The A-Z of High Strangeness in and around the Merseyside Area.

The A-Z of High Strangeness in and around the Merseyside Area.

April 19, 2021bartonmatt1Leave a comment

This is an almost complete a-z of weird Merseyside phenomena. It was written to form the basis of a podcast discussion between myself and Lancashire Guitar-Plucker, Dave Owen. The recording will surface soon.

A

Ancient Cult in Aintree.

Known throughout the world for its annual Steeplechase, Aintree is also home to an ancient child-burning cult that meet in a field not far from the racecourse.

Well, maybe. 

In a recent Fortean Times article, Rob Gandy came to very few conclusions about the various sightings of robed figures performing ceremonies in the area. Although sightings of the torch burning cultists occurred mainly between the mid-1960s and late 70s, local Paranormal investigator, Tom Slemen, believes they are connected to a group he calls The Lilly White Boys, sun-worshippers who predate Jesus Christ. Apparently, the Lilly White Boys also practiced child-sacrifice and were once seen performing a fertility dance during an air-raid blackout.

B

Bold Street

For many years now, Bold Street has been the site of one of the most notorious of Liverpool’s many Time-Slips; locations that provide gateways to other eras. The most publicized case, from the mid-1990s, involves a man who experienced a temporal disturbance while waiting to meet his wife on the busy City Centre thoroughfare. According to John Reppion, writing in 800 Years of Haunted Liverpool, the shops on Bold Street suddenly appeared as they had fifteen years earlier. I find it pleasingly believable that he was transported to an era when things were only slightly different. In Paranormal Merseyside by SD Tucker, a representative of the group, Para.Science puts forward the idea that the nearby electric rails of Central Train station may have created strong magnetic fields that can ‘…affect the human mind and…time itself.’

C

Calder Stones

The Calderstones are six megaliths situated in Calderstones Park, in South Liverpool. They are about five thousand years old and were once part of a burial chamber used by Neolithic scousers. Calderstones Park is also home to the Allerton Oak, a thousand year old tree that is said to have been split down the middle in 1864 by an explosion of gunpowder on a ship three miles away! The Allerton Oak won Tree of the Year in 2019.

D

Daresbury

God knows what they’re doing!

It’s possible that the nearby Cheshire village of Daresbury is responsible for all the strangeness in and around Merseyside. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carol, author of Alice in Wonderland, was born in Daresbury in 1832. But in 1962, a nuclear physics laboratory was opened here. Such places have become a part of modern folklore; the large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is often connected to stories of rifts in reality, and Netflix’s Stranger Things has popularized the idea of science facilities being responsible for paranormal phenomena. A lack of understanding about what goes on behind the heavily guarded doors of these places leads people to fear that scientists are meddling with things that shouldn’t be meddled with. So, is the Daresbury Laboratory responsible for the high number of UFO sightings in the area? Has a gateway between dimensions accidentally been opened up by scientists hard at work on the sciencey things they’re hard at work on?

E

East Lancs Road

“Anonymous nowhere space…”

I grew up next to the Liverpool stretch of the East Lancs Road, a dull duel-carriageway that goes as far as Salford. I witnessed no paranormal activity while living there, but I do remember a sense of living on the very edge of the city; the starting point of an anonymous nowhere space. In Mysteries of the Mersey Valley, UFO expert Jenny Randles describes a road where anomalous occurrences are as common as pile-ups and tailbacks. In 1978, a couple driving home to Leigh saw a six-foot man glowing orange in the central reservation; a Cromwellian soldier is ‘regularly seen crossing the road from Hope Carr towards Glazebury’; a motorcyclist travelling to Manchester in 1985, during the early hours of May 5 met two aliens in ski-suits, who claimed to be from the ‘third solar system.’

F

Flying Saucers…everywhere!

Flying saucers are seen with alarming regularity in and aroundMerseyside, leading UFO expert Jenny Randles to refer to it as ‘Wonderland.’ She believes that the ‘Mersey Valley’ is what experts call a ‘window area.’ A window area has a preponderance of anomalous phenomena.  It’s sort of like the Bermuda Triangle, but in the north of England.

G

Gerald Gardner

Even though your pagan friends believe that they are following traditions that go back well before Christianity, most forms of paganism are actually quite modern. Wiccan witchcraft, for instance, was created by a guy called Gerald who was born in Blundellsands in 1884. Blundellsands lies north of Liverpool and is also the place that spawned Anne Robinson of The Weakest Link.

H

Hale-Childe of

Hale is a little village near the banks of the River Mersey; the childe of Hale was a giant that lived in the village between 1578 and 1623. The Childe, real name John Middleton, was 9ft3, and was said to have slept with his feet hanging out of the window of his house. Middleton once visited that London, where he fought king James the First’s champion wrestler, breaking the man’s thumb during the bout. He was given £20 as a prize, which was, unfortunately, stolen from him on the way back to Hale. Middleton’s house still stands in Hale village, close to a full-size statue of the Childe.

I

Tough one, I.  H’mmm….

Nope. I’ve got nothing.

J

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper is, of course, associated with the London streets that he stalked in the late 1880s. But, in 1992, an unemployed Liverpool scrap dealer claimed to be in possession of the diary of local businessman, James Maybrick. In the pages of the diary, Maybrick confesses to the Ripper murders. Much controversy has centered around disputed carbon dating of the diaries themselves, which seem to suggest that they may indeed be quite old. Most Ripperologists consider the diary to be a fake. Maybrick himself died in suspicious circumstances in 1899, shortly after the Ripper’s rampage ended. His wife, Florence Maybrick, was charged with his murder.

K

Kirkby

Just Kirkby.

L

leprechauns

In 1964, hysteria gripped the children of Kensington in Liverpool, many of whom claimed to have seen leprechauns running around a field off Jubilee Drive. Crowds of kids descended on the field, some intending to catch the leprechauns. The police had to break up the mob, who returned to the field several nights running during early July. There is a large Irish population in Liverpool, which might have led to a sighting of ‘green men’ being interpreted as a visit from the little people. The incident has a lot in common with the ‘Gorbles Vampire’ phenomenon of 1954, when gangs of Glasgow schoolchildren descended upon the Southern Necropolis of the city to hunt a ‘vampire with iron teeth.’

M

Mole Man of Edge Hill

There is a network of tunnels beneath the Edge Hill area of Liverpool and nobody really knows why. The guy who had these tunnels built was Joeseph Williamson, an eccentric philanthropist. Did he build it as a secret masonic meeting place? Was he preparing for a coming apocalypse; or was it simply a way of providing employment to soldiers returning from the Napoleonic wars? As I say, nobody really knows. Visit the tunnels here: http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk/view.php?page=about

N

Norton Priory

Runcorn is a delightful place, known as ‘Fun-corn’ to those who have succumbed to its many charms, and this medieval priory is just one of its attractions. While excavating the site, archaeologists unearthed 130 skeletons. Most of the dead were victims of leprosy, tuberculosis and rickets, though some had met more violent ends. According to Paranormal Eye (https://nightghosts.uk/norton-priory-ghost-hunts/ ) “…loud Screams and growls have been heard coming from this vast location.”

O

Oxton

I have to admit to having trouble with this one. I’ve only been to Oxton once, when my band, Tramp Attack, played the poorly attended Oxton Festival on the same day Live8 was on the telly. Anyway, nothing spooky happened. Luckily, when I googled Oxton, it turns out there are lots of examples of ‘high strangeness’ in the area. Tom Slemen’s Wirral Globe coloumn mentions the ‘Oxton Witch.’ You can read it below. Tom tells us that the names have been changed for legal reasons, then presents us with such magnificent monikers as Alistair Telford and Rex North.

https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/16074062.haunted-wirral-mysterious-case-oxton-witch/

P

Patrick-Patron Saint of Ireland

Liverpool is abound with Irish connections. Most of this is due to the thousands of Irish immigrants who made a new life in the city when fleeing the Potato famine during the 1840s. But a peculiar Liverpool tradition suggests that Saint Patrick visited the city on the way to Ireland in the fifth century. The story suggests that he gave a speech at a crossroads where Vauxhall Road meets Hatton Garden. Until 1775, a stone cross commemorated Saint Patrick’s visitation, being removed during repairs of the road and never returning. The area is now home to The Superlambana.

The Church of The Holy Cross was built near where Patrick delivered his speech. In 1865, John Surrat, suspected conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, took refuge in the church while evading justice.

Q

Quarry Bank

The most famous pupil to attend Quarry Bank school (now Calderstones) was, without a doubt, John Lennon. Long after Lennon graduated, Clive Barker, celebrated horror author, attended the school. While there, he joined the school’s drama-group. There he met Doug Bradley, the actor who became Pinhead in Barker’s Hellraiser film-series. The other noted member of this drama-group was Les Dennis, who went on to present Family Fortunes.

R

Randles, Jenny

Jenny Randles is the UFO expert responsible for first using the term ‘Wonderland’ to describe the areas around the River Mersey. She was also one of the first people on the scene after the ‘Rendlesham Forest incident’, sometimes referred to as the ‘British Roswell.’ She has written many books on the paranormal, often returning to the subject of the ‘Mersey Valley.’ Jenny writes a UFO coloumn for the Fortean Times each month.

Jenny also appears in this amazing comic-

https://t.co/XQnZDwsW6n

S

Spring heel Jack

Originally a London phenomenon from the 1830s, Springheel Jack first made his way up-north to Liverpool about fifty years later. Springheel Jack was described as ‘wearing a kind of helmet, and a tight-fitting white costume like an oil skin.’ He could breathe fire and leap supernaturally high, making his escape from the law by disappearing over high walls. In 1858 he appeared to terrified students at St Francis Xavier’s school in Everton, then returned again years later to terrorise the same part of town.

In 800 Years of haunted Liverpool, John Reppion puts forward an interesting explanation of the hysteria that led to the later Everton sighting.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/800-years-of-haunted-liverpool/john-reppion/9780752447001

T

Terrifying Toxteth

Due to poverty in the area, the legacy of the 1980s riots and a racially-mixed population viewed with suspicion by some in the city, Toxteth has gained quite a reputation. In truth, Toxteth is a vibrant part of town, rich with history. Toxteth Chapel, at the bottom of Park Road, was originally built in 1618. As Reppion points out in 800 Years… the original minister was Richard Mather, who later emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts. Mather’sfamily became embroiled in the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s. With all this history, tales of the paranormal are bound to emerge, though the strangest I’ve come across is Tom Slemen’s report of a vampire known as ‘Manilu’ stalking the streets around Lodge Lane in the late 1990s.

U

Upper Stanhope Street

102 Upper Stanhope Street in Toxteth, once the home of Adolf Hitler’s brother Alois, is no longer standing, having been destroyed by the Luftwaffe during WW2. Alois was married to an Irish woman called Bridget, who he had eloped with to England in 1910. A long-standing rumour in the city is that Adolf himself came to stay with his brother, avoiding conscription into the Austrian army.

V

(See I…)

W

Wavertree Well

Not far from the Picton Clock in Wavertree stands the Monks’ Well, once connected to a nearby monastery, and apparently dating back to the 1400s. The latin quotation on the well translates as “He who here does nought bestow, The Devil laughs at him below.” In the 1700s there were “persistent rumours” of mysterious tunnels running beneath were the well Stands.

X

Xerolith

Xerolith was a printer’s shop on Penny Lane, where mysterious poltergeist phenomena occurred in the 1970s. To find out more, read my article here: https://pennylanedreadful.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/meanwhile-back/

Or listen to my podcast on the subject- https://pennylanedreadful.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/penny-lane-dreadful-podcast/

Y

(See V and I)

Z

Zomdic

In the late 1950s, James Cooke made contact with beings from the planet Zomdic while out walking on Runcorn Hill. The aliens took Cooke onboard their flying saucer for a quick trip to their home-planet, where the telepathic Zomdicians convinced him to spread a message of peace to the world. Cooke soon set up the “Church of Aquarius.” Followers of the church performed spiritualist-like ceremonies to contact the bisexual inhabitants of the Planet Zomdic. Later, in nearby Frodsham, Cooke was also visited by creatures from the planet Shebic. The Church of Aquarius disbanded in 1969.