HAU
NTED
Britain’s
hotspots
Union Canal:
Night falls...
Monkey Man:
Eerie eaves
Freaky flicker:
Of candlelight
Bilsworth Tunnel:
Navvies died
Witch hunt:
Evil tradition
graves
Chat it’s fate 59
Unf inished^
business
Spooky locations
Did you know?
D
rowning was
used as capital
punishment in
Europe. During the
Middle Ages – bound
in the fetal position
and thrown into
water – it acted as a
test to see if a
woman was a witch.
The idea was witches would float and
innocent women would drown. The 17th-Century
Salem witch trials also indulged in this practice.
Compiled by Amanda Vlietstra
C
onstruction
began on the
Blisworth Tunnel
on the Grand
Union Canal in
Northamptonshire
in 1793.
A major feat of
engineering, teams of navvies worked with picks
and shovels for three years – until they hit quicksand
and the tunnel collapsed, killing 14 men. A new route^
for the tunnel was found, and it finally opened on 25^
March 1805. Over the years, a number of boaters^
travelling through the tunnel have reported seeing lights
and a glimpse into a second route through the hill. But the
tunnel runs straight through the hill, so people must have^
seen the flicker of candlelight at the spot where the first
tunnel would have intersected with the
main one. Perhaps the ghostly navvies
are still working there..?
l Drifters Waterway Holidays operates from 45 bases
across England, Scotland and Wales. See http://www.drifters.co.uk
or call 0344 984 0322 to book.
Animal attraction
B
ritain’s most haunted canal is apparently Shropshire’s
Union Canal. In particular, look out for the lock-^
keeper’s cottage at Berdegin, haunted by Welsh princess
Eira, who was walled up alive for eloping with her lover.^
Further along, in Chester’s old Northgate, the canal was^
dug into part of the town’s old moat and a Roman centurion
can be seen guarding the entrance to the City.
However, the canal is mainly infamous for its Monkey Man.
This black, shaggy-coated being with huge eyes is
believed to be the ghost of a boatman who
drowned there in the
19th Century.
He first
appeared
in 1879 –
leaping
out of the
bushes onto
the horse of
a labourer
driving
past, to the
enormous fright
of both horse and
rider – and has been
regularly spotted ever
since. Look up in the
eaves of Bridge 39 near Norbury
- he’s often been seen hanging
upside down thereÉ