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story 2 (a variation on the same theme):
It is
said that many years ago, in the early years of the canals, a
young lady was travelling from Liverpool to meet her husband
in London who had recently taken up work there. He had sent a
guinea to her to enable her to pay for her transport, and she
was carrying all the goods she owned with her in trunks.
After a
long ride on a cart that was taking corn to the mill at
Hardingswood, she stopped to take rest at the Canal Tavern, a
lock side pub in Kidsgrove. She was trying to arrange her
further passage south by road, with no offers.
Three
boatmen promised her they would give her transport to London
on their canal barge. The men had all been drinking, they
took a pint of porter and then set off with the woman through
the Harecastle Tunnel. At the mouth of the tunnel, one of the
boatmen took the pony up the track to Boathorse Road, and the
other two set off into the tunnel with their passenger.
The
barge emerged at the other side carrying the boatmen but no
woman. In the hope that she had riches in her luggage, they
had murdered her and hid her body in the underground culvert
to Goldenhill Colliery, known as Gilbert's Hole. She was found
some days later in the tunnel, without her head.
The
boatmen were tried and executed for murder, but it has been
said over the years that the Kidsgrove Buggart
has been heard wailing in and
around the tunnel and along Boathorse Road. This is the road
that runs directly above the tunnel where the tow-ponies used
to walk when the barges were being legged through the tunnel. |
