Around Liverpool

Local legend states that slaves were sold from a pit that was on the site of the monument to the Napoleonic Wars in Exchange Flags behind Liverpool's Town Hall. In recent years this has been refuted. I have spent some time in a basement of a large building in Liverpool that has a bricked-up passage leading towards this monument. The passage is lined with prison-type cells... I wonder?

Mystery surrounds a pyramid tomb in the City Centre of Liverpool. The legend is that MacKenzie, a railway engineer and gambler, lost his soul to the devil in a game of cards. To avoid the threat of the devil taking his soul 'when he was put in the ground', it is claimed that MacKenzie requested to be interred sitting on a chair clutching a winning hand. Some very recent developments to be posted soon. Watch this space.

The pyramid tomb is situated in the graveyard of St. Andrews Church, Rodney Street, Liverpool. The church was designed by the architect John Frazer Jnr. The foundation stone was laid in 1823 and the church was opened on 3rd December 1824. The Church was closed in 1974 and eventually destroyed by fire in 1984.

Strange Phenomena, Ghosts and Anomalies

Some of the research carried out for The Mdina Touch sparked an interest with friends of mine. Lee took a series of photographs of an obelisk monument in Sefton Park, Liverpool. The photographs were taken purely on the spur of the moment. On the day the photographs were taken there was some ground mist and Lee thought this would create a bit of atmosphere. Six months later he had the film developed. I happened to be present when he collected the prints. Out of what I thought was a sun-flare materialised a ghostly image of a face.

I am certain that this is not a double exposure. I have posted the sequence of photographs here for that reason - you can see for yourself. Take a careful look at the closeup image, it isn't difficult to imagine the other shapes slightly lower and to the right of the "face" are hands or arms folded as if in repose.

If you thought those photographs were spooky then this is even spookier. Another friend, Wayne (who is invaluable in helping me with my research) was traveling to Edinburgh on a family holiday and offered to take some photographs of Rosslyn Chapel. When his photographs were developed, imagine my astonishment to see another ghostly face. This time the photograph is of the Caithness Memorial. The burial place of George Sinclair IVth Earl of Caithness.

I have no explanation for these photographs. They were taken by two different people in locations hundreds of miles apart - one indoors and the other outdoors. The only common factor is that the subject of the photograph has masonic connotations. I would be interested to hear your views.

In March 2005 I asked - Have I caught a Ghost on camera? A photograph was taken of the old Registry Office at Anfield Cemetery and there seems to be a figure in the lower left set of windows. It is almost as if the figure is raising curtains to peer out. I would value the opinion of other people...

Hidden behind a decaying facade in Deane Road, Kensington, is an old Jewish Cemetery. There is only one entrance and the whole place is surrounded by a high wall and completely concealed by the adjacent houses.

Malta

Part two of The Mdina Touch is based in Malta. In 1997 I spent some time there travelling around the Maltese Archipelago. In this section you can see a selection from the hundreds of photographs I took during that time. I feel these photographs are the ones that are most relevant to the background story and setting the scene in The Mdina Touch.