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Knutsford in Cheshire has a long and haunted history with plenty of haunted places to visit, says guest writer GEORGE WILLIAMS of Knutsford Ghost Walks
Haunted places in Knutsford, Cheshire
Knutsford is a market town in Cheshire. The town was recorded as Canutesford in William The Conqueror’s Domesday Book of 1086. King Edward I granted the city a royal charter in 1292.
This gave William de Tabley, lord of Knutsford, the right to establish a weekly market and an annual fair and to create 38 encroachment plots, each large enough for a house, a workplace and space for animals.
With its narrow streets that still follow this old medieval layout, Knutsford naturally has its fair share of ghosts.
The Courthouse Hotel
Built in 1820 and previously the city’s Sessions House, the building is complete with a large Magistrates Room, C19 Grand Jury Room, a second smaller courtroom with underground cells and a prison for 150 prisoners.
The prison is long gone and in 2015 the interior of the building was converted into what has now become ‘The Courthouse Hotel’, which is now also home to strange paranormal activity.
Both guests and housekeeping staff reported the showers going off multiple times and the doors slamming almost every day. Photos have been taken in the past of orbs above their heads, as well as a very strange green mist.
Prospective brides, who only stay overnight in the upper rooms, report feeling anxious and uneasy about staying there on their wedding night.
The Royal George Hotel
Formerly ‘The George & Dragon’, a Georgian coaching inn, the hotel was renamed following the visit of Princess Victoria in 1832. The hotel’s Assembly Room was a popular venue in Georgian times, where local nobility gathered on weekend evenings to dance and dance. play card games.
In 2001, witnesses contacted a paranormal association to report ghostly sightings at the hotel. The investigators examined the hotel for signs of glowing orbs, an apparition of a Dick Turpin-like character, and a gray lady in room 201.
The Dick Turpin-like character might be the most famous, or at least most infamous, Knutsford appearance: that of Edward “Highwayman” Higgins. He lived for some time at Heath House in what is now known as Gaskell Avenue.
The spooky corner
Towards the end of Knutsford’s King Street, on the way to the entrance to Tatton Park, the left-hand junction is onto Minshull Street. Along this rectangular section of the two streets are a wine bar, thrift shop, café, coaching inn and the tap house of a former brewery.
All five locations have reported incidents of paranormal activity, including hand dryers starting on their own, poltergeist activity and items being rearranged during the night, unexplained footsteps and movements from upper floors and peculiar ‘strange things that come across at night’ moments!
Mr Eldon
The 300-year-old Lord Eldon pub is said to be haunted by Annie Sarah Pollitt, Knutsford’s first May Queen and daughter of James Pollitt, the landlord in the late 19th century. She took over the landownership to run this pub after her husband Edwin died in 1896 and Annie was still there in 1901.
Witness accounts tell of seeing an apparition wearing clothing from the 19th century, flickering lights, moving objects and an unidentified cold breeze. Staff have reported sightings of the white tint in the lower rooms (see photo below).
There are many rumors that Annie haunts Lord Eldon, although there is no real explanation as to why she would do so other than that she had lived there as a child.
The blonde lady from Sudlow Lane
On the outskirts of Knutsford there have been several sightings around midnight of a blonde woman walking alone on the remote road leading to Plumley, sometimes standing on the bridge and looking down at the highway below. She appears to have had an accident, as she has blood on her face. As investigators get closer to the figure, she mysteriously disappears.
GEORGE WILLIAMS is the founder of “Knutsford Ghost Walks” and organizes fortnightly afternoon/evening ghost walks around the town. You can book planned walks directly on EventBrite or arrange your own private walk with him for team building, birthdays etc. Contact him at [email protected] or call 07713 456505. You can follow him on Instagram @knutsfordghostwalks And @knutsfordghosts
