Timberbottom's Farm, Harwood (the Skull House)

 The Inseparable Skulls.

A Haunted House Story.

(From our Correspondent).

Bolton, Tuesday.

An extraordinary story has been revived here concerning two ancient skulls. For generations, it is said, these remains have been preserved together, and any attempt to separate them has been followed by weird disturbances. Tradition says the skulls were originally kept at Timberbottom's Farm, a centureies old building, at Harwood, known locally as the Skull House. The occupants of the farm made many attempts to get rid of the skulls: they had buried them and they had thrown them into Bradshaw Brook, but on each occasion there followed unbearable disturbances at the farm, and the relics were restored to their place. 

The haunting took the form of knocking, prolonged at times for hours, and the origin of the noise could not be traced. All this was a long time ago. For many years the skulls have not been at the farm, the occupants of which believed them to have been lost; but the farm was undisturbed by the knocking.

Of late, however, it broke out again, and to such an extent that the farm dog was rendered unapproachable by terror and rage. Nothing could be done, of course, and the inhabitants had to wait until the haunting ceased, which it did as unexpectedly as it started.

The rest of the story is contained in a letter to the press from Colonel H.M. Hardcastle, who lives near the haunted farm. He states:- 

"Two skulls, those of a man and a woman, have rested undisturbed on our family Bible for 80 years. I recently took one skull to Manchester to have a silver rim put round it to preserve it, and the instant the one skull left the other the disturbances began again at Timberbottoms, a half a mile away."

The two skulls are now together again.

The Manchester Guardian, 4th January 1928.