Ghostly Canal Legends
Love legend? Fascinated by folklore? Spellbound by stories of spooks? Hire a canal boat
and you'll find yourself immersed in a landscape of mysterious myths and tales. Ghostly
happenings have been reported on the canals of Britain for hundreds of years. Ever since
the canals were built in the 18th Century, the tales of haunting began...
Hire a canal boat from Union Wharf Marina and cruise through the spooky territory of the
Grand Union Canal...
Blisworth tunnel's tragic history still haunts today's boaters. Fourteen men died in its
construction when the original tunnel collapsed. A mysterious fork in the tunnel was seen
by recent boaters. When they emerged from the tunnel and questioned it, they were
assured that a fork no longer exists. The image they saw was the location of the original
tunnel- where the tragic accident occurred 200 years earlier.
Listen out for 'Spring Heeled Jack' as you pass beneath the Grand Union's bridges in the
south- the echo of his footsteps here have terrorised boatmen since the 1830s. This
phantasm was said to leap clean across a canal to attack his victims.
If you hire a canal boat from Alvechurch Marina you may find yourself on the trent and
Mersey Canal, home to many more tales of spooks and spectres...
The eerie Harecastle Tunnel was so notorious for ghostly occurrences that 19th century
boatmen would avoid it at all cost. The beheaded corpse of Kit Crewbucket was found here
and has haunted the canal tunnel ever since.
At Brindley Bank, the dark tale of murdered Christina Collins has been scaring boatmen
since 1839. Legend has it that ghostly bloodstained rocks appear at the site where she met
her tragic end.
If you continue your journey west, the trent and Mersey canal leads onto the Shropshire
Union Canal, perhaps Britain's most haunted canal. At it's northern end lies Chester- where
many have glimpsed the ghost of a Roman Centurion who guards the city's walls. Further
south, the shrieking spectre of Market Drayton is known to haunt boatmen who pass
through. And beware the infamous Bridge 39... Supposedly haunted by the ghost of a
drowned 19th century boatman who appears in the form of a hairy black creature.
Figments of the imagination or ghosts from the depths of history? Hire a canal boat and
dare to venture into the ghostly territory of the canals!
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