A Ghost Story

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"A Ghost Story"

Foreword
by Ruslan C Pashayev

In my article called The Last Fall (2021) I mention a short-story called A Ghost Story, which appeared in several English newspapers in the 1830’s. That short-story was based on a local Middleton narrative and is a brilliant example of the South Lancashire verbal traditions and folklore. Historically, a mill-town in Salford Hundred of County Palatinate of Lancaster, now the town of Middleton is part of Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in Greater Manchester. A protagonist of the legend, a collier called Isaac Unsworth challenged unknown, who appeared to be a ghost, to a wrestling match according to the local wrestling customs. The given account of wrestling match gives a vivid description of what traditional Lancashire wrestling was like before the introduction of professionalism in the 1820s, and prior to the establishing of the generally accepted rules of the game.

A GHOST STORY

Since the disasters of the storm have ceased to occupy the attention of the good people in the neighbourhood of Middleton, they have found an exciting topic of conversation in a ghost story, which has been very generally circulated there, and which, we have no doubt, has just as good claims to belief as all the other stories of the same kind, that have at various times obtained currency and credence in different parts of the country. The scene of this story is an uninhabited house, not far from the Alkrington colliery, in a lone and desolate situation and altogether as suitable a domicile as any ghost need desire to possess. It is connected with a tradition of some atrocities, ending in the murder of a child, which was said to have been buried in the cellar; and the house has, almost as a matter of course under such circumstances, had a very indifferent reputation ever since; successive occupiers having heard, or what was quite as good, imagined that they heard, during the dead of night divers sounds, which could not be accounted for by any natural causes.

Some years ago, the house was tenanted by a man known in the neighbourhood as "Owd Jone Whittaker," who, it was said, became familiarized to uncommon sounds, for the most part beginning with something like the tread of a very heavy foot, and ending like the cries of a child. "Owd Jone, however, does not appear to have been quite so faint-hearted as some of his successors; for be, and two sisters who lived with him, withstood the supposed noises for several years without flinching. It is said that Whittaker believed that the sounds indicated the concealment of money somewhere about the premises, and he had nearly brought the building down by digging in the cellars, in the vain hope of finding the hidden treasure. Since his time, the house has been divided into three tenements, with separate doors of entrance, and has been repeatedly occupied by colliers and others, who, however, after a short sojourn, have always been driven away either by strange noises or by their own fears: and the last tenants, an elderly couple, were so much terrified one night, that they fled at once from the house, and several days elapsed before they durst return for the purpose of taking away their furniture. This fact, of course, confirmed the reputation of the house, and since that time, it has been wholly untenanted; very few persons choosing even to venture near the "boggart heawse," as it is commonly called, except in good broad daylight. Recently, however, an individual has been found adventurous enough to beard the ghost in his own territory; and the particulars of the adventure, as related by or for the adventurous wight, are the subject of the narrative and discussions which we have already alluded to, as being current in the neighbourhood of Middleton. The following is the substance of them:

At a beer-shop in a place called Stocks, which is very near the house in question, there lodges a man named Isaac Unsworth, a collier, who, for one of his calling, is said to be a quiet orderly man, when sober. On the first night of the present year, however, as might reasonably be anticipated, he came home a little elevated with liquor; and after sitting a short time by the fire, he started up, about ten o'clock, and declared he would go to the "boggart heawse." In vain did his landlady try to dissuade him; go he would, and go he did. After being absent about half an hour, he returned home, in a state of great apparent terror and distress; and, as soon as he became composed, related a story of which the following are the leading particulars:- On coming up to the place, he "punsed" at the first door, when it flew open, and he went in; and, having danced a step on the floor, called out-Ho! If there's any one here, let him come!" Nothing, however, appeared; and he went to the second door, which, in like manner yielded to his foot, and be there in like manner, repeated his summons without effect. The third time, however, according to a vulgar adage, "pays for all and so according to the story, Isaac Unsworth found it. On approaching the door, he found it open, and there he had no occasion at all to repeat his summons; for, as he entered the door, a little girl having a bonnet on, with a bow of ribbon on one side, went in before him, and stood in the middle of the floor; on which, being apparently in a humour for dancing, he danced a step round her, when she suddenly disappeared. At that moment a man entered the room, as if pursuing the girl. The new comer was of very formidable appearance, but Isaac Unsworth had too many new year's gifts to be frightened at trifles. As in the case of Burn's Tam o'Shanter, under circumstances not very dissimilar-

“The swats sae ream'd in Jasse's noddlle, Fair play he cared nae dell's a bodle;”

- and he therefore resolutely challenged the stranger to wrestle for half a gallon of ale! The challenge was as promptly accepted; they closed, and Isaac, though he put in all he could, found himself immediately lifted from his feet, and thrown with great violence against the wall, where he lay stunned and senseless for several minutes. On coming to himself be bent a speedy retreat, unmolest by any personal attack; but a voice called after him, to the effect, that he must return at two o'clock, and pay the wager he had lost. This demand greatly troubled him; for being a man of honour in his way, he like to levant," as the sporting phrase is; but he had very little stomach for facing his formidable antagonist a second time. Fearing, however, that worse might come of it if he failed, he determined to keep the appointment; and, accordingly, a little before two o'clock, he sallied forth on his way to the place of meeting. Whether he duly carried with him the half-gallon of ale he had lost, or whether he meant to tender “dry money" (which, we should imagine, would be an affront to any ghost of respectability), the story is unfortunately silent; but it records, that, on arriving at the house, he saw his old antagonist, who now seemed of gigantic stature, and who offered him a handful of money if he would try two more falls. Isaac Unsworth, however, had had quite enough in the first encounter, and very prudently declined the offer; on which the spectre, according to all ghostly etiquete, vanished in a flame of fire." letting the money fall upon the ground, which Isaac did not stop to pick up, but made his way back home with all the speed be could master.

Such is the story which at present occupies the attention of all the gossips in the neighbourhood of Middleton, and it is repeated in a great variety of shapes, and with embellishments according to the respective tastes of the narrators. There are, indeed, some sceptical folks who express a doubt whether Isaac Unsworth was not far too drunk to know at all what happened to him on the night in question; but these doubts have very little influence on the multitude, who accept the entire story on gospel, and the "boggart heawse" has recently been the principal place of public resort in the neighbourhood. Some of the more knowing ones suggest that the man seen by Isaac Unsworth, was the evil one himself, and that the recent tempest was the natural result of the disturbance which Isaac Unsworth's visit had caused him; in which case undoubtedly, a very large number of persons have good reason to complain of Isaac's folly and temerity.

Source: Manchester Guardian. Reprinted in The Sheffield Independent, dated January 26th, 1839.

NOTES: the men wrestled having their clothes on; the match was an in-house event and was contested for one fall only, but potentially it could have been a three falls affair; the “fall” was an actual throw from the standing position, and in this particular case it was a knock-out throw, since one of the two participants was lifted from his feet and after being thrown against the wall lost his consciousness, and that apparently counted as a fair fall hence we learn that he lost his wager which was a half-gallon of ale.

SUMMARY: It appears that mastery in this particular style of wrestling was in obtaining certain holds of your opponent that resulted in a controlled lift from which he was violently thrown to the ground (body-slammed), preferably onto his back, with or without the attacking wrestler going down himself. In the eastern parts of Lancashire it was called to buckthang or to buckfan your adversary, a term which meant the act of back- slamming and was a form of punishment popular among the local folks in which a guilty person was seized by their extremities, held face-upwards and swung as high as possible, and then allowed to fall with a heavy bump on the ground, or when the offender was thrown in a similar way against a door or wall, thus being turned into a sort of battering ram.

Ruslan C Pashayev is an expert-member of the Traditional Sports Team of the Instytut Rozwoju Sportu i Edukacji (the Institute of Sport Development and Education), Warsaw, Poland.