What happens when we die? This is a question that everybody ponders at least once in their life.
Will we go to heaven or hell? Will we linger as ghosts, or will we go to a hole in the ground, never to be seen or heard from again?
The latter explanation is the most scientific answer, but if this is true, why are we still talking about it?
MM turned ghost hunter to investigate five of Manchester’s spookiest locations.
5. Ordsall Hall
Ordsall Hall in Salford, first documented back in 1177, is a Grade I listed building that came into possession of the Radclyffe family in the 14th century.
Believers say that a ‘white lady’ regularly appears in the Great Hall or Star Chamber, and it is thought that this is the ghost of Margaret Radclyffe.
Legend has it that Radclyffe died of a broken heart in 1599, following the death at sea of her twin, Alexander.
The building is now owned by the council who have installed ‘ghost cams’ overseeing the areas believed to be the most badly affected.
Snapshots taken by the cameras can be viewed here.
4. Wardley Hall
Wardley Hall, also known as the ‘Skull House’, was built in the 15th century.
Now used as the official residence of the Roman Catholic Bishops of Salford, the Skull House is one of the only buildings in the North West to be named in the Domesday Book.
The Hall gained its spooky name due to the legend of a gruesome skull contained in a recess at the head of the main staircase, said to have been there since the reign of Charles II.
The skull is believed to belong to a Roman Catholic priest known as Father Ambrose who was hung, drawn and quartered because of his faith.
One such story has it that when the skull is moved ‘all hell breaks loose’ in the house.
A long-standing myth says that one day a servant decided to get rid of the skull, and threw it into the moat that surrounds the building.
This caused a terrible storm leading people to believe the skull was releasing its wrath.
The moat was drained and the skull was returned to the building, where it remains today.
3. Underground Manchester
Just 40ft below the thousands of commuters travelling through the city everyday lies Manchester’s forgotten world.
The underground tunnels, built as bomb shelters during World War Two, are a dark, damp and eerie place, that don’t see daylight.
Ghost walker extraordinaire Flecky Bennet has conjured up the presence of ‘Scary Mary’, ‘Maria’ and ‘Derek’, with various paranormal experiments undertaken on ghost walks in the dead of the night.
2. Manchester Cathedral
Manchester Cathedral is reportedly haunted by the tormented soul of a woman named Fanny.
In the 1840s a man apparently spotted his sister standing in the nave of the building, this was something of a shock as believed his sister was living miles away.
He called out but the woman walked away and suddenly vanished.
The next day the man received an even bigger shock when he found out that his sister had died in an accident which occurred at the same time as the sighting – spooky!
1. The Ring O’ Bells Pub
The Ring O’Bells is said to be one of the oldest buildings in Middleton and it is thought that a distressed cavalier called Edward haunts the building.
One of the pub’s previous landlords George Barnett reported that a stone was thrown at his shoulder when he was changing one of the barrels in the cellar.
He claimed that when he looked around to see where the stone had come from there was nobody else there.
Footsteps have also been heard throughout the pub along with other strange, unexplainable noises.
Edward is believed to be the son of a Royalist Lord during the Civil War who was killed on the site. It is said he was buried under the cellar but no human remains have been found.
Picture courtesy of Dan_Thomas via Flickr, with thanks
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