Haunted Ilkeston Newsletter

In the Spotlight - Real Monsters of Halloween

Primrose Ghost

A GRACEFUL lady ghost wearing a mid nineteenth century ankle length gown is haunting a small back street factory at Cotmanhay.

Workers at Denleen Separates Limited on the top floor of the 100-year-old Beardsley factory at Primrose Street often hear their lady ghost open a door on the ground floor and climb the wooden Staircase to the offices. But only two people have ever seen the ghost; one a .woman worker, who has since left toe firm, saw the lady in grey six months ago, and machinist Linda Skeath saw the ghost on Tuesday.

Linda arrived for work at her usual time and as she turned the lights on in the main machine room, something caught her eye. She spun round to see a woman dressed, in. a long grey dress, racing across the room towards the staircase.

Linda recalled: "I couldn't see her face it was just a blur but her dress was very clear." She chased after 'the woman, who she thought was a customer.

But when Linda turned the corner the staircase was empty and the door at the bottom was shut.

"I was so shocked, I thought I was going to faint. I just couldn't believe what I’d seen. It's the first ghost I've ever seen, and I hope it's the last."Managing director Dennis Whitworth arrived a short while later and gave Linda a glass of brandy.

Although Mr. Whitworth sympathizes with Linda Skeath and agrees that "it must have been

Quite a shock," we suspect he is secretly quite proud of having a ghost ill his factory.

"I wish I'd seen it. I often sit quietly in. my office and hope it will drift by, but it never does."

Mr. Whitworth says he often hears the bottom door open and the sound of footsteps up the stairs. Sometimes he goes to see who it is, but there is never anyone there.After Tuesday’s incident, he decided to make some inquiries; about the ghost.

"One thing I couldn't under stand was why the figure should appear in a particular corner of the room and then move towards the stairs," he said

Perhaps a clue to the mystery is that when the factory was built in 1866 there was a tiny office in that particular corner of the room, but there have not been any tragic deaths on the site or known murders, or incidents that could be linked with ghosts.

Mr. Whitworth may not have seen a ghost but he has seen a flying saucer.

"It was one October night some years ago. I saw this disc of light travelling across the sky. I dashed

inside to tell my wife and it had gone when I got back."

Mr. Whitworth says he was in the B.A.P. for a number of years and was able to distinguish different aircraft. "And that was no aircraft. It was travelling at thousands of miles an hour. I saw it and there were reports in the papers the s next day. But who believes- you?

September 1982

NEARLY a century ago, so local legend has it, a man named Hugh Crane had a house built at 1 Derby Street, Ilkeston.

It was a detached house which stood on the hill just a few hundred yards from the town centre.

He called it Hill House and moved in with his young wife. Little is known of Mr. Crane, but the legacy he left Ilkeston will be spoken of for many, many years. It is' believed that tragedy first struck when his wife was killed in a coaching accident outside the front door of the house.

He re-married, but his second wife, we're told, was killed when she fell down the stairs.

Crane married again. But it is said that his third wife out lived him only to die at the hands of a knifeman inside the house. Since then the locals have lived in fear of the house which was renamed, Hawthorne House.

Forty years ago five men and a woman went inside to try to cure the deathly air. The woman died during the attempt. A few years ago, as a relief road for the town was planned, the house was purchased by Derbyshire County Council. They intend to demolish it when the road is finally built, but have been letting it to tenants. More

What's your opinion and any experiances?

Ilkeston Own Amityville - Hawthorn House

Welcome to Halloween Ilkeston 2010 Special Issue

Cottage holds strange secrets...

JUNE 30, 1988

THOSE with a nervous disposition should take great care when waking by Ivy Cottage on Church Street, Eastwood, because this picturesque dwelling is said to have at least three ghostly inhabitants.

When David Kinton and his family moved into the cottage they had no idea about their guests from beyond the grave, but within a week they began to suspect that the sound of footsteps in upstairs rooms

couldn't just be the creaking of the century old timbers. The first of Dave's ghostly guests is a hooded Monk whose remains are believed to be buried within a vast grave in his garden. Dave's theory is that people in the holy orders would rest on their way to Codnor Castle.. More

Last report 1986

Two clergymen have said prayers at the home of an Ilkeston Disabled woman who claims she is being haunted by a playful spirit.

She's afraid to go into her main bedroom alone at her home on Ebenezer Street as the spectre of an elderly man appears at her bed

Other strange spooky going on include Horses brass and ornaments being scatterd on the living room floor

Bathroom mirror moving from sink to floor

Lights going on and off and cutlery being spread out on the Kitchen floor

Prayers at Ghost House

Lady of the Woods

Last report 1983

Kirkhallam has not been left out as it has its own spooks, apart from the Dale abbey reports, there have been reports of a ghost of a white lady seen in the Ladywood woods, locally known as White lady Woods - Ladywood road -

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Family Terrorised in home by ghost

A family on Coppice Avenue Ilkeston have been afraid to go into there Kitchen and bedrooms alone due to a Mischievous spirit. Activities include. Phantom door bell and knock on door, doors held back or shut, voices and cries, moving objects and shadowy figures

The Ritz and Co-op

The stories relating to these two buildings came from multiple ladies who frequented the Ritz as cinema and worked at the co-op throughout the past 30 years. In the Ritz, they tell of a moving smell much like the one on the library. On maps of the 1800's it's possible to see this land used as Mill land, either housing for workers or machinery. The story of the ghosts of co-op – affectingly known as Mary who haunts the cellars.

The Girl In the window – the toy shop

This again was found derived from stories in the Advertiser. In the July 19 th edition of 1974, there is an account of the owner seeing the reflection of a ghost in the window behind him and his escape for the spectre.

Mysterious humming noise plagues rural UK village

Posted: 6/16/2011

Woodland - a rural village in County Durham, England - seems to have an unusual problem. Folks there are reporting an unusal

throbbing, vibrating noise that peaks at time and then calms down, but cannot be pinpointed as to its location. - full article