Ghosts of England: Birmingham: True Hauntings from Britain's Second City

A landlord murdered in his own pub refuses to hand in his notice. A university clock tower is said to fail the degree of any student careless enough to walk beneath its chimes. A woman locked in an attic for sixteen years still walks the halls of the house that imprisoned her. Birmingham built the modern world from its workshops and forges, and it has never quite let go of everyone who passed through them. Britain's second city carries its history in brick and timber - a Tudor mansion, a 14th-century pub older than the city's own street plan, a station raised over a disturbed graveyard - and in every one of them, something appears to have stayed behind. In Ghosts of Birmingham, you will step into the city's grandest halls and its smallest snugs, from a Jacobean mansion confirmed as one of the most haunted buildings in Britain to the pub where a landlord's ghost still won't leave the bar he loved. From a real literary connection at a mill that helped inspire Middle-earth, to the true story of Charles Dickens's first-ever public reading of A Christmas Carol, this collection gathers the genuine, documented hauntings of a city too often overlooked by Britain's ghost-story tradition. Drawing on museum records, historical archives, and generations of first-hand testimony from bar staff, cleaners, sound engineers, and students, this book grounds every chapter in a real building, a real event, and - wherever the record allows - a real name. Step through the door and discover: - The Master Who Was Charged with Murder: Aston Hall's Sir Thomas Holte, and the family tragedy behind one of Britain's most haunted houses.- Dickens Never Left: the true story of his first-ever reading of A Christmas Carol, and the ghost he is said to have left behind at Birmingham Town Hall.- Fail Your Degree Beneath Old Joe: the University of Birmingham's own beloved ghost-lore, and the WWI nurse's spirit said to still walk its halls.- Corky and the Wine Bottles: the cellar poltergeist with famously good taste, still keeping watch over a Harborne pub. Perfect for history lovers, followers of British folklore, paranormal enthusiasts, and anyone who thought they knew the Second City, this book is your guide to the ghosts of Birmingham. Mind the cobbles on your way home. Something in this city has been keeping the books since the forges were first lit.