Three Spooky Tales From Southport's Past

Like anywhere, Southport has its fair share of strange & spooky tales, folklore, myths & legends.

Many of these date back to before the town existed, when the sea would cover where the promenade is now, and shipwrecks were a frequent occurrence.

The Tale of the Yury Trunk

One such tale, (retold by Edwin Beattie) would be that of the ‘Yury (hairy) Trunk’ and the appearance of a ghostly White Horse, which would signal the beginning of a storm, and a subsequent shipwreck. Edwin Beattie recalls the story in his memoirs-

"One stormy and wild day, as night approached, the foreboding vision was seen amid the breakers as they thundered on the sandbanks, among which that same night a Spanish ship came to her end. All on board her were lost, among the drowned being an old lady, a passenger.

In those times a wreck was regarded rather in the light of a providential occurrence sent to provide those on land with loot; and the next morning all the inhabitants flocked to the shore for their share of the good things sent by the White Horse.

Among the wreckers was a well-known North Meols farmer, who managed to secure a small hair-covered trunk. He had never been considered as too well off, but to the astonishment of the countryside he, a short time after the wreck, bought a larger and better farm.

Gossip was soon busy with the mystery, and at once decided that the lucky farmer had secured untold gold from the contents of the 'Yury Trunk'. But he kept his own counsel and was deaf to all his neighbours' suggestions as to the source of his new-found wealth. Time passed on, but although the erstwhile wrecker prospered financially, it was soon noticed that nothing, but disaster dogged his domestic affairs.

Two sons were killed- one in a cart accident on Penwortham Brow, returning from Preston Market.  Soon it began to be rumoured that the members of the family took care never to be left alone in the house, but always to have company with them.

It was said they were visited during solitary hours by the wraith of the lady passenger who was drowned in the wreck of the Spanish ship and was the owner of the hairy trunk. She appeared as a little old lady in black satin dress, a lace veil about her head, and high-heeled shoes.

She was always in great grief, demanding the return of certain papers which formed part of the contents of the plundered trunk, and with many tears assuring the terrified subjects of her visitation that if only they would return the documents she would not ask for the gold in the trunk.

What the upshot of this tale of shipwreck was I do not know, but the family was well known in my day, although the suddenly rich farmer died long before we came to Southport, greatly respected.

Concerning this legend a former newspaper proprietor of Preston, the late Mr. Hewitson, made the remark when I related the tale to him that a very curious thing about it was that the class of people who told the legend described the drowned lady in a costume essentially Spanish the black satin dress and the veil, which of course was the mantilla, a thing they were not at all likely to have seen in actuality."

Phantom Ships

Another story was that of the ‘Phasma (Phantom) Ships’, retold by Peter Whittle in is 1831 guidebook - Marina.

"It is a fact, (but nevertheless true,) that the fishermen of these parts (North Meols) used to believe, that ships were actually navigated by witches, by a great horse* (*Sea cow, trichecus manatus- sea horse, or walrus, triehecus rosmarus- harpies, oceanides, buccentaurs- and hippocentaurs, were believed to infest, the neighbourhood of North Meols during the fifteenth century- Nichol's London Magazine) that stood by the main mast.

This was termed a 'Phantom ship'. Also, that ships drove on shore above where Southport now stands, in fair, sunny, tranquil weather, with sails all set, and a table spread in the cabin, as if to regale a number of guests; yet behold- not a single individual was on board.

These ships termed 'phantom ships’ always sailed in the eye of the wind, or ploughed their way with great velocity, making the smooth sea foam before their bows, when not a breath of air was stirring. This mentioned by Geoffrey Crayon, and Thomas Moore, in their works, as being a traditionary belief amongst the people of the Netherlands’.

One such shipwreck which may have made the above story believable to locals would be that of a sloop named Bridget, which was sailing from Newry to Chester, and came ashore at North Meols on 13th June 1780. The ships Master was a man called John Saunders, he and his crew had all left the vessel and were lost at sea, with the sloop coming ashore with all her sails set and ‘without a living creature on board!’.

With the sea now retreated so far as it does, it is hard to image ships and shipwrecks occurring on our coast, however, they were a frequent occurrence, and many drowned sailors washed up on these shores, as well as hundreds of shipwrecks. The ghost of one sailor was said to walk near to the Prince of Wales hotel.

Graveyards

We must also remember that within our town centre, there was once four burial grounds- Christ Church, Holy Trinity, St. Maries and the Independent Congregational Chapel on Chapel Street, from which that street takes its name. The former chapel, with its Sunday school, was demolished in 1964, following Littlewoods purchasing the land in 1963. The site of burial ground stood in between the chapel and the school, with the Primark store occupying the site today.

It is understood that there were around 300 plots in the graveyard. Following burial ground restrictions being lifted, being passed in the House of Lords in 1964, all of the graves were exhumed during late January and early February in 1965, with only three families remains being re-interred at family graves at both Duke Street and Birkdale Cemeteries, along with their headstones also being moved.

All of the others were exhumed and then cremated at Southport Crematorium.  There have been many stories over the years of spooky occurrences within the buildings now on the site- have you ever experienced anything at this location?

David Walshe is a historian and author who specialises in the local history of Southport and the surrounding areas.  He regularly hosts local history talks and guided walks and has published two books to date.

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Image accreditations

1. An artists impression of what the ‘Hairy Trunk’ may have looked like. (As published in SANDY TRACKS by David Walshe).
2. The Yellow House by Edwin Beattie (© Sefton Libraries)
3. Sketch of just one of the many Shipwrecks that occurred off our coast. (Published in 1892 Southport Centenary Booklet- Authors own collection)
4. Section of the 1889/90 OS town plan, showing the site of the burial ground on Chapel Street (Reproduced with kind permission from the National Library of Scotland)