An old ghost encounter recounted…
Just off the Longdendale Trail is Old House Tunnel… an underpass courteously cut beneath a track bed for hill farm convenience by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway Company when they built their Woodhead line between Manchester and Penistone in 1841…
There is something haunting this Victorian era underpass, that doesn’t want to communicate yet is liable to pounce on you and drain you of your energy as soon as your back is turned… making this one of the most dangerous encounters I have ever had…
I walked from the Hadfield station car park on a fine mid week day when the trail was delightfully sparse with user’s, the trail would have been sublimely quiet if it hadn’t been for the incessant barking of every dog seemingly occupying each yard of every far off surrounding farmstead! They sounded beserk, howling, yelping in the distance… obviously setting each other off in some canine telegraph effect.. I made good progress apart from the noise nuisance… striding out into open hill country on the level cut.. Not far from an area known as Devils Elbow you are offered a fingerpost sign directing you to the Old House Tunnel.. I couldn’t resist…. You have to depress from the raised track bed and divert down a dirt path round to the narrowly vaulted way that drops you further toward the lower valley farm land.. the tunnel though claustrophobic felt fine.. admittedly the dogs persistent barking all about was still slightly disconcerting.. and there was a cold spot bang in the centre of the subterranean route which I strolled through without really giving a second thought to…
..suddenly the whole atmosphere of the day changed…
My Intuition told me to hold fast for a moment or two and as I paused ….a flash of large brindle coated hunting hound bound past the aperture of the tunnel portal ahead of me… this dog was large, incredibly so… I just caught sight of its flank dashing by… didn’t make a sound as it silently padded across with purpose. I’m not overly fond of dogs at the best of times.. this one gave a scent of ominous foreboding… As I reticently pushed forward I kept expecting {hoping} the houndss keeper to follow across the path… no one did… cautiously I emerged nervously from the tunnel, there was no sign of any dog nor human handler… and the end of the hounds proposed direction was just a high earthen bank.. an insurmountable barrier presumably… I then realised that the distant cacophony of farm dogs barking had ceased… there was no sound at all to speak of…? An eerie calm had befallen.. the air seemed remarkably heavy as well.. maybe there was thunder brewing?
I decided to retrace my steps through the tunnel and pick up the original intended route, toward Woodhead station, four miles or more further on into hilly wildernesses.. Which I successfully reached without incident…
A few hours later after admiring the scenery up there, absorbing the past history of the crumbling station platform and scoffing my packed lunch…(cheese sandwiches), I had to concentrate the mind on the trek back to Hadfield, still puzzling over that big dog.. I realised then that it had seemed to move curiously, with a loping gait almost in cinematic slow motion, and recalled that I hadn’t seen its head at all… As I returned past the Old House tunnel I decided for some reason to go into the tunnel again… I didn’t need to… as I walked through… approximately dead centre .. there was that absolute cold spot that I inadvertently stumbled right into before!
Almost immediately this time I felt nauseous and had a very bad feeling, finally realising that this may be some form of spirit energy I decided to attempt communication.. though I had no means of doing so… “were you a builder, a navvy…?” (Many had died during the building of this project).. no response.. a feel of dread on my part… I turned and headed back fast as I could for the portal that would guide me back up towards the track bed and safety… That was when I felt the energy that had been positioned in the middle of the tunnel run full pelt at me… it shot into me at speed and I was floored, face down, drained by the tunnel entrance… I lay there for ages, totally incapacitated.. no sight of anyone passing that I could have sought assistance of.. I managed eventually to drag myself up to the track where I sat trying to regain some strength.. my energy totally sapped, knowing I was at least two miles from Hadfield and my vehicle to get me home!
It took me twice as long as normal to stagger the mercifully flat trail back that evening.. though admittedly it had been a very long walk and my legs were weary… you do know full when you’ve been “bum rushed” by a spirit… I don’t know whether it was connected with the strange hound… or if it was the spirit of a long gone navvy, or an old farm hand… I must go back one day and try find out… maybe??
The whole valley is said to be haunted, there was a reported headless rider that used to be seen at Crowden Hall, phantom marching men… (perhaps Roman soldiers), are heard in the area… a ghostly woman was once reported to have been witnessed walking through the wall of one of the old railway cottages at Crowden station… the valley was once site of the mysterious Longdendale lights which used to cause panic on a regular basis…
http://www.strangedayz.co.uk/2007/11/mysterious-longdendale-valley-part-1.html
Hubert Hobux 