Have you lived somewhere with a secret / dark past?

[Wacky Racer]

I went to school in Hyde, Cheshire, a little east of Manchester. A small town, home to mass murderer Dr Shipman, and child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

I used to see Ian Brady being escorted handcuffed into the magistrates court every morning from my upstairs school window, a large baying mob throwing eggs and abuse at him.

He was later transferred to Chester crown court for trial.

My cousin was Ian Brady's paper boy.

[Willy Nilly]

PhilboSE said:

Somewhere north of 30 people died in my house.

25 Cromwell Road?

[Voldemort]

The house my uncle was billeted to in Germany had been the local SS HQ during the war. Bullet marks in the walls in the cellar were the only evidence left of its' former occupants.

[Saleen836]

SimonTheSailor said:

Saleen836 said:

Growing up I lived in Westbury (Wiltshire) and during my early teens with a population of approx 8k people, the town had a higher murder rate than New York City!
There was 3 or 4 murders within a 6 month period

Any idea why that was ?

No idea why but the following was jelousy I guess

I can remember 2 of the deaths were a mother and baby...
http://murderpedia.org/female.A/a/arnold-heather.h...

[Harpoon]

LotusMartin said:

I've always wondered what stories our place has to tell - its quite remote up near Exmoor and built around 1630 so I'm sure there's a few. Nothing much on google though

Likewise - part of our house is an old Methodist chapel from the early 1800s. We have a few black & white photos from the previous owner but don't know much of the history. I have found a small note that in the 1850s there was seating for 100 people (must have been snug!)

[PhilboSE]

Willy Nilly said:

PhilboSE said:

Somewhere north of 30 people died in my house.

25 Cromwell Road?

Nope, a large Victorian house which was requisitioned during both Wars as an infirmary. Tracing some of the history shows that many didn't make it out alive. One of the rooms in the house was consecrated as a chapel.

[richatnort]

Not lived but almost bought a house. Turns out a guy one day decides to kill his wife in their bedroom by bludgeoning her over the head with something and leaving her there dead. He then left in the car went to Malham, phoned the police and told them he'd killed his wife and then went for a dive off the edge.

I thought something was wrong when we were looking around as there were loads all their belongings pilled into corners of each room and all utilities capped off. It wasn't until we went home and googled the road did we see the news articles about it all and asked the estate agents why they didn't tell us to which they replied we aren't allowed to unless asked which is bks.

[Dedshott]

PhilboSE said:

Nope, a large Victorian house which was requisitioned during both Wars as an infirmary. Tracing some of the history shows that many didn't make it out alive. One of the rooms in the house was consecrated as a chapel.

Ah - we have similar - our house was used as a VAD hospital during the First World War. Or The World War as they called it then. There are a load of eerie looking photographs of all the wounded soldiers knocking about...

[sanguinary]

Wacky Racer said:

I went to school in Hyde, Cheshire, a little east of Manchester. A small town, home to mass murderer Dr Shipman, and child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

I used to see Ian Brady being escorted handcuffed into the magistrates court every morning from my upstairs school window, a large baying mob throwing eggs and abuse at him.

He was later transferred to Chester crown court for trial.

My cousin was Ian Brady's paper boy.

I was at Hyde college at the time of Shipman and my sister went out with one of his sons.

The first house I rented just outside Hyde seemed pleasant enough, until we connected the phone line... soon after we learned we were tenants in an only recently ceased-to-be brothel. To be fair, the phone calls were quite entertaining. That is, until my mother answered the phone one day and proceeded to talk dirty back to them....

[Scabutz]

All the places I have lived have been rather dull, relatively new places with no history. We did live very close to where Ian Gow was murdered by the IRA (car bomb). That was fairly big event for a town largely know as god's waiting room where nothing happened.

[Rod200SX]

Riley Blue said:

Musing on the recent thread about secure places, I wondered about places with secret or 'dark' pasts.

Back in the '60s I was briefly at what was called in those days a 'college of education' - not a corrective institution but a place where teachers were trained. It was not far from Milton Keynes, in a largely brick built building in the grounds of a mansion now open to the public.

Any guesses yet?

Decades later I revisited it, it's better known as 'Station X' or Bletchley Park. In the '60s its wartime history was not known, at least not by us.

Anyone else lived, stayed, or worked in a similar 'secret' place?

My Grandmother worked at Bletchley Park 'Employed' through the word search.

[L100NYY]

Oldandslow said:

Roofless Toothless said:

The woman who lives here -

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prop...

- is having a hard time selling it.

If she was worried the history you'd think she'd remove the sign and the broomstick over the window

She and the house were on Come Dine With Me iirc

[The Dictator]

L100NYY said:

Oldandslow said:

Roofless Toothless said:

The woman who lives here -

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prop...

- is having a hard time selling it.

If she was worried the history you'd think she'd remove the sign and the broomstick over the window

She and the house were on Come Dine With Me iirc

I imagine that foul colour it's painted, is not helping the chances of a sale!

[Ayahuasca]

LimaDelta said:

SpunkyGlory said:

Saleen836 said:

Growing up I lived in Westbury (Wiltshire) and during my early teens with a population of approx 8k people, the town had a higher murder rate than New York City!
There was 3 or 4 murders within a 6 month period

I'm pretty sure NY has more than 4 murders in 6 months.

I'm pretty sure NY has a population of more than 8k.

I'm pretty sure Westbury has an army base in it. Did my RCB there.

[Wildcat45]

As a kid we lived in a house which I only recently found out was used as a convalescent hospital for WW1 solders. Known as a VAD hospital...

http://www.donmouth.co.uk/local_history/VAD/VAD_ho...

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4828254

And this was the house next door...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01qcsbx

[WyrleyD]

I'm sitting 5 minutes from where Richard The Lionheart was murdered, that was an awful long time ago though....

[elanfan]

P-Jay said:

I used to live in a house on the former site of Cardiff AWE, they removed about 80 tonnes of depleted uranium just before they built it. Which was nice.

'Interestingly' the whole estate was built on the original (very, very deep) concrete base of the AWE with top soil added to create the gardens, so in heavy rain (Wales init) they'd all flood.

I was glad to leave.

Apart from the not eating any veg you grow rules there and the actual nuclear stuff which was I understand relatively safe there was rumoured to be a large chemical tank that contained some nasty (I had Boron derivative in my mind but google doesn’t seem to confirm my memory) which if it had gone bang it would have taken half of Cardiff with it. Living about a mile away was concerning.

Always thought it odd that such secret, secure establishment was in a residential suburb surrounded by a chain link fence and fir trees to obscure the view when right behind it were 14 storey office blocks which gave a view right over the fence and trees. Never noticed any armed security on the gates either which is also odd.

[bristolracer]

Willy Nilly said:

PhilboSE said:

Somewhere north of 30 people died in my house.

25 Cromwell Road?

Its gone
It was bulldozed when the Police were finished

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.8617737,-2.24339...

[aka_kerrly]

Willy Nilly said:

25 Cromwell Road?

Street.


The building was knocked down but that doesn't stop people wanting to see it.

[legless]

ex1 said:

Family member rented a flat where a serial killer murdered several people in the 70s. They werent aware of the history until the lease had been signed. I saw a couple taking pictures from the street once. Apparently it was on some tour.

It wasn’t in Cricklewood or Muswell Hill was it?