As the darkness descended all across the bleak East Central Manchester landscape hometime was not far away as the wind howled all around the four walls of Unit 4.1, each gust more powerful than the last. Then, all of a sudden, literally a dozen or so yards away from me, the staff door started to shake and then the handle moved up, then down, then up again before violently shaking every which way. This went on for some 30 seconds as somebody was seemingly trying to force the door open. It hadn’t yet occurred to me, but I had heard no footsteps on the creaky floorboards outside the office. Then the noise and movement stopped. Again no footsteps. I was frozen with fear, initially with the threatening thought of robbers ransacking the building attempting to force their way into the office. What would I do? Hide, fight, run? The other more peculiar thought had not yet occurred to me.

I had quickly picked up the phone to call security but Chief Wigham of Notmyproblem Security had no CCTV sight of anyone entering or leaving the building. “What do you mean nobody – there is definitely someone in the building, can you come out?” I pleaded. “Nope, son, we’re not contracted for that, you’re better speaking to the police”. “But, but…oh forget it”. I did think for a second of calling the police, yet I hadn’t seen anything except a door and a handle shake. What would I say?

Not long after this and the missus was back from her shopping trip in town to pick me up. I instructed her to stay back from the main entrance and go round to the back of the car park where you can see into the building & more importantly the stairwell and lift. “Right, can you see anyone going up or downstairs” I asked, not knowing what answer I really wanted. “Er, nothing…hang on…yeah, there is something…oh, it’s like a tall dark shadowy figure…wait a second, hang on, it’s just disappeared”.

Thanks for that information. “What do you mean tall? Taller than a human? And DISAPPEARED….” Now things were really starting to click into gear inside my head. No footsteps, no internal door opening between the corridor and staff door. Gulp. Shit in fact. I want my robbers back!!! I can’t remember much else after this except a few seconds later I quite literally legged it. I swear I broke the building record for top floor to ground (3.5 seconds) and once safely in the car I could breathe safe in the knowledge that I had escaped the clutches of the Ghost of Waulk Mill. Aka The Dark Shadow.

PS. Only a couple of months ago, something in Waulk Mill knocked over the heaviest plant pot you could imagine. Friday PM, stood upright, everything OK, office locked. Monday AM, office opened, pot knocked over, soil everywhere. There is absolutely no logical explanation whatsoever for this paranormal activity. Not even a typhoon could have knocked it over. Someone having a laugh? Or something lurking in the shadows once again?

Waulk Mill, which sits on the corner of Bengal Street and Redhill Street was built in 1842 and has a Listed Grade II status. Originally it was known as Fireproof Mill and Doubling Mill. Fireproof Mill, as its name cleverly suggests, was designed to be fireproof by using cast-iron beams and columns rather than timber (at least this explains the lack of a credible fire escape aside from diving into the Rochdale canal). Doubling Mill, again rather obviously to anyone with a masters degree in textiles, was used for doubling cotton (the process of combining two or more lengths of yarn into a single thread).

These mills were an extension to the sprawling and successful Murrays’ Mills complex, and were linked by personnel tunnels under Bengal Street. On the ‘Manchester’ side of Bengal Street, Murrays’ Mills, associated with the development of the steam driven mule, was the home to A&G Murray, one of the largest cotton-spinning firms in the world, let alone Manchester. So the cotton was made in Murrays and doubled in Doubling, got that? The earliest of the Murrays’ Mills (Old Mill) date back to the late 18th century and at it’s peak around 1000 people worked across the entire complex putting in 72 hour weeks.