History

There are many folklore tales about Croston, and a few stories of ghosts:

In the far corner of Croston Cemetery was a stone cross which is said to have recorded that a Mary Ellen Hudson died. Over time the grave became dilapidated and the cross crumbled away. But records from the village have shown that a girl of the name had died in 1890. In 1976 a school teacher came to Croston and lived opposite the cemetery, and said that a little girl in a red shawl was a regular visitor to her garden, the red shawl she was wearing was the uniform of the little girl who died in 1890.

Era approx. 1570 onwards there are reports that a girl fell in love with a chaplain, resident at Gradwells (the old house at the Umpire Museum). The priest became ill and died, and in her grief the girl committed suicide by jumping down the well by the house, after which her restless spirit has wandered in the grounds and in the general area. The last sighting was when a bus driver stopped at the end of the drive and refused to proceed, as he said that he had just run over a woman, however no one was there and everyone said that it was the Sarscow Lady. Coincidentally this incident happened only four hours after an old stone cross was moved from the orchard to the garden at Gradwells.

A local family recorded years ago that the grandparents of the family were blackberrying in the fields between Sarscow Farm and Mill Coe, when they saw a woman in a flowing grey dress walking up the side of the hedge in front of them, before disappearing.

She has also been seen at night, standing in the middle of a hedge on Southport Road! And sitting on the bench by Butterfly Farm on Highfield Road, probably having a rest from all that wandering.

Rest easy, as nothing has been seen here at The Grapes, or has it???