TO children growing up near Calverley Woods, he’s the bogeyman. But Walter Calverley’s story is a family tragedy of debt, drink and murder.

Walter’s ghost, the ‘Headless Horseman’, is said to roam Calverley Woods crying: “A pound of more weight lie on, lie on.”

After murdering his children, Walter was pressed with heavy stones for three days until death.

It was on April 23, 1605 that Walter, of Calverley Hall, murdered his eldest sons, aged four and two, and attempted to kill his wife.

Rachel Cartwright grew up in Greengates and recalls a spooky experience in Calverley Woods in the early 1980s: “I was about 10, a few of us local kids were playing in the woods, as we often did. We all heard a horse running through the woods. It sounded like a horse’s hooves and panting, like it was racing right past us - but no horse appeared.

“I thought we were just making each other scared. One girl started crying. A while later my uncle told me the story of Walter Calverley’s headless ghost, haunting the woods, on horseback. He’d heard a horse there when he was a child. It was a long time before I went to the woods again!”

Walter and his wife, Philippa, had three children. Walter stabbed the oldest two to death but Philippa was saved by her whalebone corset. The youngest child, a baby, was at a nearby farmhouse. Walter was galloping through the woods to get him when he fell off his horse, and was caught.

Rachel got in touch after we asked for T&A readers’ spooky experiences. Thanks to everyone for sharing stories. Here are a few of them:

Gordon Holmes contacted us about his Loch Ness Monster encounter: “In 2003, I decided to investigate if there was any truth to the monster. For four years I visited the loch, with no sign of Nessie. During my seventh visit, I was investigating underwater sounds using my hand-built hydrophone by the loch side. It suddenly occurred to me, how would an Aboriginal hunter go about trying to attract Nessie? After some thought, I found part of a broken tree with branches and began to thrash the water. Nothing happened. However about 10 hours later I was parked above the loch, deciding never to return since after 200-plus hours of observation there was no sign of anything. A rainbow appeared on the far side of the water and something was moving towards my location. Grabbing the camcorder, I was privileged to capture a powerful creature thrusting through the waves. This amazing sight lasted 2.5 minutes. When the footage was played back at a TV shop in Inverness, two creatures, 150 yards apart, were seen on a TV screen. The sighting went worldwide.”

Closer to home, several readers recall a ghost called Rebecca, said to haunt Brackenhill Park at Lidget Green. Lisa Jay: “Fair Becca! She rides on a horse in Brackenhill Park carrying her head, apparently.”

Jane Napoli: “Fair Becca worked for Lord Foster, got pregnant by his son and was thrown off the viaduct at Thornton on her wedding day! Said to haunt Brackenhill Park and Thornton viaduct.”

Mark Nicholson: “We used to call her name into the beck tunnel at the bottom of Bell Dean Road hoping she’d appear in our bedrooms to spook us. She plunged from the viaduct at Thornton...or so we were told.”

John Firth: “I remember stories of a ghost called Rebecca that haunted the tunnel that runs under Thornton Road from the bottom of Bell Dean Road.”

Other readers recall a ghost of Moore Avenue, Wibsey. Ant Tuner: “Driving top of Moore Ave maybe 18 years ago. Clear evening and from nowhere thick fog. Two guys, wearing glasses dressed in denim, one with a beard, stepped off the pavement to cross the road. I swerved but still would have caught them with the passenger side wing mirror. Girlfriend screamed. I turned round in the road to confront them. Fog had gone and nobody to be seen. Still freaks me thinking about it now.”

Angela Kershaw: “I heard of a Moore Avenue ghost in the early 70s.”

Andrew Boult sent us a 1922 cutting about Bradford footballers Thomas Robb and William Watson, and renowned Scottish goalkeeper Jock Ewart, who ended up before magistrates after breaking into a haunted house on Oak Avenue in Manningham.

Bolling Hall is Bradford’s most haunted house and several readers have had strange experiences there. Paula Helliwell: “I used to go with my friend, sometimes we were the only ones there. All was fine until one bank holiday, I suddenly felt a presence and became so frightened I had to leave. I’d almost forgotten it until a lady at playgroup described exactly the same experience, we’d never met before.”

Ted Miller tells of a ghostly encounter on Manchester Road: “This is from my friend Dianne: ‘Me and my mum had been to bingo. We set off home towards a snicket, neither of us liked walking up that snicket, even during the day. It was a long, winding path between thick privets. Halfway up we saw a figure coming down, it looked strange as it got closer. I started shaking like a leaf. Something wasn’t right. My mother grabbed my hand, we both screamed and froze to the spot, dropping our chips. It was an old man with strange clothes, the most frightening thing was he had no head. We held each other and felt a drop in temperature as he slowly went past.”

Christopher Feather: “My father stepped off the bus one night near his home in Low Moor and crossed paths with an elderly neighbour, Miss Smith, who was on her way to visit her sister, which she did same time every day. He greeted her but got no reply. On entering home he was told be quiet. Miss Smith had passed away earlier in the day.”

Steve Rider: “Back in the 80s I worked at Dollars and Dimes (Manningham Lane). After a busy Saturday night the staff were sat upstairs having a drink. Suddenly we all heard footsteps from under the balcony towards the main stage. We couldn’t see anything. The cellar under the stage held all the barrels and beer vats, everybody hated going down the steps to change barrels fetch bottles, everyone that went down reported a feeling of being watched.”

Geoff Sleight: “Word was pre-Mecca (what became Dollars and Dimes) the site was a playhouse, during a performance a fire started. A police horse bolted into the building, killing one of the audience. Fast forward to Mecca days, on more than one occasion lights illuminated then switched off. Nobody was near the switches.”