Motorway Mayhem

So, today is the fiftieth anniversary of the UK’s first motorway – the M6.

Now I know it seems strange that it was not called the M1. Apparently this is because motorways took their numbers from pre-existing A roads. So, the M6 is the M6 because it is near the A6. In any case it started life as the Preston By-Pass. And, anyone who has been to Preston would know that it deserves a by-pass and a fast one at that!

Anyhow, the M6 started life as a four lane (two in each direction), eight mile stretch of motorway with no speed restrictions. It is now over 230 miles long, stretching from Scotland to London, and is the busiest and most haunted stretch of motorway in the UK. And, I reckon that I have spent a significant proportion of my life (and near death) on it, and most of that in slow motion.

So, happy birthday M6.

ps. Did you know that there are now over two thousand miles of motorway in the UK with an average of 64,900 users per day (which begs the question as to why they are always going my way!). This makes the UK the busiest motorway user in Europe and yet we have the lowest number of motorway fatalities. I guess that is because we rarely seem to be able to drive at more than thirty miles per hour

M6 – The Haunted Motorway

Does anyone know anything about the ghost that apparently haunts the M6 motorway around junction 17 at Sandbach?

I was at a social function at the weekend and chatting to a traffic cop who works the motorways of Cheshire. There have been a number of fatalities on the M6 motorway recently and the stretch between junctions 16 (Crewe) and 19 (Knutsford) is a well-known accident blackspot. I have never understood this as it is a perfectly straight stretch of road with few distractions at the side. So, the policeman was asked to explain why.

Apparently, this stretch of the motorway is haunted. The locals and the policeman all agreed that many of the accidents had been caused by drivers who had been distracted by ghostly apparitions. Now, those of you who know me will realise that I am a sucker for a good ghost story and believe that I have witnessed at least one myself (read all about that here).

The story goes that a Scottish Army was camped near the site of the now derelict Saxon Cross Hotel, which is just off the M6 junction 17, while retreating from the Battle of Worcester, where it had been in support of King Charles II. It is said that his army was attacked and massacred by the locals of Sandbach, and that a lone Bagpiper haunts the site and is often viewed by motorists on the motorway that was subsequently built through the middle of the site.

There are often claims that the M6 is the most haunted road in Britain and I would so like the story to be true, but I can find no information on the web to corroborate the story. Indeed, I can find evidence which suggest that the story was somewhat different. For sure, a Scottish army was in the area in 1651 and there were skirmishes with the locals. But, most reports put the number of Scottish dead at less than 10, but possible one hundred prisoners were taken. But, these events took place in the centre of the town near the present-day market. And, this could hardly be termed a massacre.

The only other notable apparition associated with Sandbach that I could find is at the Old Hall Hotel, which is also close to falling down , as featured in the Most Haunted TV Programme. And the Old Hall was built some five years after King Charles’ army passed through the town.

Can anyone else shed any light on the “myth”? Do you have any other stories of hauntings in the vicinity of the M6 around the Sandbach area?

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Do You Believe in Ghosts?

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

Do you believe in ghosts? I do. I believe I have seen one, and been in the presence of at least two others.

Once was when I was quite young and at home in Erdington. Dad was not home from work yet and mom and my sister, J, were upstairs doing something girlie. I was watching a report on the local Midlands news programme, which was investigating hauntings in local factories. The interviewer was talking to two “witnesses”. As I watched a shadowy figure of a woman appeared behind the “witnesses”. I thought it was a joke. A special effect. I called upstairs to my mom and sister, but, the article had finished by the time they got downstairs.

My story was, however, corroborated the following day on the same news programme. They had received a number of complaints by other viewers who had reported seeing the “bad taste” special effect of the ghostly woman. But, the programme claimed innocence and replayed the piece, which this time was “spirit” free. Spooky.

Perhaps the best example of things going bump in the night was at the first house which C and I rented together in Alderley Edge. An old Victorian mid-terrace cottage. C woke in the night on more than one occasion claiming to have seen an old bearded man stood at the foot of our bed. Spooky. And no, I was neither bearded nor old at this time.

In the same property, strange things would happen in the kitchen. Drawers and cupboard doors would mysteriously open themselves. This was not the side-effect of poor fitting or cheap appliances. This was a Poltergeist. You could literally walk from the kitchen into the dining room with everything “normal”, and, having forgotten something, immediately turn on your heel and re-enter the kitchen, to find all drawers and doors wide open. Yes it was spooky but there was not any sense of animosity or fear. It was more as if the ghost had a sense of humour and was having a bit of a laugh.

Things did, however, get a bit twitchy one night when we were entertaining friends from London. We were having a meal in the dining room and talking about ghosts and all things spooky. Admittedly, the wine was flowing quite freely. But, all of a sudden the CD, which was playing music, stopped. The cassette tape switched itself on. The cassette tape switched itself on to “record”. The cassette player was recording us. The cassette player was recording our conversation about ghosts. To be clear, to get the cassette player to tape you would have to first switch from CD to tape, and the hold down the play and record buttons at the same time. I can barely do this sober, so I am sure I couldn’t have done it in my inebriated state.

We went very quiet. We looked at each other and we laughed nervously. We turned the music back on. And, it happened again. A second time. Even writing about it now I can feel the hairs on the back of my head stand up and a shiver is passing down my spine. Spooky.

We now live in an old Cheshire Reformatory School, a boys’ prison, which is converted into nine properties. The prison was built in 1855 and housed some 76 convicted boys aged between about 6 and 16. Crimes ranged from local boys who had stolen bread, presumably as a way of getting the education that the school also offered, through to convicted murderers. Often these would be boys from as far afield as Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow or London, presumably working on the premise that there would be less chance of them running away to get home.

Now we have never felt any presence here, C and I. Our next door neighbour did once claim that a ghost was moving things around his home but as this used to be our old house (we moved next door!) and we had had no such experience, we assumed he was joking. We didn’t like him very much. He was a nob and a fraudster. Worse, he used to stand in his lounge window wearing just skimpy underpants. Spooky.

More compelling, however, was the story of Holly. When Holly was just 3 years old or so and her family had just moved into the property. Holly asked her mom if she could go and play “with the boys in the courtyard”. Of course there were no boys. And, of course, little Holly knew nothing of the property’s history at that point. Spooky.

One house that does have a feeling about it, an eeriness, is Trivor. Trivor is a house in Monmouthshire which is owned by the father of a good friend of mine from university. My closest friends, and more recently their wives and partners, and subsequently their children, have visited the house every year for nigh on twenty years or so now. Trivor is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. Most of the current property dates back to the sixteenth century, however. A Catholic Priest was caught practising an illegal Mass there during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 and was apparently hanged, drawn and quartered. It must have smarted a bit. I guess something like that can leave a bit of an impression on an old place like that.

So, what about you? Do you have any ghostly tales that you wish to share?

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M6 – the Haunted Motorway