Laxham Hill is about three miles from railway station of Stephenson<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even in the summer it is a high desolate place prone to sudden mists <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can imagine in the winter months it is very bleak <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the short darkening hours suffocating the daylight very quickly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diary Note<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Samuel Salt
There was nothing really remarkable about Albert Bell apart from his height <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is was said that he was over eight foot tall although this might have been exaggerated<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert was born on the 31st of December 1899 in Stephenson the son of a solicitor <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His height had been noted at a very young age as he was over six feet tall by the age of ten<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next few years Albert was examined by various specialists but none of them could find the cause of his excessive growth <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As his mother later said Albert was just accepted in the village and his height often proved to be very useful when working on local farms <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Albert was more than a general farm labourer as he excelled academically and was lucky enough to attend university although ill health hindered his studies <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had initially planned to leave Stephenson and live in Manchester but because of his health he decided to return to his family home <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert soon came to terms with the restrictions his disability placed on him<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like his father he became a solicitor and for many years nothing really changed <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was until the last day of March in 1931 when his fathers lifeless body was found in Varrat’s Pond <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was presumed that a terrible accident had occurred <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this all changed when a letter from Albert’s father <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was discovered amongst his personal papers <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inquest brought in a verdict of felo de se<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This shattered Albert and he took a great deal of time<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To recover from the shock although he did not show it outwardly <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He took over his fathers practice and things slowly returned to normal <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was at about this time Albert expanded his interests and took over a practice in Bury <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He became a regular traveller <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Travelling out on the first train <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And returning on the final train<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Due to his height he always sat in the final carriage as not to inconvenience others <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1935 he purchased a second home as in the years after his fathers death <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert had met Christine the daughter of a clergyman in Bury <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They became engaged and planned to marry and live in the town <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Albert still retained his interests in Stephenson
On the 9th of January 1937 Albert caught his morning train as normal and was observed by Mr Patrick the stationmaster returning on the ten past six train <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also noted that Albert did not have his walking stick with him and enquired whether he had left it on the train<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert said that he no longer used a stick and had not done so for many years<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An answer which confused Mr Patrick as he knew that Albert always travelled with his stick as walking had become more difficult due to his exceptional height
The Crow and the Cow was an small inn at the foot of Laxham Hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between six and six fifteen in the evening on that brittle January day<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert entered the inn which was rare as he was not a regular patron <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He ordered a whisky and remarked about the freezing temperatures <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The landlord a Mr Bennett remembered the time of the visit as he was winding up the clock in the bar <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert left about five minutes later after finishing his whisky
Mrs Betty Henry had worked with Albert since he had taken over the practice in Bury <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She became very familiar with Albert’s working day which was very regular <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He always left at the same time without fail either to meet Christine or catch the final train back to Stephenson <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On that day of his disappearance Mrs Henry had left early as her sister was unwell <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albert said that he would lock up<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was as she walked back down Clear Road that she noticed that the lights were still on in the practice<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She saw Albert sitting at his desk long after he said he would leave <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mrs Henry did consider visiting the office to see if everything was in order <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But decided not to do so as Christine’s bicycle was leaning against a nearby fence <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She remembered looking at her watch for no real reason <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was seventeen minutes past six<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the last time she saw Albert
His disappearance especially considering his father’s fate became big news and became even more mysterious when others reported sightings of Albert all between six and half past six in parts of the town<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christine added to the confusion when she told the police that she had seen Albert in Manchester at about the same time <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had called out to him but received no acknowledgement even though he looked in her direction <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The search for Albert was one of the largest ever undertaken in the North of England <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It lasted for a number of weeks before it was slowly wound down <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was thought that due to his extreme height that it was only a matter of time before he was found either dead or alive<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sightings were followed up all over the UK but all proved false <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His movements on the day of his disappearance<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he was seen by different people<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In different places <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many miles apart<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At roughly the same time <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could not be answered <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no logical reason for these events <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In time the case went cold <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not closed but neither was it active <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was excitement in the summer of 1959 when a skeleton of a giant man was found buried in a Lincolnshire field <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But these bones dated from the Middle Ages<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are stories that Stephenson Railway Station is haunted by Albert’s ghost and that on cold winter nights his walking stick can be heard tapping along the empty platforms <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is also supposed to have been seen in the vicinity of Laxham Hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When interviewed a number of years ago Christine said that it was unlikely that the truth about Albert’s mysterious disappearance would ever be solved and that it should be left alone<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No good would come from probing too deeply <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some things are beyond our understanding <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Laxham Hill is about three miles from railway station of Stephenson Even in the summer it is a high desolate place prone to sudden mists As you can imagine in the winter months it is very bleak With the short darkening hours suffocating the daylight very quickly Diary Note Samuel Salt There was nothing really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30782"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30796,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30782\/revisions\/30796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}