The skull of a Benedictine monk, believed to be nearly 300 years old, has disappeared from a glass case at Wardley Hall, Worsley, near Manchester, the new home of the Bishop of Salford (Dr. Henshaw).
Wardley Hall has been known for many years as "The House of the Skull," and legend has it that a furious storm arose when a maid once threw the skull into the moat. Since then the skull has been kept in a glass case on the staircase.
The glass case had been smashed.
From the Lancashire Evening Post, Wednesday 26th November 1930.
A stolen skull.
Legends, nearly three hundred years old, will be recalled by the news
that Wardley House, Worsley, near Manchester, has been broken into, and
the famous skull has been stolen from its niche in the wall at the head
of the staircase. Superstitious locals in particular will now have no
difficulty in tracing the gales of the last two days to their source.
This skull was the head of a Benedictine monk, Edward Barlow, known as
Father Ambrose, who for many years continued the forbidden services of
his church in the secret chapel at Wardley House, whose owner, Francis
Downes, was a kinsman of his. In 1641 he was discovered and tried, being
condemned to death at Lancaster. After the execution his head was
impaled on a spike on the tower of the Collegiate Church at Manchester,
and is believed to have been secretly removed by Francis Downes, who
took it to his home, and preserved it there as a holy relic.
There is a story that once a servant threw the skull into the moat,
taking it for the head of an animal. thereupon the most furious tempest
arose, and was not stilled until the skull was recovered and restored to
its former place. And there was a storm on another occasion when the
then occupant of the house tried to bury the head; and eighteenth
century writers declare that if the skull was as much as moved from its
resting-place strange sounds were heard in the house at night, cattle
pined in their stalls, and no luck attended the ventures of the dwellers
at the house.
By a curious chance the house where this monk ministered three hundred
years ago is to return once again to its former use, for it has been
bought by the Roman Catholics of the district as a residence for the
Bishop of Salford.
From the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 27th November 1930.
Search for Skull.
Wardley Hall Moat to be drained.
In the hope that the skull of the Benedictine monk, Edwin Ambrose Barlow, which is missing from Wardley Hall, near Worsley, will be discovered, the moat at the hall is to be drained. When a housemaid threw the skull into the moat shortly after it was discovered in a wall at the hall in 1745, the then owner had the moat drained.
This is the third time that the skull has been missing from the hall.
Manchester Evening News, 27th November 1930.
Ghost as thief of own skull.
Village theory in grim relic mystery.
From our own correspondent, Worsley (Lancs), Wednesday.
Has some malignant fate already overtaken the thief who broke into Wardley Hall and carried away its famous "screaming skull"? For 300 years the villagers of Worsley have been dreading the day when the grisly relic of Ambrose Barlow, who was executed at Lancaster in 1641 for conducting Roman Catholic services, would vanish from its resting place in the old house. The vengeful spirit of Wardley Hall, they believe, is even now dogging the footsteps of the bold intruder, and that the removal of the skull foreshadows trouble for the villagers. Whenever the skull has been disturbed there has been an unusual happening in the village. A remarkable theory that was suggested to me today is that Ambrose Barlow himself is responsible for the theft of his skull. Stories have been told of people who saw a ghostly figure prowling up and down the corridors, and heard it carry on a conversation with the skull.
Daily Herald, 27th November 1930.
Stolen Skull.
Theory that thief wished to test superstition.
The theory that the famous skull of Wardley Hall, Worsley, near Manchester, reputed to be that of Ambrose Barlow, a Benedictine monk, has been stolen to test the superstition that a calamitous happening would follow its removal is being discussed.
Only twice before has the skull been disturbed, and each time, according to legend, its removal has been followed by calamity.
Father A.N. Barre, joint secretary to the Bishop of Salford, by whom Wardley Hall is being acquired for diocesan purposes, said he thought it likely that the thief had taken it to test the superstitious legends attached to the skull, and that the thief was "probably waiting to see if anything will happen now that the skull has been taken."
Shields Daily News, 27th November 1930.
Skull Thieves.
A sensation has been caused by the discovery that the skull of the Benedictine monk, Ambrose Barlow, who was executed in 1641, was stolen from Wardley Hall, Worsley, during the week-end. the skull had reposed for many years in a glass case in a recess in the wall of the oak staircase, and was safe when workmen employed by a firm of auctioneers left the place. On their return it was seen that the case had been smashed and the skull removed.
Besides taking away the skull the intruder, or intruders, opened drawers in several of the rooms, but after having examined the contents left them intact.
The household effects of the late owner, Capt. T. Nuttall - the hall has been purchased by the Catholics of the Salford diocese for the future residence of the Bishop of Salford - are to be sold by auction.
Horfield and Bishopston Record, 28th November 1930.
Sequel to return of martyr's relic.
Police search for midnight caller on bishop.
Man who carried gun.
It is now learned that the Lancashire police are searching for the mysterious man who recently returned, under unusual circumstances, the skull of Blessed Ambrose Barlow to Wardley Hall, Worsley, Lancashire, the residence of the Bishop of Salford, from where it had been stolen last November. It is understood that the police have received additional information, and, as a result, have been able to circulate some details of the man they are anxious to see.
It is also revealed that the masked man who visited Wardley Hall at midnight and asked to see Bishop Henshaw, to whom he returned the sacred relic, carried a revolver or some such firearm.
At the end of the talk the man produced the skull from a brown paper parcel, which he carried under his arm, and left as he had come.
A report from the district states that the man sought by the police is thought to be a native of Birmingham. He is about 5 ft. 7 ins. in height, and about twenty-five years of age. At the time of the midnight visit he was wearing a fawn belted raincoat, a light cap, and a white and pink striped muffler.
Nottingham and Midland Catholic News, 7th March 1931.
A knock on the window in the night.
The Bishop, the thief and a martyr's skull.
By Kevin McGarry.
Across the wide lawns of Wardley Hall, Worsley, home of the Bishop of Salford, one night crept a man. In one hand he carried a gun and in the other something wrapped in paper. It was very late. The intruder had expected the hall to be in darkness. But a light still burned in a downstairs room. The man cursed under his breath - then crept towards the french window. Inside he saw the bishop - a tall, well-built man with a long, lean face. A young man, you would say, for such an office.
And as he sat at a bureau poring over papers, he pushed his skull-cap to the back of his thick black hair with a boyish gesture. This was Bishop Tom Henshaw - everybody called him that. Indeed, they could hardly get used to thinking of him as a bishop. Only a while back, it seemed, he had been plain "Father Tom," beloved by the scholars at St. Bede's College, Manchester, where he had been vice-rector for six years, and loved by parishioners of the churches where he had served - St Alban's, Blackburn; St. Mary's, Heaten Norris, Stockport; the Church of the Holy Saviour, Nelson; and at St. Gabriel and the Angels, Castleton, near Rochdale. Strangest claim to "our Father Tom" came from parishioners of St. Anne's, Blackburn. For it was while he was rector there in 1925 that he was named fifth Bishop of Salford - the first ever to be raised to the office direct from the priesthood.
Suddenly the stranger made up his mind. He tapped softly on the glass - then stepped back into the shadows. The bishop looked up startled. Then he got to his feet and came towards the windows. He opened the catch. "Is anyone there?" The man stepped into the light, his face now half-hidden behind upturned coat collar. The gun-barrel glinted as it pointed towards the tall figure in the dark robe. "Keep still. I only come to give this back. Here." The parcel rustled as the man thrust it into the bishop's hands. Then he began to back away. But the bishop's voice stopped him. "Thank you, my son. I see you took good care of the skull."
He had unwrapped the paper, and now by the light from over his shoulders a skull gleamed whitely in his hand. This was the skull of Blessed Ambrose Barlow, which has just been declared authentic by the Right Rev. G.A. Beck, Bishop of Salford. Special services to allow Catholics to venerate the relic of this Benedictine monk who was executed at Lancaster 320 years ago have been held. It had been stolen from Wardley Hall while Bishop Henshaw was in residence. And he had prayed hard for its return.
Now he looked up into the muzzle of the gun. He motioned towards the man... "Come in a moment. I won't call the police." He turned and walked back into the room. He placed the skull on the bureau and examined it. The gunman was soon sitting talking to him. What was said is not known. But this scene - despite its flavour of a television thriller - actually happened.
The Bishop let the thief go free into the night. And when he gave the glad news of the skull's return to the diocese he was purposely vague about how it was given back. It was years later that he told the true story to his sister Mrs Margaret McGarry, of Westmoreland, Sale.
She remembers many incidents from the early life of the bishop, who died in 1938. The family lived in Hill Cottage - a house with stables attached for a thriving coal business - at the back of Tetler's Mill, near Varley-street, Miles Platting, Manchester. "He was a great scholar," says his sister. "I remember he used to take snuff to keep himself awake while studying late at night."
Bishop Henshaw was an expert motorist, too. Except on ceremonial occasions, he regularly drove his own car. As a student priest he had a motorbike and sidecar. He was driving it once through the city when he saw a crippled boy. He stopped and asked: "Would you like a trip to Blackpool?" The boy was overjoyed - and so were his parents when the young priest came to the house to get their permission. He was back in an hour or so, lifted the boy into the sidecar - and away they went to the seaside. These were the traits which endeared Bishop Henshaw to his people. The common touch...
He was always ready with a joke too . One of his favourite stories was about seeing a small boy playing in the mud... "What are you making?" he asked. "A cathedral," said the boy. "Oh. But where's the bishop?" The boy looked up with a frown. "Bishop? Ain't got enough muck to make a bishop."
When Bishop Henshaw went to live at Wardley Hall the skull of Blessed Ambrose Barlow was in the shrine where it will remain - a small, glass-fronted cupboard let into a wall on the staircase. What led to the burglar to break in and steal it is a mystery. Did he plan to ask for a ransom - like the Goya thief? But even more intriguing is the reason he came back to the hall, obviously intent on breaking in to replace the skull... Was he perhaps "prompted" to do so? It is an explanation which is not quite as naive as it seems, in view of the history of the skull. For it had seemed to demand respect on another occasion...
After it was found in a walled-up treasure chest in the hall after the 1765 Jacobite rebellion a maid thought it had belonged to an animal and threw it into the moat... That night a furious gale lashed the house, and the head of the family, Matthew Morton, drained the moat and recovered the skull. Today it is England's closest material link with the cause of the canonisation of the Forty English Martyrs.
Manchester Evening News, 6th October 1961.
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