Sunday 11th February 2024
The following account is something of a convoluted story, but, back in 2003, I had spoken to two - completely unrelated - people who, strangely, both happened to mention the same 'ghost', which was said to walk the Shard End area of Birmingham. I have to say ‘strangely’ there, as, coincidentally, I spoke with these individuals literally within a couple of days of each other - concerning totally unrelated matters - and neither of these people knew anything of the other...
The first source was someone that I had – at the time – been conducting a brief, friendly correspondence with online. One day, purely in passing, he mentioned to me that he had been told of the apparition in question by another online acquaintance. The man concerned claimed to have seen the ghost himself, in the street where he lived!
My 2nd contact was a lovely lady that I was interviewing, concerning a ghost sighting she’d had on the outskirts of Birmingham City some years earlier. However, just in chatting, she had – as frequently happens at such times - digressed from the primary case slightly and mentioned hearing of a spectre that haunted the area where she lived… Seemingly, she had not seen this ghost herself, but had recalled hearing of the matter and thought it worthy of a mention, during our talk.
At the time, I had been suitably dumbfounded to discover that both of the aforementioned references seemingly referred to the exact, same ghost…! I had never so much as heard a whisper on such topics previously, but now – within the space of just a few days – two complete strangers (to me and one another) coincidentally mention the very same case?
The ghost, it transpires, was the figure of a man, wearing old fashioned attire, who seemingly walked a handful of streets within the rough ‘half-circle’ shape formed by the long and bowed Shard End Crescent. (See 'modern' map immediately above). Described as sporting a top hat and walking with the help of a cane, the figure was said - by BOTH of the sources involved – to be fairly 'well-known' in the Shard End region, it seems…?
I must admit that, not knowing anything of this area at all, I had, at the time, noted what a peculiar coincidence this had turned out to be… dotted down the references concerned in my files... and simply allowed the matter to slip to the back of my mind.
Coming forward to a week or so ago, I was just perusing an online page - dedicated to the Shard End region – when I came across a post by a young lady, saying that she had also seemingly seen an apparition answering to the above-mentioned description!? Despite not having really given the 2003 references much thought since that (now fairly distant) date, the details were still lodged somewhere in the back of my mind… so this fresh information certainly caused my ears to ‘prick up’ somewhat! In furtherance, something that had REALLY stood out to me was the fact that she had ALSO happened to note that the ghost was 'well-known' in the area concerned too!
Needless to say (possibly), the matter began playing on my mind to a fair degree… Despite three individuals separately saying that this apparition was apparently quite famous, I had – again – never heard of the matter anywhere previously… nor were there any pertinent references to be found on the topic elsewhere either? (Nothing in print, in media sources, or online). Just HOW well-known is this ghost, we wonder?
As a consequence, the only course of action that came to mind – re. potentially finding out more data – was an appeal to the local press… A hastily written email to the news desk of the Birmingham Evening Mail elicited a prompt reply from reporter, Harry Leach. He, most kindly, took an interest in this conundrum and, only a few days later, the light-hearted article HERE appeared…
In looking into the annals of the particular region of Shard End in question, it appears that there is no real relevant history to the area whatsoever. The specific locality, through which the ghost is said to walk, was nothing but fields a century or so ago… though, interestingly, enclosed within the same roughly-horse-shoe-shaped thoroughfare that we see in Shard End Crescent on maps today. (See Victorian era map above this paragraph). In years gone by, however, this half-ellipse track way was formerly made up of Popit Lane and Hurst Lane.
Seemingly,
the only matter of moderate interest in this spot is the grim fact that the notorious
murderer, Abraham Thornton, lived at Shard End Farm, which formerly stood
on one of the streets that this 'ghost' allegedly walks... However, while
an intriguing, little snippet of local history, I personally can't see any
possible connections with the aforementioned character..? Sadly, the aforementioned farm was demolished many decades ago and a public house - the unusually named 'Harlequin' - built on the spot. This, in turn, also fell to the bulldozers a few years ago and the Harlequin Medical Centre now stands on the site...
Needless to say, the ball is still very much ‘in the air’ as far as this matter currently goes… so we will be sure to bring you further information on the case, if anything of interest surfaces!
No comments:
Post a Comment