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admin Madmart · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:35 pm Post subject: Westgate, wakefield

Its said that on some cold, wet October nights that the ghost of Henry Whalton can be seen on wakefield bridge looking for his black horse !Westgate (in Wakefield) was once the home (& still is) of the banking area of Wakefield, where traders entrusted their takings, the area once had a serious problem with highwaymen during the 17th & 18th centuries

It is here that Nottinghamshire born Henry Whalton known as the "silent highwayman", due to his distinctive voice, which it was said to have been quite high pitched and had a tremor, this making his voice very distinctive, thus the phrase "Stand & Deliver" was never uttered from Henry Whalton's lips, but the gesturing of his pistols while sat astride his black mount, would make everyone aware of the deeds to come. The
Doncaster, Pontefract and Wakefield roads is where he is meant to have carried out his numerous robberies, but it was on Wakefield Bridge that he met his demise. It is still unknown how, but the authorities found out about Henry being in the Wakefield area, Henry Whalton it said was fleeing from an detatchment of mounted soldiers sent out to capture him . Whaltons horse is meant to have stumbled and fell on the wet, shiney cobbles on the bridge. Henrys black horse fell to the ground crushing his leg. Struggling to remove his leg from beneath the horse, its said he managed to drag himself to the parapet of the bridge and throw himself into the river rather than be caught and tried for his crimes.

The body of Henry Whalton was never found, but some seem to think his body had somehow fallen into the hands of the body-snatchers, men who greed for money that a fresh cadiver could bring would sell to doctors in such places as Leeds who were always on the look out for bodies and the large sums of money that would pay was enough to ensure
them a steady supply.

There has been no reported sightings have of Henry Whalton has far as its known since the last century, but its believed that Harry Houdini had an experience that would stay with him for the remainder of his life.

While performing one of his regular tricks, in which he dives from a bridge roped and manacled, during his time under the water he dislodged a corpse which rose to the waters surface. The memory of the incident gave Houdini a fascination for ghosts that are meant to haunt bridges and so therefore he became one of the world's formost investigators of ghostly and spiritual frauds.

Wakefield Bridge is reported to have been visited on may occasions by Houdini in his efforts to 'catch a sight of the spectoral horse and its rider Henry Whalton, but his years of visiting Wakefield prooved negative his last visit was in 1921. Harry Houdini died in 1926.

So has the spectre of Henry Whalton gone to rest? Who knows? Or is his ghost still looking for his black horse?

weirdspirit · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 1:58 pm Post subject:

it doesn't sound like and wakfeild is not that far fom me either. What an interesting story.
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admin Madmart · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:25 pm Post subject: More ghost stories from Wakefield

Haunted Wakefield

In her will, Mary Bolles of Heath Hall, near Wakefield, left instructions that the room in which she died was to be permanently sealed. After her death in 1661, the room was accordingly closed off. Fifty years later, however, it was opened, and after this the ghost of Mary Bolles never ceased to haunt the hall. Stone effigies were laid on her tomb in Ledsham Church in an attempt to quiet her restless spirit, but in vain. Troops stationed at the Hall in 1943 claimed to have seen the ghost. A caretaker reported also that his Alsatian guard dog would never walk through the death room. The house has now been demolished, but the door of the haunted bedroom has been preserved in Wakefield Museum.

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Old city 'labyrinth' discovered by dog

A DOG helped to unearth what could be an ancient labyrinth under the city after it smelled a rat when builders unearthed a mysterious hole in a car park.
Builders were resurfacing the Tarmac of the Old Vicarage, on Zetland Street, when they came across a hole.

The discovery re-ignited rumours about a serious of tunnels linking the old vicarage to the cathedral and possibly beyond.

Dave Wiper, of the Modern Savage Tattoo Parlour, one of a number of shops based in the building, was the first to discover there might be some truth to the whispers when he fell down the hole chasing after a friend’s dog and ended up in the masonic lodge across the road.

He said: “There have always been these rumours – and everyone thought they were just that – but when this hole appeared we didn’t know what to think.

“The dog, Sandy, is a trained ratter and, the next thing I knew, she started making the hole bigger and then disappeared. When I went in after her, I found myself in a 16th century cellar.

“I couldn’t see a thing, so I felt my way along the wall, which went on forever, then I heard the dog running around in front of me.

“I thought I had fallen into a crypt because I knew there used to be a graveyard nearby but then I felt a light switch.

“I turned it on, realised I was somewhere I shouldn’t be, and made a quick exit.”

The ancient warren has been one of the city’s freemasons’ best-kept secrets for years. A small stone staircase in the cellar of the Zetland Street lodge, which is built on the site of the old rectory, takes you even farther underground to the first of a series of rooms with passageways leading off them.

Some of the passages have been bricked up, but one local mason is in absolutely no doubt as to where they lead.

He said: “We have known the existence of these cellars for a long time.

“They are quite fascinating and I am certain they led to the cathedral at one point.”

The mason’s theory is that the tunnels were used as escape routes for people who became known as non-conformists after the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662.

The act ruled that the prayer book of the Church of England – the Book of Common Prayer – had to be used at all ceremonies. According to the mason, this led to illegal services and the tunnels were used as escape routes when the services were raided.

Wakefield’s Dean, the Very Rev George Nairn-Briggs, said he heard about the tunnels when he was first installed at the cathedral, but added: “I have never found any evidence to prove they exist”.

Local historian John Goodchild was also sceptical and maintained that the rooms were nothing more than extensive cellars.

But the Old Vicarage is also home to the Conservative Club and Coun Bryan Denson is convinced there is more to it than that.

He said: “The whole of that area is riddled with tunnels and cellars, but most of it has been built upon now and caved in the process. The bricks are small and look handmade – the work that must’ve gone into it is phenomenal

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