A Ghostly Sample

A couple of weeks ago I made an appeal for your stories and experiences of the paranormal kind for possible inclusion in forthcoming volumes covering my native Staffordshire and also the city of Birmingham and its suburbs. Having produced three ghostly books in the past I thought I'd share a sample from each to give an idea of the sort of thing I'm looking for - and maybe whet your appetite for more!

From Black Country Ghosts published by The History Press Ltd in 2008,

comes The Miner and the TV

"An anonymous tale from the early 1970s was thought to be a memory of an incident which occurred in 1872. Workers at Pelsall Hall Colliery, by Knights Hill, accidentally broke into an old unrecorded working . Unfortunately this working was flooded. Water rushed into the new tunnel, cutting off the miners. When their bodies were recovered, nineteen men and boys had died from inhaling carbonic acid gas and two had drowned.

Traditionally the twenty-one souls recovered were seen walking down Knights Hill on the anniversary of the tragedy to begin their fateful shift. However, there were actually twenty-two individuals lost that night. Perhaps we finally know what happened to the missing body.

Two clergymen had to be called in to remove the ghost of a miner who was terrifying a husband and wife in a house built not far from the location of the old pit. Their daughter had seen the man on the upstairs landing; later that week he was discovered sitting in an armchair in the l;iving room, apparently watching commercials on the television set. In every appearance he was wearing the same clothing, very grimy and dirty and yet not once did he leave a single mark behind as a reminder of his visit.

When the local clergymen was sent for, he began praying in an upstairs room where the man had last been seen. At theat very moment, the ghost spontaneously appeared in the kitchen. Thus it was that a second clergyman was summoned. Armed with a crucifix, prayer book and a mixture of salt and water, which was sprinkled liberally around the place, they worked together to try and rid the home of its unwelcome guest.

It seems to have worked, for after several weeks of the man hanging around in working clothes, they never saw him again."