Boggart House
Ah, my curious friends! Let me tell you a most intriguing tale about one of our local mysteries - the fascinating Boggart House of Ashday Lane!
Takes a dramatic pause
Standing in solitary splendor at the end of Ashday Lane, descending from Southowram and overlooking Cromwell Bottom, sits a house with quite the peculiar history. Even our rather stoic local historian "Rowan" couldn't help but be moved by its setting, describing it in the Brighouse Echo of 1981 as having a "peculiar brooding beauty." Rather fitting for such a mysterious dwelling, wouldn't you say?
Adjusts top hat thoughtfully
Now, let me take you back through time, as any good historian should. This curious house began its life in the early 19th Century as a humble gatehouse for the grand Ashday Hall. Ah, but Ashday Hall itself has quite the pedigree! The de Astay family's connection to that land dates back to 1275 - imagine that! Through the centuries, it passed to the Holdsworth Family in the 14th Century, with William Holdsworth constructing the present Hall between 1713 and 1738.
Checks pocket watch with a knowing look
But fortune, my friends, is a fickle mistress. Due to mounting debts, the estate fell into the hands of the Drake family in 1792. It was Thomas Drake who, in the 1830s, built what we now know as Boggart House, along with an observatory on the hill behind it. Rather ambitious, wouldn't you say?
Leans in conspiratorially
But here's where our tale takes a decidedly supernatural turn! The house earned its curious name from the Yorkshire dialect word "boggart" - a mischievous household spirit, not unlike a distant cousin to the Scottish brownie. These fascinating creatures would help with household chores if rewarded with a bowl of milk each night. But oh my, if they felt unappreciated... shivers dramatically ...they could become quite the troublesome guests!
Mr. Peter Turner, who renovated the house in 1961, spoke of strange occurrences - unexplained noises, lights with minds of their own, and most curiously, a relative's encounter with a "little man with a ginger beard" in a cupboard!
You'll find no shortage of boggart-related places in our beloved Calder Valley - from Boggart Chair at Ellen Royde in Midgley to the Boggart Stones above Widdop, and even a Boggart Well near Ogden Reservoir. Rather makes one wonder about all the untold stories lurking in our local history, doesn't it?
from Ghosts and Legends of the Lower Calder Valley
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