Behind the scenes at a dry cleaning shop.
The Mystery of Benjie, City’s Friendly Ghost.
When the smallest room at a Lichfield dry cleaning shop is engaged, it doesn’t always mean that somebody’s in there….. For one of the regulars at the Harris shop in Market Street, uses it as his favourite haunt. And when Benjie is inside the loo, which is at the very top of the building, no-one else can get a look in… for he is the shop’s resident ghost. Nobody has ever seen him, but staff there have felt his presence.
Mrs. Marion Plant (67) used to work as a presser for Harris and she would never go to the ladies’ alone. “I never saw Benjie, but I always felt this cold atmosphere whenever I went up to his place,” she said.
Benjie appears to be a very neat and tidy fellow. This can be a bit annoying for the staff at the store, because when ever any item of clothing goes missing they know where to look and who has taken it…. Benjie.
Staff say that sometimes papers also go missing and when they turn up, Benjie is to blame. “He is really quite a friendly character and all the customers ask about him,” said Mr. Ron Bedale, district manager for Joseph Harris, owners of the shop. But, he added there were many stories about the mysterious Benjie and staff were not sure of all the facts.
One tale is that Benjie is supposed to be the ghost of a man who was murdered in the pub next door to the shop. Another is that the place used to be a butcher’s shop and a mad butcher there knifed a young wench on the top landing. Some people think that her ghost still haunts the building and is responsible for the eerie atmosphere in the toilet.
The Market Street building is centuries old and there have been several changes of usage; at one time people lived above the shop. “But up to now we have not been able to discover facts about the origin of any of the tales. We don’t even know who gave Benjie his name,” Mr. Bedale said. He is hoping that the answer will come from people of Lichfield who either worked in the building any time during this century, or from those who once lived there.
Lichfield Mercury, 9th June 1978.