ghost stories is also very good for a ghost train.
FrankSo it's marketing now?
OzOr it's people having a laugh on a late shift. Either way, nobody's handed me a recording.
FrankGo on the ride with your kit, then.
OzI'd get thrown off for pointing a meter at a skeleton.
AdamAnd parking, Oz? Home turf. Blackpool.
OzBlackpool. In August. During the Illuminations.
FrankBut for scary, it's the Timberbottom skulls. Something that, if you believe the story, doesn't want to be moved and makes sure you know about it. That gets under my skin.
OzNought out of five. I've seen things on the Prom on a bank holiday no ghost could match. Grown men circling the same multi-storey for forty minutes.
FrankThat's the scariest thing in the episode!
AdamThat might genuinely be your verdict, Oz.
AdamRight. Five places. Golden Lion, Turton Tower, Hoghton Tower, Wycoller Hall, Blackpool. Which is the scariest? Frank.
FrankIt's close. I love Cloggy. And I'll defend Sir Loin to the death.
FrankBut for scary, it's the Timberbottom skulls. Something that doesn't want to be moved and makes sure you know about it. That gets under my skin.
AdamOz?
OzGhost-wise, I'm not scared of any of them, for the record. No evidence, no fear.
FrankHere we go.
OzBut which one actually got to me? The Golden Lion. Not a ghost. The idea of that last drink. Whether or not it happened, people walked that road to die.
FrankYeah. That's fair, that.
OzAlso, two out of five for parking. It's grim on every level.
FrankRuined it.
AdamMine's Wycoller. A roofless hall in a quiet valley, and the story that something rides up to it when the weather turns. It's the loneliest of the lot.
FrankYou just want to go on a nice walk.
AdamIn a storm. Which is the bit nobody's keen on.
OzFinal parking table, since nobody asked. Turton and Wycoller joint top. Blackpool rock bottom.
FrankBlackpool rock bottom. You've been sat on that one all episode.
OzForty minutes in a multi-storey gives you time to think.
AdamThis has been The Grave Shift. I'm Adam.
FrankI'm Frank. Go and ride the Ghost Train, say hello to Cloggy, and tell him The Grave Shift sent you.
OzI'm Oz. Park and ride. Trust me.
AdamAnd next time you're sat in an old Lancashire pub, ask yourself who sat there before you, and whether they ever got to finish their drink.
AdamYou can listen to this episode and every other episode of The Grave Shift on all major podcast providers -- link's in the description below.
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