"The creepy story of the former Woolworths store in Rugby that staff swear is haunted"

[dutchman]

The building is supposedly haunted by a Victorian girl called Annie



A former Woolworths worker has spoken of her haunted experience at the shop during the seventies.

Ann Partridge, 68, of Hansen Close, described how she had experiences with the paranormal in both the top floor and cellar.

She began working at the store on Sheep Street, Rugby in 1969.

“We were all told when we first arrived about the hauntings,” she revealed.

Rumour had it that the ghost of a girl in a Victorian-style dress, called Annie, haunted the stock room on the third floor. Legend said she hung herself on a nearby stairwell in the 1800s and continued to walk around the building.

“You just hated going up to the top floor, the manager of the store used to say ‘don’t be afraid, she won’t hurt you’. Everybody else would say ‘don’t go up to the top floor on your own,” recalled Ann.

“One Christmas we were doing an audit. There were three of us on the top floor, we were all busy and the door opened and we thought someone had come in.

“You could hear someone walking up the first aisle, walk back and then the door closed, but no-one was there.

“We just said ‘we’re all going now’,” she chuckled.

The cellar wasn’t much better according to Ann. She told how long before a boy had allegedly fallen down the outside lift and died.

“He used to just walk around,” she said.

“If you were down there you would sometimes go cold, one time me and another girl were standing in the cellar and it felt as if someone had brushed between us.

“I turned round and said ‘did you push me?’ and she said ‘no you pushed me’”.

It may be almost half a century since Ann last worked there, but the tale of Annie has lived long past then.

One employee, who worked at Woolworths from 2005 to 2007, a year before it closed down, told of how “eerie” it was.

“The stock rooms were so dank and gloomy, which obviously made it a bit more ominous, I mainly worked the tills so I didn't have to go up there very often thankfully,” he said.

“I never personally saw an apparition, but the third-floor stockroom was always eerily quiet and I always felt like I was being watched. Maybe ghost hunters should go looking for Annie? Who knows?”

The story carries on to this day, with other past employees sharing their experiences online.

“I remember all the freaky stuff that used to happen in the stock rooms. Freaky. 100 per cent haunted,” commented one.

“I used to go up until toys started going off on their own. And when I saw a face in the window of the lift I was done.”

Since Woolworth’s closure in 2008 its premises have been occupied by 99p Stores, before becoming a Poundland.

Now it lies empty. But according to some, not completely.

[rebbonk]

I'll not publicly name the place, but there is an alleged haunted building not too far away. People swear they've seen 'things'. Oddly enough, none of these 'hauntings' go back before about 1980. The whole thing comes from a prank played on the foreman that got out of hand!