Derbyshire Ghosts.
More Stories of Restless Spirits.
Notwithstanding the explanation (published yesterday) of the noises that have led one of the two workmen at the Ollersett coal pit, New Mills, to imagine they had seen and heard a ghost in the workings, there are still several folk who are loth to accept it.
Old people shake their heads and tell of other ghosts. In an isolated part of the New Mills district called Rowarth, there is the ancient Long Lee Hall, now a farmhouse. The hall was at one period the residence of the Hyde family, wealthy county people in those days. One of these, the owner of the estate, was buried in an outbuilding on the premises. the bedstead on which he died – somewhat elaborately carved, and of the time of Elizabeth – has never been allowed to be removed. The chamber is traditionally said to be haunted and known to this hour as “the boggart-room.”
Asked if anything had ever been seen, our representative was assured that marvellous noises had been heard. One night everybody in the house heard the long clock on the top of the landing go smash down the stairs, but when they all rushed out to see, it was ticking in its proper place.
A mile distant, and not far from the Ollersett pit, is Aspenshaw Hall, which for many years was empty. It is in the middle of a wood, and people in the vicinity vouch for the following story: – Some of them remember when a well-to-do farmer named Sidebottom held the mansion, but only occupied a portion of the building, leaving certain rooms unoccupied. A lawyer had previously held the estate, and he, on his decease, left a large number of books strewn about in one of the spare rooms. First one and then another of the volumes were destroyed or mutilated; and immediately after those sleeping in another room had fallen into a quiet slumber, they were disturbed by loud noises of tumbling stones or reports varying in character.
Every time a book or paper in the room was torn or destroyed, a repetition of the hideous noises followed, and the bedclothes were gradually dragged to the floor of the room. For a long time the place was declared “haunted,” and many refused to sleep there for fear, though upon investigation nothing to produce any alarm could be found.
Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 27th January 1914.