Saddlers ghost boy mystery.
By Nick Pullen.
Mystified staff at Walsall Football Club are trying to trace the identity of an unexplained signing spotted wandering around Bescot Stadium. Several members of the catering department have sighted the figure of a 10 to 12 year old boy wearing a jumper and long trousers that would associate him with the earlier part of the century. Club chaplin the Rev Martin Butt has already been called in and said prayers at various parts of the ground.
Saddlers commercial director Roy Whalley told the Observer: “Perhaps the boy is trying to attract attention to help him out of his plight.” Mr Whalley added that a number of strange incidents had recently taken place around the stadium: “Lights have been switched on, doors opened, toilets flushed and things fallen off shelves when no-one has been in the building.”
Although Mr Whalley hasn’t seen the boy himself, he can recall one unusual incident. “I was sorting out the mail in my office when there was a crackling sound followed by voices as though a transistor radio had been switched on. It lasted for about 20 seconds, but there was no radio in the office. If someone had told me about this a couple of weeks ago I would have laughed.”
Now Mr Whalley is appealing to Walsall Observer readers to try and solve the riddle of these sightings. It is known that Bescot Stadium is built on the site of a former South Staffordshire Waterworks Depot. The site was also used as a sewage works. If anyone can recall a tragic incident that occurred on the site over the past 60 to 70 years that involved the death of a boy, then Mr Whalley would like to hear from them.
Walsall Observer, 18th October 1996.