Strange events at former inn.
Dudley family believes home ‘haunted’.
Events during the past five days at a former Dudley public-house, more than 100 years old, have led Mr Arthur Westwood, aged 70, and his family of eight to believe that their house, formerly the Jolly Collier Inn, Holly Hall, is haunted. They claim to have seen a “blonde young woman in a white shroud accompanied by a bald man.”
Since Mr Arthur Westwood (18) was “tipped out of bed” by an unseen hand on Monday, the family has moved into a neighbouring house to sleep. Yesterday, a married daughter, Mrs Sarah Burton, said that the blonde woman “had appeared through the curtains” during the previous evening and pulled her hair. The attack was made while a policeman was inspecting a bedroom which “had a smell of death.”
The premises, which are badly affected by mining subsidence, were bought by Dudley Corporation three years ago when the licence was surrendered.
Birmingham Daily Post, 9th January 1954.
Jolly odd at Jolly Collier.
Some jolly odd things are happening at the Jolly Collier, an old inn no longer licensed, at Dudley, Worcestershire. A family of eight living there say the place is haunted – and called in the police yesterday. But since Monday the Westwood family have refused to sleep in the house. Disturbances began shortly before midnight. “I felt the bed move and was tipped on the floor,” said 18-year-old Arthur Westwood.
Then yesterday, even while a policeman was in another room, Mrs Sarah Burton, a daughter of Mr Edward Westwood, saw the curtains open and “a young woman dressed in a white shroud” appeared. “I screamed,” said Mrs Burton. “I put my hands to my face. I felt her pull me from the chair by my hair. Before the policeman could reach me the woman disappeared through the window.”
Daily News (London), 9th January 1954.
Inn’s Ghost ‘seen again’.
Seven members of the Birmingham Psychic Research Society are to spend Saturday night in the century old Dudley inn, the Jolly Collier, at Low Town, which is claimed to be haunted. Today Mr Edward Westwood, who left the house and refused to return after he and his family had claimed to have seen the ghost of a blonde woman said: “I have seen the apparition again. This morning we found a window pane had been broken, and last night I saw a light in the house and a face looking out.”
Evening Despatch, 13th January 1954.
‘Let us lay the ghosts’
Dudley – four people have written to the Westwood family offering to sleep in their century-old ‘haunted’ inn, The Jolly Collier, in an attempt to lay “the blonde ghost”. On Saturday seven members of the Birmingham Psychic Research Society are to sit up all night in the house – now delicensed – to try to trace any strange happenings. As the premises are lit by gas, they will not be able to take with them much of their ‘ghost hunting’ equipment. Usually, in such researches, they take a recording machine. None of the Westwood family has slept in the house since the ‘disturbances’ reported a week ago.
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 14th January 1954.
A Windy Night at ‘The Jolly Collier’.
Creaking boards – but no ghost.
Accompanied by a medium, six members of the Birmingham Psychic Research Society spent four hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning investigating claims that the 100-year-old former Dudley inn, ‘The Jolly Collier’, Holly Hall, is haunted by a ‘blonde young woman and a bald man.’
Only creaking caused by the wind was heard and nothing was seen by the team, who locked themselves in various rooms in the inn. Photographs taken will be studied by members of the Society who will later decide whether to make another visit to the inn. The building is the home of Mr Edward Westwood, and his family of seven, most of whom claim to have seen the “ghosts.” The family refused to live there more than a week ago and has been staying next door, with Mrs A Burton, a daughter of Mr and Mrs Westwood. Mr Westwood said last night: “Although the team found nothing I am determined that the family shall not
return to the inn yet.”
Birmingham Daily Post, 18th January 1954.
Seven waited for ‘a blonde’.
The ghostly couple haunted elsewhere.
A pretty young blonde and a bald-headed man were haunting away from home when seven members of the Birmingham Psychic Research Society came to meet them here on Saturday night. The rendezvous was the century-old Jolly Collier Inn at Low Town which the couple are said to have haunted for at least a fortnight. Until this happened, the Westwood family lived there, but they say the two ghosts drove them out. Now they live next door.
When the watchers arrived, the Westwoods told them about a mysterious shattering of glass which had occurred a few minutes before. All searched around with their torches, but found nothing. So the seven waited for three-and-a-half hours in the house – which is not an inn any more – hoping to see the girl whom Mr Edward Westwood says is about 20, wears make-up and dresses in a shroud. The man, he says, is in his fifties and wears a brown suit.
With their chairman and medium, Mr Norman Lucas, the visitors explored nearly every part of the house – while a high wind screamed round the old place, rattling the windows and doors. Some of the rooms are sealed off by bricked-up doorways. The investigators took it in turn to lie on the bed from which 18-year-old Edward Westwood says he was tipped out by “an unseen hand.” They sat on the steps of the cellar which once housed the inn’s ale. With their torches they looked into the ten-foot well of sparkling water to see the mysterious spider’s web which the Westwoods say appears under the water’s surface… but it wasn’t there.
They watched and waited but there were no ghosts – just the whining wind. And then suddenly, at midnight, they heard “the most unearthly moaning and howling.” The society’s vice chairman, Mr John Rowland traced the noise outside where he found a group of youths creating their own ghost-like atmosphere under a nearly new moon. He set them packing.
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 18th January 1954.
Woman to wait for a ghost.
Strange happenings and a “blonde ghost” in the century-old Dudley inn, The Jolly Collier, at Low Town, are to be investigated by 47-year-old Mrs Mary Brooks, of Berkeley Road East, Hay Mills. Mrs Brooks is the medium who recently gave a description of the Mogano murderer at a seance attended by CID men in Coventry. She has been invited by Mr Edward Westwood of the Jolly Collier, to look into the hauntings tomorrow evening. None of the Westwood family has slept in the house since the happenings started in early January.
Odd occurrences have been the shattering of glass, the ringing of an alarm clock – though there is no such clock in the inn. Then there is the ‘blonde in a shroud’ which each of the family has seen. There has also been a brown-suited man with a bald head seen in company with the blonde, said to be “about 20 years old.”
Mrs Brooks will visit the building – no longer used as an inn- in daylight to look it over, and will return after dark to start her investigations. If necessary she will stay the night. With her will be a lay friend, Mr N.R. Gribble, an engineering checker, who, though he has no powers, is “very interested” in psychic phenomena.
Evening Despatch, 12th February 1954.
They’re no excuse, says the council.
Being haunted by ghosts is not a good enough reason for a family to be moved to another house, says Dudley (Worcs) Twon Council. And Mr Edward Westwood, who complains that his present home is haunted by TWO ghosts – a young blonde woman and a bald-headed man – has had his application for transfer to another home rejected by the council.
Mr Westwood – and his family of eight – moved into what was formerly the Jolly Collier Inn three years ago after it had been delicensed. But, Mr Westwood complained, it was soon far from jolly. For being haunted was bad enough, but, worse than that, a 25-year old son was tipped out of bed by an unseen hand. When the family left to stay with a daughter next door, the ghosts followed. Later two mediums confirmed the family’s claims.
Now, refusing to accept ghosts as “a reasonable excuse,” the council has ruled: “The present accommodation is quite adequate.”
Daily News (London), 20th April 1954.
A peroxide-blonde goes haunting…
If ghosts choose to lodge in your home, are you entitled to another house? YES, say Edward Westwood, 61, and his wife and five grown-up sons, who live in a council-owned house at Dudley, Worcs. NO, says the housing committee. The Westwoods say that in the two years they have spent in the centuries-old house, once the Jolly Collier pub, two uninvited guests have come to stay. One is a “peroxide-blonde” fashionably dressed, who roams upstairs and down at intervals. The other is a coloured man. Ghost-hunters’ seances have failed to lay the ghosts.
Edward last night said: “These presences, which all the family have seen, are playing on our nerves. Two of my sons have lost their jobs through lack of sleep. We all sleep in the kitchen.”
Alderman J.H. Molineux, chairman of the housing committee, which has just rejected the family’s second application, said: “The accommodation is suitable for the family’s requirements. I don’t class ghosts as a reasonable excuse for wanting to move.”
Daily Mirror, 20th April 1954.
The blonde ‘ghost’ now has company.
Retired miner Edward Westwood, who lives in the delicensed Jolly Colliers Inn at Dudley with his wife and three sons, is fed up with ‘ghosts’. For four years his home has been haunted by the ‘ghost’ of an attractive blonde. And now, says Mr Westwood, the girl ‘ghost’ has attracted eight male ‘ghosts’ into his home. “Sometimes the ‘ghosts’ come out of our cellar five at a time. They have stolen china from the sideboard and once our pet dog disappeared after they were heard in one of our rooms,” said Mr Westwood. “We’ve had the psychic research people down. They left some crucifixes in the cellar and next morning they were twisted out of shape.”
His 59-year-old wife, Elizabeth, said: “We had to cut down a pear tree in the garden because we saw four ‘ghosts’ sitting in it at night.” Commented Dudley Council’s housing manager, Mr R.S. Crispin: “We put the family in the inn because at the time there was nowhere else for them to go. Nobody has ever complained about ghosts there to my knowledge.”
Weekly Dispatch (London), 5th May 1957.
‘Blonde ghost makes my sons act wild’
The former inn where Ted Westwood and his wife live is getting rather overcrowded. For in addition to their three grown-up sons they also have nine ghosts living with them. When they first moved in four yeras ago they only had one ghost – the spirit of a beautiful blonde Victorian girl. But she was so alluring that eight other ghosts, all male, moved in too. The blonde ghost has had a particularly unsettling effect on the sons of the family. She keeps the Westwood boys – Bill, 32, Harry, 26, and Fred, 22 – awake at night. And, says their father, she has set up a devil-may-care atmosphere that lures them into deeds of wildness. The Westwoods live in the former Jolly Collier Inn at Dudley, Worcs.
One of the ghosts – a former licensee of the inn – always wears a bowler hat, says Mr Westwood. As Mr Westwood worked yesterday on a petition to the Queen and the Lord Chief Justice asking for help in having the ghosts laid, he said: “I never used to believe in ghosts, but when you have nine of them you have no alternative.”
Sunday Mirror, 5th May 1957.
Nine naughty ghosts set his sons a bad example.
Nine naughty ghosts of departed customers haunted the Jolly Collier, a former pub at Dudley, Worcs., complained Mr Edward Westwood, who lives there now. The ghosts, headed by a Victorian blonde, “set a bad example” to his five sons, he said. A Belgian medium, Edmund Wouters, read of the plight of the Westwood family, and his offer to lay the nine ghosts was gratefully accepted. He went to stay at the old pub a month ago. Yesterday he claimed victory. “All the ghosts have gone up the chimney,” he said. Mr Westwood said: “Now, for the first time in years, we are able to sleep in the bedrooms and not in the kitchen.”
Sunday Mirror, 4th August 1957.