GHOSTS !

The Kidsgrove Buggatt - Murder, Myth or Legend?

It is said that many years ago, in the early years of the canals, a young lady was traveling from Liverpool to meet her husband in London who had recently taken up work there. He had sent a guinea to her to enable her to pay for her transport, and she was carrying all the goods she owned with her in trunks.

After a long ride on a cart that was taking corn to the mill at Hardingswood, she stopped to take rest at the Canal Tavern, a lock-side pub in Kidsgrove. She was trying to arrange her further passage south by road, with no offers. Someone in the tavern suggested that she travel by canal barge, and although she was not very happy about the idea, she could find no other choice.

The Tavern landlord agreed to watch over her luggage whilst she went to the wharf, and there she met three boatmen who promised her they would give her transport to London on their canal barge. They wanted to go on that night, and she was reluctant. They convinced her that the passage through the tunnel was dark in day or night, so they may as well set off as soon as possible. She did not like the idea too much, but because she could find no one else, she accepted. She noticed then that they had all been drinking, and that may have been to do with the cargo they were carrying which was wine and spirits.

The Boatmen went back to the Tavern with her to collect her luggage, and they took a pint of porter and then set off withthe lady due South via the Harecastle Tunnel. At the mouth of the tunnel, one of the boatmen took the pony up the track to Boathorse Road, and the other two setoff into the tunnel with the lady.

The barge emerged at the other side carrying the boatmen, but the lady never came out. In the hope that she had riches in her trunks, they had murdered her and hid her body in the underground culvert to Goldenhill Colliery, known as Gilbert's Hole. On the search for her, she was found some days later in the tunnel, without her head.
The boatmen were tried and executed for her murder, but it has been said over theyears that the Kidsgrove Buggut has been heard wailing in and around the tunnel and along Boathorse Road. This is the road that runs directly above the tunnel where the tow-ponies used to walk when the barges were going through the tunnel.

Ghostly Sightings:-

Accounts of people hearing the Buggut go back as far as1816 when an account can be seen in the journal of Hugh Bourne, the noted Methodist preacher. He writes of an event when he was at Talke O The Hill at night and he was informed by locals that several people had been injured in the coal mine, and that the Buggut had been very much about. Hugh Bourne describes the Buggut as "something generally invisible that makes strange groans and dreadful noises at times..", he adds "it moves unseen with a kind of noise and stops at a certain house just before an accident happens in the family of that house"
Mr Norman Roche, a local historian, wrote about people who he had interviewed who said that they had experienced sightings of the Buggut, and his printed documents in the 1950'stell various accounts.
The first was from a cousin of Mr Kinnersleys, a Mrs Napier who was staying at Clough Hallat the time. She said that whilst she was in the rose gardens, she saw a woman walking on the rose beds, and she was at the intention of asking her why she was walking on the flowers. As the woman came nearer, Mrs Napier said she experienced an overwhelming feeling of sadness and bowed her head. Then she turned to speak to the woman and saw her passing with her back toward her going through the hedge. A second or two later, she realized that the woman was in clothes of an older generation and was also headless.
Incase it was though that she was losing her mind, she decided not to tell Mr Kinnersley, but she asked the head gardener nearby if he saw the woman. The reply she got astounded her. He said that several of the gardeners had seen the woman and he had always put it down to having too much to drink. The men called it the Kidsgrove Buggut.
Mr Roche also writes of a Mr Brookes who was with a companion passing near the top of Boathorse Road when they saw a peculiar figure that appeared to be leaning on a gate. He said that he thought it was a housewife at first, but when they got nearer, it seemed to rush past them and disappear. They went to the point of disappearance and could not find any way through. There was just a plain wall around a property in Ravenscliffe Road. Apart from the "housewife"jumping over the wall (which would have been a very odd thing to do) they could only say that it disappeared. Mr Brookes was convinced that he had an encounter with Buggut.

The BlackDog

Many people have talked of the legend of the Black Dog that has been around for over 100 years, although the last half-a-century this legend seems to have started to die out.
The story that attempts toexplain this phenomena is one that involves the Audley family and their hounds that used to patrol the grounds to avert the deer poachers. According to legend, there was a blackpack-leader dog that was very large, and it was the fate of the animal that causes the hauntings. According to local people, the Black pack-leader dog was decoyed by poachers and was left to a slow death, perishing in a pit.

TheSightings:-

This dog was said to haunt the fields of Lower Ash that used to be a part of the Woodshutts Farm. This phantom seems to have been heard rather than seen and its' presencewas related to forthcoming mining disasters by locals. The most sightings seem to be between 1860and 1900 and the mining disasters that happened after the sightings are listed at the end of the paragraph.

The first sightings are according to the writings of Mr N Roche who interviewed the persons concerned and recorded their accounts of what happened to them.
The first was the son of a Mr MacGowan, who told of his fathers' experience. Mr MacGowan was a prominent man of society being the Manager of the Harecastle Colliery, and was to have an encounter in 1886 when walking with a companion from the colliery. His companion and himself heard the sound of a large animal running toward them from behind, and they instinctively parted and moved to either side of the path to allow the animal to pass. They felt the presence of the beast run in-between them but saw nothing.
The late Councilor Turner of Stone Bank Road also told Mr Roche of his experience in Boathorse Road of feeling uneasy, then of absolute terror. He then heard the sound of a large animal panting and running hard past him. The sound died out in the distance.
Ex Police Constable Stonehouse told MrRoche that he had an experience at Mow Cop near to the Mow Cop Church. He also said that he heard an animal pantingand running hard, and then he turned to see a huge black dog with red eyes and its' tongue out that was obviously in distress run past him. He said that it ran into the churchyard. Constable Stonehouse said he felt no fearuntil he approached the church and found that the iron gates to the church yard were closed and locked and that it appeared that the animal had gone straight through them.
An account from the writings of MrPhillip Leese tells of the story of Nurse A Wrigley. In 1945/6 she was walking along Engine Bank(an old row of terrace cottages that used to stand on the present site of Lower AshRoad) when she was aware of being followed by a dog. She took this to be one of the farm animals and turned to send it away home. When she turned, she was astounded to see a very large, Great Dane type of animal and it darted through the hedge. She went to the hedge to look where it had gone to but could not see it anywhere.
Later in the day when visiting one of her patients, she told of the experience. When the patient's husband entered the room, the wife told him that he was not to go to work that night as Nurse had seen Buggut. Nurse thought, fine excuse for time of work indeed!
The following day she heard young lads talking of Brymbo (one of the local mines) and said that it was on fire. The patient she had visited later said that her husband would have been in the section of the mine that was on fire if he had gone to work that night, and that they used to live at Engine Bank.

Anotheraccount was that in 1895 a miner left the Diglake colliery where he had been working and was aware of being followed home by a dog which stayed close by all the way to his home at Talke Pitts. On his arrival at home, the dog disappeared. There was said to have been an accident at the Diglake Colliery that very day and 77 men were killed.

Sighting Place

Date

Mine Involved

Kidsgrove, specific unknown

1866

Talke O'The Hill - 91 Killed inexplosion

TalkeCrossroads

1873

Talke O'The Hill - 18 Killed

Venice&Dunkirk

1874

Bignall Hill - 17 Killed

Venice&Dunkirk

1875

Bunkers Hill - 43 Killed

Audley to Talke Pitts

1895

Diglake Audley - 77 Killed

I belive he still does it when there are functions on in the back room. But not so much on a regular basis now.