Chat It’s Fate — August 2017

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