October 2008

Welcome to Ilkeston Special Issue - Past Articles  

ALL THE STORIES WERE ROUTED IN TRUTH.

THE GIRL AT THE WINDOW
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Following Articles where PART OF  - Ilkeston Ghost Walks
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Supported by - Erewash Borough Council and Erewash Museum

The Museum
 Most of recent stories came from staff at the museum, however its possible to trace the buildings history back through the 1800's as the library hold financial information on “Dolby House” and the doctor Dr George Blake Norman, who lived and worked there.

We found the story of the outlaws in a pamphlet held at Ilkeston library called Punishment in Derbyshire. The small booklet had detailed accounts of how and where crimes were committed and how the criminals were punished.

Staff told us of:

The girl who fell and broke her neck
The sounds in the stables
Dowsing stories
The cleansing of the house by a mystic
Three ghosts 1 on the back stairs one on the second floor and one on the ground floor.

We experienced:

Dowsing
Strange changes in temperature
The chilling effects of certain rooms on certain people
Strange noises from the stables when they were locked and closed

The Justice Rooms

This was the Petty courts of the town. We pout this is as we found the “tit-bit” of information about where it was to be interesting and through the research we heard of many crooks who also intrigued us.

In the library records of the Justice rooms – magistrates court can be found, detailing dates and dealings of the petty courthouse.

The first session was held on the 12/04/1860

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St Mary's Church and Graveyard

The Ritz and Co-op

 The Scala

Our story of the churchyard was devised to help tell a story told to us by someone we spoke to in the library, who was studying close by. She, as a girl, had heard the crying of a girl when she used to walk through the graveyard down by the side of Hallcroft School . We couldn't answer conclusively who or even if anyone else had heard it, but our friend was convinced. So we researched the life of the church and its yard. In books at the Library we started to build up a picture of the churches history.

We found in a book (reference: Glovers. 942.5ilk, pg5) references as to how the churchyard was at one time used a as a play ground for children, this took us on to look at how the children who were buried there, had died. The biggest killer Cholera filled the graveyard with the bodies of Ilkestonians. Our story of Eliza and the plague came from two different stories relating to the plague of 1700's and a girl who vanished from the yard of a church.

 

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 story of the building being built on a cematary is part of urban legends so we set out to prove, or disprove it. On maps of the 1880's we found the land to be referenced as belonging to the chapel and there was a path through it. After some digging we found reference to the construction of the building and indeed it was a graveyard. In an artical in the advertiser dated 06/01/1989 we found stories of the reverend of the late 1800's offering a Christian burial to the bodies in the yard, moving the stones to the St Marys Graveyard. We also found that there was a man, who was old enough to remember before the cinema was built, and indeed it was a walled graveyard, with around a dozen stones. The story we tell is put together from the urban legends of the two spectres.

 

 

The Barn – Museum

The barn at the museum is our last stop. The story we tell is the most improbable one of the possibilities surrounding the barn. The guts of the story is -

  • There once was a girl who was kicked to death by an animal
  • She was supposedly cleaning the stable out
  • Ourselves and staff have heard kicking and movement and horses move in there
  • The alarm in that part of the museum is fitted with movement sensors and frequently is activated

Our story tries to answer all these occurrences in a clear way as well as rapping up the storytellers role and is not a direct reference to how Dr William Blake of the museum passed.


What's your opinion and any experiances?

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Hawthorn House - Ilkeston own Amityville

 

 

The Library
  The history of the building and the site is easily found in the library. Our story of the strange moving smell of tea, tobacco and leather came from one of the librarians who was helping us to research. The whole area round there was at one times dwellings and considering textiles was one of the main vocations of the towns folk, its not impossible to imagine a trapped spirit of a worker.

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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.

 

Ghost for sale

lkeston's performers

References to Samuel Taylor and Walter William Fox, Alias Major Mite we taken from IHS and various accounts and books held about the Giant.

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