In 1995, a family living in Headless Cross, Redditch, Worcestershire, began seeing a very tall man inside their home.
He was dressed completely in black, appeared to wear a wide-brimmed hat and had large buckles on his shoes that seemed to catch the light.
At first, the sightings were brief. Then the activity became more intense.
Banging and crashing began inside the house, and one night the man of the house went downstairs believing somebody had broken in. The moment he entered the large living room, the noise stopped.
At the far end of the room, beside the kitchen door, a figure was standing there.
The family left the house that night.
The following morning they asked a local vicar for help.
What happened when he returned to bless the house became one of the strangest parts of the entire Headless Cross haunting.
In this episode of Ghost Tales by the Fireside, I investigate the Tall Man of Headless Cross and look at the history of this part of Redditch, including the ancient routes that once crossed the area.
There is also a much older ghost story connected with the road from Headless Cross towards Tardebigge.
Redditch-born writer Sir James Yoxall remembered hearing the legend during his nineteenth-century childhood. Travellers were said to hear the sound of wheels, a cracking whip, horses and rattling harness moving through the darkness.
Yet when they looked towards the sound, nothing was there.
It became known as The Flying Hearse.
There is no evidence connecting the Flying Hearse with the Tall Man. They are separate stories, generations apart, but both form part of the strange folklore surrounding this corner of Redditch.
A haunted house, an unidentified figure, a terrified family and an old Worcestershire road with its own ghost story.
This is The Tall Man of Headless Cross.
https://www.ghosttales.co.uk
The Redditch Ghost Walk
Tickets and information:
https://ghosttales.co.uk/ghostwalk
The Redditch Ghost Walk Book
The Redditch Ghost Walk: History, Folklore and Haunted Places from the Old Town to the Kingfisher Centre
Available on Amazon:
https://amzn.eu/d/093Shix6
Music Used
Among The Graves — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZNWR2463170
https://open.spotify.com/track/4hvMSzbWhO5U7cB1SONmAU?si=8gbSnYFTQXyD_cUnGYmUew
The Dark One — Clem Dallaway
ISRC: QZWFS2504572
https://open.spotify.com/track/58IwqgxMwiwedfWHF8wtyl?si=Bwv7d1RcQJKLDegEp2gl-g
Chasing Ghosts — Kindred Spirit
https://open.spotify.com/track/6n58iB0o66y2o062ypvuRy?si=kIc5luYtRQSG68LecMUmEA&utm_source=copy-link
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