The Timberbottom Skulls reside at Turton Tower, resting on a large bible. One is a very deep brown colour and appears to have been punctured by a sharp object on the left hand side. The other is little more than a ‘skull cap’ with the outer portion covered in silver, mounted on a small stand. Their intriguing history involves contradictory origin stories that are probably little more than folklore. However, it is their ability to generate supposedly paranormal occurrences that has kept them in the public attention for decades. This article will recount their story, and at the end will present a case for them being much older than commonly believed, arguably reaching back to the prehistoric era.
Origin Stories
Timberbottom Farm was built some time in the 1600s and was situated above the Bradshaw Brook, close to the centre of Bradshaw in Bolton. It was owned by the Bradshaw family of nearby Bradshaw Hall, and rented out to tenants.
There are three folklore origin stories about the skulls and a fourth, possibly historical, one. The earliest story relates to a servant who was left alone at the farm one night when the family were away. He heard a group of three robbers outside the building and at first he made a lot of noise in a vain attempt to make them think he was not alone. When he heard glass being smashed in the room where cheeses were prepared, he ran in. There, confronted by a robber who had his head through the broken window, he quickly picked up a large cheese blade and beheaded the man. When a second robber also tried to gain entry the same way, he too lost his head. In some versions of the story the servant is wielding a sword rather than a large cheese knife, but blade not withstanding, to behead not one but two people is a very difficult thing to do, making the whole tale improbable. The story was collected some time around 1880 and is said to have dated to around two hundred years earlier. The burglars’ skulls, for reasons unknown, were retained at the farm.
Over time, it came to be popularly believed that one of the skulls was female, and the other male. This accordingly generated a new story, that of a farmer who killed his wife and then immediately killed himself afterwards. As before, why their skulls would then stay at the farm was not explained.
A third story again states that one skull belonged to a man and the other to a woman. This has a more doomed romantic flavour, with the young man being a farmhand who fell in love with a daughter of Bradshaw Hall. When her brother discovered the relationship, he fought the farmhand and killed him. The young woman died soon after of a broken heart. This version has given rise to the belief that the skulls must not be separated, so that they can be together in death, if not in life. If they are separated, then paranormal activity is believed to occur.
One of the first mentions of the skulls in print is from Harland and Wilkinson, writing in their book Lancashire Legends, published in 1873. They do not give any mention to any of the above origin stories. They state that the skulls have been buried ‘many times’ at nearby Bradshaw Chapel and had even been thrown into Bradshaw Brook in an effort to dispose of them. Once the skulls have been dealt with in either manner, the authors write that the paranormal disturbances at Timberbottom become so great that they have to be returned. They also note that Timberbottom Farm is known locally as Skull House.
In the 1970s, local historian Jessica Lofthouse seems to be the first to add a fourth origin story. She states that the skulls were found in the Bradshaw Brook, a wide shallow stream below the farm. She says that why they were deposited there is unknown, as is where they came from originally. Lofthouse also states that for many years they had to remain on the mantelpiece at Timberbottom Farm, and if moved from there, or separated from each other, then trouble would begin. This took the form of “demoniacal yells, loud stamping up stairs, heavy objects hurled around”.
A History of the Skulls in the 20th Century
By the start of 1900, it seems that the skulls were no longer residing at Timberbottom, but instead were kept on the Hardcastle family bible at Bradshaw Hall. This had been done in the belief it would damp down the paranormal experiences happening at the farm, but had varying success. In 1922, eight-year-old Arthur Clifford witnessed a conversation between his mother and the wife of James Heywood, their milkman. On that day, Mr Heywood’s wife came to deliver the milk and told Arthur’s mother that their cat and dog had run off from Timberbottom Farm. The night before, she had heard knocking and scratching at the front door and thought someone had brought them back, but when she opened the door there was no one there. The next moment she heard footsteps go past her into the house and ascend the stairs. Another later report stated that when the skulls were “at it again” the cows would give little milk and delivery of it had to be postponed until the afternoons.
In 1929, Harry Price, the foremost ‘ghost investigator’ of the day, recalled reading of reports in the national press about the paranormal occurrences then happening at Timberbottom. He wrote that the paper reported how ‘a ghost’ “stumped up and down stairs…and stumbled and knocked things over. The clatter of fire irons at night, but in the morning nothing out of place. There were loud knockings in passages, and shufflings would be heard behind closed doors”.
The Journal and Guardian, a local paper, in 1939 reported that there were disturbances once again at Timberbottom after an extended period of relative peace. Long term tenants, Mr and Mrs Heywood, had gone to bed as usual on Friday 20th October. They were woken by loud noises coming at first from downstairs. Doors and drawers were being repeatedly opened and closed, heavy footfalls could be heard ascending and descending the stairs. This continued for the best part of two hours, after which John Heywood and his lodger Tom Lomas went down the stairs, armed with cudgels. As they reached the bottom, they thought they heard the latch of the front door lift, and footsteps of someone walking away down the flagged path outside the house. They took time to look around, but nothing was stolen or out of place and all the windows and doors were closed. When they returned to bed, the disturbances began again and continued until 4 o’ clock in the morning, when the exhausted household finally fell asleep. That weekend, Mr and Mrs Lomas, who had been resident for eight months, were so badly shaken that they moved out. The Heywoods took this all in their stride though, with John Heywood explaining to the press that he had been brought up in the house and was used to the disturbances. He claimed they had been going on since his grandfather’s time. John commented however that this latest occurrence was a “powerful visitation”.
Soon afterwards, ghost hunter Harry Price, once more alerted by the press reports, began a correspondence with Colonel Hardcastle, the owner of Bradshaw Hall. The colonel told him that the disturbances had been going on for at least 150 years. The ghost “has a knack of opening and closing a certain chest of drawers in a room above the kitchen, in which many tapping sounds occur. Sometimes the cat will follow the taps around the room.” However, the disturbances were not constant, and the colonel stated that there had been a nine-year gap and then another eleven-year gap in between the paranormal happenings. He told Price that it had been his grandfather who had originally suggested the skulls be buried at Bradshaw Chapel. Following this “violent manifestations broke out all over the house” and when the disturbances did not cease his grandfather suggested retrieving them and placing them on the Hardcastle’s family bible, on which they had remained ever since.
The colonel told Price how on one occasion he himself had accidently damaged the silver mounting on the small ‘female’ skull. It was taken to a Manchester silversmith for repairs, and being separated from the ‘male’ skull caused “that very day the most violent disturbances occurring at the farm”. These continued incessantly until the skull was restored to its place alongside its ‘male’ companion on the bible. He asked Harry Price to investigate the case, and a suggestion was made that a medium could be brought in. Price promised to help once the war was over, saying that Timberbottom had “great possibilities in way of experimentation”. However, this did not come to pass and both Price and Colonel Hardcastle died in 1948.
With Bradshaw Hall slated for demolition the skulls were moved to Turton Tower, along with a number of other historical artefacts that had belonged to the Colonel. The skulls were put on display, still resting on the Hardcastle family bible. Timberbottom Farm itself had been demolished after the war was over and, in the 1960s, a new housing estate of around 50 semi-detached houses was built on the site. In 1964, Turton Council and General Purpose Committee were approached by someone from Manchester claiming to be a ‘student of psychical research’, They wanted to study the skulls and “call the ghost out of retirement”. The chair of the finance committee stated that she thought it “wrong to mess about with such things” and the Clerk to the council, a Mr H Lewis, stated “I don’t believe in this twaddle, but assuming that people do believe it, I don’t think we should risk terrifying the people who live in the houses on the site”.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the skulls remained on display in the Chetham Room at the uppermost floor in Turton Tower and were a familiar sight to visitors. In the 1990s, they were removed from view and put into storage. Dr David Clarke, now an academic at Sheffield Hallam University, was studying for his PhD at the time. His dissertation was on the role of carved stone skulls and real human skulls in tradition and folklore in England. As part of his study, he was examining as many of these as he could. He wrote to the tower’s custodian to arrange a viewing of the Timberbottom Skulls. A reply came back that “because of their sensitive nature, access to them is limited”. Nevertheless he persisted and was granted an appointment. However, after a hostile meeting with the custodian in which Clarke claimed he was “subjected to the third degree”, he came away without being able to view them. He noted ruefully that he was told that they were still kept on the Hardcastle bible, “just in case”.
After years of being hidden away, the skulls are now once again on display in the ‘Priest’s Room’ for visitors to see, and are still resting on the large family bible. They remain an intriguing display item, with visitors recalling seeing them for the first time in their own youthful days.
What Could the Origin of the Skulls Be?
The first three contradictory origin stories outlined at the start of this piece have been dismissed by Dr David Clarke as fanciful folklore. Instead he puts forward a new and bold idea. As part of his PhD, he tried to find all the real skulls (as opposed to carved stone ones) that reside in houses in England. There are not many of these, but he managed to locate 32 in total. Interestingly, most counties have none at all, but the largest concentration by far occurs in Lancashire. Well known skulls in the Lancashire area are found at Wardley Hall in Salford, Skull House in Appley Bridge, and the Packhorse Inn at Affetside (more on which later).
His studies show that despite them being given different origin stories which, like the Timberbottom skulls, are not especially plausible, the folklore around most of the ones he studied is broadly the same. He terms them ‘Guardian Skulls’, and the similarities told about them are:
- The skulls have been kept in a prominent place in a house for hundreds of years
- Their origin is unclear but stories are told that they are there for a reason of violence – e.g. murder or execution
- The skulls must not be moved from their resting place and, if they are moved, paranormal phenomena will plague the house’s occupants until they are put in their rightful place again
Dr Clarke is of the belief that many the skulls he catalogued are of prehistoric origin. He gives an example of a prehistoric Bronze Age burial mound near Glossop being levelled when a large house with an attached greenhouse was being constructed. In the mound were found two skulls and a sword. The sword was put into the River Etherow, as a deposition “because you mustn’t take from the old ones” and the skulls were placed up in the eaves of the new building. This story gives a clue of where most of the Guardian skulls he surveyed originated. They are prehistoric skulls found on a piece of land owned by the occupants of a house, and they are placed in the house and so given a new ‘home’ as their resting place has been disturbed through digging.
Glossop is in the Peak District and was part of the prehistoric Beaker Culture. This tended to have whole-person burial alongside small finely carved pots within a burial mound. In contrast, Lancashire has different Prehistoric burial traditions. Here the Bronze Age burials tend to have cremated bones inside large, rough pots, but not whole skeletons or skulls. Examples that have been excavated are the burial cairns on Winter Hill (see our page here) and Noon Hill (see here). There is, however, a tradition of depositing skulls in the prehistoric period in Lancashire, but not in a burial mound. The form these take are termed Bog Bodies, and it is usually just the decapitated head that is deposited without the rest of the body. The unique low oxygen habitat found on moorland bogs can frequently preserve the skulls, along, sometimes, with hair and, more rarely, soft tissue. These skulls are believed to be the result of ritual sacrifice, and Lancashire again has more than most other regions in England. Not far from the Bradshaw area the Red Moss bog body was discovered, close to what is now the retail park at Middlebrook. This was the skull of a woman with hair still intact. (See our page on it here).
This idea of Guardian Skulls being Bog Bodies is put forward by Dr Melanie Giles of the University of Manchester in her recent book Bog Bodies: Face to Face with the Past. Further support for this idea can be seen on the larger of the two Timberbottom skulls. Firstly, it is very brown, which could be caused by staining after lying in peat for a long time before being discovered. Secondly, it has what appears to be a large puncture mark on the back left hand side which Dr Giles describes as a ‘sharp force wound’. It is known that sacrificial victims often suffered a triple death where three different deadly methods were used on them in rapid succession, one of which can be a blow to the head with a sharp instrument. This is certainly true of the confirmed Bog Body skull of Worsley Man.
It would seem possible then that the larger of the two skulls was unearthed on Timberbottom Farm land. This could have been when the farmhouse was being constructed, or in the course of work on the farmland such as ditch digging or cutting peat. Alternatively, looking at the dramatic cliffs around Bradshaw Brook it could have been washed into the brook from the erosion of the land on which it was buried. The smaller of the two skulls is harder to assess, being just a fragment and with its exterior part being covered. The coating of silver that hides the outside of it was put on by the Hardcastle family in an effort to stabilise the skull when it was noticed it was deteriorating. It appears dark in the central part, but lighter around the edges. Whether the lightening effect is a result of handling or the application of the silvering process is difficult to say. Perhaps it was found separately to the larger skull, and put with it as a companion, or perhaps this is a dual sacrifice and they are both bog bodies.
Intriguingly, Dr Clarke also mentions that he thinks the nearby skull at the Packhorse Inn at Affetside is also a prehistoric Guardian Skull. His writing reveals that he believes that it may well belong with the Timberbottom skulls, but says no more as to why. Affetside is reasonably close to Bradshaw, and the skull also has a brown colouring like the larger of the Timberbottom skulls. Local tradition holds that it is the skull of George Whowell, the executioner of Sir James Stanley, the Earl of Derby, after the Civil War. However, as has been seen in this piece and from a larger examination of the lore of Guardian Skulls in Lancashire, local tradition is an unreliable guide. The only way to confirm that any of the Guardian Skulls are prehistoric would be to carbon date them. This undertaking sounds like a worthy project for some budding PhD student. Until then, their mysterious origins will remain and they will continue to fascinate.
Author’s note: I have tried as best as possible to put the story of the skulls in chronological order, but the sources often have contradictory dates even into the 20th century. Additionally, I make no comment on the veracity of the paranormal phenomena, but have given the contemporary reports found in the sources listed in the Reference section.
Sites visited by A. and S. Bowden 2023
Access
There are a number of sites connected with the Timberbottom skulls and details of how to visit these are outlined below.
Turton Tower is the current home of the skulls. They are in the Priest’s Room and sit on the bible from Bradshaw Hall. The date stone from Timberbottom Farm lies in the front garden at the base of the main Pele tower. See our page on Turton Tower here. The tower is open Wednesday to Sundays 11am-4pm. The grounds and cafe are open all year round. For more on the historical curiosties in the grounds see our page here.
Bradshaw Hall was demolished around 1948 but its porch and parts of its grounds remain. For a history of the hall and where to park to see the porch, see our page on it here.
Timberbottom housing estate completely covers the site of Timberbottom Farm. There is nothing to see here from that time, except to note that the ground slopes steeply down towards the cliff above Bradshaw Brook. Nearby there is a public footpath on the opposite side of the road to Canon Slade School which leads down to a footbridge over Bradshaw Brook. This will lead to a small stony ‘beach’ area. On the opposite bank is a cliff and above this is the modern housing estate where the farm once stood. An alternative route to this point, with free parking, is described below.
Bradshaw Brook in Longsight Park. Park at the main car park off Longsight Lane for Longsight Park (parking is free). Follow the path through the park, past the small rusty goal posts, keeping on the Kingfisher Trail. Pass the old quarry on your right (which is now filled with large trees) and look out for Post 6 (labelled ‘Quarry’). At this point carry a little further on, and then head right, down the gentle slope to a stony ‘beach’ and the brook. The cliff on the opposite bank is directly below Timberbottom Farm and its surrounding farmland, and is an impressive sight. It is worth exploring the area around the brook, both here and further back into the park.
Bradshaw Chapel The tower of this old chapel still remains, in the churchyard of the newer church of St Maxentius. Free parking at Longsight Arboretum Car Park just off Bradshaw Brow. Turn right out of the car park and walk up Bradshaw Brow to the church of St Maxentius. The old chapel tower is in the churchyard.
Nearby
Turton Bottoms Packhorse Bridge
References
The Head Cult: Tradition and folklore surrounding the symbol of the severed human head in the British Isles, David Clarke (1998) Phd Thesis National Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language, Division of Adult Continuing Education, Universtiy of Sheffield. Available in two parts as pdf documents for free online. The gazeteer of the 32 human skulls is Chapter 6 in the second document. The whole thesis is a very interesting read.
Bog Bodies: Face to face with the past, Melanie Giles (2020) Manchester University Press. This book is the most up to date survey of Bog Bodies in Lancashire and also looks at their wider national and international context. It can be bought as a paperback, but is also generously available for free online from manchesteropenhive.com
The Lore of the Land: A guide to England’s legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys, Jaqueline Simpson and Jennifer Westwood (2006), Penguin
Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports etc, John Harland and Thomas Turner Wilkinson (1873), John Heywood
Ghosts of North-West England, Peter Underwood (2019) Underwood Publishing
North-Country Folklore, Jessica Lofthouse (1976) Robert Hale Ltd
theboltonnews.co.uk/news/6218232.more-ghostly-goings-on/
maps.nls.uk/view/102344024
bolton.gov.uk/directory-record/174/longsight-park
lancswt.org.uk/our-work/projects/kingfisher-trail/longsight-park
Stories in Stone: Datestones in Ramsbottom, John B. Taylor (1991) Caxton Printing Co. Ltd, Accrington
wondersofthepeak.org.uk/chapters/bronze-age-walk-view-of-grin-low/
wondersofthepeak.org.uk/facts/liffs-low-burial-bronze-age-farmer/
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-40582056
gov.uk/government/news/human-skull-found-by-dog-walker-sheds-light-on-somersets-history
Lancashire Past 
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