the Barby Ghost part 1

Have you heard this story?

I lived in Rugby In Warwickshire a lot of my life, and had an extensive family with connections all around the area of Hillmorton.  They were pot carriers and hawkers, and had a vague traveller based ancestry. maybe gypsy, maybe not, it is hard to be sure.

Anyway, I recall cycling all over the area as a boy, and a very close village was Barby. 

It has a ghost story.

The source is Frederick Lee, 1875, "Glimpses of the Supernatural"

The story goes that an elderly woman named Webb, died on March 3rd 1851, at 2am, and she was 67. 

She had married well, and is what was called an annuitant.  She was said to be miserly, and hid money about her house. it was told that after she died heavy thumps and other strange noises against a partition wall, and a cupboard door were heard, and the dragging of furniture, at 2 in the morning. 

Then in April a family named Accleston moved in.

The husband and wife occupied the room where the old woman had died, with their ten year old girl in a bed in the corner.

They too heard thumps, tramps and banging,  and we're wakened at 2 am by their daughter screaming "Mother, mother, there's a tall woman standing by my bed, A-shaking her head at me!"

At a similar hour a strange light appeared in the room. sometimes with a low moaning noise, and the lights seemed to rise through a trap door in the ceiling.

Mr Hart, the old woman's nephew made a search of the attic, and found title deeds, and a large bag of gold and bank notes.

After this find, and the paying off of debts which were revealed by the documents, the haunting subsided. 

Further research into Lee's sources was interesting. 

I'll tell you what I found out in the next blog, tomorrow...