Stockport is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, historically part of Cheshire, and the birthplace of Most Haunted presenter Yvette Fielding and cameraman Stuart Torevell.[1]
Stockport's oldest surviving townhouse, in the Market Place, dates to around 1459–1460, established through dendrochronological analysis of its earliest surviving timbers.[2] It is thought to have been the home of William Dodge, Mayor of Stockport in 1483, though its confirmed occupants only begin with the Shallcross family, landed gentry from Derbyshire who owned the house from 1605 to 1730 and installed its famous Jacobean cage-newel staircase in 1618 — one of only three surviving examples of its kind in the country.[2] The Grade II* listed building was restored following a devastating fire in 1995 and now operates as a museum.[3]
The house is associated with reports of sudden chills, disembodied footsteps, and a ghostly maid believed to have fallen fatally from the upper floors, alongside a second reported presence nicknamed the "Merchant's Coin" spirit, said to rattle spectral wealth before ever appearing in full.[4]
A Grade I listed Tudor manor house in Bramhall, with parts dating to the 14th century, held for around 800 years by only three families — the de Bromales, the de Davenports, and the Nevills — before passing into public ownership under Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council in 1974.[5] The hall reopened in 2016 following a £1.6 million restoration.[5]
Reported hauntings include a vengeful figure known as the Red Rider, a horseman said to have visited the hall in the 1630s during the tenure of master William Davenport, and reports of a woman in the Withdrawing Room; the Paradise Room, containing a priest's hole, is nicknamed "the Ghost Room" by staff.[6][7] Visitors have also reported a sorrowful bride weeping in the chapel and goblets rattling in the long-abandoned banqueting hall, and local legend separately holds that fairies moved the hall's original foundations stone by stone during construction, forcing builders to complete it on the site the fairies preferred.[4][6]
An article published in the Stockport Advertiser and Guardian on Friday 1 March 1889 — one of the town's earliest documented ghost reports — described a haunting on Astle-street (an older spelling or misprint of Astley Street), off Heaton Lane, in which a "plain matter-of-fact ghost" reportedly "boldly walks into the house, knocks over a few articles of furniture, and then walks out again."[8] The original report noted the belief was strong enough that several residents had moved away, and others wished to but felt "it would look so."[8] Most of the street's original buildings have since been demolished.[9]
Built in 1790 by cotton manufacturer John Collier on the Mersey at Cheadle Heath, Weir Mill (also recorded as Wear Mill) was one of Stockport's earliest cotton mills, later purchased by Thomas Fernley in 1824.[10] A fire in 1831 destroyed one of its buildings, killing several workers, reportedly including a number of child labourers unable to escape the blaze.[11] The Stockport Viaduct was built directly over the site in 1840.[10]
The mill is associated with reports of the ghosts of children who died in the fire, and, following claims that occultists used the derelict building for Satanic ritual after its closure, a reported seven-foot, wraith-like figure with half a face.[12] The site has been investigated by the television series Ghost Dimension (2016) and Most Haunted (2017), during the latter of which a crew member reportedly required medical attention.[12]
Notable people
Television presenter Yvette Fielding and cameraman Stuart Torevell, her cousin, were both born in Stockport.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Yvette Fielding."Wikipedia.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Staircase House."Wikipedia.
- ↑ "Staircase House."Art Fund.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "5 Haunted Places In Stockport."Spooky Isles.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Bramall Hall — History and Facts."History Hit.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Fairies And Spectres Curse Haunted Bramall Hall."Spooky Isles.
- ↑ "Do you dare visit Greater Manchester's Most Haunted places?."Mancunian Matters.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Astley Street, Stockport."Obsolete.
- ↑ "The Haunting of Astley Street – A Ghost in Stockport."The Peculiar Path.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Wear Mill, Stockport."Wikipedia.
- ↑ "Weir Mill's Chilling Ghost Children Haunt Stockport."Spooky Isles.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Most Haunted Team Member Receives Medical Attention At Weir Mill In Stockport."Higgypop Paranormal.