Does anyone know the history of this building?

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
Lights being switched on and left one when I'm out.....sounds of someone walking on the floor boards in another room when I know that there is no one else in the flats above or below me.......and the best one....waking up and noticing things have moved from one room to another.

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Don't get the lights thing here, but I do have ''someone/thing'' that walks across my bedroom floor at exactly 5.30 every morning, has a qiuck nosey out the window, then walks back out again. I sit at my computer and have cold air blown onto my face, no windows open, and only me in the house. Sat here a few weeks ago and heard the youngest walking up the stairs, heard him stop outside my room, waited for him come bounding in like a unrestrained puppy, nothing. Opened the door to say sumat, and there was no-one there. I'm used to it now, but it freaked me out at first.
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
Sounds like there are more unexplained instances like this through out the town. Pretty sure there was something in my last place of residence on Co-Operative street.

Quite a few times it felt like there was something else there with me...plus catching the cat staring into seemingly nothing intensely.

I'm guessing now that the building in question here (original post) was purely a boarding house for workers in and around the town, with a great deal a many residence over the years?
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
I was always told that cats wouldn't go into haunted properties...
Mine do, Had 4 here and none of them have been bothered by the comings and goings.
When I had the big tabby (puss), he would sleep on my left foot of a nighttime and there was another weight/thing that would sleep on the other. Now Puss has passed over the rainbow bridge, the 'thing' on my right foot has gone, and I only have Puss now. The other 3 are locked downstairs at night, so it int 1 of them. I find it comforting.
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
I was always told that cats wouldn't go into haunted properties...

I think if the spirit isn't malevolent then it just catches their attention? i don't know...but I had caught Monster staring at something when I was there.
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
I don't think I have whatever it is to notice a presence; so I'd never felt it.

This building was built on a leper house or graveyard I believe, my Dad often said there was a presence when he worked there for a while.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
@Entropy

A few years ago one Halloween we did a guided ghost walk around Stafford.
It was very interesting, we learned much about the history of Stafford and some of the buildings but the guide had some very interesting tales to tell about haunted buildings in Stafford. We didn't go as far down as Wolverhampton road though.

Perhaps if you went into tourist information and try and find out who does the tours they may be able to help you...our guide was certainly very informative.


@Lucy .... you say your Dad worked next door. Was that in the Ashley Insurance Building?
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
Looking at the building I would make half a guess that it originally belonged to someone who had his business behind the house and the carriageway was for goods in/out. House looks a bit posh for a wheelwright or blacksmith. Coachmaker, waggon builder or something more upmarket?
 

Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
I was thinking along the same lines, but perhaps as a coaching / lodging house? Interested in the ghost trail around the town, will definitely take a look into that :)
 

The Notorious A.N.T.

Well-Known Forumite
z
I was thinking along the same lines, but perhaps as a coaching / lodging house? Interested in the ghost trail around the town, will definitely take a look into that :)
If you are looking for information like that then Kelly's or Pigot's historical directories are good place to start. Usually kept in the local studies centre (moved to Stafford fairly recently so not sure where it is, someone on here will probably inform me that it has closed!).
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
Ok, had a look at the 1881 census and as I feared the street has been renumbered. This is quite usual, most streets have been renumbered at some time, often happened between say 1895 & 1905. I know a couple of streets elsewhere which were renumbered five times between 1880& 1920. The usually change was from the old system of numbers running 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... up one side of the street then crossing over and continuing back down the other side of the street to one where the odd numbers run up one side of the street and the even numbers up the other side.

So working from The Green on the west side of Wolverhampton Rd in 1881 the occupations of the main occupant of each property -

The Green
Wolverhampton Road

95 Blacksmith
94 Laundress
93 Needlefitter (shoes)
92 Shoemaker
91 Master Butcher
90 - parents away from home daughter completed return
89 Fellmonger & maltster
88 Shopman
87 Cordwainer
86 Engineer
85 Shoemaker
84 Naval Pensioner
83 uninhabited
Parkers Croft Road
82 no occupation, son a railway clerk
81 Pensioner (Military)
80 Accountant
79 Master, School - Arts & Science
78 Grocer
77 Borough Accountant
nn Forebridge Academy
76 Gardener
75 formerly Schoolmistress (age 74)
74 Shoe Manufacturer (employing 6 men & a boy)
73 Waggoner
72 Laundress
71 Carter
70 Carter
69 Star & Garter
68 Estate Agent
67 Professor of Music
...

Any guesses?
 
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Entropy

Well-Known Forumite
Nice bit of info you've dug up there @Noah and I think @Lucy thinking may be right with a blacksmith or something industrial....there is a thinking that I that this building could have been a small batch brewery as well at some point?
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I am told that the 'tunnel' was a modification carried out in the 1950s, as part of a project to covert the building into what would probably be called a House of Multiple Occupation these days. It had many subsequent uses on the ground floor, being a draper's shop for a good while and also, for a very brief period, a taxi office. The upper floors were flats, bedsits, etc.
 
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