Spooky sightings

Oct 31 2007 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Spooky sightings

SPEKE HALL

Among other ghosts, the hall is said to be haunted by Mary Norris, who apparently committed suicide after throwing her baby in the moat in the 17th century. During a night there, Billy Roberts glimpsed a woman in a long blue/grey dress who disappeared into the tapestry room.

LIVERPOOL EMPIRE THEATRE

The ghost of a Victorian girl has been spotted on many occasions by staff, says Billy, wandering around the bar of the stalls area when the theatre is closed, crying. It is believed she is the ghost of a girl who fell to her death from the stalls many years ago.

CHILDWALL ABBEY HOTEL

“There is a little patch of ground called Bloody Acre opposite Score Lane, where people walk their dogs,” says Billy. “Some people believe it got its name because of the colour of the soil, others that people were massacred there. If you stand in the centre of it in the autumn at about 9 or 10pm, you can hear men shouting and sticks banging and muskets cracking. It seems to carry on the wind.”

RODNEY STREET

Haunted by the ghost of William McKenzie, a wealthy Victorian railway engineer who, it is said, lost his soul to the Devil following a game of poker.

Prior to his death, McKenzie reasoned that if his body was not buried within the ground, the Devil could not claim his soul. he therefore constructed a huge pyramid which stands in the middle of St Andrew's churchyard on the corner of Rodney and Maryland Street.

WHITECHAPEL, FROG LANE

“It was here that duels were said to be fought and Thomas Knight, a young barrister, felt obliged to defend the honour of his lady and challenged Ned Garrick, an unsavoury trader,” says Billy.

“They met at the crack of dawn half way down Frog Lane opposite Stanley Street. Garrick was wounded but shot Knight in the back and he was duly executed.

“Ghosts of both duellers are supposed to haunt the area early on November mornings.”

9 NEWCASTLE ROAD

John Lennon had been dead 18 months when 77-year-old Ann Maloney dropped her shopping bags and was helped by a young man with shoulder-length hair, a beard and round gold spectacles.

She asked his name and he turned back and said, “I’m John” then disappeared.

DUKE STREET

A small, shabbily dressed woman is seen walking down Duke Street in the direction of the Monroe pub, and then disappears at the corner. She is believed to be the ghost of Sally “Ma” Brown, who lived in nearby Henry Street in 1895. She was a regular visitor to the Monroe pub until she was brutally murdered by two boys and her body was found in Henry Street.