Saturday 27 December 2014

Extract from "The Legend of Turnpike Lane"




Told to me by my grandfather who was told it by his grandmother and is now to be told to my grandchildren, so now the legend will continue….

If you walk from the market place in Gresley Station along Turnpike Lane, towards Witham Moor you will come upon a ruined house, burnt to a shell and decayed by years of neglect. This was once a great house, home to one of the most mysterious residents of Gresley Station, Jacob Fryor, his story begins long ago in the dimmest parts of history just after the railway arrived.

On a damp cold morning in the mid 1860’s a train pulls into Gresley Station, huffing and puffing as it makes the final climb, it comes to a halt and spews steam onto the grey platform. Out of the shroud of mist walks a figure, tall, dressed in black, with scarlet gloves grasping a black cane entwined with two serpents. 

Jacob Fryor had arrived.

Walking … no flowing is more apt, for Fryor moved like smoke on a winter day, drifting amongst the buildings, casually caressing the pavements in an almost weightless manner, Fryor headed into town and took lodgings at the Red Bear (now The Howling Woman) ...

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