Harecastle Tunnel - Kidsgrove, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
N 53° 05.080 W 002° 14.669
30U E 550603 N 5881955
The story of the Kidsgrove Boggart originates from a murder that took place inside the canal tunnel during the early 19th century.
Waymark Code: WMVKGJ
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/29/2017
Views: 6
The story of the Kidsgrove Boggart originates from a murder that took place inside the canal tunnel during the early 19th century. Before the arrival of the railways those wishing to travel any great distance by public transport were reliant upon stage coaches. These naturally limited how much baggage a passenger was allowed to carry.
From the late 18th century an alternative was to travel by narrowboat.
The story of the Kidsgrove Boggart involves a young lady Kit Crewbucket, whose husband had been offered a job in one of England’s growing cities that meant obtaining lodgings. After a few weeks he wrote to his wife asking her to join him and to bring all their possessions. It is not known for certain why the young lady was in Kidsgrove, possibly the boat that had conveyed her there had reached its destination and was returning to its point of departure. That might help to explain why she went into a local pub in an attempt to find a crew that would be willing to convey both her and her possessions.
Having secured a passage she and the crew of three set off on their journey. As was the usual practice, two members of the crew took the boat through the tunnel while the third led the horse over the hill.
There appear to be two versions of the story. The first is that once inside the tunnel curiosity got the better of the two crew members and they murdered their passenger in the hope of finding items of value among her belongings. The second is that they attempted to rape her and in the struggle she slipped from the boat which decapitated her against the tunnel wall.
Whatever version of events happened, they decided that the most convenient place to dispose of the body was in the tunnel itself. They hid her body in the underground culvert to Goldenhill Colliery, known as Gilbert's Hole.
When the lady failed to reach her destination suspicions arose and a search was made. Retracing her journey, her decapitated remains were discovered where it had been left. Her head was never found which is why the apparition is supposed to be headless. The crew were found guilty and sentenced to death. It was shortly afterwards that locals began glimpsing the figure of a headless woman in the tunnel, around the canal basin and in the adjoining woodland uttering piercing screams.
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Kit Crewbucket appears as the generic name of a spirit presence said to haunt various canal tunnels across the country and appearing in various forms depending upon the local folklore. The origin of the legend is unclear but the term may be a corruption of the Staffordshire ‘buggart’ or ghost. Kit Crewbucket sometimes appears as a character name in pantomimes.