THE LURE OF THE LORE OF SUPERNATURAL SHROPSIRE
Polly & Mary:
Two Lives Cut Short
A
s anyone who has read my previous articles may know, my primary interest is in the paranormal folklore of Shropshire. For me, ghost stories are such exciting things, and they serve as conduits for the attitudes and fears of a particular time or place. I think that when looking at such stories, it is as important to ask why apparitions are remembered, as it is to question their validity. More often these stories are crumbs of collective memory, perhaps relating to real people (though it is sometimes difficult to track them down historically, which you will see below) who had their lives cut short by traumatic events or cruelty. Thus, I think this is where the ghost originates, amid the shock and distress surrounding such a profound loss, a powerful, human desire to remember, and to understand rises from the ashes. When looking at Shropshire’s ghost lore, I am often struck by the harrowing nature of some of the stories, particularly those involving women and young girls. Littered over Shropshire’s blue remembered hills are tales of murder and profound violation, and female apparitions who got left behind. Though these folk tales are difficult to read, they are certainly worthy of discussion. I’ve chosen two of such stories, the ghost of Mary Way- a women murdered whilst walking home, and Polly Mayas- a young girl who was treated appallingly before her murder in 1883. Stories like those told about Mary Way demonstrate the attitudes to women of the period, and also the systematic abuses women had to face. Polly’s story is a heart wrenching example of how children can suffer at the hands of those who purport to love them. Both Polly and Mary had their lives, and their personhood stolen from them, which is representative of many female voices lost in the patriarchal world of the past. Perhaps their ghosts serve as a reminder then, and a collective rally against the indignation and ill treatment they faced. There are a number of female murder victims in Shropshire whose deaths have entered into paranormal discourse, such as Nanny Morgan – who I have covered previously, but the stories of these two girls, especially Mary Way are less known. Therefore, I have had to rely in part on the folklore surrounding them. These stories convey the violence, violation, and appalling treatment they both faced, and the horrifying way their bodies were cast away. These girls were murdered in familiar settings, and in Polly’s case, by someone who should have loved her. Their names, and their stories deserve to be known. I want to retell these tales and discuss their importance to the wider paranormal narrative.
4
The Tragedy of Mary Way
O
ur first ghost story takes place in the parish of Muckley Cross, which sits on the road between Bridgenorth and Much Wenlock. It’s a small place and probably looks much the same as it did at the time of our story. Not much happens there, if we are to believe the silence of the surrounding fields and the birdsong, which made it the perfect place for such a heinous crime. From what we can discern about Mary Way, she was a local girl, and in some versions of the folktales she was in her late teens or early twenties. She knew the area well, and walked the road frequently, on her way to work. Unfortunately, if she truly existed any facts about her personality or features are forgotten in the folklore, but we know that she was walking home from work one evening, when her life was tragically cut short. The story states that though she
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was comfortable walking these country lanes, she was still at risk. For two men were following her as she walked home, and they violently attacked her. Mary was beaten by the men and sexually assaulted, before they murdered her. It is said that the men cut off poor Mary’s head, before throwing it in a hedge and absconding from the scene of the crime. When Mary didn’t return home, her parents grew worried. Her father, as well as several other local men formed a search party, and went looking for her.
“Unfortunately, they found her body, and severed head on the main road out of the village.” One cannot imagine how traumatic witnessing such a sight would have been. After she had been found, the search widened,
