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Haunted Pub Crawl - Manchester and a very dark massacre
392 Plays1 year ago
In this episode we visit a chop house and also very dark pub which was the scene of a multiple murder and suicide.
Listener warning - we discuss a dark masscre that was one of Manchester's worst killings
www.liktree.com/pursuitoftheparanormal
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Transcript
Weather Woes in the UK
00:00:09
Speaker
Hey Ash, how are you doing? I am sweating my tits off, it is roasting in the country today. It's a good job, I haven't got a great t-shirt on because you would see the sweat under my boobs, but definitely. I decided to put a hoodie on and I don't know why I can't be gritting my life choices right now. As this is the
00:00:33
Speaker
But as we've spoken to each other before this, I've seen you in that hoodie and I still can't believe it. So for anybody not in the UK at the moment, it's been around 30 degrees Celsius today, which is what, 92 Fahrenheit.
00:00:54
Speaker
which I know to some countries isn't massive, but for the UK in September is ridiculous. It's like the hottest September like ever. Yeah. Yeah. So, and we don't do air conditioning in the UK very well. So this building is like old and big thick walls and the heat just has nowhere to go. It's just like a sauna walking in there when you wake up in the morning.
00:01:23
Speaker
is that I've got a new build as well and they're built for keeping heat in more so that like the insulation in the lofts like 45 centimeters instead of what normally is in houses that's
00:01:39
Speaker
it goes up and it gets to a point and it's just the heat just starts coming down. So I've got windows open. Well, it's not in there. Anyway, it's like now like a night and it's still like 26 or something degrees. It's crazy. It's like being abroad without the perks of a swimming pool, beach, margaritas or anything like that. So yeah, it's just the same.
Introduction to Haunted Pubs
00:02:06
Speaker
Anyway, so we are back for another haunted pub call episode. I need a drink, let's go for...
00:02:13
Speaker
Let's go cool down in a place. Cold. So what would you be your drink? In a beer garden. If you go in a beer garden, then in a beer garden. At the minute, I'm a bit of a designer on coke. A bit of a sweet move towards. Is that almond? What do I think that sounds like? Yes. Yeah, it kind of tastes like a bit like a baked well tart. It's quite sweet and it's quite nice.
00:02:40
Speaker
I'll buy the Aldi version of this one, I like the cheap one, but it's nice. It's like £35 for a bottle, so I'll mix some coke with it and it's some ice. Yeah, it's nice. Nice, nice. I'd go for a Copperberg, maybe, a compare Copperberg in the summer with some ice, and then once I've had a couple of lemon beyond rum and coke. That's my vaguest drink of choice.
00:03:08
Speaker
So do you want to go to the bar first? Yes, I shall. So we have been in Manchester. I'm still in the Greater Manchester area.
Ghostly Tales at John Bull Chop House
00:03:20
Speaker
There's some, it's not the same pub. There's some arguments over the borders for this place, but I'm in Wigan. Okay, I'm not. So I am visiting the
00:03:39
Speaker
There we go. The Jumbo Chop House. I tell you. Wow. Wiggin Greater Manchester. Looks like a pub. To be fair, it looks like a pub. And this building is a 500 year old listed building. Wow. Really. There's the second oldest building in Wiggin.
00:04:02
Speaker
Quite very, very, I mean half a millennium. Situating on one of Wiggins Conservation areas, in the heart of the town centre, sitting on a cobbled street, which is the oldest street in the town. Previously the building has been cottages, stables and the slaughterhouse. So quite a cool history. There is a series of tunnels underneath the pub,
00:04:30
Speaker
which used to connect the three cottages that were here before. They kind of opened up. So the pub used to be like three cottages. They kind of made it all into one big pub. So these tunnels were one underneath. Now all been boarded up. However, many times, knocking has been heard from the other side of the boarded up doors in the cellar. Which is quite creepy thing. There's a trap down there.
00:05:00
Speaker
A little ghosting down there, maybe. So the pub, as I said, is home to a number of ghosts. The most well-known is an old woman that has converted to guests with many guests, but then suddenly disappeared in front of their very eyes. OK, she's said to be very proud, as this used to be. She used to live in one of the cottages when she was very proud that it's her home, basically.
00:05:27
Speaker
as she still comes and chats to the guests before disappearing back into the overall whatever that may be
00:05:37
Speaker
Another ghost is that of a confused man who appears by the seating area, mumbling to himself angrily about the misfortunes that played him throughout his life. He's a bit probably judging a little bit. He just seems to be angry, but it's just a bit of a grumpy, angry old man. And the Pope's not that big.
00:06:03
Speaker
that many seats it's quite a small area yeah this old man is seen many times was looking just sat in the in the seating area there's a spirit of a young man that paces up and down the upper floor with legend having it
00:06:20
Speaker
that he killed himself after a breakup. Bleeder hung himself from one of the beams on the ceiling and he's been trapped in that room ever since. And when everything else is still, you can hear the spine tingling sound of dangling rope rubbing against the wood. The middle cottage, as I mentioned, there used to be three cottages that are transformed into an oyster bar.
00:06:47
Speaker
And the small farming business is the haunt of the ghost of a jolly man who once wheeled his cart through the town. He has been seen smartly dressed outside of the pub with his cart. So in the old ages ago, it used to be an oyster bar. And this guy is still seen selling his oysters. At the back of the pub are our final two ghosts.
00:07:13
Speaker
And these are two pointers that sit at the bar, waiting for their drinks. One of these was the regular, before being killed in a motorcycle accident. He now returns to the pub, night after night, waiting for his favourite tipple.
00:07:30
Speaker
So quite a lot of activity. Plenty of stories and ghosts at this point. I mean, it's 500 years old. It's been quite a few different things in its past. The street itself's very old. Right in the centre of Wigan.
00:07:48
Speaker
So Wigan used to be one of the old mining towns that came quite populated and thrived quite a bit during the mining time before they closed them all. But yeah, so that was the ghost of the John Bull Chop House in Wigan. Interesting. The name Chop House as well.
00:08:12
Speaker
Didn't sound too great. I just have visions of like leather face or something of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah, I gotta imagine that. May come back to the slaughterhouse possibly. Not seeing that, but you'd imagine. Yeah. Ball. Ball, chap house, slaughterhouse. Yeah. Maybe, maybe. Yeah, maybe, maybe. And you got like,
00:08:40
Speaker
like lamb chops and like it's all steaks and stuff like that is a chop of me and so yeah yeah wow okay so mine's an interesting one mine is an interesting one the the fact that it's got like a history to it that suggests it should be more haunted than it is
00:09:07
Speaker
And the current or one of the past landlords has said that whilst it's not massive amount of paranormal activity in this establishment, lights, TVs come on and off.
Dark Past of Mother Max
00:09:26
Speaker
But when I tell you the story of what happened in this establishment. I'm I'm not too sure, I think it
00:09:36
Speaker
Based on everything we've talked about before, I think it should be more haunted than it is. So there's nothing major like ghosts as such. It's just a few weird things happen in the pub. But its story...
00:09:55
Speaker
I think deserves a bit of a mention. So the landlady bought it. It does have a bit of a reputation as being one of the most haunted pubs in the area, as they all are. But this particular one, as I say, the landlord couldn't find any specific paranormal activity in terms of ghosts. But strange things happen, but can't be attributed to anything. So that's about as spooky as it gets from that side. But the story itself is where the trauma comes.
00:10:24
Speaker
and anybody listening it, if you're a bit sensitive, switch off, but mute it rather than switching off because we still get the view then. Right, so this pub, let me pull the picture up, this particular pub is in Greater Manchester. Let me find it, let me find it, let me find,
00:10:58
Speaker
Mother Max. Mother Max. Yes. So, this is this pub's called Mother Max. It is in the northern quarter. Okay. I don't really know Manchester. So, it's like the the let's say the cool kids go to the northern quarter. It's back Piccadilly. It's called The Road. Um
00:11:25
Speaker
which is, let me try and find it. Yeah, back Piccadilly. Just off Piccadilly's parade in Manchester City Centre. Yeah, not far from Piccadilly's station. Yeah, it's like the hip place to go. Don't look too hip in the other picture. So down this dark Manchester backstreet, one of Manchester's most gruesome massacres once took place.
00:11:51
Speaker
So back Piccadilly, as I said, is where it is, and it's a dimly lit rat run just off Piccadilly Parade in the city centre, and was once witness to a truly horrific moment in the city's history. Exactly 47 years ago, the landlord of Mother Max Pub killed his wife and three children, as well as the pub's cleaner, before setting fire to the building and killing himself in the blaze. Wow.
00:12:20
Speaker
The massacre is commemorated with the plaque outside the pub while the original newspaper clippings reporting the 1976 tragedy remain framed and on display on the walls inside the pub. That's crazy. That's crazy. The plaque retells the horrifying episode
00:12:42
Speaker
back Piccadilly, it reads, in 1976 the pub manager, Arthur Bradbury, was given notice to quit, so he revenged himself the coward's way by killing all around him. His wife Maureen, his six-year-old daughter Alison, and his stepsons James and Andrew aged 11 and 13 respectively. The cleaner walked in on the carnage, so he killed her too, then set the pub on fire to hide the evidence.
00:13:09
Speaker
justice caught up with him and he ended up killing himself too. So there were six deaths on the 18th of June, 1976. So in the aftermath of the tragedy, the pub had to go extensive repairs and refurbishment, but it did reopen whilst ensuring the tragedy was not forgotten with the memorial plaque outside. Over the years, Mother's Max has remained one of Manchester's most popular traditional boozers.
00:13:37
Speaker
bit of a weird thing, but the gruesome history might have spooked some prospective tenants. Lauren, who is the landlady, age 36, is well used to stories of the darker side of human life. For while she's a landlady, a mum of two is also busy studying for degree in criminology and psychology.
00:14:04
Speaker
pubs are in our blood, she says, she loves bar work and she loves everything about it. But she likes to hear the grim stories.
00:14:15
Speaker
She says it's got a bit of a character about it, but not many visitors have an idea of the tragic history of the pub, which started life as the Wellington Inn in the 1870s, before being renamed Mother Max in the 70s, 1970s, after a previous legendary landlady. So people come in and they're interested in newspaper clippings and they can't believe that something like this has happened.
Unseen Spirits at Mother Max
00:14:44
Speaker
Nobody really knows what turned this 29 year old pub landlord Bradley into a serial killer back on that particular day in June. But reports at the time revealed a man already known for violent outbursts against his wife Maureen. So they said he strangled his wife before three children also got strangled. Then, like I mentioned, he called the cleaner and then set fire to the place.
00:15:15
Speaker
It's a dark story and it's the kind of tragedy that we've spoken about in many episodes, including the United States, where this kind of sort of residual trauma usually is accompanied by paranormal activities. There are lights turning on, there are lights turning off, there are TVs turning on and turning off on their own.
00:15:40
Speaker
whether that's a sign of the paranormal or Arthur Bradbury still remaining inside is another matter. But I felt when I started reading into it, I thought,
00:15:54
Speaker
if there's anywhere that has to have some kind of haunting, this would kind of be the place. You've got three kids being killed, murdered by their stepdad and dad, the wife being killed, the cleaner being killed, and then him killing himself in a fire. So that ticks all the boxes of a haunting. That is dark. Dark, yeah.
00:16:23
Speaker
So that is Mother Max in Back Piccadilly in Manchester. See you next time.