Haunted Darlington E-Book

Robert Woodhouse

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 116

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

From historic encounters with murdered men and lingering lovers, to eyewitness accounts of ghostly animals that still fiercely guard their final resting place, Darlington is bursting with tales of phantoms and ghouls that are sure to give you goosebumps. Robert Woodhouse tracks down background stories, explanations and key evidence for the town's supernatural incidents as he delves into the region's hair-raising past. Beware of the 'Tartan Lady' at Blackwell Grange who has been seen to step out of her life-sized portrait to alarm passers-by, the 'Headless Hobgoblin' of Neasham who lures unwitting residents to a watery death in the River Tees, and the young girl in Victorian clothing who makes unscheduled appearances at North Road Station. Leaving no stone unturned, Haunted Darlington will enthral everyone with an interest in the paranormal.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A long-standing interest in aspects of history relating to north-east England has uncovered countless reports of supernatural activity. Many of these episodes were highlighted in local newspapers, almanacs and wide-ranging reference works, but others have been supplied by friends, relatives and members of the public and I am extremely grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have provided such material.

Photographs are from my own collection apart from those on pages 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 23, 44, 49, 51, 52 and 54–57, which were provided by Beamish Regional Resource Centre.

The locations covered are either within Darlington Borough Council district or form part of neighbouring areas. In particular I am indebted to staff at Darlington Central Reference Library for their invaluable assistance in tracing material in newspapers and an assortment of reference works, and to members of my local history classes on ‘Supernatural North Country’ for contributing additional features. A final word of thanks is due to Liz Taylorson for her typing and administrative work.

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Introduction

one

    Aquatic Horrors for Early Inhabitants

two

    Spooks on the Roads To and From Darlington

three

    Spooky Residential Areas

four

    Haunted Town Centre Locations

five

    Ghostly Animals

six

    Supernatural Sightings on the Industrial Front

seven

    Ghoulish Goings-on at School

eight

    Supernatural Incidents at Durham Tees Valley Airport

nine

    Supernatural Locations Just Beyond Darlington

ten

    Ghost Hunting in Times Past

Epilogue

Select Bibliography

About the Author

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

IT does seem quite strange that some places in the North of England appear to have more ghostly locations than other settlements of a similar size in different parts of the country. Perhaps this is because places like York, Durham and Newcastle on Tyne have such a long history of human occupation that there are simply more restless souls who have yet to find peace. On the other hand, Darlington is rather smaller in size, with less evidence of early human activity, yet it can boast a whole range of supernatural sightings. Maybe Darlington’s residents are simply more conscious, aware or perceptive when it comes to paranormal activity …

Northern folk certainly seem to be at the forefront when it comes to ghostly credentials, for a recent National Opinion Poll concluded that six out of ten people in the region claimed to have felt the presence of a ghost. These figures far outweighed numbers calculated for the Midlands and the South of England.

Down the centuries, ghostly characters and paranormal themes have regularly featured in literary works but the whole question of ghosts, phantoms, apparitions (or whatever term is applied) only started to gain widespread publicity in Britain during the seventeenth century. This rapid growth of interest was certainly due, at least in part, to an increase in accusations of witchcraft and the activities of the ‘Witch-finder General’. In more recent times the subject of ghost hunting has gained an amount of academic credibility and committed groups of researchers employ a range of technical devices during their rigorous investigations.

Darlington coat of arms.

Of course there is also research to rationalise paranormal findings and scientific analysis examines the psychological and medical evidence behind supernatural sightings. For example, findings reported by researchers at Edinburgh University in the later weeks of 2011 concluded that near-death experiences are not paranormal but stimulated by a normal change in brain function, while the effects of noradrenaline – a hormone released by the brain – are known to fuel hallucinations. Many ghostly occurrences can undoubtedly be explained away as tricks of our own imagination but with such a range of sightings by people from all sorts of backgrounds, it is perhaps difficult to dismiss all such reports as entirely delusional.

If spectral sightings are linked to events or incidents connected with the full range of human activity in the past then the region covered by Darlington and neighbouring areas has an extremely varied and impressive range of settings, both urban and rural, within its boundaries.

Although the first documentary evidence of a settlement at ‘Dearthingtun’ only appears in an eleventh-century land grant, experts suggest that an Anglian community existed close to the cemetery that was uncovered on the Greenbank estate in 1876 and the discovery of fragments of ninth- or tenth-century crosses in St Cuthbert’s church point to an earlier church building on the west side of the present building.

The Bishop of Durham’s manor house was probably built in the 1160s on a site to the south of the churchyard and by the mid-thirteenth century, Darlington market and annual fairs attracted large numbers of people from most areas of the north-east.

By the late fourteenth century the town was playing an important part in the shipment of wool to the Continent and clearly defined routes through the town had also been established with streets such as Houndgate, Blackwellgate, Skinnergate and Northgate most prominent.

A long line of academic institutions in the town may well have begun with an early grammar school linked with the collegiate church of St Cuthbert. Following the opening of another grammar school and a chantry chapel in 1530, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter for the establishment of a further grammar school during 1563. Design work for Victorian grammar school buildings and several of the town’s other notable properties, including Elm Ridge on Carmel Road South, was carried out by George Gordon Hoskins (1837–1911) who was based in Russell Street Buildings, Northgate, from 1864.

Darlington’s growth as an industrial and commercial centre during the second half of the nineteenth century highlighted the need for improved medical facilities and in 1865 the town’s first public hospital opened in Russell Street. The grey brickwork of new hospital buildings in Greenbank Road took shape between 1883–85 but during the interwar years the focus of medical care shifted to a site on Hollyhurst Road with construction of the Memorial Hospital. This site was officially opened on Friday, 5 May 1933 by HRH Prince George, KG, GCVO.

Darlington Grammar School, built in 1874–77 to designs by G.G. Hoskins..

Darlington’s first public hospital (opened in 1865).

A great deal of the impetus for Darlington’s economic growth was provided by Quaker families who began to settle in the town during the 1660s. Woollen and linen industries became increasingly centralised in their hands and, following a rise in population to over 4,500 by 1801, the next fifty years saw a further increase to more than 12,000.

Much of this demographic activity resulted from the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in September 1825 and the leading figure in this venture was one of the town’s foremost Quaker citizens, Edward Pease.

The railway not only improved Darlington’s trading links but also stimulated associated industries including locomotive, carriage and wagon building as well as production of raw materials such as iron and steel. By 1867 there were three blast furnaces, 153 puddling furnaces and nine finishing mills in the town.

The influence of Quaker families such as Pease and Backhouse spread far beyond railways and may be found in many parts of the town. On the north side of Houndgate – close to the market place – is Pease’s House, birthplace of Edward Pease, while Northgate Lodge, a bow-fronted house dating from 1830, was at one time the home of John Beaumont Pease (a nephew of Edward Pease).

Many of Darlington’s imposing buildings were designed by Sir Alfred Waterhouse and these include the old town hall (opened in 1864) along with the market hall and clock tower, which was a gift to the town from Joseph Pease. A short distance away, towards the northern end of High Row, Barclays Bank – formerly Backhouse’s Bank – was designed by Waterhouse in the Victorian Gothic style and was also completed in 1864.

Graveyard and walls of the Friends Meeting House in Skinnergate.

View of Darlington from the top of Pease’s Mill in 1938, between Tubwell Row and Priestgate.

Mechanics’ Institute on Skinnergate.

Several of the town’s other nineteenth-century buildings were designed by J.P. Pritchett and among them are the Mechanics’ Institute on Skinnergate, which dates from 1853. Skinnergate also has several examples of Darlington’s ‘yards’, which formerly housed workers and their families. On the east side, between Skinnergate and High Row, are Mechanic’s Yard, Clark’s Yard and Buckton’s Yard, while on the opposite side is Friends’ Yard.

During the last decades of the nineteenth century, Darlington gained other distinctive buildings, including the library in Crown Street and the original Technical College building on Northgate. Edward Pease (1834–1880) provided finance for the library that opened in 1885 and on the roadside there is an intriguing link with a former editor of the Northern Echo, W.T. Stead. A small boulder with attached metal ring was used by the newspaper chief to tether his pony after travelling to his nearby office from the family home at Grainey Hill Cottage, Hummersknott.

The town’s first Technical College building, located in Northgate, was opened by the Duke of Devonshire in 1897. In front of the premises stands a large glacial boulder known as Bulmer Stone, which takes its name either from the Bulmer family who owned adjacent property or from a town crier, Willie Bulmer, who is reported to have stood on the stone to read news items to the townsfolk.

Darlington Free Library on Crown Street, built in 1884–85.

Hitching Stone outside Darlington Library.

Northgate pictured in 1910.

An information panel for the Bulmer Stone, Darlington’s oldest landmark.

The Bulmer Stone, Northgate.

North Road, Darlington. This photograph was taken around the 1920s.

New Hippodrome Theatre, Parkgate, now renamed Darlington Civic Theatre (opened in 1907 and photographed around this time).

While the late eighteenth century saw the opening of theatres in nearby townships such as Stockton-on-Tees (in 1766) and Richmond (1788), the influence of Darlington’s Quaker citizens probably inhibited similar developments in the town. During the early 1800s, Thorn’s Theatre was set up in Clay Row before moving to premises in Blackwellgate and several other theatrical ventures were short-lived before the opening of the Hippodrome in Parkgate on 2 September 1907.

During the early years, management was in the hands of Signor Rino Pepi, an Italian who gave up a stage career to concentrate on running theatrical venues in the north-east, and an array of star performers appeared on the Hippodrome’s stage. Rino Pepi died on 17 November 1927, hours before a performance by the legendary ballerina, Pavlova, and by this time the theatre was suffering severe financial difficulties. A local syndicate of businessmen bought the building for £18,500 but the 1930s saw more financial crises and regular changes in management. After a short period of closure the theatre was reopened by Darlington Amateur Operatic Society in 1958 and, following a major programme of cleaning and refurbishment, the society’s production of White Horse Inn was a major success.

Few productions were staged over the next few years and, although the building was purchased by Darlington Corporation for £8,000 in 1964 (with full control two years later) after which further improvements were made, the theatre’s fortunes remained at a low ebb. A dramatic turning point came in 1972 following the appointment of Peter Tod as theatre director and within five years he had increased audiences from 20 per cent of capacity to almost 85 per cent. The theatre’s 80th anniversary was marked with the news that average attendances of 95 per cent represented the highest audiences of any provincial theatre and schemes to refurbish the interior and increase seating capacity have ensured that Darlington Civic Theatre maintains its place as one of the country’s foremost provincial theatres.

During the Edwardian period, housing development had spread almost as far as Cockerton and the village was incorporated in 1915, while on the eastern side of the town, Haughton-le-Skerne was added in 1930. During successive phases of industrial expansion, Darlington maintained its position as the market centre for a large agricultural hinterland and this has been reflected in schemes to remodel the town’s market place and adjacent areas.

Just beyond the south-eastern corner of the market place is the new town hall. Built on the site of the Bishop of Durham’s manor house (which was demolished in 1970), it was designed by Williamson and Faulkner Brown of Newcastle on Tyne in conjunction with the borough architect, and officially opened by HRH Princess Anne on 27 May 1970. Other recent town centre schemes that reflect Darlington’s continued prosperity include the Dolphin Centre, a large sporting and leisure complex on the southern side of the market place, and the Cornmill Shopping Centre, which covers a large area of ground between Tubwell Row, Northgate and Crown Street.

Another chapter in the town’s municipal history opened on 1 April 1997 when Darlington became a unitary authority. Within a wider context the Borough of Darlington includes not only the township of Darlington but also surrounding rural areas containing twenty-six civil parishes ranging from Heighington on the northern edge to Hurworth on the southern flank. It is from this area of the Borough of Darlington and the surrounding neighbourhood that assorted tales, incidents and episodes of a supernatural nature have been gathered to comprise Haunted Darlington.

Miss Joyce Banks (left) and a colleague taking part in Our Miss Gibbs performed by Darlington Operatic Society in 1935.

ONE

AQUATIC HORRORS FOR EARLY INHABITANTS