The breathtaking village is famous for its allegedly haunted hall and history of witches - but locals fear proposed housing development and pub closures could spell an end to their rural way of life
A gorgeous Lancashire village said to be home to one of the UK's 'most haunted' ancient halls could see its rural community wiped out, it is claimed.
A housing developer called Story Homes has put in a £400m proposal to build Cuerdale Garden Village - made up of 1,300 homes, a primary school, leisure facilities, a local shopping centre and employment space, on land straddling the A59 between Preston and Blackburn. The development has attracted hundreds of objections and would potentially see the firm buy up agricultural, green belt land and farm land.
Tenant farmer John Eastham, 71, working at the dairy farm, tells me: “We would lose our livelihoods - the farm would be gone. There’s always been a farm, and this has always been farm land. “If this gets the go ahead, it will escalate down the A59 and all the other local landowners will sell as well.” His other fears are of gas pipes on the proposed site, he adds, along with the loss of the village’s war memorial hall dating back to 1923, and the sheer scale of the development, which he says would be ‘already the size of Buckshaw Village’ near Chorley.
Councillor Young also echoes his sadness over the closed pub, saying the New Hall Tavern is the latest in three pubs to close in the vicinity in recent times, with the other two being the nearby Nabs Head Hotel which closed in March and the former Windmill Hotel in Mellor, which closed a few years ago and is currently at the centre of a battle over proposals to turn it into a convenience store and garage.
Yet beyond the myriad of farm tracks and fields, Samlesbury is not as off the beaten track as you might think, just a ten minute drive from the M6.
“People do feel something - especially the clairvoyants, and at the end of the ghost nights, people always tell me things that make me think, there must be something. People bring these flashlights that light up in the presence of spirits, and it’s usually children that make the lights flash, at the top of the stairs. But saying that, if there are ghosts, they’re nice ones.”