Subject: Re: Getting back
From: "david clarke" <david@...>
Date: 8 Apr 2006 10:32
Sean wrote: > > One question that I've been meaning to ask you for years and years > now, ever since I first read your "Peakland Spooklights" article [1], > is: where is Meg o'th' Lantern Lane located in modern terms? Does the > road even still exist anymore? I don't have access to the copy of the > Derbyshire Advertiser & Mercury that you reference, nor have I ever > come across any other reference to the lane. But it's a wonderful > information point, and I'd love to know more if you have the details > easily to hand. > A very good question! I found this reference in an old newspaper cutting listing ghost stories in the Derby area which I found in the archives of Derbyshire County Council in Matlock. I was working on something else at the time so did not get the opportunity to follow up the reference by consulting 19th century maps to pin point where precisely the lane was; I was unable to find it on a modern A-Z. This is not the only example of a place-name containing a reference to lights/will o'the wisp. I've often wondered if Shining Clough on Bleaklow is a reference to the Longdendale Lights. There is another fieldname on the West Pennine moors with a similar linguistic association to the Derby placename. Then, of course, there are many other names linked with goblins, boggarts and spirits that may reflect folkloric traditions linked with spooklights. Dave Clarke