Walks on the Leekbrook Line

Last Thursday (5th June), Emily-Jane and I decided to take a walk in the lovely June sunshine, it was a fairly warm day yet cloudy at first, we dressed accordingly.

We (as a family) had not been down the Leekbrook trainline for some weeks and especially as far as the Leekbrook tunnel so we started to wander along, to find the line very overgrown with small saplings of different trees, we pushed our way through as we meandered from one old track line to another and back again, down the old junction passway.


Here the black and white shows the overgrowth in the background.
Soon enough we found ourselves by the Leekbrook tunnel...

Here, somebody has sadly defaced the inside bricks by painting on them with graffiti sprays, here is EJ looking like she is actually assisting in the painting she is NOT! but the capture looked effective enough for me to take it...

The one thing about this long tunnel we enjoy is its accoustics, for example, if you were to shout "boo" very loudly and then count how long the echo lasted it can go on for a good 13-15 seconds, or you may throw a large stone at the walls of the tunnel and it will make a different sound altogether, albeit a shorter echo. It naturally, due to my children playing about, takes ages to get from the start of the tunnel at Leekbrook entrance to the exit near Birchall and the Golf Club greens as either or both of them love messing about, shouting in the tunnel and then climbing on the metal fencing on the outside of the tunnel at the Birthcall entrance.

Leekbrook Skies

Well Here is a sky view over leekbrook one evening, I took it to purposely do an artistic effect, which I did do in the end.

It is strange to think that where you can just about see the houses wtih their lights on, once stood Wardles factory, now a whole new estate of houses, I reckon about 45 or more houses stand on this site now (including ours) and there are more to be erected within the next 12-18 months at the front of the estate, near to Cheadle Road.

St Edwards Church (side) Leek

St Edward's church, Leek! Taken on Friday 2nd May 2008, around 9pm after a Ghost Walk around the town!

Ghost Stories

"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

The Red Lion Market Square Leek

The Red Lion inn is still standing and has been for many a year, just by the buttermarket entrance, although when this pub was first built im sure there wasn't a modern motor engined vehicle parked outside of the adjacent shops.

It doesnt look as old inside as it does on the outside, although it has parque wooden flooring, it seems to have more of a modern feel to it than it should (in my opinion).

National Westminster (Natwest) Bank, Leek

This is the Natwest Bank (national westminster) in Derby Street, Leek, however the banks old stone plaque, blurred in the right hand side of this photo shows its original stature as a banking institution/organisation from many a century ago.

The Roebuck, Sunday April 20th 2008

I am yet to step into this lovely pub, it looks gorgeous from the outside, built in 1626 I am sure there are some ghosts pacing the floors of this lovely building, the exterior is grande, I will let you know if the interior is as quaint as the exterior....Watch this space!

Newsflash... (9th July 2008) The Roebuck is old
fashioned inside, on the downstairs, the first and last time I (or should I say
we, as phil was with me), ventured into here was the day after my birthday, 24th
May 2008, it was strange to go outside (yet under cover) to the toilets, and I
know after experiencing the ghost tour with Bill Cawley, that this particular
public house/hotel is supposed to be haunted, although I never felt a presence
when we were in there. We ventured to the 'Cock Inn', on the opposite side
of the road to this particular public house/hotel. (more my kind of pub as they
had heavy metal music on including AC/DCs Thunderstruck).

Bird In Hand Inn on Market Square, Leek

This is one of the older pubs in Leek, notice the victorian timbering on the house! This is the Bird in Hand, it is situated on the Market Square in Leek. You will also notice the St Georges flag below the sign, this was taken during the St Georges day celebrations over the weekend of the 19th and 20th April (2008)

The Olde House

A zoomed in view of a typical weavers house on King Street, Leek. Weavers would do their work in the upper top floor of the house, where you see the slim window, just below the roof tiles. The door surround seems to be natural and the existing one from when the houses were first built?!

The lamp outside the house looks of the character of the existing gas lit lamps of the Victorian era. There are no cobbles down this street which is a shame but if you turn the corner at the top, into Albion street, the cobbles are still there, mainly because the council removed them and were protested against to replace by the local residents ... good on the residents I say!

Another thing you may notice about these houses is the brick work, this is obviously an old fashioned method as the bricks look so tightly weaved together, its just a total different style to the modern day building as we know of today!

King Street, Leek

Again, as earlier sepia photographs show, this is King street, just off Albion Street, these are old weavers cottages and the feint sighting of street lamps that you see would have looked very similar yet gas lit by a lamp lighter every day/evening. The lightly coloured building right at the end, on the right, is the start of the 'Albion Mill', these have been redesigned into homes, namely "Albion mill loft homes" so at least the old mill has been put into some new use but most of the old brickwork doesnt look like a mill now, its fairly new although they have complimented the buildings by installing old fashioned looking doors.
This bloke was chasing after his son across the road, and probably wondered what I was taking photos of although he probably also thought I may be a tourist/visitor to the area, no! We moved to Leekbrook in September 2007.