It’s midnight and Debbie Boddison is alone in the Glass and Bottle pub when suddenly a large shadow looms behind her.
Gripped by fear, she watches as the dark shadow creeps closer to her.
But then she breathes a sigh of relief as her gaze falls on the lampshade in the centre of the ceiling - and the spider crawling across it. “My first thought was that it was a ghost,” she says. “But of course the logical explanation was a spider on the lampshade casting a shadow against the wall.
“Our ‘fight or flight’ reflex has meant that we are always prepared to face something dangerous. We protect ourselves by thinking the worst first - we only relax when we know we are out of danger.”
Debbie Boddison and Pat York, who work at the Black Country Living Museum, say they are sceptical when people say they have seen ghosts on the site, including the Bottle and Glass. “People have said they have seen a man leaning out of the window at the pub. But I know that what they are seeing is the outline of the gas lamp,” says Debbie. “Visitors believe that some spirits are attached to the buildings but a lot of people don’t realise that some of the buildings at the museum are new - they are just replicas.”
Pat says: “Strange shadows can be flickering from the gas and candelight, because people aren’t used to this type of lighting.
“Some people get nervous when they hear floorboards creak - but all old buildings creak, and the house bricks expand when the fire is on. Scratching can be explained as mice. But you can’t always find an explanation for a noise straight away. We heard knocking in the pub for ages - until we realised it was the horse stamping outside.”
The museum is holding ghost tours on October 30 and 31 during which visitors will hear some of the chilling tales linked to the old village. These include a tall ghostly man who jumps silently into the canal, a man with a moustache who is supposed to haunt the sweet shop, a ghost farmer spotted leaving the pub, and a vanishing dog believed to haunt the chemists. Even a tram at the museum is said to have a ghost.
Pat says their job is to bring back memories. She believes that being in an old house can remind people of their grandmother or grandfather - who is most likely dead.
“As soon as they smell the old houses and see the roaring fire, they are taken back to their childhood,” says Pat.
“It brings back memories, and their mind can play tricks on them. I’m a total sceptic but there are some things that even I can’t explain. The cobbled road at the museum is from Coppice Street in Bilston and used to lead to the canal.”My father knew a little boy who died in the canal in 1928. A medium came to the museum and said a little boy was asking him to play hide and seek and he kept pointing to the canal and a tunnel.
“I spoke to my father, who said the little boy had asked him to play hide and seek before he went to the canal and he was found dead in the overflow tunnel at the bottom of the street. That did send a shiver down my spine.”
For more information about the Ghost Tours call the museum on 0121 520 8054.
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