Glossop's Haunted Supermarkets

CO-OP The ghost of a young girl dressed in a crinoline has been reported at the Co-op Superstore in the centre of Glossop - which occupies part of the original Railway station buildings. A story published in the Glossop Chronicle in 1997, claimed that witnesses reported seeing a 'fair-haired child in a crinoline dress who disappeared into thin air'. But that's not all that has happened in the converted railway warehouse. Some staff also reported chilling winds, a shadowy figure and keys which seemed to have a mind of their own. Speaking to the Chronicle, Karen Driver explained how she put keys on hooks three times only to return a few moments later to to find them hanging on a different wall. "I'm not frightened, but I wouldn't come back to the office by myself at night", she said. But for every reported paranormal encounter there are still those who dismiss it all as nonsense. Chats with other staff members reveal that not all of them are entirely convinced of the Co-op's spooky reputation. Whatever the reality behind the reports, all seems quiet there now.

Not to be out done, another town centre supermarket could also be the home of a ghost. Tesco's was built on the site of the offices and warehouses of Pickering's, a canning factory. According to a report in the Glossop Chronicle in 1998 the Pickering complex was haunted by a grey haired man. An unnamed witness told the Chronicle, "I was in the offices, one night, when this man came out of a door. "He looked quite old fashioned. He had thinning grey hair, and a shirt with wing collars under a long black coat. I said hello, but he didn't answer and went straight past me." reports the witness "I didn't think any more about it. However, as I watched him go down along the corridor, I saw that his legs just disappeared. There was nothing where his feet should have been."

Lastly, the site of a new Tesco store in Hadfield is built in what was previously the Masons Arms public house. A member of the cleaning staff would bring her young son with her while working in this pub. Several times she would hear him talking to someone, but when she looked, no one would be near the child. At home one morning, the son pointed to a box of Quaker Oats and told his mother that the man he would speak to was on the packaging. It was later discovered that the area was home to Quakers in the seventeenth century.