Ghost mystery at the Eagle Centre.
Supernatural events have taken place – museum chief.
Claims that ghosts are haunting the Eagle Centre in Derby have been taken seriously by experts in psychical phenomena. Mark Harrop investigates a modern-day haunting.
There have been some strange goings-on in Derby’s Eagle Centre. Amid the plate-glass and modern buildings of the shopping complex something supernatural lurks. The Eagle Centre is haunted and those people who turn away in scorn at such a suggestion would be advised to consider the spine-chilling experiences of some people who work there. This is not a recent development in the centre’s short history. The spook has been in residence for several years and made its real assault on the nerves of the sales staff about 2 1/2 years ago. Most of the incidents have occurred in one section of the complex in the area around Freeman Hardy Willis shoe shop and Top Shop which sells women’s clothes.
Mrs Margaret James, of Mickleover, works in Top Shop and has come to terms with the ghost after getting a nasty shock from it a couple of years ago. “Two of us went down to the store room, we were chatting away wehn all of a sudden we went all cold, like someone had just opened a fridge door. Then we heard a terrible scream, it was like a cackling, but you cannot really describe what it sounded like. We both stood there terrified, we were frozen to the spot. Then we ran out of there as fast as we could.”
Mrs James also said they would find stock scattered around the shop storeroom, bags containing shopping would be opened and rummaged through and curtains in the shop would mysteriously lift and part as though someone was walking through them. She said only two people had seen the ghost and had described it as an old woman dressed in Victorian style. “When I started work here people said there was a ghost, but I did not believe them. Then I started to hear a tapping noise and things would be moved about. She is not a poltergeist or an evil ghost, just a cantankerous old lady who does not like it if you change anything.”
Staff at Top Shop have become quite used to the ghost’s presence. They have christened her Ethel and talk to her when they know she is nearby. “You feel you are being watched and then it goes all cold. We have found the only way to stop her bothering us is to talk back at her and tell her to clear off,” said Mrs James.
In neighbouring Freeman Hardy and Willis manager Mr Ernest Smedley has taken the ghost’s threat so seriously that police, security guards and experts on the supernatural have all been called in at some stage. He and his staff have all experienced rattling cups and coathangers, strange noises and scattered stock. “One day I opened the shop and found the shoe racks and baskets tipped up. I thought it must be vandals poking a stick through the letter box so I called in the security men. Then I noticed the baskets werecompletely empty, which they would not be if it had just been tipped over, and the shoes, instead of being in a jumbled pile, were all standing neatly sole downwards,” he said. When plugs started to be mysteriously switched on and the kettle set boiling Mr Smedley realised there could be some danger.
Ghost experts were called in including Derby Museums chief officer Mr Bryan Blake. While they were in the storeroom one of the assistant’s shopping bags fell off a shelf twice, hitting one of the men on the back. In the shoe shop nobody has seen the ghost, but occasionally they have noticed a young girl in the store room, but ignored it thinking it was one of the sales girls, then the sales girl has been found in a separate part of the building.
Mr Smedley said: “I am not worried about the ghost because none of my staff is frightened by it. They talk to her and have christened her Ellie”.
Mr Bryan Blake said: “The incidents in the shops were quite extraordinary in their diversity. We went there thinking somebody was playing a practical joke. But the descriptions came from many different people, were quite diverse and covered a whole range of incidents. There is no doubt there has been some supernatural occurrence, but there is no explanation. It is now relatively dormant, but I would not say it has necessarily gone away for good.”
Margaret James: Hundreds of coat hangers were thrown around.
Derby Daily Telegraph, 19th January 1982.