Bootle Times News

My father lived at 9, Ariel Street which was off St. Johns Road, for a number of years, up to about 1902, although his father and mother and the rest of the family lived there until the late 1930's.
The house backed onto a church and church yard. He told me that a number of unusual occurences had been reported over the years whilst he lived there. Tom Slemen has one on record. In the 1930's his mother was dying. All the family took it in turns to spend the night at the house during this time. One of his brothers was sleeping there one night, in the chair in the kitchen. He was woken by something touching him, when he looked down at his arm, he saw a disembodied hand resting on it. Needless to say he jumped up in shock and alerted the rest of the household. By this time the hand disappeared. My father who was not in the house at the time, was told of this story, but laughed it off, disbelieving his brother. The next night he took a turn looking after his mother, as no one else would do it, and the same apparition happened to him. He was very affected by it. Has anyone else any knowledge about similar goings on? As I said there is a Tom Slemen Story which takes place in and around the church and Ariel Street.

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I lived at the Bootle end of Brasenose rd and remember when I was young somebody telling me scary things about Ariel street, cant remember exactly what but this post reminded me that something was supposed to have happened there, the lad who told me lived with his nan and I'm pretty sure thats where he got it from

Hello Phoebe and welcome to the Forum,I had a look for Ariel Street and anything to do with the unusual and found this:

http://www.sacredhead.org/id14.html

Great find Lily sounds like the Devil lived with them in 1883 yikes

Hi Ed yes I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be hanging around I sent a copy of it to "Theotherone" who knew all about it and she was telling me it may have been mentioned on the Forum previously, if it was then thanks are due to whoever that was also.

I put this thread on some time ago.

http://www.bootlehistory.co.uk/forum/vi ... +higginson

I mistakenly said she lived in Syren Street, but it was Ariel Street.

Jan

1881 census Teresa Helana Higginson was trascribed as Hagerson.

Household:

Name Relation Marital Status Gender Age Birthplace Occupation Disability
Mary NICHOLSON Head W Female 36 Billinge, Lancashire, England Grocer & Provision Dealer
Robert NICHOLSON Son U Male 12 Bootle Scholar
Ellen NICHOLSON Dau U Female 14 Bootle Scholar
Teresa Helena HAGERSON Visitor U Female 33 Holywell, Flint, Wales Certificated Teacher

Source Information:
Dwelling 109 St Johns Rd
Census Place Bootle Cum Linacre, Lancashire, England
Family History Library Film 1341883
Public Records Office Reference RG11
Piece / Folio 3689 / 107
Page Number 26

Jan

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Hi Peter,

The church was St Alexander's.

http://www.bootlehistory.com/forum/view ... aabd#83110


Jan

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Its great what you can find jan i looked for that address i was trying to find who the teachers where who lived in ariel street to see if she stayed at number 9 still looking 1881. have 1900 and peters later one, haear is some snippets on st alex church , bobhamo
http://www.liverpoolhistoryprojects.co. ... r/news.htm

I know I have some info somewhere on what number Ariel St Teresa lived in, I am trying to find it, I think it was either 10 or 15.

It may be in a book I have that Allan Boyle wrote about her, he also wrote the book "Down Our Street", he gave me a copy of the book about Teresa, but I am not sure where it is. I know I have it, I will keep looking.

Jan

I found the info in Allan Boyle's book "Down Our Street"

There is a write up in it about Teresa, she had lived at 15 Ariel Street.

There is also a photo of the house in the book.

Jan

thanks jan bobhamo

Thanks Jan "Theotherone" wasn't sure who had originally posted about Theresa and I did a forum search on Ariel Street and couldn't find it. A great story.

Interesting link. My family lived in number 3 Ariel Street up until approx 1975 (when I was 9). We were just about the last people to live there - if not the last - as other residents relocated prior to demolishment of houses. My parents stayed until they were offered acceptable alternative accommodation. I was aware of the stories from parents and remember on one occasion - probably during school assembly - our headmistress at St Alex (Mrs Breen) - also talking about Teresa Higginson.

Very strange story, i've got the shivers

7 years later Im reading quite an interesting book called "The Devil in Bootle" about Teresa Higginson, by an old man who when young had campaigned for her Cause for canonization. The church decided not to proceed further wich doesn't mean they rejected it.