The Inseparable Skulls.
A Haunted House Story.
(From our Correspondent).
Bolton, Tuesday.
An
extraordinary story has been revived here concerning two ancient
skulls. For generations, it is said, these remains have been preserved
together, and any attempt to separate them has been followed by weird
disturbances. Tradition says the skulls were originally kept at
Timberbottom’s Farm, a centureies old building, at Harwood, known
locally as the Skull House. The occupants of the farm made many attempts
to get rid of the skulls: they had buried them and they had thrown them
into Bradshaw Brook, but on each occasion there followed unbearable
disturbances at the farm, and the relics were restored to their place.
The
haunting took the form of knocking, prolonged at times for hours, and
the origin of the noise could not be traced. All this was a long time
ago. For many years the skulls have not been at the farm, the occupants
of which believed them to have been lost; but the farm was undisturbed
by the knocking.
Of late, however, it broke out again, and to such
an extent that the farm dog was rendered unapproachable by terror and
rage. Nothing could be done, of course, and the inhabitants had to wait
until the haunting ceased, which it did as unexpectedly as it started.
The
rest of the story is contained in a letter to the press from Colonel
H.M. Hardcastle, who lives near the haunted farm. He states:-
“Two
skulls, those of a man and a woman, have rested undisturbed on our
family Bible for 80 years. I recently took one skull to Manchester to
have a silver rim put round it to preserve it, and the instant the one
skull left the other the disturbances began again at Timberbottoms, a
half a mile away.”
The two skulls are now together again.
The Manchester Guardian, 4th January 1928.
(the skulls are now at Turton Tower, Bolton?)
Friendship of two skulls!
Ghostly hammerings if separated.
Howling dog.
From our own correspondent. Bolton, Saturday.
There are ghosts at Timberbottom Farm – a holding in the Bolton district of Lancashire. They do not float diaphanously in white along the landing, but manifest themselves to the ear rather than to the eye. Mysterious nocturnal noises resembling the banging of a hammer on a door, which have been heard at the centuries-old farmstead, have revived the legend associated with Two Skulls which have stood side by side for 70 years on the Family Bible in the seventeenth century house known as Bradshaw Hall, halfa mile away. The legend runs that whenever the skulls are separated from the spirits which have once dwelt in them, they object so violently that the noises at the farm, where the skulls were housed for many years before being taken to Bradshaw Hall, keep the household awake.
One of the skulls is full sized and is that of a man. The other, a fragment of a woman’s skull, is mounted on a silver stand, and resembles a drinking goblet.
A few days ago the woman’s skull was taken to Manchester for its silver rim to be repaired. “On the very afternoon that the skull went to Manchester,” said Colonel Hardcastle, who lives at Bradshaw Hall, to a Press representative, “the noise at Timberbottom Farm began. The noises were repeated until I returned the skull to its fellow.”
Mrs John Heywood, wife of the farmer at Timberbottom Farm, told the following story: – “I have heard the knockings many times and can assure you that they are not imagination. At five o’clock the other afternoon, I heard some loud bangs on the farm door, but found nobody there. About five o’clock the same night, the knockings started again. They got louder and louder, and the noise was much greater than any we had heard before. The farm dog began barking and howling as though it was going mad. The noise kept us awake, and my husband went downstairs, but could find no reason for the noises, which went on until two o’clock in the morning. We did not find out until a few days later that the woman’s skull at Bradshaw Hall had been taken to Manchester.
“I have an idea that, in some strange way, I cannot explain, the noises have something to do with those skulls. It is very weird, but I do not worry about it, as the noises have never done anybody any harm. Two people who were staying with us here, were so frightened that they would not sleep in the house and went to stay with a neighbour.”
Theris a legend in the Horwood district of Bolton that one of these skulls may be that of a soldier who was a deserter from one of the rival armies in the Civil War. A battle was fought in the neighbourhood, and the meadow next to the farm was the burial place of many of the dead soldiers. Another legend adds romance to the mystery, suggesting that the woman’s skull is that of the soldier’s sweetheart. Then there are tales of murders – legends that the couple were involved in some tragedy and the soldier was shot as a deserter, and that his sweetheart then took her own life.
But, be that as it may, the ghosts have been laid now that the skulls are lying side by side again on the old Family Bible.
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 8th January 1928.
Hauntings at Bolton.
Local interest in Bolton, Lancs., has been aroused by the story of hauntings at Timberbottom Farm, Bradshaw, which is reported to have been haunted for at least a century. It is claimed that the invisible ghost has recently lifted a kettle four or five inches from the hob in the presence of two women. The ghost, it appears, has never been seen, though many members of the family have heard noises even in the rooms where they were present. In past times the tenant, Mr Heywood, has torn up the floor boards and flags without discovering any clue to the mysterious happenings. Close investigation has failed to reveal any explanation of the strange noises.
The Two Worlds, 18th January 1929.
Ghost gets noisier.
The Ghost of Timberbottom Farm is haunting on the heavy scale again. After 11 years of reticent tappings, he has taken to clattering up and downstairs and banging doors. Mr and Mrs John Heywood occupy the farm, which is at Bradshaw, near Bolton, Lancashire.
Mrs Heywood told the “Daily Herald” reporter yesterday: “A man and his wife who were lodging here have left to find a new home, following these new disturbances. It really is uncanny. It sounds as if a big man were tramping about the house.”
The trouble began on Friday night. From 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. the noises went on at intervals. Mr Heywood said that his family has been troubled by ghostly knockings ever since it took over the tenancy of the farm 86 years ago. There was evidence of such happenings even before then. The reappearance of the ghost – which nobody has ever seen – recalls the story that it walks only if anything happens to two skulls which used to be kept at the farm. These are now in the possession of Colonel H.M. Hardcastle, of Bradshaw Hall.
Daily Herald, 24th October 1939.
Colonel and vicar in “ghost hunt.”
Former Terrington clergyman’s plan.
Judge Bradshaw, who is reputed to have signed the death warrant of Charles I., and two skulls on a family Bible are linked with a ghost which, it is said, has been prowling round Timberbottom Farm, Bradshaw, near Bolton, at intervals over 86 years (wrote a Special Correspondent of the News-Chronicle on Wednesday). Lately it has been keeping awake Farmer Heywood and his wife by tramping up and down the stairs, opening and shutting doors and by being generally noisy.
To-day Colonel H.M. Hardcastle, of nearby Bradshaw Hall, and the local vicar, the Rev. A. A. Boxley (formerly vicar of Terrington St Clement) tried to find some rational explanation for the noises. Both were impressed by the story which Mrs Heywood had to tell. The colonel intends to pursue the ghost with the aid of the Society for Psychical Research. The vicar is anxious to tackle the ghost single-handed. He has arranged for Mrs Heywood to telephone him immediately the ghost makes its reappearance.
Mrs Heywood told me today that the previous time they were seriously troubled by the noises was 11 or 12 years ago when two skulls, believed to be those of a man and a woman, were disturbed from their resting place on the family Bible in Colonel Hardcastle’s home. The study in which they are now kept is said to be the room in which Judge Bradshaw, one time owner of the hall, signed King Charles’s death warrant.
Lynn Advertiser, 27th October 1939.