What we have in front of us used to be the show piece of Morris and Co, it’s design was inspired by Blickling Hall in Norfolk, and for a building that was only built in 1927 it has an awful lot of visitors.
Bertha was a witch and said to have been a beautiful young lady, she is often seen staring down frum the first floor’s “Battle of Shrewsbury” window. She seems to be looking at the Cross, many executions are believed to have taken place on this spot, like David, the last “real” Prince of Wales who was hanged, drawn and quartered here, so maybe she lost a loved one in a rather unpleasant manner. Bertha is still here but she does have a nasty habit of her skin peeling off and she then disintegrates afore your eyes. One theory for this is that the store was built on the highest point of the 11th century town walls and witches were burned on this spot. Did poor owd Bertha suffer this fate? I’ll let you decide.
The storeroom below the main floor has sin some strange goings on, cowd feelings when staff are down there and Margaret Palin felt the presence of a lady dressed in black, mebbe Bertha fancied a change of scenery. There used to be a strung dance floor that was a popular haunt of soldiers during wartime and the ghostly stomping of their boots can still be heard dancing across the floor.
A former manager was once struck in the back by a biro lid whilst working alone in the building and when my cousin was working there in 0ctober 1994 he heard the sound of books falling, when he went round to pick’em up there was nothing there but something forcibly barged past his left shoulder.
Pop in tomorrow if you can for a short stroll to Castle Court. oh! and dunna have nightmares.