The Mysterious Noises at a House in Holbeck.
A Six-months problem which baffles solution.
The Holbeck “ghost” is not “laid” after all – or, [at any rate] is alive and kicking, or rather rapping, [?] a week last Wednesday. [this is very illegible]
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000273/19170123/090/0005
yorkshire evening post, 23rd january 1917.
An Exploded Ghost Story.
No more rappings at the Holbeck Children’s Home.
Some little time ago, no little excitement was caused in the Holbeck district of Leeds by the rumour that one of the houses in Granville Terrace, rented by the Holbeck Board of Guardians as a Children’s Home, was haunted. The foster mothers became greatly alarmed at the nocturnal rappings, and visits were paid to the house by guardians and others interested, in the hope of finding the secret. Even the police were called in, and although they did not succeed in arresting the ghost, their efforts seem to have had the effect of “laying” him. At any rate, the mysterious rappings ceased, and the foster mothers and their charges have since slept undisturbed.
The agents for the house (Messrs. Bramham and Gale) seem to have been notified of the story that the house was haunted, and they have now replied to the Guardians “that the police have found that nothing unusual has taken place in the house, and that it is considered that it was imagination on the part of the foster mothers.” The Guardians now appear to take the same view, for, after having discussed the matter further, they decided to let it drop.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 20th January 1917.
More About Mysterious House Noises.
A Reminiscence of 40 Years Ago.
To the Editor of The Yorkshire Evening Post.
Sir, – I read your report with respect to the noises in the house in Granville Terrace, Holbeck, with much interest. It recalls to my mind that, just about 38 years ago, when I was a young lad, my parents lived in the house adjoining the one referred to. I remember one Sunday morning, my father, about 9.30, was summoned to the door by glass breaking on the doorstep. On looking out, he saw the minister, who called him to the fence which divided the two gardens.
The minister asked my father if he would fetch a ladder, as he believed his housekeeper had gone mad, and he had to barricade his bedroom door during the night. After obtaining a ladder and assistance, the minister was got down. The neighbour on the other side was informed of the occurrence, and he, along with my father, went to the police station, and brought two detectives.
After forcing open the door on the opposite side of the house, they searched through every room until they came to one locked, which they broke open. There they found the housekeeper quite prostrate, on her knees. After attending to her, she said that during the night, about 11 o’clock, she heard noises of tapping and knocking, and she was sure that burglars were breaking in. In a state of frenzy she rushed to the minister’s door, but could get no reply from him. So she locked herself in the room, and became unconscious.
I am not one to believe all the fairy stories that go round, but this is quite true, and seems to coincide with your report, although so long ago.
Yours, etc. J.W. Priestley. 19 Sefton Av., Beeston Hill, Leeds, Jan. 24. 1917.
Sir, – After reading the account of the mysterious noises in the house at Holbeck, may I offer a suggestion as to the cause of them? It is one of the old houses, you say; and there are often in old houses what we in the country call wood-lice, or “pigs.” From my own personal experience in the house I am now living in, these insects do make a peculiar tapping sound in the wall, and I have been kept awake by the noise, and have sometimes thought there must be someone knocking on the wall. We have stopped the tapping for the time being by knocking on the wall where the sound comes from, but it starts again after a time. – Yours, etc., X. Ripon, January 24th , 1917.
Sir, – These noises may arise from boards in the flooring being pressed down during the day, and rising up again in the night. They occur regularly in my bedroom, and sometimes two sharp raps, like a postman’s knock, wake me in the night. A future occupant of this room will certainly believe in spirit-rapping, unless he knows the reason. The house was built 99 years ago. Noises and creakings also occur in a staircase. – Yours, etc., J. Northallerton, January 24th, 1917.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 25th January 1917.
Mysterious Knockings in Houses.
Sir, – I have often heard knockings in houses exactly like those heard in the house at Holbeck, and in every case they have been caused by air in a water pipe, and have been stopped by turning on a tap. Sometimes they stop immediately, but sometimes it has been necessary to turn the tap on and off several times. I hope this may prove to be the solution of the “mysterious noises” in the house at Holbeck. – Yours, etc., A.L. Wilkinson. Wetherby, Jan. 25th, 1917.
= We have received an interesting letter from Goole, telling of similar noises, which were eventually traced to water pipes and the use of a neighbour’s bath; but the writer has sent neither name nor address. – Ed.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 26th January 1917.
The Mysterious Rappings.
Guardians decide to remove the children.
The sequel to the mysterious rappings at the Holbeck Guardians’ Children’s Home is the decision of the Board to vacate the house. Pending other arrangements the children are to be removed to the workhouse, the foster mothers’ engagements are to be terminated by payment of salary in lieu of otice, and permission is to be sought to sub-let the premises.
The Chairman (Mr G Blackburn) explained that they had decided to vacate the house not because of any belief in the supernatural, but because the Children’s Committee felt they could not allow the children to continue in the terrified condition they had endured for months. In the course of the discussion Mr R Reed (vice-chairman) said he was inclined to believe other causes, which had not been stated, had been the deciding factor. He did not see the benefit of suspending the Home because of certain things they wanted to remove.
Mrs Ingle replied that she did not think Mr Reed would put a child of his own to sleep in the house. The vice-chairman ought to say right out what he meant by talking about something underneath.
The Chairman: Well, I have sustained a libel action once, and I am not going to lay myself open to another. The Vice-Chairman: Nor am I.
Mrs Pinchbeck said she had been asked by the vice-chairman to repeat what she said to him before the meeting. She told him she considered the situation something like that of a married couple tied to each other for life, and unable to agree. The decision of the Board was arrived at with only one dissention.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 30th January 1917.
“Knockings.”
Because the children complained of mysterious knockings at night, the Holbeck (Leeds) Board of Guardians, while refusing to believe in the supernatural have decided to close the home at Granville-terrace and to transfer the boys to training ships and the girls to suitable institutions.
Hull Daily Mail, 31st January 1917.
The “Haunted” Dwelling at Holbeck.
Ghost story that was never fully explained.
The announcement that the household furniture of the house No. 6 Granville Terrace, Holbeck Moor, Leeds, is to be sold by auction recalls the mysterious ghost story of a year ago. This was the house in which the mysterious rappings were heard – rappings which threw the whole neighbourhood into a state of alarm, and earned for the abode the name of “The haunted house of Holbeck.”.
It is, however, a haunted house no more. The ghost has been laid – or at any rate it has been quiescent since the change of tenancy occurred a year ago next month. The credulous folk – and there were many of them – who at that time firmly believed the mysterious noises to be due to something supernatural have now changed their views, and believe a practical joker to have been at work, although no one has the slightest idea by what agency the rappings were caused.
Until two or three years ago the house served as a manse for the ministers on the Holbeck Wesleyan circuit. It was then taken over by the Holbeck Guardians for use as a children’s home, and it was during this tenancy that the rappings occurred, or rather were heard. The knockings – always at one particular spot and occurring only at night – were heard by the children, the foster mothers, workhouse officials who made special visits for the purpose, and neighbours and others.
In February last the Guardians terminated their tenancy of the house, and took the children into the Union. The house was then taken over as a hostel for a number of men who came from Sheffield to take up employment at a local engineering establishment. These men have now gone back to Sheffield. Hence the sale of the furniture and interior fittings, and the house is now to let again.
The man who had charge of the hostel is still living in Holbeck, and to a representative of “The Yorkshire Evening Post” to-day, he said that during the whole of the six months he and his family and the workers, to the number of about a score, had lived there no rappings or noises which remained unexplained had been heard.
“Of course,” he said, “I heard of the ghost story before we entered into possession, but I showed my contempt for the whole thing by first sleeping in the house for four nights by myself. That the noises occurred I do not doubt, but I am certain they were caused either by some practical joker, or by someone who hoped to achieve thereby another end he had in view. My wife and daughters learned of the history of the house after we had gone to live there, and naturally they were always on the qui vive for any untoward signs. On one occasion they ran out to me in the garden in a fearful state of anxiety because the rappings were then in progress. I made a careful investigation, and it is true there were some noises of knocking, but I finally traced them to the cellar, and then discovered that it was someone next door doing a bit of amateur boot-repairing. That explanation allayed their fears, and we had no more trouble from ghosts during the remainder of our stay.”
There ends the Holbeck ghost story – for the present.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 7th January 1918.
https://www.leodis.net/viewimage/62948
https://www.leodis.net/viewimage/62949
photos from 1955