The Black Friar, Hale

A ghost known as the Black Friar is said to appear near the junction of Hermitage Road and Hale Road, marking the site of a buried medieval treasure. The legend claims that Friar Peter Leycester of Birkenhead Monastery hid church plate in his family’s orchard during the dissolution of the monasteries and that his spirit will reveal the hoard when a true Catholic Leycester returns to Hale. Sightings of a pale-faced friar in a black habit have been reported since at least 1850.