Whaley Bridge is a small mill town at the western end of the Goyt Valley, grown up around the textile industry and the Peak Forest Canal, which terminates here at its Transhipment Warehouse. The town sits at the point where the valley narrows into upland country, giving it a position on the edge of two very different landscapes.

Its ghost lore is modest in scale but reflects that border character. Accounts are concentrated in the older buildings of the town centre and the canal corridor, and several draw on the history of the waterway and the communities that worked it.