Nottinghamshire

This North Nottinghamshire colliery has its own interesting folk tale, Which dates back to the early 1900’s. A miner walking home after his shift is said to have courted a Creswell woman, whose husband had conven iently just left her to commence his own shift down the mine. After his illicit visit, the miner left his love to walk home to Clowne via Markiand Craggs. Atop of the Craggs, silhouetted by the full moon, he espied the Devil himself. Somehow Old Nick knew of the man’s philandering,

cursed him and sent him on his way. The miner arrived home to his own wife at dawn, white-haired and talking gibberish.., and was ‘of no use to man or beast thereafter’! Stories of miners encountering the prince of darkness have been recorded elsewhere in the country.

The Durham folk song Collier’s Rant - often performed at Miners’ Galas - carries the famous lines “As me and me marra (mate) was gannin’ ti wark We met wi’ the De’il, it was in the dark ...“ According to Ed Law, who recounted the Creswell tale, it was used as a threat by a patticularly large local lady with whom he was ac quainted, who suspected that her small, timid husband had a wandering eye. Apparently she had heard a similar tale as a child in Clowne in the 1920’s, and repeated her own version at regular intervals as a warning to her poor husband!

Related Links for Haunted and Colliery: Barnsley | Barnsley | Chesterfield | Doncaster | Floughton | Glasshoughton | Grimethorpe | Thornhill | West Yorkshire |