A strange shadowy figure, demonic presences, poltergeist activity and flying glassware, the Accrington Conservative Club had them in abundance! Stone built in the gothic style it was steeped in history. There were hidden dusty rooms creaking with dark menace and a Victorian staircase that hinted of something terrifying around the corner. Who, or what, haunted this building and why? Did I witness a poltergeist smashing a glass on the floor? Did I see a ‘Shadow Man’ looming over the bar ?

Built in 1890, this magnificent Grade II listed building is currently in a dire state of disrepair. Situated on Cannon Street in Accrington town centre, the building was briefly a nightclub until 2003 when a patron tragically died outside the premises. Prior to this, the Conservative Club regularly held dances on its magnificent 3^rd floor ballroom, one of only two sprung dance floors (the other being the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool) and regular private parties on its two 2^nd floor bars and function rooms. The ground floor bar was members only, with two full size snooker tables built by the Riley Snooker and Billiard Table Company. There was dusty old red velvet seating and dark wood panelling that oozed history. The building felt dark though, oppressive and uncomfortable at times with an atmosphere all of its own. Following the demise of the nightclub, aptly named ‘Churchills’, the building was closed and has suffered from vandalism and a fire which gutted the premises.

As I write this in early 2019, I read in the local press that Town Planners have approved an application to convert the building into private flats.

The Conservative Club was the largest of its kind in the country, and was built by WJ Morely and G Woodhouse, funded by Mr Howard, who was a partner with Mr Bullough in one of the largest textile machinery factories in Britain. I was told by a former Steward of the club, Bernard, that the Cannon Street Baptist Church, directly across the road was built as a statement of sobriety and worship to countermand the Club and it is less than sober patrons, and that a competition ensued as to which building could be completed the tallest. I believe that the Club won, by a good foot! Sadly, it would seem that the church has also fallen in to disrepair and is also earmarked to be converted into flats.

My association with the Conservative Club goes back years. My father was a member of the Committee for many years and held the position of Treasurer. At the time, in the late 1970’s and 1980’s the Club was, I believe, bankrolled by Thwaites Brewery of Blackburn, and held regular Saturday night dances in the Ballroom, to which people came from miles around. When I started working there in the late 1980’s as a glass collector whilst studying at College, the stuffy old time atmosphere of the Ballroom with its ‘Big Bands’ and ageing clientele were like something from the 1950’s. Flares and quiff’s were the order of the day and the smell of Brylcreem still lingers with me today. If I said the average age of the patrons was in their 50’s and 60’s even then it wouldn’t be an understatement. The ballroom was magnificent though. It had a high ceiling with large stained-glass windows along either side. At one end was the bar and at the other, the stage. There was a presence that felt uncomfortable and many staff refused to go through the back to check the fire escape door. As I turned 18, I graduated to serving behind the bar and occasionally worked on the ground floor as well as stocking the bars on weekend mornings. I also played snooker on a weekday evenings, and characters such as Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins occasionally frequented the Club and played a few games on the green baize. My father, who played in the Lancashire Amateur Snooker Competitions, was adamant he had played ‘The Hurricane’ in a friendly match at the Club one evening and beaten him.

When I first started working at the Club I remember having a pep talk from Bernard - how to pull a pint with a proper ‘head’, not to give short measures because it upset the members, who to look out for as potential trouble makers after a few too many Barley Wines….. that sort of thing. On one particular quiet midweek evening I was manning the members bar on my own, and thoroughly bored. The bar itself was fairly long and straight, maybe about 25 foot or so from memory with an opening to my left into the snooker room. It was made of dark wood, perhaps stained oak, and was lacquered. It added to the already dark atmosphere of the room. There was nobody playing snooker that evening and I recall not many people had been in for a drink. Bernard was pottering about on the upstairs floors leaving me alone for most of the evening. As I was stood with my back against the rear of the bar, the opening to the snooker room to my left, I saw a figure out of the corner of my eye. As I turned my head to see who it was, (I presumed a customer had somehow slipped past my gaze and gone into the adjoining room), I saw the outline of a tall man, dressed in long dark clothes with what looked like an angular hat, rather like a Fedora, leaning on the bar. It had no facial features at all. The figure was opaque, like a thick mist, and quite substantial. It had no arms that I could see, and because it was behind a waist high bar I could not see its legs. It was leaning over towards me, seemingly looking for something down on the floor or behind the bar. The figure was tall and thin, much thinner than a real person and looked ‘stretched’ out almost as if it was being pulled from both ends! All this was indelibly etched into my memory, despite the figure slowly fading to a mist and disappearing after only a few seconds. At first I felt amazement, but then suddenly my heart started to beat faster as I panicked and realised what I had seen. I had actually seen a ghost!

No sooner than the figure had faded away than I rang the upstairs bars on the internal phone until Bernard answered and came down. He could tell I was somewhat disturbed as I blurted out something about a ghost. In a fairly calm manner he explained that there was indeed a ghost that occasionally manifested itself at the end of the bar. Quite a few members of staff, himself included, had seen him. Although quite a few people had seen this apparition, nobody knew who he was. They all described it as tall and shadowy, and when I told Bernard it looked ‘stretched’, he nodded and agreed. He had seen that too.  I would have liked to have seen the figure again, as, in truth, I didn’t feel any malevolence coming from it, but despite working in the ground floor bar many times, and often locking up at the end of the night when I was on my own , I only saw that apparition that one time.

I believe the ghost may have been a recording type of manifestation rather than an apparition that was aware of me and my surroundings. It did not interact with me, or with others who said they had seen it too and I cannot say whether it was conscious or aware I was present in the same space. I did not feel it was threatening; it was simply momentarily there. Was this an example of phenomena that is now recognised as a ‘Shadow Man’?  Many religions and beliefs describe shadowy spiritual beings or supernatural entities such as ‘shades’ or shadowy creatures and have long been a staple of folklore and ghost stories. Perhaps my encounter was indeed with one of these shadowy figures. The term ‘Shadow Person’ was not popularised in modern paranormal circles until the early 2000’s, thanks mainly to late night American radio paranormal broadcasts such as ‘Coast 2 Coast AM’ hosted by the late Art Bell. When I had this encounter, the term and phenomena had been long forgotten.

Other parts of the club were haunted too. The cellar had a dark presence and a foreboding atmosphere. I often felt uneasy going down the stairs on my own to change barrels or bring crates of bottles up to restock the bar. It was dimly lit, with a low ceiling and a constant damp, musty smell. It felt wholly unwelcoming! There was an ingenious ‘dumb waiter’ lift that ran up to all three floors so that heavy crates could be loaded and sent up to where they were needed (I do recall some fellow members of staff who went up and down in it as a joke – the horseplay and foolishness of youth !). One incident which stands out was when I was asked to whitewash the cellar walls for some extra holiday spending money.

One week I spent a few hours a day down there whitewashing the cellar walls. In truth I was uneasy as I didn’t like the atmosphere and the claustrophobic nature of the low stone ceilings and cold stone floor and walls. I would leave in the afternoon feeling chilled to the bone. There had been an occasional bang or strange noise which I put down to pipes settling, or gas in the barrels, and got on with the task at hand. On the final morning, however, I went down early and felt more uneasy than normal. Despite it being early summer and fairly warm outside, it felt absolutely freezing in the cellar that morning, and so cold that I recall seeing my breath condensing as I breathed out. This was most definitely out of the ordinary and disturbing. As I descended the stairs I was aware of something oppressive and unpleasant and for a split second I saw a figure standing at the far end of the cellar against the wall. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and stayed up, as I tried to focus on what it was. The cellar lights were on, but they were quite dim and didn’t really illuminate the whole of the cellar, particularly the far wall. To this day, I am convinced there was something evil in the cellar that morning and that it was thoroughly unpleasant. The sudden drop in temperature would seem to suggest classic paranormal activity. The figure was, as with the ghost in the bar upstairs, very tall but seemed to stoop almost to avoid touching the low ceiling. I’m 6ft 2” tall and the ceiling just cleared my head, so whatever this was, it was taller than I. I remember for a few seconds it looked at me, almost leering. I thought I could make out facial features, perhaps a beard and straggly unkempt hair, and it was dressed in some sort of workman’s outfit, wearing a heavy coat with a cap. Unlike the apparition in the ground floor bar area, this was most definitely aware of my presence and altogether more unpleasant and sinister. It was also easier to make out, was less shadowy and much more of a clear apparition. I breathed a sigh of relief when it suddenly disappeared, as quickly as it had appeared and I hurriedly went back upstairs feeling shaken and very afraid. By this time, Bernard had retired, and the new Steward, John, wasn’t convinced that there was a ghost in his cellar and shrugged off my story as little more than fantasy, which annoyed me somewhat. He must have seen that I was visibly shaken and I refused to finish the last bit of wall. I took payment for what I had done and vowed never to go back down to the cellar on my own. Unlike the ground floor ghost, this felt altogether different and certainly more threatening. I felt it was fully aware of my presence and felt hugely uneasy when it looked directly at me. This entity, whatever it was, was definitely ‘there’ of ‘of that moment in time’ and was malevolent and threatening. Who was this character and why was he so attached to the cellar? Whoever he was, at that moment, he did not want me in his space.

The third incident of paranormal activity I witnessed at the club again happened in daylight, and was a Saturday morning whilst I was up in the ballroom stocking the bar. There was only myself and John in the building, and he was busy stocking the ground floor bar and changing barrels in the cellar. John was adamant he never saw anything in the cellar and was somewhat annoyed when I often refused to go down on my own.

I had loaded the Dumb Waiter with crates of bottles and after sending the lift on its way, trudged up the three flights of winding stairs to the ballroom. I used to reach the top and lean over the dark wooden balustrade, looking down the centre of the staircase to the ground floor below. There was something that made me keep doing it; perhaps some unknown force was trying to make contact. Whatever the reason, something drew me to that staircase time and time again. On this occasion I went into the storeroom and was unloading the crates when I suddenly heard glass smashing in the bar. It was loud and made me jump and I hurried through to see if anyone else was there. There was no one. I was alone. Suddenly I felt uneasy. Looking down I saw glass strewn across the floor behind the bar. How had this happened I wondered? From the pieces of glass, I realised it was a barrel handled pint glass. These types of glasses are rare now, but imagine a heavy, thick round glass with dimpled sides and a handle. They were popular back in the day with working men who demanded ‘a proper pint of bitter in a real pint glass with a handle’. These glasses were kept above the bar hanging on very sturdy hooks, very deeply curved so as to make sure the glasses didn’t fall off. In order to get a glass off the hook you had to lift it upwards and sideways and because of its weight and shape there was absolutely no way it could simply slip or fall off. All the glasses were hanging there apart from one empty hook. I was astonished. I stood and looked at the shattered glass trying to work out how it could have fallen on the floor with such force without being physically lifted off. There was no one else around, and there was no way someone could have got through into the bar, smashed the glass and exited the same way as I was coming in to the bar a couple of seconds after hearing the noise. My only conclusion was that someone, or something, had physically lifted the glass off the hook and thrown it on the floor. At this point I started to feel something disturbing, like an actual physical threat. I felt like there was something there that didn’t like me. Whether this was a reaction to a very clear example of paranormal activity, or a change in the atmosphere that I was sensing, is difficult to say. What I do question is if this was a natural occurrence, for example, the glass simply fell off the hook, why did it happen at that particular time? To my knowledge nobody in the club had ever mentioned witnessing a similar incident themselves. Why did the glass fall off a substantial hook, which was still screwed into the ceiling of the bar, and undamaged, at the very moment I was in the stockroom alone, in broad daylight? If there were, for instance vibrations that caused it to fall, how did it lift up half an inch so that the handle could clear the hook, and why just this one glass? Why not others? Even after all these years I am convinced that the glass was deliberately removed from the hook and thrown on the floor by an unseen paranormal force in order to frighten me.

It was not long afterwards that I finished working at the club. I mentioned my experiences in passing to a few people who frequented the Conservative Club and although nobody admitted seeing or feeling anything out of the ordinary, the looks and nods some gave me, including those of my own father when I later told him, led me to believe that I wasn’t the only one who had witnessed some strange occurrences in the Club. 

Old buildings like the Accrington Conservative Club have seen years of history and in my opinion it is not surprising they hold echoes of their past within their structure and foundations. There was a dark, unwelcoming atmosphere in parts of the building. The old dusty furnishings and air of neglect only added to the atmosphere. Although my time spent there was over 30 years ago, these incidents have remained with me as if they happened yesterday. I remain convinced that there were at least two ghosts or entities in the building, and I would not be surprised if there were more, and I witnessed an incident that can only be described as poltergeist activity. Whether the malevolent cellar ghost roamed around the building and was responsible for the smashed pint glass on the third floor I do not know, but it would be interesting to see if there are any further manifestations when the building is finally renovated.