1960’s-1990’s

Big old empty houses seem to attract stories and legends to them almost the moment they are abandoned. Such was the fate of the old “Manager’s House” that stood in front of Lister’s factory at the bottom of the climb to Highfield Road and had later become a Doctor’s Surgery before its final abandonment. It was big it was spooky and there was a burgeoning young population in the locale and yet, no kids ever climbed the iron fence and played there, no gentleman travelers ever used it as a relatively warm and dry refuge.

It merely sat there and glowered in its own inimitable manner for over decade, crumbling under its own timetable of decay rather than, as other abandoned building in the area, suffer the vagaries of being used as a den for various activities by kids of all ages.. In the early 1970s a group of us, 13-14 years of age, decided to finally explore the house and entrance to the property was very simple through a downstairs sash window. We settled in in the mustiness darkness of the room when we clearly heard what sounded like footsteps descending the staircase. We didn’t wait, we just legged it straight back out of the house and stood opposite craning our necks to see if we could spot who the other “occupant” was. We saw nothing and no more noise came from the house, it was if it returned to its slumbers.

Jump forward a couple of years and two friends from another part of town are visiting to watch a Sci Fi film at my house. The conversation turns to “local weirdness” and my friend says, in totally matter of fact voice, “That house at the bottom of the hill, I don’t know why however, I still run past there”. The other friend concurred with them and said pretty much the same, they felt “something” that just said “Keep out”. The house us now long gone, I sometimes wonder if whatever it was that “lived” there, still does. This is the house in question… http://www.nuneatonhistory.com/uploads/1/8/6/8/18680466/20170111205759-01_orig.jpg

Submitted by SteveDoG