Christmas Ghost Story from Hartshill.
Footsteps up and down stairs, but no one there!
If there is one thing people like at Christmas, it is a good ghost story. Most districts have their own stories of mysterious hauntings, and Nuneaton is no exception. The actual scene is a little way outside the borough boundaries, in a wooded hollow just off Castle Road, Hartshill. Once, so they say, there was a Roman castle there. In the 11th century, it was rebuilt and became a convent. Until the turn of this century, Hartshill Abbey, as it was called, was still in use and the Moore family still lived in the old house. Last to leave was Mr Charles Moore, now living at 229, Weddington Road, Nuneaton, and it was from him that i learned of the strange happenings at this house.
He clearly remembered sitting by the tall fireplace one evening when a rolling noise came down the stairs outside, and seemed to go behind the fireplace, shaking the things on the mantelpiece. At almost any time of the day and night, footsteps could be clearly heard on the wooden stairs, sometimes going up and sometimes going down. There was no creaking as though weight was being applied to the boards and nothing could ever be seen. These footsteps became so frequent that the family soon ceased to take any notice of them.
On one occasion, when the brickwork at the foot of the stairs was being removed, the skeleton of someone who had been buried there was found. It was believed to be that of a nun. What story of violent death might have lain behind that discovery! But nothing is known of her identity and there is little to connect her with the phenomena which prevailed around her burial place. Unless you like to believe that the tall figure seen one night on the wall outside was the phantom of this mysterious nun. The man who saw it said that the figure, which looked like that of a woman, seemed to slide down behind the other side of the wall.
Perhaps the most startling of the many unexpected happenings was one which occurred in broad daylight. Three people on the lawn saw one of the three doors leading into the house open and close, apparently of its own accord. This was doubly surprising because the door was nailed up and had been out of use for some time. When they examined it closely, they found all the nails still in position. It was clearly impossible to open the door – yet all three of them had seen it open! no wonder some of the family decided to move out.
Only a gable of the old house is still standing. One wonders, does the ghost of Hartshill Abbey still roam among the ruins, linking them with some unknown incident in the past. Would someone like to find out?
Midland Counties Tribune, 24th December 1954.