St. Wilfrid’s Parish Church, Calverley
St. Wilfrid’s Parish Church is a Grade II listed building, the earliest parts of which date from the 11th or 12th century, though there may have been an earlier structure on the site. During Christmas time in 1904 an apparition was reported by the churchyard which has before associated with Walter Calverley of Calverley Old Hall.
The following is extracted from the Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser. Entitled ‘A Christmas Ghost’, the article was published on Wednesday 28 December 1904.
‘Spirit of a bad Knight in a Yorkshire village. Yorkshire has provided a good ghost story for this year’s Christmas festivities. The ghost is one with a pedigree, it is true; but it recalls such a wealth of romance that its re-appearance is as welcome as seasonable fiction in a highly-coloured Christmas number.
The setting is all that could be desired. An ancient manor in the quiet sleepy village of Calverley, midway between Leeds and Bradford; an adjoining burial-ground with yew trees that cast ghostly shadows; and a lonely wood as a background.
Calverley Hall was formerly the residence of Sir Hugh Calverley, who in the reign of King James was tried at York for the murder of his wife and two children, and he as pressed to death in York Castle.
From time to time Calverley’s spectre has reappeared, but during recent years the spirit of the bold bad knight has rested quietly. On Sunday last, however, it is stated to have re-appeared.
While passing the churchyard a Horsforth man heard weird sounds proceeding from the direction of the graveyard, and suddenly, without any preliminary warnings, there was a flash, and a phantom like form floated before the astonished pedestrian. He was all alone, the villagers having long since retired to bed. The apparition then disappeared, and all was quiet again.
Next day the man narrated his previous night’s experience to a friend, who happened to be well versed in the folk-lore of that part of the county. From his friend he learned of the old legend, and he firmly believes that he saw the ghost of the executed knight.’
Though the above article refers to the knight being called Sir Hugh, the Calverley who murdered his children and stabbed his wife on 23 April 1605 was Walter Calverley. He was pressed to death in York Castle later that year (5 August 1605).
Re: St. Wilfrid’s Parish Church, Calverley
‘Haunted Churches’ (1939) by Elliott O’Donnell
Many accounts of the haunting of Calverley Hall and churchyard have been published. The following is an extract from an article by Mr. Samuel Margerison of Calverley, that appeared in The Yorkshireman.
Walter Calverley, whose father was a rich Roman Catholic, was a wild, reckless man, though his wife was a most estimable and virtuous lady. It is said that he inherited insanity from his mother’s family. Be that as it may, on the 23rd of April 1604, he went into a fit of insane frenzy of jealousy, or pretended to do so.
15th January 1884.
The fact was he had completely beggared himself and got " over head and ears " in debt. Money-lenders were pressing him hard, and he had become desperate. Rushing madly into the house, he snatched up one and then another of his children ; plunged his dagger into them, threw them down, and then attempted to take the life of their mother. A steel corset which she wore was luckily in the way, and saved her life.
The assassin, however, thought he had killed her, and left hurriedly. He then mounted his horse, intending to kill the only other child he had, Henry, a " brat at nurse " who was then at Norton. He was pursued by some villagers, his horse fell and threw him, and so he was caught. When brought to trial at York, he refused to plead, knowing that thereby his estates would not be forfeited to the Crown, but would descend to his surviving son.
He was pressed to death by iron weights, or stones, put on his chest, till it was crushed in, a barbarous method of capital punishment employed in this country up to the end of the eighteenth century, some say even later.
One of his old servants who tried to hasten his end, in order to relieve him, was at once seized and hanged. Calverley was buried at St. Mary’s, Castlegate, York, but a rumour spread that his friends secretly disinterred his remains and had them removed to Calverley churchyard. Anyhow both churchyards, St. Mary’s and Calverley, obtained the reputation of being haunted by his ghost. Regarding the haunting of Calverley churchyard, an article entitled " Calverley, Forty Years Ago," appeared in a Bradford paper, March 1874. In it the writer described how he and some of his schoolfellows used to go to the churchyard, in order to evoke the iron ghost. Having piled their hats and caps on the ground, in the form of a pyramid, they took hold of each other’s hands and, forming a circle, danced round and round, crying out :
Old Calverley, old Calverley, I have thee by the ears, I’ll cut thee into collops, unless thee appears.
After this had gone on for some time, probably till they were all hoarse, they strewed breadcrumbs mixed with pins on the soil, and then some of the boldest of them went to each of the church doors, and after whistling through the keyholes, repeated once more the magical couplet. This was the culminating effort, if the ghost did not emerge now from the church, wherein it was believed to be secreted, no further attempts to lure it forth that day would be of avail. On one occasion, at least, so the writer affirms, the ghost did actually appear and so frightened the youths that they fled, pell mell, leaving their caps, hats, and other belongings behind them.
After that, they never again experimented in trying to evoke ghosts.
Calverley’s ghost is still rumoured to haunt the locality of the churchyard and lanes and roads in the district. It is said sometimes to appear on foot and sometimes on a headless horse, followed by a number of other wild and sinister-looking ghosts, similarly clad, that is to say in seventeenth-century costume, and similarly mounted.