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Don’t try to remove the cursed skull from Skull House, Wigan, or you could be the next victim, warns RACHAEL ELIZABETH
In the northwest of England, hidden in a quiet part of Appley Bridge, lies a fairly unassuming road called Skull House Lane.
It’s an auspicious name for the coming October evenings, especially for those of us who enjoy the morbid and macabre. But this little alley is not named exclusively for us; Skull House Lane is named after a small house on it that shares the namesake ‘Skull House’.
As the curious among us might suspect, Skull House has a disturbing reason for its title, as the cottage is named after a discolored human skull located within its walls – a skull that may not be all it seems…
The Legend of Skull House
According to legend, the human skull located in Skull House is that of a monk who took refuge in the chimney of the cottage. The monk is said to have fled his monastery, because the monks in England at that time were being hunted by the Roundheads.
This particular monk is said to have hidden in a cubbyhole in the chest of the chimney, but was soon discovered; the roundheads then lit the fireplace to smoke out the monk. When apprehended, the monk was beheaded, and as the story goes, his skull has remained in the cottage ever since.
The skull is said to have been discovered by the cottage’s residents after they carried out renovation work. When the skull was discovered, they tried to get rid of it. Unfortunately, this didn’t go quite as planned.
Residents of Appley Bridge claim numerous attempts to remove the skull from the cottage have ended in disaster. In one such incident, the resident of the house grabbed the skull and threw it into the house. River Douglaslocated at the bottom of Skull House Lane.
It is said that the man returned home and found the skull in its original place. Most disturbing of all, the man in question later drowned in that same river.
In another attempt to banish the skull, a resident tried to move the skull as far away from the house as possible, but again the skull returned and the offending resident seriously injured himself when he fell down the stairs.
It is also rumored that many more residents attempted to dispose of the skull and suffered serious illness and even the death of loved ones.
It appears that the monk is not supportive of his bones being removed from the cottage, and the current residents reportedly never attempted to remove the skull; until now their lives would remain relatively peaceful.
The Skull House skull has since become a polarizing topic, with some people agreeing that the skull should be kept in the house as a historical relic – but it is understandable why others argue that the skull should be thrown away, in an attempt to preserve the neighborhood to get rid of the supposed curse.
Science of the skull
It is also documented that the skull was scientifically analyzed, but when the results came back, the skull was found to be female.
Although it appears that the skull’s origin story has been destroyed, many questions about it still remain unanswered: Whose skull did it belong to? How did she die? Why was her skull found within the walls of the cottage? And perhaps most importantly, why does she seem to wreak havoc on those who try to remove her?
We may never know the answers to these questions, but one thing is for sure: you shouldn’t try to remove her from Skull House, or who knows, your skull might become the next cursed object…
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Learn about other ghost skulls on Spooky Isles.
