So last year, I had the pleasure of visiting the Thirsk Museum located in Thirsk in Yorkshire. Thirsk is a beautiful little town enriched with history and still remains its old cobble streets and old Georgian houses and cottages as shops and eating establishments, I was privilege to have an interview with Susan the owner of the museum who normally at this time of the year closes the museum to the public, only opening between the months of March to October.
My visit was to basically hear her thoughts of one of the museums exhibits that had been given to them during the seventies. The Busby Stool.
The Busby Stool also known to many as the ‘Chair of Death’ and the ‘Cursed Chair’ is allegedly a haunted oak chair and is said to be one of the most haunted items in the world.
It is said that the curse was put on the chair by the Murderer Thomas Busby before his execution by hanging in North Yorkshire.Busby was arrested, tried and condemned to death after he murdered his father-in-law Daniel Auty in 1702. The execution’s site which was opposite and was renamed The Busby Stool Inn, was also said to be haunted by Busby’s ghost, but unfortunately the pub isn’t here to this day and a takeaway stands in its place.
Even though this isn’t thought to be the actual Busby Chair that Thomas Busby would have placed a curse on has it is believed this one would have been made around the 1800s , This chair has somehow been given the name and has been given the reputation of that the original would have had and is believed by many to have caused deaths of those who had dared to sit within it at The Busby Inn.
It is unknown what may have happened to the original chair.
Two Young airmen sat in the inn one night daring each other to sit within the chair. Eventually one of them caved in and placed his bum within the chair for a second. On their way back to the field they both died in a traffic accident.
Post world war II a young builders apprentice died soon after having lunch at the Inn. His work mates had dared him to sit within the chair, which he did and later that day fell through a roof of a building and died.
A delivery man sat in the chair while it was stored away in the cellar after enquiring about the legend. He died in a car crash that evening when he lost control of his car and it crashed killing him sometime later.
Many airmen from the nearby airfield lost their lives after having sat in the chair. It was said all who did would not return home from the war.A chimney sweep man who sat in the chair within the Inn after having a few drinks, left the Inn at some hour of the night/early hours of the morning and didn’t managed to get far. He was found hanging from a gate post next to the mock Busby Gibbet which is located next to the Inn. A report into his death decided that this gentlemen had taken his own life.
After researching it is claimed that between the two chairs they have caused up to 63 deaths, after speaking to Susan the owner of the museum she was unsure of this fact and told me the stories she had heard surrounding the chair and how it ended up being at the museum.
After interviewing Susan I did decide that I would do a echovox session just to see what exactly would happen. The thing that properly interested me the most from this session is that when i ask ‘ Is this Chair Yours’ and ‘Do you haunt this chair’ and it replies with ‘Mold’ was something or someone trying to tell me this chair was a mold of the previous? is this how they would have spoken during the 1700s who knows but what i do know is that i would definitely not be parking my bum within it for no love or money….would you dare?
Below is the interview I did with Susan. Many thanks to Susan for allowing me to come and be able to do this. Links to the museums Facebook page and website can be viewed below.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2175547412734703&id=1724463721196110
https://www.facebook.com/Thirsk-Museum-549409998462630/
http://www.thirskmuseum.org/
The museum is free to visit during the opening months but the museum is ran on donations and it is kindly appreciated if you could donate something on your visit to keep the museum going.