Brian Willcox tells a ghost story relating to Edge Hill station
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 14th September 2012 by Liam Physick
Brian Willcox talks about how, one night, he and his wife, aiming to travel back to their home in Weaverham, Cheshire, caught their usual train from Edge Hill at 10 minutes past 11 at night: however, there was an eerie feeling, the toilets were in the Victorian style, and then, to cap it all off, a disembodied arm and hand opened the door to Brian and his wife’s compartment and sat down. Unsurprisingly, Brian and his wife got off at the next station (Brian estimates that this was in Warrington, but has no idea which Warrington station it may have been), got the train back to Liverpool and stayed over at his mother’s house, and when they returned to Edge Hill the following evening, the station master denied that there had been any train at 10 minutes past 11 the previous night.
Interviewee: Brian Willcox
Interviewee Gender: Male
Interview Transcript
Jodie: Where were you born?
Brian: In Troughton Street, Liverpool . . .
Jodie: And . . .
Brian: 33 Troughton Street.
Jodie: OK. And, if you don’t mind saying, where were you, when were you born, when were you born, time . . . ?
Brian: Time in the morning? (both laugh)
Jodie: You can, you can do that specifically if you want, like!
Brian: No, I couldn’t tell you!
Jodie: No, I mean, like, sorry, when, what date, what year?
Brian: What year? 35 . . .
Jodie: Yeah, thanks.
Brian: 1935.
Jodie: OK, and I believe that you’ve got a ghost story round here, yes . . .
Brian: Well, yes, I was taking my wife back home to Weaverham in Cheshire, waiting for the train and one come through at, well, the usual through train come through at about 10 past 11 at night, and we made it to the station for that time, and this train come through and we just automatically jumped on, thinking it was our train, but when we got on it, I thought, “This is, something funny about this train”, it was eerie and ghostly, and me wife felt the same. We sat down and, I said, “I’m just going to the toilet, will you be all right?”, she said, “Yeah, I’ll be all right”. So I went to the toilet and, toilet door was just swinging back and to, and when I went in it was all Victoriana, wash basin and jugs for washing yourself with, I thought, “This is funny, this, this is queer”, so I went out and sat down, my wife said, “I’m not, I’m not happy here at all,”, she said, “I’m getting off at the next station”, and when we looked up the train, there was a black hand, gloved hand, come, just the arm and the hand, and opened the door and sat down, and I said, “I’m off”, so, anyway, we pulled into this station, I don’t know where it was, that’s (indecipherable), and it was, I think, somewhere in Warrington, and, that was it, got back to, to Liverpool, went and stopped at me mum’s for the night and, went for the train the next night, and they asked the station master about it, said, “What was that train we got on, come through about 10 past 11 last night?”, he said “I’m sorry, there’s no trains come through here at all last night”, and that was it.
Jodie: Isn’t that strange? So, was there any other people on the train, or . . . ?
Brian: There was someone sitting at the far end, and as I say, this gloved hand opened the door and sat down next to her, but I wasn’t taking too much notice then (laughs), I was just wanting to get off that train! I’m not usually, you know, frightened or anything like that, but that was, simply, you know . . . ghostly.
Jodie: Yeah, and where was that, did you get the train from Edge Hill?
Brian: From here . . .
Jodie: From Edge Hill, from . . .
Brian: . . . at, at Edge Hill, yeah.
Jodie: . . . yeah. Oh, God, that’s . . .
Brian: So what happened to the Edge Hill train at 10 past 11, I don’t know! (Jodie laughs). But the station master said none come through at all!
Jodie: That’s unusual, isn’t it? It makes you, me wonder why, like, why would, why then and why . . . yeah.
Brian: I know.
Jodie: What did, so did it look different from the other trains, or just only . . .
Brian: Yeah, it was an old train . . .
Jodie: Oh, right, so it was completely different.
Brian: . . . an old Elizabethan train, as I imagined it to be, you know, it was all ornate, the seats were different.
Categorised under: The Station & Railway Pioneers
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