A local man, Wade Radford, has uncovered the chilling legend of the Busby Stoop, a former pub in a village where Thomas Busby, a convicted murderer, allegedly cursed a chair in the early 1700s.
Busby, known for his criminal activities, including coin forgery, reportedly cursed the chair during his final moments before being executed for murdering his father-in-law.
The curse supposedly brought misfortune to those sitting in the chair, leading to its removal to Thirsk Museum, which is now securely mounted to a wall to prevent further incidents. Intrigued by these tales, Radford, a paranormal investigator since his teens, revisited the site in 2008 and claimed to have captured audio evidence of Busby’s ghost.
Now 32, Radford discovered his proximity to these haunted grounds after relocating to the northeast earlier this year. Driven by nostalgia, he returned to find the pub transformed into an Indian restaurant, the ominous relics of its past, such as the noose and the sign of the cursed chair, gone.
Reflecting on the transformation, Radford expressed a strong sense of disappointment but also a renewed motivation to document the eerie history. He is now writing a book to preserve the legacy and mystery of the Busby Stoop, aiming to keep the local legend alive through stories of the mysterious events linked to the infamous cursed chair.
