Monday November 5th 2018
In my youth, I was prone to wandering certain parts of the general Black Country region - with a group of friends, as you do! - and we would frequently 'discover' little corners of the region that subsequently became fairly 'familiar' to us through subsequent, sporadic, visits and related, teenage shenanigans.....
One such location was the 'Coseley Tunnel', situated on the Birmingham to Wolverhampton Canal, between Bilston and Dudley. At around 330 meters in length, this is an imposing and 'creepy' location, even on the brightest of days, but - I'm a little embarrassed to say - it became a firm favourite of ours.... especially during night-time walks.... and especially so when we happened to have groups of 'jumpy' young ladies in tow; the sort of young ladies who would need to hold onto a hand or youthful, brawny arm for comfort while passing through!! Chuckle!! (Ahh - the childhood innocence of yesteryear, eh!? We took our - wholly wholesome - pleasures where we could back then!! Laugh!!)
At this point in time, the spot was nothing more than a fairly 'cool' and spooky location for our juvenile adventuring... and, as far as I can recall, we had never heard of any associated 'ghost stories' whatsoever back then?
Subsequently, throughout my adult life, I'd often thought back on visits to the tunnel - re-living old capers in my mind, or reminiscing with childhood friends, etc - though I had little cause to 'physically' visit again, as, at least as far as my life has gone, the location itself has always been a little 'off the beaten track' as far as I was concerned and Coseley itself was not an area that I had any real cause to visit. One of the very last times I saw the place was a particularly 'icy' period one Winter, around 15 to 20 years back and, just taking a few minutes to simply go and view the Bilston-end entrance to the tunnel, 'something' had sufficiently leaked above the mouth of the opening, resulting in masses and masses of immense icicles hanging down over the frozen canal!! It was an absolutely mind-blowing sight, I must admit, but, typically for me, I didn't have a camera with me at the time!!
One such location was the 'Coseley Tunnel', situated on the Birmingham to Wolverhampton Canal, between Bilston and Dudley. At around 330 meters in length, this is an imposing and 'creepy' location, even on the brightest of days, but - I'm a little embarrassed to say - it became a firm favourite of ours.... especially during night-time walks.... and especially so when we happened to have groups of 'jumpy' young ladies in tow; the sort of young ladies who would need to hold onto a hand or youthful, brawny arm for comfort while passing through!! Chuckle!! (Ahh - the childhood innocence of yesteryear, eh!? We took our - wholly wholesome - pleasures where we could back then!! Laugh!!)
At this point in time, the spot was nothing more than a fairly 'cool' and spooky location for our juvenile adventuring... and, as far as I can recall, we had never heard of any associated 'ghost stories' whatsoever back then?
Subsequently, throughout my adult life, I'd often thought back on visits to the tunnel - re-living old capers in my mind, or reminiscing with childhood friends, etc - though I had little cause to 'physically' visit again, as, at least as far as my life has gone, the location itself has always been a little 'off the beaten track' as far as I was concerned and Coseley itself was not an area that I had any real cause to visit. One of the very last times I saw the place was a particularly 'icy' period one Winter, around 15 to 20 years back and, just taking a few minutes to simply go and view the Bilston-end entrance to the tunnel, 'something' had sufficiently leaked above the mouth of the opening, resulting in masses and masses of immense icicles hanging down over the frozen canal!! It was an absolutely mind-blowing sight, I must admit, but, typically for me, I didn't have a camera with me at the time!!
Anyhow, moving forward a handful of years or so, and I suddenly hear of a couple of local ghost clubs supposedly conducting 'investigations' there? Intriguingly - at that point in time - there were never any details or stories given to account for this interest, so I had naturally been led to wonder whether the groups themselves had actually heard of any data to lead them to believe the location was supposedly 'haunted'.... or, as does frequently happen in this day and age, whether some form of ghostly activity / presence was a pure matter of 'presumption', simply because the place concerned happened to simply be a little eerie in itself!? It has to be suggested that, purely logically speaking, such locations can easily generate so many different sensations and impressions, even in the mind of the most level-headed visitor or passer-by - for completely obvious and naturally occurring atmospheric / sensory reasons, I guess!?
In spite of the above-mentioned considerations, a couple of years further along and I suddenly came across a reference to a real-life occurrence at the tunnel, which certainly constituted an affair that a great many people would - given popular, paranormal culture - certainly suggest was conducive to the development of a 'ghostly situation' of some kind? It transpires that, In 1901, a woman named Hannah Johnson Cox had murdered her two youngest, female children in the canal here, by tying them together with an apron - face to face - and 'slipping them into the water'......
This horrific act carried out by Cox - while heinous in the extreme - wasn't entirely without mitigating circumstances. The woman had previously been greatly neglected by her cruel husband who had finally left her and their five children in a situation leading them to be thrown out of their home and, if not for the kindness of a neighbour, destitute and 'on the streets'..... As a result of this, Hannah was said to have fallen into a considerable depression, leading her to this terrible, desperate act.....
At her trial, it was revealed that she had been assessed by more than one authority and it was clear she was suffering from 'temporary mental aberration'. As a result, directed by the judge, the jury had returned a verdict suggesting she had not been responsible for her actions at the time of the crime and she was sentenced to be detained at his majesty's pleasure.....
As a result of the above, a ghostly legend had quite naturally 'developed', associated with the site, in the form of a fairly typical, 'white lady' style ghost. However, such suggestions do still very much seem to be little more than a matter of pure 'legend', resulting from the crime in question... as it is never reported or recorded anywhere that the 'ghost' in question has actually 'been seen' by anyone at first-hand!? If anything, a lot of written sources still seem utterly baffled as to 'who' the ghost actually is, or precisely 'why' she might be there? Despite seemingly knowing her name, one account - published in book form - reports her as nothing more than the 'shrieking phantom of H.J.C.', who, we are bafflingly informed, 'stabs passers by.... the same as her husband stabbed and murdered her'!?!? That local bastion of misinformation and frequent 'dubious reference material' - The Black Country Bugle - had also carried articles on both the murders and the ghost itself in more recent years..... all of which had served to spur me on towards another visit to the location.
In spite of the above-mentioned considerations, a couple of years further along and I suddenly came across a reference to a real-life occurrence at the tunnel, which certainly constituted an affair that a great many people would - given popular, paranormal culture - certainly suggest was conducive to the development of a 'ghostly situation' of some kind? It transpires that, In 1901, a woman named Hannah Johnson Cox had murdered her two youngest, female children in the canal here, by tying them together with an apron - face to face - and 'slipping them into the water'......
This horrific act carried out by Cox - while heinous in the extreme - wasn't entirely without mitigating circumstances. The woman had previously been greatly neglected by her cruel husband who had finally left her and their five children in a situation leading them to be thrown out of their home and, if not for the kindness of a neighbour, destitute and 'on the streets'..... As a result of this, Hannah was said to have fallen into a considerable depression, leading her to this terrible, desperate act.....
At her trial, it was revealed that she had been assessed by more than one authority and it was clear she was suffering from 'temporary mental aberration'. As a result, directed by the judge, the jury had returned a verdict suggesting she had not been responsible for her actions at the time of the crime and she was sentenced to be detained at his majesty's pleasure.....
As a result of the above, a ghostly legend had quite naturally 'developed', associated with the site, in the form of a fairly typical, 'white lady' style ghost. However, such suggestions do still very much seem to be little more than a matter of pure 'legend', resulting from the crime in question... as it is never reported or recorded anywhere that the 'ghost' in question has actually 'been seen' by anyone at first-hand!? If anything, a lot of written sources still seem utterly baffled as to 'who' the ghost actually is, or precisely 'why' she might be there? Despite seemingly knowing her name, one account - published in book form - reports her as nothing more than the 'shrieking phantom of H.J.C.', who, we are bafflingly informed, 'stabs passers by.... the same as her husband stabbed and murdered her'!?!? That local bastion of misinformation and frequent 'dubious reference material' - The Black Country Bugle - had also carried articles on both the murders and the ghost itself in more recent years..... all of which had served to spur me on towards another visit to the location.
As an ending to this somewhat rambling post... I eventually took the time to pop along and finally visit the tunnel again in late September this year. For the first time ever, I entered and traveled along one bank - crossed the canal at the far end - and exited (back in the direction of Bilston) on the other side. This latter stretch of my walk wasn't without interest, as the initially distant lights from a party of (middle aged) people on bicycles - passing along on the opposite side of the pitch, black tunnel - did afford me a bit of a 'what the hell is that?' moment, before I caught any tell-tale sounds from the party concerned! Laugh!
Moving on to finally exit the tunnel and I realised where all of the 'pouring water noise' was coming from when I had initially entered, on the - in comparison - bone-dry opposite bank! Yes - there were a couple of, completely unavoidable, 'mystery showers' that had to be dashed through on the way out..... I sincerely hope that it was probably just seeping ground water of some description, but, if I'm honest, you really have no idea at all what you are running through!? Shudder!
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