On the 25th day of our Halloween Tales inspired by local folklore we learn about Singleton Thorpe, Wadham Thorpe and Kilgrimol and what remains of them today – including their ghosts.
On the shores of Norbreck, half a mile or so out from the mainland, sits a strange barnacle covered monolith. Easily visible from the promenade, this forbidding obelisk squats in defiance of sea and time.
It is a brazen snaggle-tooth jutting up from the otherwise smooth, flat expanse of beach, often surrounded by a channel of sea water forming a frustratingly impassable moat. I have heard tales that this rock is an ancient anchor or not rock at all but the fossilised wreck of a ship. I have even heard it described as the remains of an extra-terrestrial meteor, thrust deep into the sands of Bispham long before any human habitation.
The truth is even more interesting.
A Description of Blackpool in Lancashire Frequented for Sea Bathing 1789 by William Hutton states that, according to a tradition which was allowed by the whole country, “a public house some ages back stood by that stone upon land as firm and high as that on which we were; and that iron hooks had been fixed to the stone to which travellers hung their horses while they drank their penny pots, from whence the stone acquired and still bears the name of Penny Stone”.
Further investigation yields the fascinating connection between this stone and the drowned village of Singleton Thorpe.
In approximately 1555, a devastating tsunami tore inland and swept away the settlement and many outlying villages that would have otherwise today been located east of Blackpool. The terrible storm also obliterated the ancient Forest of Amounderness, the fossilised trunks of which can be seen easily during Neap tide (the lowest tide of the year) off the shores of Cleveleys.
On tempestuous nights, full of biting winds and bitter rain, it is said that a ghostly entourage of revellers can be heard.
It is said that the sea rushed all the way to the boundary of the modern-day M6 Motorway and never fully retreated to its original position. Rossall Grange (the original manor of Rossall) was also lost to the hungry currents, as well as the villages of Wadham Thorpe at Squires Gate and Kilgrimol at St Annes.
The spectre of their demise languished for centuries. The phantom pealing of church bells could be heard rolling out from beneath the waves on stormy nights. Sodden bodies churned up from the sunken graveyards and were deposited on the shores of Blackpool. The silent sentinel of the Pennystone rock was all that remained of the communities that had been washed away.
No one survived the watery burial of Wadham Thorpe and Kilgrimol, but legend has it that the few survivors of Singleton Thorpe fled inland and formed the village of Singleton, which is still a thriving community today.
But history is never that simple. As captivating as this tale is, the Pennystone rock may not actually be the rock we associate it with today. There are actually a number of monoliths that litter the coast, and it could be any one of them – the Red Bank, Old Mother’s Head, Carlin, and the Colts, to name a few.
Enterprising Victorian explorers mused that these stones might have once formed a great ‘Druidical circle’, but there are scant records to confirm their origin. Wherever the true Pennystone rock lies, on tempestuous nights, full of biting winds and bitter rain, it is said that a ghostly entourage of revellers can be heard emanating from the sands that surround it.
If you visit this part of the coast this October, think of this sea-bitten cenotaph and the drowned residents of the long lost inn that once stood there, where you could tie up your horse after a long day and a pint pot would cost you only a penny.
Main image: Pennystone Rock by Andy Ball
Read our previous Hallowe’en Tales
Day 1 – The Curse of Carleton Crematorium.
Day 2 – The Witch Ducking Stools of Poulton-Le-Fylde.
Day 3 – The Ghost-Seer of Weeton.
Day 4 – Smuggling, Drowned Nuns and Fallen Acrobats at Raikes Hall
Day 5 – The Hauntings at the Old Coach House
Day 6 – Old Scrat
Day 7 – A Goblin Funeral at Extwistle Hall
Day 8 – The Ghost of Lady Macbeth
Day 9 – The Mermaid & The Sea Serpent of Marton Mere
Day 10 – The Banshee of Poulton
Day 11 – The Possession of the Lancashire Seven
Day 12 – Lady Fleetwood of old Ross Hall
Day 13 – Tales of Boggart House Farm
Day 14 – Miss Bamber of Marton and her Charms
Day 15 – A Severed Head at Mowbreck Hall
Day 16 – Burnley’s Satanic Pigs and the Clogging of Owd Nick
Day 17 – Three Pilling Boggarts
Day 18 – Hall i’ th’Wood
Day 19 – The Skull House, Appley Bridge
Day 20 – The Boggart of Clegg Hall
Day 21 – The Haunted Hall on the Hill
Day 22 – The Wraiths of Wycoller
Day 23 – The Shipwrecks and Hauntings of Bispham Village
Day 24 – All Hallows Church and the Zodiac Portal
Take a look at Zowie Swan’s debut novel, Chingle Hall here.
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