The West Midlands is steeped in history, paranormal or otherwise. From individual homes and flats to large and famous landmarks, Birmingham is full of interesting characters. Whether alive or dead.

In this blog, I hope to explore the tales and mysteries of the paranormal in Birmingham, from alleged poltergeist activity that ended up with police investigations, to a wine snob in a pub. These mysteries may never be solved, but whatever the outcome, they sure are interesting.

Town Hall

Built in 1833 and opened in 1834, Town Hall is one of the oldest structures in Birmingham. It's been used as a fine music hall since then, hosting many different acts and performances. It's now a Grade I listed building, and is still used for a variety of performances including speeches, comedy shows and choirs.

The building's past, however, started out pretty dark. During it's construction in 1833, two construction workers were tragically killed while they worked on the carving of the external pillars. The two men, John Heap and William Badger, are now said to haunt the building.

[Birmingham Town Hall and the external pillars that two workmen died while carving]

People, especially staff who work night shifts at the Town Hall, have reported to hear chiselling, just like the two workmen would have done. They have also been known to witness dark shadows and lights flickering in the building, even when there is no reason for the lights to flicker. It is also widely reported that after sightings such as these, the staff hear screaming and crashing. Is this the accident, repeating over and over again for the two poor workmen?

More incredibly, Charles Dickens is said to haunt the building, too. He gave his first reading of  'A Christmas Carol' at the Town hall on Boxing Day 1853, and since then in more recent years, people have reported to have seen a Victorian looking gentleman with a strong likeness to Dickens wandering around the building and sitting in the empty hall. A staff member also said that this apparition came up to them,  and then allegedly vanished before their eyes.

This building is steeped in history and has a dark past... these sightings only confirm that. Paranormal sightings from the town hall come in time after time, and will probably continue to do so for a long time. Whether these sightings are of actual paranormal entities or not, it can't be proven, but it certainly makes for a very interesting story.

New Alexandra Theatre

Since being built in 1901, the theatre has had it's fair share of tragedies; and not just the plays. 

Three people have been reported to have died in the building, two people who worked there had a vital role in the running of the theatre. The first is actress Gracie Housley, a performer at the theatre when it first opened. She died on the stage in 1902, aged just 22, during the performance of the song 'Goodbye Dolly Grey.'

[Gracie Housley, an actress who died on stage at the Alexandra Theatre in 1902]

The second person to die there was a former wardrobe master who died suddenly one evening, and who is now said to haunt the building. 

The other is probably the most famous ghost of the Alexandra Theatre; a former stage and cinema tycoon named Leon Salberg who took over the venue in 1911. Everyone knew him as the Pantomime King, and he remained manager of the theatre until he was found dead in his office within the building, on 29th September 1937.

[Leon Salberg, manager of the theatre from 1911-1937]

There are three other reported ghosts that reside within the building; a stage manager named Dick, a mysterious 'grey lady' and a man dressed in military clothes and, oddly enough, wearing a top hat.

These beings have been connected to many odd happenings and noises over the years in the theatre. People blame 'Dick' for jangling keys, and knocking and tapping on things. The man dressed in military clothes has been blamed for poking staff and visitors while they've been seated in the auditorium. And the overall presence of the beings has been held responsible for 

power inexplicably being drained from electrical devices within the theatre.

Staff have also reported doors opening and closing overnight, even when the theatre is closed.

In more recent years, there haven't been many reported sightings or paranormal disturbances. Does that mean that the spirits reported to reside in this theatre have calmed down a little bit? Have they moved on? Or were the stories simply cooked up in an attempt to boost the popularity of the theatre?  For now, we don't know. But either way, Alexandra Theatre has had it's fair share of tragedie, and goes down as one of Birmingham's most haunted theatres. 

Court Oak Pub

The Court Oak Pub, based in Harborne, was built in 1932 and refurbished in August of 2014. Although a relatively new pub in comparison to many others in the area, it still has it's history, and it's fair share of odd happenings.

This is put down to the fact that, interestingly, the town's gallows are rumoured to have once stood very close to where this pub was built. This has led to many reports of different apparitions, that people believe to be souls that were trapped here when their bodies were hanged. The most popular of these apparitions, and also the 'resident pub ghost', is described as a lady in black and white. Local legend dictates that she was hanged on the charge of infanticide; a crime that she did not commit.

Another apparition, and more active figure in the pub, is nicknamed by the residents as 'Corky'. He is said to be behind the smashed bottles of wine that keep being found in the locked wine cellar, and strange knocks and footsteps that ghost investigation teams keep hearing when holding vigils here.

The ex-manager of the pub, Mrs Lillian Campbell, has even reported seeing Corky on two separate occasions. She said that both times, he's been standing behind the bar, wearing similar colours to the uniform that the employees there wear, despite there being no members of staff there at the time of the sightings.

Mrs Campbell's husband, Mark, also claims to have seen the figure as it walked across the bar, when he and his wife were closing up the pub just past midnight. He also states that the figure was wearing light blue, like the staff uniform. Just as Lillian had said. Since then, a regular at the pub has also stated to see this figure at an empty part of the pub, before it has been refurbished. Who knows how many people have seen it since that point?

When the West  Midlands Ghost Club investigated the pub in 2001, they captured some interesting audio from footage they had taken from the cellar. This audio consisted of numerous footsteps, a very large unexplained crashing noise, and a sound similar to that which occurs when someone blows over the neck of a bottle.

The investigators tried to rule out the fact that the footsteps were made by a part of the team, by continuing to run the recording while they had another member of their team (16 stone, wearing army boots) to walk across the bar and stomp around, but no sounds were captured when they did this.

They haven't been back since 2001, but the reports are still coming in often, from staff, customers and managers. So... What's the explanation for all of this? Is is paranormal? Or is there another explanation?

The Thornton Road Poltergeist

As far as paranormal stories from the West Midlands go, the tale of the Thornton Road 'Poltergeist' is one of the most famous. Although not a strictly typical paranormal tale, there have never been any solid theories that explain these phenomena that do not point towards paranormal activities, and so most people have put it down to perhaps the most intense form of paranormal entity; a poltergeist.

It started one night in 1981. While the people of 32-36 Thornton Road were sitting down to eat dinner or watch television, outside their homes rocks and pebbles of varying sizes were falling down around their house, some hitting windows and smashing roof tiles.

This continued for a few months, before the police were called out and began to carry out around-the-clock surveillance to catch the perpetrators. They camped out in gardens, hid up in trees and placed hidden cameras all over the street. But, the odd part... no one seemed to be responsible. Or at least, no one the police could see.

[Thornton Road; the road where the attacks took place]

The attacks didn't stop. They were relentless; whether police were present or not, rocks and pebbles continued to smash windows and roofs. It was obviously incredibly frustrating for all investigating, and especially Chief Inspector Len Turley, who spoke of his frustration. "We have spent more that 1,000 man hours on this case. We are keeping an open mind about the whole thing. We don't know why it's gone on for so long." 

The attacks went on for so long that residents started placing chicken wire over their windows and covered their homes with corrugated sheeting. In an effort to catch those responsible, cotton thread was laced around residents' gardens. Although, incredibly... the cords never snapped. Even when their homes were being destroyed.

[a sample of the stones that were thrown at the houses, which appeared to be free of dirt and were completely clean]

Natalie Holford, of number 32 Thornton road, was just 17 when the attacks began; in the midst of her A level exams. "It was like being stalked." She said. "As if someone was watching us. The police would leave here at 2am and by the time they had reached the police station, there would be another attack."

The police never bought into the poltergeist theory, but there was not many other theories. The most popular one, perhaps, was that the culprit was using a catapult to bombard houses from a 200-yard distance.

But no evidence was ever found of this. And until this day, no one knows what happened. But whatever it was, it definitely was anything but normal.

[Houses 32-36 Thornton road, which bore the brunt of the attacks]