Time On Your Hands
When you look at a grandfather clock, you expect to see a clock's face and not a person's. Furthermore, you expect to see a clock's trunk and not a person's.
Built for the Beswick family, Birchen Bower stood where the Daily Mirror bought the Ferranti Works in Chadderton.
The story began with the death of Hannah Beswick in 1758.
Hannah had two fears: being buried alive (a common fear in those days) and having her money stolen.
She hid her money in different parts of the house, and left her property to Dr Charles White for keeping her above ground for 100 years, and taking her back to Birchen Bower every twenty one years.
He kept her preserved carcass in a grandfather clock in Sale.
She had time on her hands to check on her money every seven years (from the year she died to her last sighting at the Ferranti Works in 1982).
Splitting floors into flats is one way of saving buildings from demolition.
Joe O'Tamers rented a flat at Birchen Bower. He saw a lady walk to a stone flag in his front room dressed in a black silk dress. He looked under the stone flag and found a part of Hannah's wealth. The rest is still there.
Other tenants described her further with a white-frilled lace cap and streams of blue light darting from her eyes.
Three Ferranti workers saw a moving shadow in April 1956.
Thirty five night shift workers saw a figure dressed in a black raincoat and trilby. Who was the figure? The clothes didn't match the dress and cap of Hannah Beswick.