Heaton Norris is the northernmost of the Heaton townships, sitting on the boundary between Stockport and Salford. Its dense terraced streets were built rapidly during the nineteenth century to house the workforce of the surrounding mills and factories, and the area’s character was shaped by that expansion within living memory of the first reports.

Its ghost lore reflects that working-class character. Accounts are associated with domestic houses and back-street premises rather than halls or institutions, and they draw on the experience of communities living close together in buildings that accumulated histories quickly.