SU WILLIAMS explores the spine-tingling Tales from the Necropolis tour through Liverpool’s haunted St James’s Cemetery
Tales from the Necropolis Review
It was the leaves that were wrong. Standing in St James’s Cemetery, only metres away from the UK’s largest cathedral in Liverpool, I watched as two leaves fluttered manically. Every other leaf remained motionless. Still, at least they were Rowan leaves – a tree which folklore tells us protects against witchcraft. I found this strangely reassuring, especially as our small group had just entered a site associated not only with witches, but much, much more.
In a city many people know only for football and the Beatles, we had signed up for Tales from the Necropolis. Described as a “Guided Ghost Walk”, the 90-minute experience offers a veritable feast for connoisseurs of all things strangely off-kilter. Now known as St James’s Mount and Gardens, the site’s rich history provides a fertile ground for a wealth of stories expertly told by our two guides. Dressed in Edwardian attire and holding lanterns, these guides, Miss Llewellyn and Mr Roberts, took our small group on a journey full of paganism, folklore, and the supernatural, all set in a place where almost 60,000 souls were laid to rest.
Our first stop was an impressive sandstone wall, where Anglo-Saxon runes are scattered across the upper rock. These bear witness to the site’s ancient roots, including its links to Jenny Greenteeth, the Lancashire river hag, who drags unwary children into rivers or lakes if they get too close. It is said Jenny was part of an ancient Pagan witch cult that once inhabited the site. Followers of the ancient religion still visit, often drawing runes and leaving offerings, especially by the Chalybeate Spring, described as Liverpool’s only natural spring.
As a former city cemetery, many of the great and the good of old Liverpool have their final resting place here. The impressive memorial of former MP William Huskisson, the first person ever killed by a train, is just one of several sites where our guides have personally experienced paranormal events. I won’t spoil it for you, but what happened was recorded on tape during a professional ghost hunt and I would definitely have been scared witless by it!
However, it was the stories of the common people, especially children, which proved most evocative. Two small words – “Little Grace” – carved into a wall, a heartbreaking act of remembrance by a clairvoyant seeking to lay to rest the spirit of a four-year-old girl buried without stone or ceremony by a rich father ashamed of his illegitimate offspring. And then there are the four ghost children, frequently seen by gravestones listing dozens of children who died in the 19th century in the city’s children’s homes. These innocent victims of circumstance are still remembered today. Toys and little gifts are often left at their final resting places.
I found something very moving in these innocent gestures by the living to remember the dead. However, not everything the living do at this site can be seen as innocent. Some are drawn here by a different, darker calling. We were told how, in the 1960s, several tombs were broken into and Satanic words scrawled across their walls. Tea lights and offerings often appear on a memorial stone bearing the number 666, which has a reputation for being a portal to the underworld. And then there’s the grave of the so-called Everton Vampire, which has recently been attracting the attention of a regular visitor, evidenced by the trampling down of the wild garlic planted all around the grave by superstitious groundsmen. We were all very relieved to move on from that very creepy spot!
There can be few better places for a ghost tour than a former cemetery and Tales from the Necropolis was a truly fascinating, eerie, and enjoyable experience. Rest assured, there are many more details and tales to enjoy during the tour than those briefly included here, so whatever your particular shade of spooky, there is something here for you. This tour comes highly recommended because even though I did not see a ghost (despite endlessly scanning my photos afterwards!) I certainly remain haunted by what is a truly extraordinary and otherworldly place.
Tales from the Necropolis runs from St James’s Mount and Gardens, Liverpool, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights weekly. Find out more at www.talesfromthenecropolis.co.uk
Have you been on the Tales of Necropolis ghost tour in Liverpool? Tell us your spookiest story in the comments below!
SU WILLIAMS says: “I’m a former journalist and editor, now working part-time in education. I live in the North West with my husband, two children and two cats, but my heart belongs in Somerset where I first became interested in folklore and the supernatural. I have recently rediscovered my love of writing and hope to pursue this in the coming months.”
