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admin sinfulldude

CROSS ROADS
Tyburn and Chester Roads
Erdington
Birmingham
West Midlands
It is not always wise to include a case in a website of this nature if a haunting has only been witnessed by one person, but in certain cases there is a strong possibility that there are other witnesses who have reluctant to report their experience. Such is the haunting of a stone bench situation near Tyburn House. Quite recently, a nurse from Good Hope Hospital was returning home one Sunday afternoon, having spent a few quiet minutes resting on one of the benches, and turned round to check that she had left nothing on the seat. Sitting on the bench was a misty figure dressed is a long grey garment. It remained for some 20 seconds before fading away but the witness was unable to see has to if the apparition was male or female for the face was not revealed. A local researcher established that there were two events which occurred in the nearby area which could have created the ghost and the 'North Birmingham Times' published his report. One of the incidents was that of a murder in 1745. A drunken colonel of the Duke of Cumberland's Regiment, irate at the failures incurred at Flanders, and at the fact he had left his sword behind in the hostelry many miles away, grabbed a passing lad and demanded to know the way to a particular building. Unfortunately, the local was not only scared by the sight of the war weary troops and the screaming officer, but had a deformed mouth and was therefore unable to provide the information. The colonel, believing the man to be a spy, ordered that he should be decapitated. His body was tossed into the nearby Pype Hayes Park but the head was thrown into a tree at New Shipston. The skull was revealed when the tree was felled in the nineteenth century and the headless skeleton discovered a week later. The alternative suggestion as to the identity is that the ghost is of Mary Ashford who was murdered following a Whit Monday dance at the Tyburn Inn in 1817. A young farmer named Thornton was tried for the murder but acquitted, but the local people believing in his guilt, hounded him to such a degree that he emigrated to America where he died. A rather interesting postscript is that Erdington CID borrowed the notes of this case, for another murder occurred of a young girl on Whit Monday 1974 and the man accused was named Thorton. He too was acquitted. Both characters lived in Pype Hayes.

ANOTHER STORY RELATING TO THIS AREA I CAN TELL YOU IS ABOUT ME
AS A YOUNG BOY, MY UNCLE AND HIS FRIEND IN PYPE HAYES PARK
ERDINGTON, BIRMINGHAM. (was it the ghost of Mary Ashford we had
seen or another ? )

In Pype Hayes park stands Pype Hayes Hall which is a 17th century
mansion house known locally as "Lady Bagot's House". The grounds are
now a well wooded public park and golf course, but when this incident occurred the house was being used as a children's home.
As dusk fell late one summer evening in 1970, three figures could be seen struggling through the park, apparently trying to hide the heavy bag they were carrying. They glanced round frequently and it seemed that they were obviously up to no good. I, Martin will tell you all ;-
"The two men were my uncle Mr Raven and his friend, my uncle had
taken me then a small boy out for a spot of illicit metal dectecting.
This was banned in the park but the banks of Plants Brook were
particularly rich in finds. The detector was hidden in a large bag which we
carried between us.
We had finished metal detectoring for the night and was creeping home
through the open part of the park when my uncle whispered, " Look at that
silly woman walking through the park in her nighty". About 50 to 100 feet
away was a woman about 50 ish in age, with long dark hair tied up on top
and wearing a floor length white silk dress, (which looked abit like a
nighty from a distance). The neckline was square shaped and round her
neck was a choker of black ribbon, below which was hanging a silver
locket. We ALL saw her quite clearly and began to laugh quietly at her.
The woman was on our left and between us were some bushes which
obscured her from our view for a few seconds. When we passed the
bushes and looked across to see her again, but she had disappeared - in the middle of what was open ground !

We stopped laughing.

We were surprised, and a little puzzled has to where she could have
disappeared to so quickly on open ground, but we did not think too much
of it untill the next week, when my uncle was having a soft drink while
waiting to meet another friend of his in the Bagot Arms Pub, he got
talking to some locals in there and happened to mention the incident. He
was told that we were among the many people who had seen the ghost
of Lady Bagot, she had lived at the Hall during the last century, but the
story goes that she was murdered one evening while taking her dogs for
a walk in the grounds, which was now the park !.

BUT ANOTHER - ---
alternative suggestion as to the identity is that the ghost is of Mary Ashford (as written in the story above) who was murdered following a Whit Monday dance at the Tyburn Inn in 1817 (about half a mile away from the Bagot Arms Pub ) - A young farmer named Thornton was tried for her murder but acquitted

It was also rumoured that many of the children then living in the
children's home at this period of time had also seen the ghost of "Lady Bagot ?" wandering around the many rooms in the building and near to the front entrance to the hall - where she once lived, thus
causing the then local council to close the children's home down due to
the panic and fear her ghost was causing to the children there !!!

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