Poltergeists and Phantoms in The Shire’s, Trowbridge’s Haunted Shopping Centre

I have been meaning to get over to the West of Wiltshire to create a weird blog for ages. There are plenty of locations and many stories in need of my explorations, but I feel I have somewhat neglected this part of the county, so today was the day to get out of Weird Wiltshire HQ and head to Trowbridge.

While doing some research I have found there are quite a few ghost stories associated with Trowbridge. Far more than one blog’s worth. Today, we will concentrate on The Shire’s Haunted Shopping Centre and one other nearby location. I’ll leave the story of Pee Wee’s poltergeist for another day!

So, Trowbridge! It’s the county town of Wiltshire and home to our rather rubbish and ineffective council. It’s the third largest town after Swindon and Salisbury (which is strictly a city because it has a cathedral) and it sits near the Somerset border.

There are written records and ruins which show there was a village on the site of Trowbridge, then known as Straburg, back in the 10th century. There were only 24 households on the land back then and it was mainly farmed, arable land.

At some point, a motte and bailey castle sat in Trowbridge, and it is thought to have been built by a fellow called Humphrey I de Bohun. It was Humphrey’s son, Henry, who did an awful lot for the town, earning it a market charter, one of the earliest in England. Henry was made the Earl of Hereford by King John but they had a falling out and Trowbridge was taken from Henry. This was an integral action that led to the creation of the Magna Carta, which, of course, is now kept in Salisbury Cathedral. Henry eventually regained control of Trowbridge and life went on. By the 14th century, Trowbridge Castle was no longer in use and by the 16th century, it was little more than a ruin.

It was in the 14th century that Trowbridge’s fortunes increased as it developed as a centre for the production of woollen cloth. This industry was at the heart of Trowbridge’s fortunes for many centuries, increasing its wealth and prosperity. By the 17th century, the wool trade was becoming industrialised with Trowbridge even being described as the ‘Manchester of the West’ at one point. All was well until the late-19th century when the woollen industry declined and then continued to do so through the 20th century. A pork factory, mattress-making company and brewery supplied the town with jobs when the wool trade died off but even all of those places have now disappeared, leaving behind large, empty industrial buildings in decline. They give the town a definite air of depression, as vandalised and neglected vacant buildings often do. I kind of like abandoned buildings though. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the history left behind to do its own thing. I would have liked to get inside to do some exploring!

Anyway, it seems that change is in the air in Trowbridge. Today, I noticed that one of the old mill buildings had recently been turned into sparkly, new apartments. It appears the old Usher Brewery buildings are now having a bit of a makeover too, although some of the buildings still stand empty, with broken windows and gutters full of vegetation.

The Shire’s Shopping Centre

The reason for telling you a bit about the history of Trowbridge is to illustrate that much has happened on this land over the centuries. The Shire’s Shopping Centre was built right on top of the land of the castle. Before the centre was constructed excavations were conducted by archaeologists. They found multiple artefacts from the Saxon occupation, including a church and graveyard dated to c. 850 AD, and remnants of the medieval castle, not to mention plenty of skeletons, many of which have been left in situ. I guess they are now laying at rest under the shopping centre or carpark.

The rest of the centre lies upon land used by the woollen milling industry. Salter’s Home Mill was the last of the old mills to close in 1982. Now it is at the centre of The Shire’s Shopping Centre, which opened in 1990, and operates as a café and the Trowbridge Museum.

With so much history having ‘happened’ on this patch of land, is it of any surprise that some of the past inhabitants are still lurking about. The Shires has a reputation for much-haunted activity.

When I visited today, I was quite surprised how busy it was, especially for a Monday. There were quite a few closed shops, as is the way in many shopping centres and on a lot of our high streets. In-person shopping is dying out. It’s a sad situation really. Life is changing. The shops in The Shire’s weren’t really my kind of places but still, I couldn’t ignore the slightly depressing atmosphere of the centre. I didn’t pick up any ghostly vibes though, not that I was expecting to at midday on a Monday!

I did however take the opportunity to go and speak to some of the staff in the shops. You never know what you might find out! I always warn people I am about to ask them a strange question. Not everyone likes a ghostly enquiry sprung on them but today, everyone I asked, from shop workers to the centre cleaner to the charity shop volunteers, took the question in good faith and all seemed quite surprised that the centre has a ghostly resident! Only the security guard looked a bit bemused, like I was some sort of weirdo (well, he is right there). I did get to speak to one eyewitness and the manager of another shop gave me some information; we’ll get to that shortly.

Now, I know you are wondering, what is going on at The Shires? Apparently, over the years, many of the shops there have experienced poltergeist activity.

A man known as Shane, who it seems is quite psychic, tells of seeing spirits in the shopping centre since he was a young boy. His mum used to work in Argos (before it moved into Sainsbury’s) and Shane would go in at the end of the day to meet her. It was, he said, well known that the building was haunted and security guards had footage of skitting white figures flitting about the centre at night. His most unsettling experience was when he was waiting outside what was The Dutch Bakery one evening, which I can only assume is now Reeves the Bakers. He felt someone tap him on the shoulder and out of the corner of his eye he witnessed a man shuffling by wearing a dirty, grey cape with the hood pulled over his head. A pong of horse manure accompanied the phantom but as Shane turned to face him, he disappeared into thin air. This is possibly the same bakery that has reported bread floating off the shelves and cans flying across the shop.

Shane met this same man again and this time he ‘picked-up’ some information on him. The man was an old street cleaner and he’d pull a cart, picking up dead animals, fruit and veg, things that may have fallen off the various delivery carts coming to the area. He picked up all the horse droppings and they were dumped around the back of what is now the bakery. It’s almost as if he was repeating his daily rounds in the afterlife.

Apparently, there are many other spirits in the centre; some positive and willing to be witnessed, others not so nice. They appear quite faded and almost transparent. Shane said he occasionally saw their faces but not always. Other vague reports of dark shadowy figures exist, as well as children who sing and run around.

The shops in the centre have experienced poltergeist activity with the most notable account being at the shop that used to Millets, the outdoor gear retailer. Apparently, a tent was built in the middle of the shop over the course of one night! A smart medieval ghost then! Their stockroom would often be found in a mess and zips on coats would be undone, even though they had all been left zipped up. None of this was ever caught on The Shire’s CCTV. It’s possible someone was playing a trick, but they would have been caught on camera you would think. New Look also had some issues in their store but there’s not much information on what happened.

Interestingly, it was in Superdrug that I found an eyewitness, a young girl working there. She seemed a bit shocked I had asked her about ghosts as she said, ‘Actually I have seen something and it was only a couple of weeks ago. I was in the warehouse at the back of the store and I saw a man walk through. I can’t really describe him but I saw him walk through and I thought to myself, that’s weird, as no other men work here except our manager and he was off that day. The man disappeared.’ The girl went home and told her mum she thought she had seen a ghost and her mum informed her the whole centre was supposed to be haunted.

In one of the charity shops the manager there said he hadn’t seen anything but one of the volunteers claimed he heard footsteps upstairs many times where their stock was kept and had once seen a shadowy man out of the corner of his eye. The volunteer had always claimed he didn’t feel ‘alone’ up there. Apparently, the chat of ghosts caused a bit of stir in the shop and a couple of the other volunteers started to get spooked, for want of a better word, so the manager downplayed what was said. He laughed as he told me he didn’t want to lose his whole voluntary team on account of a ghost, and fair enough, they are probably quite hard to come by.

A Reader Story about St James Church

Occasionally someone will come across one of my blogs about a certain location, having had their own spooky experience and deciding to do some research. Sometimes they get in touch and pass their stories on. This is exactly how I heard about St James Church.

I saw something at St James Church in Trowbridge. I think it was Halloween night 2019 or around Halloween, walking from town way through the church with my child who was a baby at the time. It was dark outside but it wasn’t late at night. I’d seen something peeking around the wall of the church, clear as day, a face but it didn’t look right. I really thought it was someone in a mask trying to scare people so I carried on walking, prepared myself for a scare and no one was there at all. I walk through the church often and have never seen anything like it since.

The Old Hag of Church Street

As usual, I had dragged my kids along for the ride, convincing them this would be a good idea because there would be shops involved. By the time we had finished our time in The Shire’s I cajoled them into visiting one more location for a photo and that was of Church Street.

There is an unpleasant phantom woman who is known as ‘The Old Hag’ who is said to haunt this road. Very old in appearance, wrinkled and wizened, toothless but bright-eyed, she isn’t the nicest apparition to come across. You’ll spot her in a tatty old coat of a dark material and she emits a really nasty presence. Apparently, she gives off an unmitigated evil feeling towards any who encounter her. I only wish I could meet someone who has seen her – I really do want to find out more information. I took a couple of photos of Church Road but I don’t know where it is she has been seen. She sounds pretty horrific though so maybe it was best I didn’t run into her!

---

It was, while we were on Church Road, that the kids caught the whiff of fish and chips cooking and since it was lunchtime, we headed into The Codfather, the local chippy. I thoroughly enjoyed a plate of cheesy chips and a mug of tea at this traditional English restaurant. Highly recommended if you are looking for a good feed in Trowbridge.

As we headed back to the carpark, I spied a great shop selling houseplants and gardening paraphernalia. Well now, this is the sort of shop I find hard to resist. Apart from an addiction to books, I also have a serious bit of love for house plants and I couldn’t resist buying a String of Pearls and a soon-to-bloom hyacinth. I know I’m going to get an eye-roll from the other half who feels our house is turning into The Day of the Triffids but I will try my best to sneak them in between all the others. He’ll never notice (hopefully)!

After this it was time to go home, via the carwash because the Weird-mobile was in a real state (did I mention Wiltshire’s roads are absolutely filthy at this time of year). We all agreed, it was a successful day out looking for ghosts and wandering around shops.

I wonder where we might go next…

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

References

Haunted Places of Wiltshire – Rupert Matthews

Hosts of Ghosts: Curious Happenings in West Wiltshire

———————————————————————————————————————————————————-