In a manor house on the edge of Bolton, there's a flagstone said to carry the print of a man's foot, and some say it turns red. Some say it bleeds.
Adam, Oz and Frank stay close to home for Episode Five. They tell the true story of George Marsh, a Protestant preacher from Deane who was examined at Smithills Hall during Mary the First's persecution and burned at the stake in Chester on the twenty-fourth of April, fifteen fifty-five.
Then comes the legend: the footprint, the stone that was supposedly taken away and brought back, and whether any of it holds up. Oz wants evidence, Frank wants to stand next to it in his size elevens, and Adam has done the reading.
Smithills Hall is council-owned and open to visitors. Check the official website before you go.
The Grave Shift is a Ghost Haunt UK production. Hosted by Adam, Oz and Frank.
Full transcript
AdamIn a manor house in Bolton, there's a flagstone that's said to carry the shape of a foot.
AdamThe story goes that it turns red. That it bleeds.
AdamAnd the man who supposedly left it there was burned alive nearly five hundred years ago. This is The Grave Shift.
AdamWe're on Apple, Spotify and everywhere else. Follow, rate, and tell a mate who likes their history grim.
FrankTell a mate who likes their history grim. That's all my mates, Adam.
OzThat's your one mate, Frank.
AdamRight, welcome back. Episode five, and for once we're not driving three hours. This one's on our doorstep.
FrankSmithills Hall! Bolton! I went there on a school trip. Somebody was sick on the coach.
OzWas it you?
FrankIt was a long coach, Oz.
AdamSo, Smithills Hall. It's a real historic manor house on the edge of Bolton, owned by the council now and open to visitors.
OzCouncil-owned. So the scariest thing there is the parking.
FrankDon't start.
AdamThe legend's about a footprint. But before the ghost stuff, I want to do the man properly, because he was real, and what happened to him was real.
FrankGo on then, professor.
AdamHis name was George Marsh. A Protestant preacher from Deane, near Bolton. A proper local lad.
FrankDeane! That's just down the road. My auntie got married at Deane church.
OzEverybody's auntie got married somewhere, Frank.
FrankNot at Deane, Oz. Only the classy aunties.
AdamRight. To understand George, you need to know what England was like in the fifteen-fifties.
AdamMary the First is on the throne. She's Catholic, and she's determined to turn the country back from the Protestant reforms of the reigns before hers.
OzBloody Mary.
AdamThat's the nickname, yeah. Under her, hundreds of Protestants were burned for heresy.
FrankBurned. Not hanged. Burned.
AdamBurned at the stake. For what they believed about communion, about the church, about the Pope.
OzAnd George is on the wrong side of that.
AdamHe's preaching Protestant ideas in Lancashire, and at that point that is not a safe thing to be doing.
FrankWas he always a preacher, then?
AdamAccording to Foxe, no. He'd been a farmer and he was married. After his wife died, he went off to study and became a preacher.
OzHang on. Who's Foxe?
AdamGood question. John Foxe wrote what everybody calls Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It's a massive record of Protestants who died under Mary.
AdamGeorge Marsh is in it. That's where a lot of what we know comes from.
OzSo one source. Written by a Protestant. About Protestant martyrs.
AdamYes, Oz, it's got a side. But the basic facts of George's arrest and death aren't really in dispute.
FrankHe's already doing it. We're nine minutes in.
OzI'm just noting it.
FrankYou're always noting it. You've got a notepad for noting it.
AdamSo. George gets arrested, and he's brought to Smithills Hall to be examined.
FrankWhy Smithills? It's a house, not a court.
AdamBecause local gentry did a lot of this work. The family who held the hall were the ones who'd have questioned him.
OzExamined meaning what, exactly?
AdamQuestioned about his beliefs. Basically, do you accept the Catholic teaching or not. Say the right words and you might walk away.
FrankAnd he didn't say the right words.
AdamHe didn't. He stuck to it.
FrankFair play to him. Can you imagine? You know exactly where that ends.
OzYeah. That's genuinely brave, whatever you think about the theology.
AdamAnd this is where the legend comes in. But I want to finish the history first, because it matters.
FrankHe's hoarding the ghost.
AdamI'm not hoarding the ghost, I'm doing it in order.
AdamFrom Smithills, Foxe says George was taken on to Lathom House to be examined by the Earl of Derby.
OzLathom. Near Ormskirk.
FrankLook at him. Local geography. He does know things.
OzI know roads, Frank. I drive the van.
AdamHe was held at Lancaster Castle, and eventually moved to Chester, where the Bishop of Chester examined him again.
FrankAccording to Foxe, he was held for a while, and eventually moved to Chester, where he was examined again.
AdamAs many times as it takes for him to change his mind. And he never did.
AdamOn the twenty-fourth of April, fifteen fifty-five, George Marsh was burned at the stake in Chester.
FrankGod.
AdamFoxe describes it as a slow, cruel death. The fire was badly made, and he suffered for a long time.
OzThat's horrible. That's not a story, that's a man.
AdamThat's why I wanted to do him first, before the footprint. He was real, he was from round here, and he died for what he believed.
FrankThere's a memorial, isn't there? In Chester?
AdamI believe there's one near where it happened, yeah. Worth looking up if you're over that way.
FrankRight. Now can we have the footprint?
AdamNow you can have the footprint.
AdamSo this is the legend. Not fact. Legend.
OzThank you.
AdamThe story goes that during his examination at Smithills, George was pressed on his faith, and to affirm it, he stamped his foot down on a flagstone.
FrankBang.
AdamAnd where his foot came down, the story says, it left a print in the stone. The shape of a foot.
FrankGet in.
OzGet in? The man's about to be burned, Frank.
FrankI'm not cheering the burning, I'm cheering the stone! Different thing!
AdamAnd it doesn't stop there. The legend says the footprint turns red. That it bleeds.
OzRight.
FrankDon't 'right' it. Let him finish.
AdamDepending on who's telling it, it either turns red or actually bleeds. Either way, it's supposed to be the colour of blood.
FrankHang on. How big's the footprint?
AdamWhy?
FrankBecause I'm a size eleven. Just saying. If it's a size eleven, I'm going to feel something.
OzYou're a size nine.
FrankI am a size eleven, Oz.
OzYou bought size elevens because they were in the sale. And you wear two pairs of socks.
FrankThat's called comfort! That's a lifestyle choice!
AdamCan we keep Frank's feet out of the sixteenth century, please?
AdamRight. Here's where it gets properly spooky. The second part of the legend.
AdamThe story goes that at some point, the stone was taken up and removed from the hall.
FrankWho'd do that?
AdamNobody seems to have a name, or a date, and that matters. But the story is, once it was gone, strange things started happening.
OzWhat kind of strange things?
AdamDisturbances. Unrest in the house. The accounts are vague.
OzCourse they are.
AdamAnd the story ends with the stone being put back where it came from, and the disturbances stopping.
FrankSee, that's the bit that gets me. That's a proper haunting pattern. You move the thing, it kicks off. You put it back, it calms down.
OzThat's a proper storytelling pattern, Frank. That's every cursed object story ever told.
FrankBecause it keeps happening!
OzBecause it's a good story!
AdamAnd this is the twist, for me. Because when you actually go looking for the footprint in the history...
Adam...it's not really there.
FrankWhat do you mean, not there?
AdamAs far as I can find, Foxe doesn't mention it. The book that records his examinations and his death in detail. No footprint.
OzThere it is.
AdamAnd I couldn't find an early record of the stone being removed and returned, either. No name, no date, no document.
FrankThat doesn't mean it didn't happen.
OzIt means we've got no evidence it did.
FrankThat's not the same thing, Oz.
OzIt's exactly the same thing when you're claiming a stone bleeds.
AdamRight, go on then. Proper argument. Oz, you first.
OzOne. Stone has marks in it. Hollows, wear, flaws. Put a foot-shaped mark in a floor people have walked on for centuries, and folk will see a foot.
OzTwo. Red. Plenty of stone round here is reddish, and stone with iron in it can look redder when it's damp.
FrankSo it's rust. He's saying the martyr's gone rusty.
OzThree. Nothing we can find written down at the time. If a preacher had left a supernatural footprint in a gentleman's hall, somebody would've shouted about it.
FrankBolton weather's a miracle in itself.
OzFirst off, stories like this don't come from nowhere. That stone's clearly mattered to people.
FrankRight. My turn.
FrankSecond. Why that spot? Of all the floors in Lancashire, the legend lands in a place we know he was actually questioned.
OzMattered, yeah. I'm not arguing it didn't matter.
FrankSecond. Why that spot? Of all the floors in Lancashire, the legend lands in the one place we know he was actually questioned.
OzBecause that's where you'd put it, Frank. It's where the drama happened.
FrankAnd third. The stone thing. The story says somebody put it back. You don't haul a flagstone back into a floor for a laugh.
AdamOoh.
OzDon't 'ooh' him, Adam.
FrankAnd third. The stone thing. Somebody must've believed it enough to put it back. You don't haul a flagstone back into a floor for a laugh.
OzIf that happened. Which we can't show.
FrankHe's got a catchphrase. 'If that happened.' He should get it printed on a mug.
AdamCan I throw something in? There's an irony here that I think is genuinely interesting.
FrankGo on, professor.
AdamGeorge was a Protestant. And one of the big Protestant complaints about the old church was relics. Holy objects, miracle stones.
OzOh, that's good.
AdamSo there's something odd about a Protestant martyr ending up with, basically, a relic. A miraculous stone people come to look at.
OzThat's the best point anyone's made all episode, and it wasn't me. Mark it down.
FrankOr. Or, Oz. Maybe it didn't matter what he thought about relics. Maybe the stone just remembered.
OzStones don't remember, Frank.
FrankTell that to Stonehenge.
OzI don't know what that means.
FrankNeither do I, but it felt strong.
AdamRight. Verdicts. Oz.
OzGeorge Marsh was real, brave, and treated horribly. The footprint is a legend with no early record I've seen, and a red stone in a damp county. Not a ghost.
OzBut I'd still go and look at it. Out of respect for him, more than anything.
AdamFrank.
FrankI think something happened in that room. Maybe not a literal foot in stone, but something big enough that people round here keep telling it. I'm open.
FrankAnd I'm going to go and stand next to it in my size elevens.
OzNines.
FrankElevens, Oz!
AdamMine. The history's the real story. A man from Deane who wouldn't back down, and died for it in Chester. That's what should be remembered.
AdamThe footprint? I think it's how people round here kept remembering him. And honestly, I don't think that's nothing.
AdamSmithills Hall is open to visitors, so if you're local, go and see it for yourself. Check the official website for opening times.
FrankTake a tape measure. Settle the shoe thing.
AdamThis has been The Grave Shift. I'm Adam.
FrankI'm Frank, and I am a size eleven.
OzI'm Oz. He's a nine.
AdamNext time on The Grave Shift, the stone doesn't bleed. But the walls, apparently, talk.
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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