"Whitelee, It was to this
farm that John Nadin came to work as a labourer in the 18th century. The
farmer’s wife, Julia Brough, was so passionately in love with him she eventually
persuaded him to murder her husband, only to betray him to the police after the
deed was done. He was the last person to be hanged from the public gibbet
on nearby Gun Hill on 31st August 1731, witnessed by the choir of Leek Parish
Church and a large crowd of ghoulish onlookers."
Was one of the tales told to us this evening (Friday May 2nd, 2008) about a man that was the last to be executed at Leek. The word gibbet, underlined above, is a metal iron cage where the executed would stay for a while, painted in such a stuff (tar) that would stop the dead person from erroding so quickly, for others to look at and be warned what would happen if they committed the same offence, thus by John Nadin, Murder!
man in a gibbet <<<>
There were many other stories told on this eve! The witch who composed black and white magic and lived where Ghetliffes Yard now stands, also of the pipe smoking old gentleman that lives in the Roebuck that has stood in Leek, on Derby Street, since 1626, in fact to believed 1606 in all matter of fact.
The cock inn used to stand where the tourist information board office now stands on the corner of the market square and Stockwell street, The vicarage by St Edwards Church has a ghost of an old vicars wife who had a stroke. There is a ghost of a nun and a priest whom are said to walk through a room at The Green man pub on Compton and a nun whom roams the rear of the church, St Marys church in Compton, due to there being an old convent behind St Marys church which you can enter on King Street.
Ghosts of children, one young lad and a girl slightly bit older, are believed to run around the area near the Odeon Antiques, joannes hair studio and the nfu insurance building (this used to be a work house).
The Quiet Woman public house on St Edward Street is said to have a ghost of a spaniel dog so if you ever go in and smell a scent of a damp dog you know the ghost of the spaniel isnt far behind you.
Near the albion mills is a ghost called bertie, probably dressed in horse riding gear OR of operatic attire (as if he was attending an opera).
There is many a chilling tale in Leek!
If you go by the old book shop in Market street, just off the market place, and you pop in and hear screams and cries from below then they will be the ghosts of the old inhabitants of the "lock ups". Lock ups were where the cellars of local shops were used to lock up people who may be drunk and disorderly OR basically really bad people until they were taken to the proper police stations/gallows etc.
The market square as it is known today, covered a larger area of Leek than it does now, and apparently in the middle ages there was a fire that struck Leek and burnt most of it down!
Dont have bad dreams now MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA