The Haunting of Willington Mill

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2022

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In England, the Tyne River, famously flowing through the centre of Newcastle on its way to the North Eastern coast, has for many centuries been a vein of industry. In the early 19th Century the banks were filled with shipbuilders, rope makers and flour, grain, textile and corn mills, creaking and grinding with the constant industrial din. On the Eastern outskirts of Newcastle stood Willington Mill, a flour mill built in 1801 with a local reputation. For decades folks had talked about the old mill house, of how a witch had once lived in an old cottage on the land and of the spirit of Old Jefferey. The stories eventually seeped out into national publications after a pair of curious locals carried out an overnight vigil which ended in chaos, earning the mill the title of “most haunted house in England”, but were the stories anything more than just local rumour and legend? SOURCES Proctor, Edmund (1894) The Haunted House At Willington. Journal for The Society of Psychical Research, Vol 5, 1891-92. The Society’s Books, London, UK. Hallowell, Michael J. & Ritson, Darren W. (2011) The Haunting of Willington Mill. The History Press, London, UK. Summers, Montague (1927) The Geography of Witchcraft. A.A. Knopf; K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, UK. Hudson, Tom (1887) The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend. Walter Scott, Newcastle, UK Richardson, M.A. (1842) Authentic Account of a Visit to The Haunted House at Willington near Newcastle Upon Tyne. M.A. Richardson, Newcastle, UK Crowe, Catherine (1850) The Night Side of Nature. J.S. Redfield, New York, USA. Sidgwick, Eleanor (1892) On The Evidence For Clairvoyance. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Vol VII, 1891-92. Kegan Paul, Trench & Turner LTD. London, UK. Stead, William Thomas (1897) Real Ghost Stories. G. Richards. London, UK Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury (1867) Local and District News. 26 January 1867, p.2. Newcastle, UK. Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury (1867) Local and District News. 23 February 1867, p.6. Newcastle, UK. Beck, Ben. (2022) Children of Elizabeth and Joseph Procter.[online] Benbeck.co.uk. Available at: ---------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072 or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In England, the Tine River, famously flowing through the centre of Newcastle when its
0:04.6	way to the north-eastern coast, has for many centuries been a vein of industry.
0:09.8	In the early 19th century, the banks were filled with shipbuilders, rope makers and flower,
0:14.6	grain, textile and corn mills, creaking and grinding with the constant industrial
0:19.2	din.
0:20.8	On the eastern outskirts of Newcastle, stood Willington Mill, a flower mill built in
0:25.4	1901, with a local reputation.
0:28.4	For decades, folks had talked about the old mill house, of how a witch had once lived
0:32.9	in an old cottage on the land, and of the spirit of old Geoffrey.
0:37.4	The stories eventually seeped out into national publications after a pair of curious locals
0:42.4	carried out an overnight vigil which ended in chaos, earning the mill the title of the
0:47.9	most haunted house in England.
0:50.5	But what stories, anything more than just local rumour and legend?
0:55.3	This is Dark History, when the facts are worse than fiction.
1:05.6	Hello and welcome to Dark History, season 6, episode 13, I'm your host as always, Ben.
1:11.8	This week we've got a really great old ghost story that has come from the depths of
1:17.7	like, God knows, I can't remember where I found it, but quite an obscure old ghost story
1:23.6	from the 19th century, which is, I think is a really interesting one.
1:28.4	So when we get into that in a second, before I start, I do just want to say thank you
1:32.6	to everyone who got in touch about the Summer Man, to let me know that the new updates
1:39.8	of the Summer Man case, if you haven't heard, Professor Derek Abbott, who I spoke to before
1:45.3	in the past, has uncovered the name of the Summer Man through DNA testing.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -887 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Cutmore, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Cutmore and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.