Close to St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, was Hallgarth Square, here there had once been some stables which had been converted into rooms. A miner and his family that lived there were terrified. Each night as they lay in bed they would hear the most unearthly bloodcurdling screams, from underneath the house. Witnesses also heard the screams so not long after that the building was demolished, and it was while searching among the foundations that the answer for the screams were found.

It was found that at one time on the same site had been a Benedictine Monastery, under which some of the monks had been buried. What had thought to have been a last resting place and burial refuge for the monks, had been swarming with river rats who had squealed in hunger as they tore into the remains of the monks after burial.