HAUNTED WIRRAL: Bromborough's hooded bogeyman

In this latest story, Tom reveals the story behind Bromborough’s hooded Bogeyman...

There are 737 miles of road in Wirral and ghosts and some very strange mysteries are to be found on many of them.

Whether you’re ambling leisurely down a country lane with your dog, bicycling down some B road or cruising along a motorway, you have a good chance of encountering something paranormal.

In the late 1960s and throughout most of the 1970s, a very strange figure appeared on many of the country lanes of Wirral, and this was the figure of a man carrying a green petrol can.

He was seen mainly on two roads three miles apart: Dibbinsdale Road, Bromborough and Whitehouse Lane near Heswall.

The man carrying the vintage green petrol can (embossed with the words “Shell Motor Spirit”) was originally thought to have been a ghost, but he was some flesh and blood person with a very sinister motive.

In June 1977, a newly-qualified doctor from Heswall named Jonathan Bowland was left a Venetian-red Jaguar E-Type in his late uncle’s will, and he took his girlfriend Jo out for a spin in the sports car one summer evening.

The Jag swung from Barnston Road onto leafy Whitehouse Lane and cruised along as Jo listened to the middle of the road pop music from Radio 1’s Alan Dell programme.

Jonathan was just about to peel rubber as he passed under the railway bridge, when Jo pointed to someone standing in the road about a hundred yards away.

As the Jaguar came closer to this figure its occupants could see what looked like a middle-aged man with greying hair in a trench coat, dirty jeans and wellington boots, and he was holding a green petrol can.

He waved, and Jonathan cruised to a halt a few feet from this man.

“I’m so sorry to bother you and your fine lady, sir,” said the man (and Jo thought he was putting on a ‘bumpkin’ accent), “but my car’s run out of petrol and I was wondering if you had any to spare?”

“I need topping up myself I’m afraid,” fibbed Jonathan, “and I don’t have a tube to siphon any petrol out anyway.”

“Oh I have a tube, like,” said the man.

“Where is your car anyway?” Jonathan asked, and the man pointed down the road and said, “Just round that bend there, my friend; so, can you help me?”

Jonathan suddenly revved the Jaguar’s engine and it took off like a rocket down the road at such a velocity, Jo was thrown back into the seat with the sheer inertia.

“What the heck are you playing at?” she gasped.

“Didn’t you see him?” the doctor asked, “There was a nut with some sort of hood on his head and he had what looked like a hatchet, and he was crouching behind a hedge.

“I should go to the police and report this – in fact I think I will.”

The policeman on desk duty said, “Not him again?” when Jonathan described the man with the green petrol can.

He said they received reports about him regularly, and these reports always peaked on the day before the Summer Solstice – June 20 – today’s date.

“We can never find a trace of him,” the policeman admitted, “and we don’t know if it’s someone playing a practical joke or if he’s a ghost – but you never heard that from me, alright?”

“He was no ghost, officer, he was as real as you and I, and that hooded maniac with the hatchet was as well,” Jonathan insisted.

“We’ll send someone along, sir,” said the policeman, “but I’d stay away from Whitehouse Lane if I was you.”

Imagine Jonathan and Jo’s faces when they saw the same man with that green petrol can exactly a year later when they were returning from a friend’s birthday party in Bromborough.

This time, it was three in the morning and the silvery radiance of the full moon was filtering through the trees arching over Dibbinsdale Road.

It had been so hot, the hood of the Jag was down, and the pleasing zephyr stirred Jo’s long hair. Jonathan slowed to 30 mph and a tipsy Jo was singing when she suddenly cried out, “I don’t bloody believe it!”

Standing on the little sandstone bridge on Dibbinsdale Road was that man in the trench coat holding the same petrol can.

“Drive round him!” Jo said, and Jonathan accelerated past the weird man, but as he swung the vehicle round the curve beyond the bridge, he saw the log someone had placed across the road and Jo screamed.

Jonathan pulled over, leaped out the Jag, and started to roll the log out the way, when he saw a silhouetted figure approach – it was that hatchet man in the hood he’d seen lying in wait last year.

In a monotone voice, the hooded man said, “I’ll kill you and then the girl!” and he swung the hatchet down but it missed the doctor by inches and embedded its blade in the log.

Jonathan lunged at the man and pushed him over, but as he did he cried in agony because the man had spikes sticking out from all over his coat.

Jonathan flew to the car and saw the figure with the can running towards the vehicle, but he managed to drive off with Jo screaming in his ears.

They say the hooded man is a cultist hell-bent on sacrificing people for the Summer Solstice, so if you’re on the road at that time, take extreme care...

Haunted Liverpool 29 is out now on Amazon.