Bootle Ghost Stories

Your place to talk about your Bootle memories
carolmcb
Posts: 144
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:57 pm
Location: Born in St Johns Rd, Bootle, living in Norfolk! :-(

Crikey Frank, that IS a scarey story and just as well you have a strong heart. Glad to hear you and your brother are well but he had a nasty escape didn't he?

I would say that it was actually a premonition you had. Have you had any others?

I recall years back when my husband, myself, mum in law and our sons went to the lake district for the very first time in my life. We stopped at a small town to buy some fishing bait but nobody wanted to carry the bucket of maggots so my younger son got the short straw.

As we were walking around looking for somewhere to eat (yes with a bucket of wrigglies) we walked towards a small bridge and I suddenly stopped and said "ok, we walk along to the corner, turn right and across the road there's a white pub!"

My husband said "I thought you said you've never been here before so how do you know that" so I told him I didn't know how I just did!

We walked on, turned the corner, and there was the pub exactly as I had said! Talk about him being confused - I was the most confused that day because I really had never been there before in my life!

As we walked towards the pub to see if they accepted children (this was back in the 1970's) we wondered what to do with the bucket then my son (aged 6) walked up to a couple passing by and asked "do you want to buy a bucket of maggots lady?" :shock: :shock: :? :? :oops:

They hurried off so mum in law shoved a carrier bag over it and we took it in with us and sat it under the table! :roll: :(
REID, ROBERTS, STAINES, BRAWN, HARDY, WILLIAMS, GRIFFITHS, DELANEY, CUDDY, SMITH, BYRNE, LUCAS, HEGARTY, HARVEY
frank delamere
Posts: 1028
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:26 pm
Location: dublin, ireland

hi CAROL, yes! i have had a few premonitions, my latest was this year.
early this year, i decided to check out my small suitcase, the one i keep handy, should i ever need to go to hospital, pyjamas, towels and shaving gear, with a few bits of clothes, and slippers. my wife asked what are you doing that for, i said, just in case anything should happen, you should do the same thing. have you got something wrong, that your not telling me, she said, i said no! but funny enough just a couple of weeks later, i was in hospital. with my case.and it came in handy a while later also.
so premonitions do help, if you only take notice of them. i used to travel a lot around britain, and funny enough, i never got lost, i always seemed to pick the right route.

frank
carolmcb
Posts: 144
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:57 pm
Location: Born in St Johns Rd, Bootle, living in Norfolk! :-(

frank delamere wrote:hi CAROL, yes! i have had a few premonitions, my latest was this year. early this year, i decided to check out my small suitcase, the one i keep handy, should i ever need to go to hospital, pyjamas, towels and shaving gear, with a few bits of clothes, and slippers. my wife asked what are you doing that for, i said, just in case anything should happen, you should do the same thing. have you got something wrong, that your not telling me, she said, i said no! but funny enough just a couple of weeks later, i was in hospital. with my case.and it came in handy a while later also. so premonitions do help, if you only take notice of them. i used to travel a lot around britain, and funny enough, i never got lost, i always seemed to pick the right route. frank
I saw a medium a few years back near Southport who was excellent! She told me the names of my late husband and children (and indicated which of the children was the oldest). She told me loads of stuff which she could never had known about me nor guessed because as you went in she said 'Don't tell me anything at all, just answer yes or no if I ask you a question." I was gobsmacked by what she said during the reading because she told me stuff that only I knew about and had never ever revealed to a soul. She also told me when my husband had died and what the cause was. She even told me about each car colour I had owned and what I would own next then she went on to, not only describe a man I would meet, but also to tell me a lot about him.
As I was about to leave I told her she was ill and she needed peace and rest. she stated at me before saying 'you have the gift but you're scared of it. You really should open your mind and use it! You see things, know things before they happen!" She then went on to tell me she was indeed ill and was giving up readings and moving to a warmer climate for her health. You take care and nice to read from you. Very interesting.
REID, ROBERTS, STAINES, BRAWN, HARDY, WILLIAMS, GRIFFITHS, DELANEY, CUDDY, SMITH, BYRNE, LUCAS, HEGARTY, HARVEY
Liz H
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:26 pm
Location: Buxton

Hi, everybody. I have had a few ghostly experiences at various times and places. The two main ones in Liverpool were:

My mum's cousin lives in the same street as my mum, in Netherton. When I was about 12, I offered to look after the cousin's big, rather bad-tempered standard poodle when she went on holiday. I used to walk him in the evenings after homework. This was before all the houses were built along Aldrin's Lane and it was open countryside. I walked along, up past the Green and carried on across the fields in the open countryside (those innocent days). I walked past the Punchbowl and Sefton Church and decided to walk back along the main road, since it was dark. All of a sudden, I had the most awful feeling that I was being watched and followed by something evil. I turned around and checked a couple of times, very fearfully, which is not like me at all. In spite of everything, I am very pragmatic and always look for the most rational explanation for odd events. I couldn't see anything and carried on. I suddenly realised that the dog wasn't sniffing lampposts and marking the trees as we passed them, which he had been doing. When I looked down, he was flat on his belly, crawling along the pavement, with his ears pulled right into the side of his head. This carried on for a short distance longer. Suddenly, I stopped feeling threatened and, at exactly the same time, the dog stood up and carried on as though nothing had happened. This had never happened before and it didn't happen again (yes, I went back there to check). I've done some searching on line, but the only record I can find of odd occurrences in the area (apart from the Punchbowl hauntings which are well-known) is a photograph of what looks like a spirit priest in Sefton church, but I didn't feel anything as I went past there, even by the graveyard. I was a good distance along the main road when it happened.

The other main time was when I was a student and shared a flat with a boyfriend just outside the City centre. It was one of three notorious blocks called The Piggeries. They were actually very nice inside, but in a very rough area. He warned me that visitors had reported strange things in the flat, such as hearing strange noises and feeling as though they were being touched. Still not afraid, I moved in. One night when I was in on my own, studying, I could hear noises like heavy furniture moving around immediately above me. I reasoned that it was a block of flats and sound travels when it's quiet, but it was a maisonette and the room above me was the front bedroom. Some time later, we were woken up in bed by the sound of something like a sack being dragged along the floor just outside the bedroom and this went on for some time. Something then jumped heavily onto the bed and straight off again. The bed even dipped under the weight. I screamed and dived under the duvet. My boyfriend jumped up (brave lad) and said he saw a big grey shadowy dog, with something like a collecting box strapped to its back, disappearing through the wall. We decided to move out of that bedroom and into the one in the front to see whether that stopped these things, that were happening more and more often. We did and had some peace and quiet until we bought our first house and moved out.

One more thing happened before then, though. I was asleep in bed on my own, in that same bedroom, whilst my boyfriend was on a late shift. I was young and slept like a log - unlike these days. I woke very suddenly and, even though there was no light in the room, I saw a young man standing next to the bed looking down at me, with a strange, curious and almost tender look on his face. The area around him seemed fully lit. He had reddish curly hair, blue eyes and fresh-looking skin, sort of Irish colouring. He was wearing a blue open-necked polo shirt. Understandably startled, I jumped backwards and into a sitting position, pulling the covers up to my chin. I tried to tell myself that it must be an image left over from a vivid dream, but he stayed there watching me. Then he turned slowly away and sort of faded backwards, still with that odd, wistful expression on his face. I called our dog up the stairs to keep me company for the rest of the night but, as soon as she came through the door, she turned tail and scrambled back down the stairs. I didn't get any feeling that the young man, if he was really there, meant me any harm, quite the opposite in fact. I felt as though I had chased him away and, although still very frightened, I half wished I hadn't reacted the way I did. The odd thing, which puzzles me even after all these years, is that I could see him very clearly indeed, even down to the weave on his polo shirt. Apart from the darkness in the room, I am extremely short-sighted and can only see a few inches before everything starts to turn into a fuzzy blur. That partly convinces me that I might have been dreaming, but I know I was definitely awake. As I said before, we moved out of that room, and never had a single thing happen again.
Lived in Garden Lane Bootle then moved to Netherton, where my mum still lives.
Petersh
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:42 pm

nellie wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:15 pm I lived in Cedar street at the time of the house fire in Ash street, as far as I can remember 4 children died plus the father Sid Clotworthy, one of the children to die was a young girl named Donna Waugh, she was baby sitting there that night with another girl, when Sid and his wife came back from being out they asked the girls if they wanted to stay the night. Sids wife and daughter Theresa survived as well as the other young babysitter. I heard that the fire was caused by one of the children playing with matches. My mother was traumatised by it as she knew the Clotworthy family very well.
I was in school with one of the kids that died in the fire, she was in my class, Cathy or Kathy Clotworthy was her name. She was a kind person and I dont think they had much money because I remember she always used to come to school looking a bit scruffy. I had a dream about her last night!
Vicky swords
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:16 am

I’m beginning to think that every house in Willard street was haunted ….I have so many stories to tell of strange going’s on in 41 Willard street …this is one of them …my partner and I had gone on a night out , leaving his sister in our house babysitting our daughter, I had made sure she was asleep in bed before we went out ….later that night as we arrived home we could see his sister sitting in our step, rocking backwards and forwards “is Danielle ok , what’s happened??” we screamed ….this was her reply “ I could hear Danielle and her friend jumping and banging about , laughing loudly , I was annoyed that you had not told me that one of Danielles friends were staying over , I shouted many times to be quiet but the noise didn’t stop, I went upstairs and opened the bedroom with all intentions to shout at them , I went cold as I could see Danielle fast asleep in bed , on her own , I went back downstairs trying to work out an explanation …then the noises and the laughter started again, I crept upstairs and leaned against the bedroom door , I could hear them clearly …flung the door open and there was Danielle still fast asleep, I’m never coming here ever again “…and she never set foot in our house again …
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filsgreen
Posts: 3392
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 8:28 am

Thanks for your story, Vicki, the Klondyke was well represented by the spirit sector. Welcome to the forum. :D
phil1972
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:36 pm

I was Klondyke born and bread Eleanor Road i too have had strange goings on in my live The first one started in 1996 after i left home and was living with my then girlfriend we got to rent a house in Hackett Ave Bootle No 25 when we moved in we had nothing we had a few kitchen chairs etc And we used the chairs and one of the doors as a pasting table to decorate with. one night we heard this dragging noise across the living room ceiling and me and my brother ran up stairs to see if someone was in the house as we waited behind the bedroom door my brother opened the door and what awaited us was the most bizarre thing ever one of the chairs had been put in the corner of the room with the seat part of the chair rocking on a perfect balance on the back of the chair and all the paint tins had been stacked up aswell i just tried to put it to the back of my mind at the time.but that was just the start of things to come we had the house alarmed and nearly every night the alarm would go off on what was on the control box zone 1 (living room) we had the alarm checked many times and it always came back as ok things would go missing in the house for days on end only to turn up in places you knew you would never of left them like the fridge etc you could hear the floor boards creaking of a night on the landing and someone walking outside the bedroom door with a low kind of breathing one night the living room light shook so bad the bulb fell out and nearly landed in my child's pushchair the whole atmosphere of the house was terrible and unhappy we later found out that a man had lived in the house and had fell down the stairs and had died and laid at the bottom of the stairs for days before he was found i belive he was only found because he had a few days milk that was left on the step. i was on the point of getting a priest in the house but we left in 2000 and moved to Fernhill road that house was fine and had no such going on the second strange thing i had happen to me was in 2008 while riding my bike down past kirkstone pub past the side of ford cem many people will know it's a path with houses to left side and the cem on the right one night as i was riding down there this was about 7pm winter time so it was dark but there are street lamps there as i got where the houses are i seen this strange black mist about 2-3 foot off the group come through a concrete fence that was solid the kind that you layer up on top of each other and the mist crossed my path in front of me and went through the fence into Ford cem i know it was not a bin bag as it would of blown over the top of the solid fence and prob would of got stuck on the cem fence it was strange because it was moving in a slow but elevated way it seemed to know where it was going i could hear dogs barking in the area and it proper still freaks me out to this day as to what it was i have found a Tom Selmen story that is from the same area and kind of the same kind of sighting i've never seen anything since.And as for the Klondyke there was strange goings on i belive a house on Springwell road was haunted by where the betting shop was at the top of Marion Road and i heard a story somewhere about all the windows being blown out. As stated at the start of this that i lived in Eleanor road between 1972 and 1996 my dad said he seen the ghost of a young girl aged about 7 dressed in a Victorian style white dress and the strange thing was that a girl who had lived in the street before the demolition of the houses had said the same thing and she lived half way up the street on the other side to us maybe it was the same ghost as she said it was aged about 7 or 8 and wearing a white Victorian style dress the hairs on the back of my neck stood up when she told me because i remember my dad saying he seen her in our house many years before. These days i live just outside Lancaster in an old style village house the house is happy and has a good vibe to it and i've had no more paranormal activity going on in my life i don't know what awaits us after we pass but there is something.
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Dan
Posts: 4730
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:24 pm

School ghost riddle

THE ghost of Mad Mary has stalked the corridors of a Bootle school for decades, instilling fear into pupils.

By Liverpool Echo 13 JAN 2005

THE ghost of Mad Mary has stalked the corridors of a Bootle school for decades, instilling fear into pupils.

Now pupils researching Linacre primary's 100-year history are hoping to find out more about their resident spook in time for their centenary celebrations this year.

Pupils have been delving into their school's past in a special project and uncovered a world of punishment books, canings, traditional inkpots and pens, and the wartime crash landing of a German plane in the playground.

Robyn Connor, eight, of Bootle, said: "I think caning is horrible and I am glad they don't do that any more.

"Everyone knows that if you say 'Mad Mary' in the mirror three times, the devil comes up behind you."

Nicholas Obey, seven, of Bootle, said: "I would like to use the ink pens so I could flick ink on to the ceiling." The school in Thornton Road, which opened as Linacre County on February 17, 1905, has put memory boxes around Bootle for people's anecdotes and photographs of yesteryear. Hundreds of ex-pupils have been in touch.

But pupils and teachers are still trying to piece together the school history, including the wartime crash and Mad Mary story.

Teacher Nikki Byrne said: "There used to be a portrait of her on the stairs and children said her eyes followed you.

"The school was a mortuary during the war. It might be the ghost story comes from that."
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Bonesy
Posts: 3454
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:05 pm
Location: Lydiate

Mad Mary used walk around Ford Cemetery crying out for her dead mother.
Our gang followed her once and she frightened the life out of us. Never went back into the Cemetery.


Keith
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Dan
Posts: 4730
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:24 pm

Bootle Times January 7 1982

Ghosts of the Punch Bowl, Litherland Hotel and Matilda of the Bridge Inn.

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BOBHAMO
Posts: 5930
Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2007 12:20 pm
Location: BIG CITY

Like it Dan.
King dicks. Was my. Local for years
After 10 pints. Saw lots of Matildas :) :)
Bobhamo
bootle born altcar road
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