Ghost hunters 'capture' Bidston Satanist Richard Tilly

John Wharton, a paranormal investigator with Heavy Metal Haunting along with colleagues Alan Rogers and Mike Dunn recently investigated a farmhouse in Bidston Village where they said what they discovered “even surprised them”.

The ghost hunters believe they captured an image of Richard Tilly, an 18th-century Satanist said to be buried on Bidston Hill to this day.

Richard Tilly in fireplace (Image: Heavy Metal Haunting)

in 1919, a Wirral shipping magnate named George Webster died, leaving his fortune to his daughters, 24-year-old Victoria, and 19-year-old Margaret.

Their mother had died in 1901 while giving birth to Margaret. The sisters bought a beautiful house in Bidston, and soon settled into their new home.

One night, in December 1920, Victoria went out on the town with her boyfriend William, leaving young Margaret at home. By midnight, Victoria still hadn't returned, so Margaret went to bed and read a book by candlelight.

Shortly afterwards, the teenager thought she heard a noise downstairs, and she went to look. As she walked through the hall, sherealised that she'd forgotten to put the safety guard around the fire in the parlour.

However, just before Margaret entered the parlour, she saw something moving in the shadows of the hallway. It was a strange-looking man, wearing a long white curly wig, similar to the one's worn by a judge.

His long silvery-blue embroidered jacket hung down past his knees, and instead of trousers, the man wore breeches and stockings that came up almost to his knees.

The black shiny square-toed shoes with buckles that the man wore were equally out of date, but what alarmed Margaret most was the stranger's face, because it was plastered in white-make up.

Richard Tilly ghost (Image: Heavy Metal Haunting)

That face looked partly decomposed, and it smiled as Margaret looked on in shock.

The girl dashed into the parlour and slammed the door behind her and leaned against it with her heart pounding.

The eerie intruder charged at the door from the other side and sent her flying across the room.

With unearthly agility the weird figure chased Margaret around a table, screaming with laughter.

'Now my pretty one,' he said in a chilling voice, 'stay still for I must have you!' He finally leapt across the table and landed on Margaret, before assaulting her. All of this time, the girl was too scared to scream, but as he tore at her clothes, she reached for the poker in the fire, and she pushed its glowing orange tip into the attacker's face.

The evil assailant screamed and retaliated by clawing at Margaret's face. Margaret let out a scream at last, and the archaic-looking attacker fled the parlour and ran down to the cellar.

Margaret Webster ran out of the house and into the rainy street. Victoria and William were coming down the road, and when they saw Margaret with her clothes torn and her neck discoloured with love bites, they asked her what had been going on.

Margaret tremblingly gave an account of what had happened, and she was disbelieved at first. William inspected the cellar and found nothing.

However, weeks later, Victoria and William briefly caught a glimpse of the sinister man in the powdered wig peering out at them through a window in the house one Sunday morning as the couple returned from church.

The neighbours also told the sisters how their own daughters had seen the white-wigged stranger standing over their bed in the dead of night. In 1922, workmen were digging up the cellar of the Webster's home to repair a burst water pipe, when they unearthed a strange coffin with an inversed pentagram carved into it's lid.

When the coffin was opened by the authorities, they saw that the skeleton not only wore a long white curly wig, but also a tattered silvery-blue coat.

Local historians and an occultist later contacted the Websters and told them that in 1730, the body of a wicked Satanist named Richard Tilly had been secretly buried on the very site of their home.

The coffin could not be buried in the hallowed grounds of a Christian cemetery - so it was buried on Bidston Hill at a secret location. Tilly's ghost is still said to roam the area where he was buried for the second time.

John told the Globe: “Obviously there are no guarantees in the paranormal world, but there are similarities, with the use of an S box and dowsing Rods, during an eight hour investigation, the name Margaret came through the S box, as well as the dowsing rods becoming very active while our medium Mike Dunn was in contact, towards the end Margaret asked us to stop due to something else being in the room, described as an ‘evil man’.

“This along with photographs and film footage being taken throughout the night, we found the image of an eerie skull looking face with what seemed to be wearing a powdered wig, as well another entity next to it, both sat in the medieval fireplace, as well as what looks like a cloud passing by, making the fire burn brighter for second.

“The house was built in the 11 century and we were told that a skeleton was uncovered under the stones of the front room some years ago, and taken to Chester cathedral, we have contacted them and are waiting to hear back.”