The Mysterious Drum
This is a story that was related to me by
an elderly gentleman in the Kirkdale area of Liverpool.
It’s a curious tale of the rather bizarre
din that haunted the streets of Kirkdale.
Liam was living on Great Mersey Street just
near the busy junction of Commercial road, it was the swinging sixties, 1965 to be precise it was the year Ken Dodd was at number one in the charts and The Beatles released there classics I feel fine, Ticket to ride and Help! Liverpool FC Won the F.A Cup in front of 100,000 fans at Wembley and it was also the start of an enigmatic drum beat that was to plague the quiet suburban streets of Krkdale. On a quiet Saturday night young Liam lived in flats with his family,
he decided to take himself off to bed. Soon asleep but his slumber was soon to
be disturbed, it was around 3am Sunday morning when young Liam was awakened by
the indistinct sound of a metal drum being beat at a rather tender pace. The
beat came from the Stanley Road area just up the road from little Liam’s flat,
the sound of the racket beating beat on the iron drum gathered pace and volume
as it approached the usually quiet street, the metal banging grew louder and
louder in volume as it was seemingly
unaware of the on looking spectator. Liam was observing out of his
bedroom window waiting to see who the fellow with the drum
was Yet as the brash clatter passed by his flat
no body or no one could be seen! Liam carried on looking as the pounding of the
drum made its way down his Street and on to the main road, the scraping of metal
on concrete could be heard as whoever was bashing the drum steered it towards
the road that leads to the City Centre, just as the metal tussled with the hard
floor the drum ceased to bang. It would never be heard to beat again after the
sound of the drum being manoeuvred. This was not to be the last the families on
the street where to hear of the enigmatic drum. Every Saturday night/early hours
Sunday morning this noise could be heard on its same course. These late night
clatters continued almost every weekend through 1965, who or what was hammering
the drum we may never know.
an elderly gentleman in the Kirkdale area of Liverpool.
It’s a curious tale of the rather bizarre
din that haunted the streets of Kirkdale.
Liam was living on Great Mersey Street just
near the busy junction of Commercial road, it was the swinging sixties, 1965 to be precise it was the year Ken Dodd was at number one in the charts and The Beatles released there classics I feel fine, Ticket to ride and Help! Liverpool FC Won the F.A Cup in front of 100,000 fans at Wembley and it was also the start of an enigmatic drum beat that was to plague the quiet suburban streets of Krkdale. On a quiet Saturday night young Liam lived in flats with his family,
he decided to take himself off to bed. Soon asleep but his slumber was soon to
be disturbed, it was around 3am Sunday morning when young Liam was awakened by
the indistinct sound of a metal drum being beat at a rather tender pace. The
beat came from the Stanley Road area just up the road from little Liam’s flat,
the sound of the racket beating beat on the iron drum gathered pace and volume
as it approached the usually quiet street, the metal banging grew louder and
louder in volume as it was seemingly
unaware of the on looking spectator. Liam was observing out of his
bedroom window waiting to see who the fellow with the drum
was Yet as the brash clatter passed by his flat
no body or no one could be seen! Liam carried on looking as the pounding of the
drum made its way down his Street and on to the main road, the scraping of metal
on concrete could be heard as whoever was bashing the drum steered it towards
the road that leads to the City Centre, just as the metal tussled with the hard
floor the drum ceased to bang. It would never be heard to beat again after the
sound of the drum being manoeuvred. This was not to be the last the families on
the street where to hear of the enigmatic drum. Every Saturday night/early hours
Sunday morning this noise could be heard on its same course. These late night
clatters continued almost every weekend through 1965, who or what was hammering
the drum we may never know.
For Whom The Bells Toll
The
Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas is a wonderful Anglican parish standing
proudly on Chapel Street, Liverpool opposite the River Mersey, known as the
sailors church it has been home to many a visitor to the then shipping port,
taking solace in the building for centuries .
There has been a place of worship on the site where St Nicholas now stands humbly looking out to sea since the 1200’s. This Church has survived some horrific incidents and accidents including almost being destroyed in the December of 1940
by bombing. The church was devastated. Only the tower and the organisational
block were left untouched. It is thought of as one of Liverpool’s finest
Churches and holds so much cultural history in to where and how Liverpool leapt
from a small Town with a population of less than 5000 in the late 1600’s into
the City we all know and love. Disaster has befallen St Nicholas’s on numerous occasions over the past centuries none
more so than the ghastly events that took place on 11th February,
1810.
Sundays back in the 1800’s held far more importance to the city of Liverpool, it was a
day of praise and thanksgiving none more so than for the congregation of St
Nicholas’s. It was a winter Sunday morning, like thousands of Churches across the country St
Nicholas’s was preparing for its weekly Sunday Morning Service. The crowds
gathered as the six bells tolled loud and proud signifying the commencing
service, as the bells tolled the lower part of the steeple gave way causing the
spire to topple over landing, in the nave below, unearthly screeches of agony
and anguish could be heard as the killing twenty five Men, woman and Children,
out of the twenty five souls that perished twenty one of them where Children
form the Moorfield Charity School all aged fifteen years or younger. This
horrifying event could have been much worse had the spire toppled fifteen
minutes later as the full congregation of St Nicholas’s would have been sat
patiently waiting for the Service to start. It was also told how prior to this
harrowing happening warnings were given about the instability of the steeple and
spire especially when the bells tolled, these warning were ignored. Up until
1789 the Church had a tower without any spire but it was decided that adding a
tall wooden spire on to the top would help ships navigate into port so the
decision to spend £20 on a new spire to enhance the landmark was brought to the
forefront and the wooden spire was pace atop the tower. Five years after the
disaster the tower was rebuilt complete with the churches original gold ship
weather vane that survived the catastrophe.
It always seems to startle me when I look into what happened next, the poor
children that perished that day. Indeed where not laid to rest with dignity or
compassion instead the children were buried in a mass grave in the churchyard.
This was not uncommon in the past centauries but I presume that this is because
the children who perished on the winter’s morning of 1810 were from Moorfieds
charity school. Charity schools were set up with the view of providing the poor children with education:
these children would be taught basic skills and provisions in order to flourish
in life. These charity schools were mainly run by religious organisations that
would try and provide the underprivileged children with clothing and education.
These services would usually be provided free of charge or with a small charge
to the family of the youngster, these children would then be sent out to work in
some cases earning themselves a trade as well as providing free labour. I come
up with the finalisation that the unfortunate children that perished that day
were from severely deprived families therefore on their deaths they could not be
buried in their own plots instead they were buried in a mass grave. It was a sad
sign of the times and thankfully we live in an era that would not deal with such
a tragic and heart breaking event in such a manner.
Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas is a wonderful Anglican parish standing
proudly on Chapel Street, Liverpool opposite the River Mersey, known as the
sailors church it has been home to many a visitor to the then shipping port,
taking solace in the building for centuries .
There has been a place of worship on the site where St Nicholas now stands humbly looking out to sea since the 1200’s. This Church has survived some horrific incidents and accidents including almost being destroyed in the December of 1940
by bombing. The church was devastated. Only the tower and the organisational
block were left untouched. It is thought of as one of Liverpool’s finest
Churches and holds so much cultural history in to where and how Liverpool leapt
from a small Town with a population of less than 5000 in the late 1600’s into
the City we all know and love. Disaster has befallen St Nicholas’s on numerous occasions over the past centuries none
more so than the ghastly events that took place on 11th February,
1810.
Sundays back in the 1800’s held far more importance to the city of Liverpool, it was a
day of praise and thanksgiving none more so than for the congregation of St
Nicholas’s. It was a winter Sunday morning, like thousands of Churches across the country St
Nicholas’s was preparing for its weekly Sunday Morning Service. The crowds
gathered as the six bells tolled loud and proud signifying the commencing
service, as the bells tolled the lower part of the steeple gave way causing the
spire to topple over landing, in the nave below, unearthly screeches of agony
and anguish could be heard as the killing twenty five Men, woman and Children,
out of the twenty five souls that perished twenty one of them where Children
form the Moorfield Charity School all aged fifteen years or younger. This
horrifying event could have been much worse had the spire toppled fifteen
minutes later as the full congregation of St Nicholas’s would have been sat
patiently waiting for the Service to start. It was also told how prior to this
harrowing happening warnings were given about the instability of the steeple and
spire especially when the bells tolled, these warning were ignored. Up until
1789 the Church had a tower without any spire but it was decided that adding a
tall wooden spire on to the top would help ships navigate into port so the
decision to spend £20 on a new spire to enhance the landmark was brought to the
forefront and the wooden spire was pace atop the tower. Five years after the
disaster the tower was rebuilt complete with the churches original gold ship
weather vane that survived the catastrophe.
It always seems to startle me when I look into what happened next, the poor
children that perished that day. Indeed where not laid to rest with dignity or
compassion instead the children were buried in a mass grave in the churchyard.
This was not uncommon in the past centauries but I presume that this is because
the children who perished on the winter’s morning of 1810 were from Moorfieds
charity school. Charity schools were set up with the view of providing the poor children with education:
these children would be taught basic skills and provisions in order to flourish
in life. These charity schools were mainly run by religious organisations that
would try and provide the underprivileged children with clothing and education.
These services would usually be provided free of charge or with a small charge
to the family of the youngster, these children would then be sent out to work in
some cases earning themselves a trade as well as providing free labour. I come
up with the finalisation that the unfortunate children that perished that day
were from severely deprived families therefore on their deaths they could not be
buried in their own plots instead they were buried in a mass grave. It was a sad
sign of the times and thankfully we live in an era that would not deal with such
a tragic and heart breaking event in such a manner.
The Body Snatchers of Liverpool (Hope Street)
In the Victorian era and before the cases
of resurrectionists or body snatchers as we may know them where rife right here
in Liverpool,
Famous body snatchers who you may be
familiar with are that of Burke and Hare. In 1820’s Edinburgh they murdered more than twenty Men, Women and Children in order for ill-gotten gains; they would take the corpses of their victims to the well renowned anatomist Dr Knox who would then dissect them for medical science. Burke and Hare would be paid around £10 per body which in the 1800’s was an awful lot of money. Burke and Hare where caught and sentenced to death, unfortunately for Burke: Hare turned Kings Evidence and was saved from the gallows, he perished and died a visionless beggar on the streets of London, Burke was hanged.
That case was to signify the end of the body
snatching industry of Great Britain, right here in Liverpool we had our own
events that took place that whereas deprived and sinister as Burke and Hares
actions. This harrowing event became public knowledge in 1826 when several
sailors where loading barrels of what they believed to be brine on to a shipping
vessel destined for the port of Leith in Scotland. On loading the barrels on
board the sailors suspicions became aroused as a ghastly odour protruded from
the barrel, they immediately in formed the master of the ship who took it upon
himself to open up the three horrendous stinking barrel’s, on prizing them open
he was met by the vision of eleven twisted and mangled corpses of Men, women and
children, pickled in brine to preserve them. The police where immediately
informed of the finding. The officer who was given the task of undertaking the
tormenting event was Robert Boughey, he instantly ordered that the finding of
the person who brought the barrels to the dock. The carter was traced and on
investigation he related how he was going about his daily duties when he was
approached by a gentleman who offered him work by asking him to call at a house
in Hope Street, Liverpool and collect three barrel’s and transport them to a
certain ship on George’s dock, this is all the transporter could
recall.
Mr Broughey and his team went up to the
house on Hope Street, on knocking to gain entry they were greeted by Reverend
James McGowan, he informed Robert that he had rented the cellar to a John
Henderson, a Scotsman from Greenock who was a merchant in fish oil.
Robert asked the Reverend to open up the cellar but was told he never had
the key in his possession, Detective Boughey then informed the rather irritated
Reverend that he was going to breakdown the underground rooms down by using
forced entry, on gaining entry to the vault they were greeted by the horrendous
and sickening site of twenty two corpses lying in barrels and sacks, there was
even a barrels with lifeless babies in, conserved in brine.
Detective Boughey and the Police were able
to come to the conclusion that the twenty two corpses that where stored in the
basement on Hope Street where dug up and removed from the nearby cemetery on
Cambridge Street, there is also a likelihood that some of the bodies were from a
neighbouring workhouse and may never have made it to the cemetery on their
demise. John Henderson was never traced but two other men were apprehended, a
man by the surname of Gillespie was arrested but later released but the second
gentleman Donaldson was arrested and charged and sent to Kirkdale prison for one
year. See Map below on where Hope Street is situated.
In the Victorian era and before the cases
of resurrectionists or body snatchers as we may know them where rife right here
in Liverpool,
Famous body snatchers who you may be
familiar with are that of Burke and Hare. In 1820’s Edinburgh they murdered more than twenty Men, Women and Children in order for ill-gotten gains; they would take the corpses of their victims to the well renowned anatomist Dr Knox who would then dissect them for medical science. Burke and Hare would be paid around £10 per body which in the 1800’s was an awful lot of money. Burke and Hare where caught and sentenced to death, unfortunately for Burke: Hare turned Kings Evidence and was saved from the gallows, he perished and died a visionless beggar on the streets of London, Burke was hanged.
That case was to signify the end of the body
snatching industry of Great Britain, right here in Liverpool we had our own
events that took place that whereas deprived and sinister as Burke and Hares
actions. This harrowing event became public knowledge in 1826 when several
sailors where loading barrels of what they believed to be brine on to a shipping
vessel destined for the port of Leith in Scotland. On loading the barrels on
board the sailors suspicions became aroused as a ghastly odour protruded from
the barrel, they immediately in formed the master of the ship who took it upon
himself to open up the three horrendous stinking barrel’s, on prizing them open
he was met by the vision of eleven twisted and mangled corpses of Men, women and
children, pickled in brine to preserve them. The police where immediately
informed of the finding. The officer who was given the task of undertaking the
tormenting event was Robert Boughey, he instantly ordered that the finding of
the person who brought the barrels to the dock. The carter was traced and on
investigation he related how he was going about his daily duties when he was
approached by a gentleman who offered him work by asking him to call at a house
in Hope Street, Liverpool and collect three barrel’s and transport them to a
certain ship on George’s dock, this is all the transporter could
recall.
Mr Broughey and his team went up to the
house on Hope Street, on knocking to gain entry they were greeted by Reverend
James McGowan, he informed Robert that he had rented the cellar to a John
Henderson, a Scotsman from Greenock who was a merchant in fish oil.
Robert asked the Reverend to open up the cellar but was told he never had
the key in his possession, Detective Boughey then informed the rather irritated
Reverend that he was going to breakdown the underground rooms down by using
forced entry, on gaining entry to the vault they were greeted by the horrendous
and sickening site of twenty two corpses lying in barrels and sacks, there was
even a barrels with lifeless babies in, conserved in brine.
Detective Boughey and the Police were able
to come to the conclusion that the twenty two corpses that where stored in the
basement on Hope Street where dug up and removed from the nearby cemetery on
Cambridge Street, there is also a likelihood that some of the bodies were from a
neighbouring workhouse and may never have made it to the cemetery on their
demise. John Henderson was never traced but two other men were apprehended, a
man by the surname of Gillespie was arrested but later released but the second
gentleman Donaldson was arrested and charged and sent to Kirkdale prison for one
year. See Map below on where Hope Street is situated.