WELCOME to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world famous psychic researcher, Tom Slemen for the Globe.

In this latest tale, Tom tells the spooky tale of the woman on the wardrobe.

IN the summer of 1961, Carol and Johnny, a young Birkenhead couple in their early 20s, decided to live together after courting for six months.

Seeking furnished accommodation, the couple visited "Rentaflat" in Hamilton Street.

A man at the agency said there was a furnished ground floor flat on Withens Lane, Wallasey, and as the rent was only two pounds and five shillings per week, the couple went to view the flat.

Finding it to their liking, Johnny paid a deposit and a week's rent in advance and soon the couple were settling down at the flat.

On the second night at their new home, Johnny was shaken awake around 1.40am by Carol.

"What is it?" he grumbled at having his sleep disturbed.

"Listen", whispered Carol, close to his ear, clinging to him in the dark bedroom.

Johnny could hear the faint voice of someone - it sounded like a woman - singing some song.

"She must be drunk upstairs," he suggested, but Carol shook her head and softly replied: "Mrs Harper doesn't drink. That's not her, Johnny."

"It's just someone singing somewhere in the distance love;" said Johnny, and he yawned and closed his eyes and sleepily said: "sound travels further at night. That could be someone way off."

"I don't know," said Carol snuggling into Johnny, "I just think it sounds eerie."

Johnny kissed his girlfriend's hand and told her: "Don't be daft, love, it’s just a woman - and she sounds a bit tone deaf - singing merrily somewhere. Anyway, I have to be up at half-seven."

Johnny was soon snoring, and Carol eventually managed to nod off.

Johnny got up at 7.30am and made his own breakfast as Carol slept.

He was a joiner and shopfitter, and today had to travel over to Liverpool to do some work.

Carol was looking for work, and had an interview in a few days for a job as a post office counter clerk.

When Carol awoke at 8:20am, Johnny was gone.

On this bright summer morning, Carol decided to clean around the kitchen, and she got out the bottle of Stardrops cleaner and tackled the grimy splash-back tiles around the sink – when she noticed one of the tiles was loose.

This tile fell away to reveal a hidden compartment - and it contained a small green bag tied with twine. Carol cut the twine and looked in the bag to see a pendant on a silver chain.

The pendant was an oval of onyx with three silver hearts set into it in the style of a shamrock.

Carol showed it to Johnny when he came home, and he had it valued the next day at a jeweller’s shop on Laird Street.

The jeweller said the pendant was not hallmarked but the silver was very pure, and he said it was worth around £100.

Johnny wanted to sell it there and then but Carol refused the jeweller’s offer and the couple argued on the way home.

Carol felt the pendant would bring her luck, and Johnny sneered "There you go again; you and your superstition."

That night the couple went to bed around midnight, and at 2am, Johnny was awakened by a voice - and it sounded as if it was coming from within the bedroom.

He woke Carol up and she too heard the voice.

It sounded harsh and female but it was speaking a language the couple couldn’t understand.

"Galar an bháis ort!" said the weird, raspy voice, over and over - but where was it coming from?

Johnny switched on the bedside lamp and Carol screamed.

There was a naked old woman on top of the wardrobe, and she spat at the couple and again said that baffling phrase: "Galar an bháis ort!"

The eyes of the entity burned with an orange light, and those eyes bulged as she seemed to curse the couple.

Carol ran out of the bedroom and Johnny followed her.

The terrified couple, unsure what to do, went outside, and a man in a black cape approached.

On his head he wore a hat just like the one the Quaker wears on the famous porridge oats box.

"Do not fear," the man said, and he walked into the house saying, "I will deal with her."

He came out a few minutes later, and Carol saw he had a very kind face.

"I have sent her back," said the "Quaker" - "but I advise you to move from this place."

And then he vanished, right in front of the couple, and Carol almost fainted.

Carol and Johnny were later told that they had met the well-known ghostly Quaker who had haunted nearby Withens Lane for decades.

He had seemingly acted as a protective spirit guide.

Carol believed the onyx pendant with its silver shamrock made up from a trinity of hearts had something to do with the woman on the wardrobe, and she sold the adornment to a friend.

Many years later, in 1995, a woman across the Mersey in Litherland came into possession of that pendant, and she too was haunted by a naked old woman who tried to snatch it from her in the night. “Galar an bháis ort!” The ghost screeched - Gaelic for "The disease of death upon you!"

The pendant was sold again, and its present whereabouts - and the sinister story behind it - are unknown.

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