Orchard ghost and lady in white keep Samlesbury's legends alive

As we prepare for the haunting day of Halloween, among the places that will no doubt get attention is Samlesbury Hall, an ancient place with familiar haunting tales

- writes Keith Johnson.

One tale recalled is of 'The Lady In White' from Elizabethan times when one of the Southworths, the territorial lords, forbade his daughter to marry a knight who was of the opposite faith. An elopement resulted, but the lovers were waylaid by the girl's brothers, and the young knight, along with two of his followers, was slain and secretly buried. The lady, Dorothea Southworth, was sent abroad, but she ultimately lost her reason, and was brought back to the ancestral home, where she died with the name of her murdered lover upon her lips. Many years ago during the course of alterations three skeletons were found, and it is said that the spirits of the knight and his lady clad in white are not averse to taking a walk at night in the locality.

Another haunting tale of that neighbourhood was recalled go years ago in the Lancashire Post when an account of the 'Samlesbury Orchard Ghost' was published. It concerned the Sykes, an odd couple, who lived at the Old Lumb Farm by Mellor Brook at Samlesbury. They had come to the tenancy of the farm by succession. Mrs. Sykes, it was known, would rather have chopped off a finger, than spend a quarter penny foolishly. While Old Man Sykes had never been known to sink his beard into a horn of ale that had not been tapped from a barrel at the expense of someone else.