Appley Bridge - Skull House Lane

Skull House Lane

In between Appley Lane North and Miles Lane is a road called Skull House Lane. The lane takes its name from a cottage known as Skull House, which is located about halfway down Appley Lane North.

There is an unreliable 'popular history' story that says that in the time of the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers, Oliver Cromwell ordered that the monks of England should be driven out of their monasteries and killed, with their monasteries then razed to the ground. One canny monk fled from his monastery and took refuge in a large cottage in Appley Bridge. To try to avoid discovery by Cromwell's Roundheads, the monk hid in a small cubby-hole halfway up the house's chimney. He hid there for some time, until the Roundheads eventually discovered him, and tried to drive him out. They lit a blaze in the fireplace, and the searing heat and thick smoke eventually forced the monk out, whence he was killed. Ever since then, the monk's discoloured skull has remained on the mantelpiece of the house, in the living room.

Some inhabitants of Appley Bridge tell that, throughout the history of the house, there have been many residents who have tried to get rid of the skull, and all have experienced disastrous results after doing so. According to the story, one threw it into the River Douglas at the bottom of Appley Lane North. Shortly after, the skull returned to the house and the offending resident drowned in the river. Another tried to get it as far away from the house as possible, and shortly after, the skull returned once again and this time, the house's inhabitant fell down the stairs and severely injured himself. Others have tried many ways to banish the skull, and all have met with misfortune or fatality—sickness, the death of a loved one, bad luck ... the list goes on and on. The house's current residents have, unsurprisingly, never tried to remove the skull.

However, the story given about the origins of the name Skull House seems to be, at the least, confused, and probably apocryphal. The story about the monk and 'Oliver' Cromwell, although very colourful, is based on a major confusion between Oliver Cromwell and the man who was responsible for the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell (no relation). There were no monasteries left in England at the time of the Civil War, and had not been for over a hundred years.

Recent tests, again rumour only, indicate that the skull is female, ruling out any connection with monks.