Havannah: The Deserted Village

In the past the village contained three mills which produced knitted ties and fustian which were the life blood of the village, however a disastrous flood occurred in 1872 when Bosley reservoir collapsed and this resulted in the village becoming known as the “deserted village” as it was to badly damaged to be occupied. However the village did come back to industrial life until the 1950s. Cigars were also produced by H. Andana & Co Ltd, the spelling of the name of the village had to be changed as the name Havana must have had a copyright attached to it.

Photo by Gary Tacagni

An interesting story attached to Havannah is that a ghostly figure of a woman dressed in grey clothing and wearing a pictorial hat is said to have been seen on many occasions walking between the bridge that spans the river Dane and a five storey mill which used to stand in the village. It is said that the woman was murdered in the late 1800s by her husband who threw her over the weir in a barrel!

Nowadays the village has shrunk considerably, there is still some industry here, but many of the houses have now gone, there is still a row of cottages which at one time would have housed the mill workers, but have now been turned into private homes.

The weir which would have provided power to Havanah. Photo by Gary Tacagni.

In 1999 a young schoolgirl named Claire Hart from Eaton, a small village about a mile from Havannah, was brutally murdered by jobless loner Craig Aaron Smith, she had been shot, beaten and strangled and her body was then thrown into the river Dane. Her body was found by the weir at Havannah. It is thought that Smith may have been making use of the caves that can be found in this area, he was charged with her murder on the 24th of June 1999, the day after her body was found.

Entrance to one of the caves near the weir. Photo by Gary Tacagni.