Mysterious goings-on at a famous industrial site on Merseyside
By Richard Holland
Industrial sites – perhaps the last places you’d expect ghosts to manifest – often earn an eerie reputation after they have closed down and been taken over for other uses.
In 2004 a financial services company took over the former Cammell Laird’s shipyard site in Birkenhead by the estuary of the River Mersey. Staff found it an eerie place after they moved in – even in daylight.
Mike Ryder, of Reddington Finance, told the ‘Liverpool Daily Post’: ‘I have had a number of strange experiences, usually later on in the afternoon. The air in my office gets very cold and you can hear doors opening and closing. It isn’t frightening but you can feel a presence.
‘A number of staff have seen workers walking past their windows – they have gone outside and there has been nobody there. There have also been sightings over the years of shadowy people in boiler suits who just seem to disappear.’
Mr Ryder said his daughter, Amy, who ran the canteen, has also had some spooky experiences. He said: ‘She has come in on several occasions in the morning to find a salt cellar and a glass of water in the same place on the floor. There is no real explanation for it.’
Receptionist Nicola Kenoe knew some history of the hauntings. She said: ‘I know that workers in the past had reported seeing things. There were definitely sightings of a little old lady.’
I once investigated a former colliery whose buildings had been converted into start-up business units. Poltergeist effects were reported regularly in the café and a taxi firm whose staff were often alone in the building at night frequently felt an unearthly presence – the girl who answered the phone was thrown across the room by an invisible force on one occasion. Unfortunately for this website, I was asked not to write about these experiences but one day soon I’ll go back there and see whether the disturbances are still occurring.
[Source: Kirsti Adair in the 'Liverpool Daily Post', Dec 20, 2004]
You can read more about this subject on the ParaScience website: http://www.parascience.org.uk/investigations/laird/laird.htm
© Richard Holland 2008
