Hi 

So its video number 5

This was a shorter video than normal this week, and wasn’t about what we hoped – things are working in mysterious ways at the moment and the research is taking a lot of time with little results to show. Our aim at the moment is tell the story but only if we can back it up with evidence from newspapers or research. That way when we get the usual naysayers on social media we can at least point to something other than hearsay. 

So with the Mossley werewolf story – we couldn’t find anything about a werewolf in Mossley, but tracked one down to a legend about Ashton Old Hall – it’s a bizarre tale which seems to link back to the Dr Who episode about a werewolf and the Royal Family

Black Riders in Luzley came up blank, in fact unless someone fancies a video about a smallpox hospital or a story about a women having her head blown off by a cannon ball, Mossley was a bit of a dead end for scary happenings. We have found out more about the Black Knight who again is linked to Ashton Old Hall but the trouble with him is that there is various sources saying that he died in 3 locations and in about as many different ways. It would be nice to get him tied down to one.

So we decided to go with Annabel the Witch this week, and my son joined us for a quick site check before we moved all the gear down for a weekend shoot. We found what we thought we needed and decided to wrap up the evening with a few quick shots of the old tunnel. We had reliable reports of strange rituals taking place inside.

We found the tunnel, and while my son, and the dogs and I went in for a quick look, my husband checked out some range shots from outside the tunnel looking in. We then dragged him in to take some shots of the graffiti on the walls – there was no light in there apart from what came in from the entrance, so we didn’t move further in.

And that was it. We went home and the most exciting part of the night after that was working out how to get back without walking up more hills.

Then we looked at the photos and saw this 

photo number 1 the left side of the tunnel,

photo number 2, a slight turn right 10 seconds later.

We don’t know about orbs or the other light and I am not saying its evidence of spirits or anything like that – its just there for you to decide.

We did try to go back another day to set up some more filming but it was like Piccadilly Station for dodgy blokes in T-Shirts so we gave up. We felt more threatened by the living than the dead. 

Anyway, the railway around Saddleworth is worth describing – We only have the one station now in Greenfield, but before old Dr Beeching closed them all down we used to have one for each village! Friezland, Greenfield, Uppermill, Delph, Dobcross, Diggle and the oddly named Saddleworth station. Uppermill had a goods yard where the football pitch and swimming pool are now, and you can still see the station.

The footpath from the swimming pool across the bridges and up to Brownhill was the track, and they filled up the tunnel on one side but left the other side open.

I have been contacted by many people who told me about how they used to walk through the tunnel as a short cut on the way to school when they were younger, and also tales of happenings in the there that weren’t so cheery. You saw the other side of this tunnel earlier, with the mysterious lights.

Here are some stories that are from the newspapers about Uppermill and Saddleworth station that we came across during our investigations mainly to link this photo to anything that happened in the tunnel, our previous report of something near Uppermill swimming pool and finally the persistent story of the blue boy ghost that appears on the bridge over Church Road.

An Arthur Rhodes fell off the train while trying to get on at Saddleworth Station and got caught up in the wheels of the train as it pulled away. He was described as mangled

A signalman called Rutter was hit and killed by a train in a tunnel by Uppermill station. This ties in with the reports of a ghost swinging a light, which I spoke about in my first Uppermill video.

A totally bizarre story concerns the finding of a headless body dressed as a sailor between Saddleworth and Stalybridge station. If a headless sailor wasn’t strange enough, the incident seemed to involve a motley collection of suspects described as an American, a German, and a woman who all swore that the sailor just jumped out of the window. From witness statements in other carriages, it seems that he didn’t bother to open it first as they all report the sound of breaking glass. That all sounds very fishy to me.

A railway porter named Ralph Thomas Thorpe was killed right here. He was only 20 years old.

This is also reported to be the site of another death involving a labourer who was waiting in the wrong place at the wrong time and was fatally hit by a train.

In December 1865 there was a shocking accident at Saddleworth Station when a very long train stopped at the station. The conductor called out the Station name and passengers left the train. Unfortunately, the train was so long it didn’t all reach the platform.  This poor man was in the front part of the train, and when he stepped out, he actually stepped on the side of the viaduct. A guard noticed him, but it was too late, and he fell all the way down to the road below. A drop of 70 feet. Dead.

The next story isn’t train related, but I include it because it shows how lucky we are today compared to our Great Grandparents. Close to here in the 1880s they found a frozen corpse of a woollen weaver aged 31.  He had only gone to Marsden for a day out. Stranger still was that his surname was Schofield and the report notes that he was the third person with that surname to have been found frozen to death that week. 3 Schofields – that is weird. I don’t know how they didn’t think it was at the time.

We cannot find anything related to a boy on the line. The Blue boy. But we do seem to have some sources to back the stories in the tunnels. However looking for headless sailors led us to the belief that the sailor and the clothing of boys at that time are the same – is the blue boy really the sailor that died on the tracks so mysteriously?

If anyone can add something more to the tale of the Blue boy, please let us know and likewise for the Luzley and Hartshead stories. We still have lots more research to do on these.

That’s it for this week, next week its finally the turn of Annabel and the body in the urn. that’s another great story which really ties up a lot of loose ends but doesn’t leave much in the way of exciting videos as the subjects died about 2000 years ago. We are going to set up some videos soon for witnesses of supernatural incidents so watch out for those.

So until then I hope you enjoy the video – we are trying to work out if its worth the effort at the moment – it really does take up time that could be being used for other projects so we will have to make a decision soon.