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Macabre Place Names

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There’s Skull House Lane in Billinge, Wigan (north west), close to where I live.
A story attached, if I recall it concerns the discovery of a skull and some spooky goings on.

Edit: Sorry, it’s Appley Bridge, Wigan, not Billinge.
A photo!
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“In between Appley Lane North and Miles Lane is a road called Skull House Lane. The lane takes its name from a cottage known as Skull House, which is located about halfway down Appley Lane North.
The story goes that in the time of the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers, Oliver Cromwell ordered that the monks of England should be driven out of their monasteries and killed, with their monasteries then razed to the ground. One canny monk fled from his monastery and took refuge in a large cottage in Appley Bridge. To try to avoid discovery by Cromwell's Roundheads, the monk hid in a small cubby-hole halfway up the house's chimney. He hid there for some time, until the Roundheads eventually discovered him, and tried to drive him out. They lit a blaze in the fireplace, and the searing heat and thick smoke eventually forced the monk out, whence he was killed. Ever since then, the monk's discoloured skull has remained on the mantelpiece of the house, in the living room.
The inhabitants of Appley Bridge tell that, throughout the history of the house, there have been many residents who have tried to get rid of the skull, and all have experienced disastrous results from doing so. According to legend, one threw it into the River Douglas at the bottom of Appley Lane North. Shortly after, the skull returned to the house and the offending resident drowned in the river. Another tried to get it as far away from the house as possible, and shortly after, the skull returned once again and this time, the house's inhabitant fell down the stairs and severely injured himself. Others have tried many ways to banish the skull, and all have met with misfortune or fatality—sickness, the death of a loved one, bad luck ... the list goes on and on. The house's current residents have, unsurprisingly, never tried to remove the skull."
 
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merricat said:
There’s Skull House Lane in Billinge, Wigan (north west), close to where I live.
A story attached, if I recall it concerns the discovery of a skull and some spooky goings on.

Edit: Sorry, it’s Appley Bridge, Wigan, not Billinge.
A photo!
P1010066web.JPG


“In between Appley Lane North and Miles Lane is a road called Skull House Lane. The lane takes its name from a cottage known as Skull House, which is located about halfway down Appley Lane North.
The story goes that in the time of the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers, Oliver Cromwell ordered that the monks of England should be driven out of their monasteries and killed, with their monasteries then razed to the ground. One canny monk fled from his monastery and took refuge in a large cottage in Appley Bridge. To try to avoid discovery by Cromwell's Roundheads, the monk hid in a small cubby-hole halfway up the house's chimney. He hid there for some time, until the Roundheads eventually discovered him, and tried to drive him out. They lit a blaze in the fireplace, and the searing heat and thick smoke eventually forced the monk out, whence he was killed. Ever since then, the monk's discoloured skull has remained on the mantelpiece of the house, in the living room.
The inhabitants of Appley Bridge tell that, throughout the history of the house, there have been many residents who have tried to get rid of the skull, and all have experienced disastrous results from doing so. According to legend, one threw it into the River Douglas at the bottom of Appley Lane North. Shortly after, the skull returned to the house and the offending resident drowned in the river. Another tried to get it as far away from the house as possible, and shortly after, the skull returned once again and this time, the house's inhabitant fell down the stairs and severely injured himself. Others have tried many ways to banish the skull, and all have met with misfortune or fatality—sickness, the death of a loved one, bad luck ... the list goes on and on. The house's current residents have, unsurprisingly, never tried to remove the skull."
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Can you identify the house through this Google Street View link of Skull House Lane?

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@53.583656,-2.715392,270h,5p,1z

There was/is a famous stately home in England with a similarly famous legend of a skull not to be removed lest the inhabitants fall foul .. I can't remember which home though .. anyone?
 
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merricat said:
There’s Skull House Lane in Billinge, Wigan (north west), close to where I live.
A story attached, if I recall it concerns the discovery of a skull and some spooky goings on.

Edit: Sorry, it’s Appley Bridge, Wigan, not Billinge.
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You left off the last bit from the Wikipedia entry:

Recent tests,[citation needed] again rumour only, indicate that the skull is female, ruling out any connection with monks.
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I don't know whether it's the source for the Wikipedia mention, but this WiganWorld forum thread:

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7501&highlight=skull+house+lane

... includes a 2009 post from a local resident that says:

Been talking to the son who lives there today and the name is Trickett the skull is still there but he didnt like to take it out to show me and I dont blame him because if he did he would have a queue.

But he did tell me that the story was that it was a priest skull but some years ago and expert looked at it and said it definitely a female so that blew the priest skull out of the water.
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Wardley Hall is the most celebrated.

As a kid, I remember being scared by tales of one which resided in the Royal Umpire Museum near Preston.

It is a museum no more, alas. Gone, along with the ghastly Doll Museum at Bretherton, which was, at least, housed in a fascinating Elizabethan house and exhibited curious polyphons and automata, along with the aforesaid anthropomorphic horrors! :willy:
 
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CarlosTheDJ said:
The skull of Old Nance or something innit?
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Dunno .. I just remember reading about it as a kid, about successive families trying to rid itself of the skull but the thing kept finding its own way back and there it still remains to this day as legend had it ..
 
EnolaGaia said:
You left off the last bit from the Wikipedia entry:



I don't know whether it's the source for the Wikipedia mention, but this WiganWorld forum thread:

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7501&highlight=skull house lane

... includes a 2009 post from a local resident that says:
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Thanks for the extra links! I only did a quick google search which led me here : http://stonechaser.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/appley-bridge.html

Will have a look on google maps but not sure how to post a link on my iPad ?
 
JamesWhitehead said:
Wardley Hall is the most celebrated.

As a kid, I remember being scared by tales of one which resided in the Royal Umpire Museum near Preston.

It is a museum no more, alas. Gone, along with the ghastly Doll Museum at Bretherton, which was, at least, housed in a fascinating Elizabethan house and exhibited curious polyphons and automata, along with the foresaid anthropomorphic horrors! :willy:
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Thanks James, the "screaming" skull part makes me fairly sure you've found the one I'm on about .. it made my blood turn cold reading that as a kid ..
 
Just tried google street view, only allows me to travel down a section of the road. Can’t see the house so either it isn’t listed on the street view or else it is set back behind trees :(
 
merricat said:
Just tried google street view, only allows me to travel down a section of the road. Can’t see the house so either it isn’t listed on the street view or else it is set back behind trees :(
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Do you reckon the owner would allow you to photograph the house and perhaps also the skull if you contacted him/her first?
 
Swifty said:
Do you reckon the owner would allow you to photograph the house and perhaps also the skull if you contacted him/her first?
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I can’t imagine doing that, a bit too shy, but I would imagine they’ve had a lot of requests!
I’m a good few miles from there at the moment (don’t drive) but would love to have a look around at some point. I do cycle a lot during the warmer months so might plan a trip.

My parents and sister lived in Appley Bridge before I was born. Apparently the old place was haunted. Whatever it was used to move the ‘bedding box’ (a wooden chest storing bed linen, etc) around during the night.
My mum used to say she was very unhappy there and would never sleep upstairs when my dad worked nights. Shortly before they moved a local woman told my mum “you’ll never give birth to a child that survives in that house”. For the record my sister was 2 when they moved there.

Unfortunately, what the old woman didn’t know was my mum had just lost a son to a heart defect at 6 days old. Very sad story. Very upsetting coincidence - perhaps.
 
merricat said:
I can’t imagine doing that, a bit too shy, but I would imagine they’ve had a lot of requests!
I’m a good few miles from there at the moment (don’t drive) but would love to have a look around at some point. I do cycle a lot during the warmer months so might plan a trip.

My parents and sister lived in Appley Bridge before I was born. Apparently the old place was haunted. Whatever it was used to move the ‘bedding box’ (a wooden chest storing bed linen, etc) around during the night.
My mum used to say she was very unhappy there and would never sleep upstairs when my dad worked nights. Shortly before they moved a local woman told my mum “you’ll never give birth to a child that survives in that house”. For the record my sister was 2 when they moved there.

Unfortunately, what the old woman didn’t know was my mum had just lost a son to a heart defect at 6 days old. Very sad story. Very upsetting coincidence - perhaps.
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Sorry to hear that, perhaps you're better off staying away from there altogether then mate.
 
Swifty said:
Sorry to hear that, perhaps you're better off staying away from there altogether then mate.
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It’s a very old, odd feeling place, but to be honest I’d move there in a heartbeat given the chance! My family kept horses later on in nearby up-Holland. Some good memories and lovely old cottages.
 
Swifty said:
Do you reckon the owner would allow you to photograph the house and perhaps also the skull if you contacted him/her first?
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It's open to the public, Burton Agnes.

ETA: Ah I think you meant another upthread? I've been to Burton Agnes gardens many a time but never the house. Now they're charging for the gardens so won't be going again.

I used to call my stepmother The Screaming Skull.
 
been down Skull house lane Appeley Bridge and all the surrounding roads (Roby Mill etc) many many times (i work about 3 miles from there - Orrell post) BUT i have never known which house is actually 'the one'? Although i am well aware of the legend about it
 
One of the more commonly mentioned weird US place names is Whorehouse Meadow, in Oregon. Searches turn up no trace of its having been mentioned here.

The meadow acquired its name in the days of the Old West. Entrepreneuring women from Vale, Oregon, would set up wood and canvas tents in the meadow to provide services to the sheepherders and cattlemen of the area. Many of the sheepherders were Basque American immigrants, and their sometimes explicit carvings can still be found in the bark of aspen trees surrounding the meadow. The name was changed in the 1960s to "Naughty Girl Meadow" on Bureau of Land Management maps, but in 1981 the old name was restored after public outcry.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whorehouse_Meadow
 
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