Night Noises Mystery
Stapleford Knockings Unexplained
Weird knockings almost nightly between 11.30 and 1.30 have disturbed the rest of the inhabitants of a Stapleford house for a whole week and are still unexplained. The house is owned by a widow who has two children. She has lived there since it was built ten years ago, and nothing unusual happened until last Thursday night, when suddenly at 11.30 p.m., strange knockings came from the inside wall of the back bedroom, and continued for two hours.
“It was like someone hammering in a nail,” she told the “Post” today. “And of course I did not take much notice at first. But the knockings were repeated at the same time the next night, and have gone on practically every night since, with the result that I am unable to get any sleep.”
“The knockings are so loud that they can be heard all over the house. Neighbours who have come in to listen have been very frightened, and I can tell you that while it might sound very fantastic, there is no question of imagination. I did not want to report the matter to the police because I thought they would consider me a foolish woman, but on Tuesday night, when the annoyance started again, I did call in the police, and though the knockings were not as loud as they had been, they could still be distinctly heard all over the premises. The police began to carry out an investigation. The loft was searched. The wall – it is a plaster board cavity wall – examined, but without any satisfactory result. We also investigated the theory that it might be rats or mice, but everyone was convinced that rodents could not be responsible for such loud knockings.”
“What the cause is I cannot say, but this nightly occurrence is getting me down, for I cannot sleep, and I have to go to business each day.” “It is really fantastic,” she continued. “The other night a gentleman came to see if he could be of any assistance, and almost precisely at 11.30 the knockings started again. He went to the foot of the stairs and shouted, ‘If I say “Yes” knock once; if I say ‘No’ knock twice; and if I say “O.K.” knock three times.’ He then called ‘O.K.’ and immediately afterwards there were three loud knocks.”
Nottingham Evening Post, 27th June 1946.
“Knock, Knock”
Passing of the Stapleford ‘Ghost’
The Stapleford “ghost,” it is believed, has been laid. After a week of weird tappings in a bedroom of a house at Stapleford the “Post” understands that, last night, the services of a medium were enlisted. And this is the explanation as told to-day: The tappings were said to be those of the occupier’s deceased husband who died two years ago. He requested that a ring in a drawer in the house should be given to his 14-year-old daughter. The drawer mentioned was searched, the ring was found, and given to the daughter. Since then there have been no tappings.
Nottingham Evening Post, 28th June 1946.
Mystery Bumps Cease.
Up to 1 o’clock this morning no more mystery knockings had been heard in the Stapleford house which has been the centre of strange manifestations since last Thursday. Police were once more on the scene to make further investigations and as the authorities had definitely ruled out the possibility of any human element being responsible, a Stapleford woman spiritualist was called in. Inside the house the widow-owner sat with close friends, and outside neighbours once more assembled in groups awaiting developments. A “Journal” reporter was on the scene all night, but like other watchers and waiters – heard nothing up to 1 a.m.
Nottingham Journal, 28th June 1946.
Inspectors or not, ‘spectre’ still knocks.
“Ghostly” goings-on are disturbing the peaceful household of widow Sinfield, her adolescent daughter Mary, and son Trevor, 6, in the Crescent, Stapleford, Notts. Loud knocks, “like somebody hammering,” have been heard every night for the past week – always at 11.30, even when the police came to “lay the ghost”. Widow Sinfield isn’t frightened, but several neighbours were when they called to listen for the knocks and heard them break the silence at exactly half-an-hour before midnight. The house is only ten years old, and Mrs Sinfield, who has been there since it was built, told the Daily Mirror just before “knocking time” last night: “The walls have been examined, the loft searched, every possible means of noise investigated. We all know there is a solution to every problem, but we haven’t been able to knock the bottom out of this one.”
Daily Mirro, 28th June, 1946.
Bed Moved Two Feet!
Eerie and mysterious disturbances in Stapleford home.
Thumping and rapping.
Thumping and rapping noises on the back door and stairs; rattling on the letter box; beds that move two feet of their own accord in the night – these are some of the eerie happenings which have been experienced during the past week by Mrs. D. Sinfield, of 8, The Crescent, Stapleford, and her 14-year-old daughter Mary. The Sinfield family live in a new semi-detached house that is altogether unlike the usual type of “haunted house.” The disturbances began last Thursday, when the letter-box on the front door was rattled by some unseen agency, and have continued almost every night since then. Thumping noises begin at about 11.30 p.m. and persist until 1.30 a.m. the next morning, when all is quiet again.
Bed moved four times.
Miss Mary Sinfield, who is 14 1/2 years of age, and is employed in the general offices of the Stanton Ironworks Co. Ltd., told a representative of this newspaper on Thursday that the worst night had been Wednesday, when her own bed was removed from its position against the wall no fewer than four times. On one occasion a noise on the stairs sounded like someone sorting a nail from a box and then hammering it into the wall was heard.
Mary’s grandfather, Mr. D. Sharpe, who had been staying with the family, was so upset by the disturbances that he left on Wednesday for his home at Eastwood, and when our representative called, Mrs. Sinfield herself was in bed, her nerves having been frayed by her experiences. Her late husband, Mr. F. Sinfield, who was a fitter at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Nottingham, died two years ago. The Sinfield family have occupied the house ever since it was built ten years ago.
Police Vigil.
The Stapleford police were called in on Monday night, but there were no disturbances. A police constable was called in again on the following night, and on Wednesday night the police kept vigil and were unable to find any natural cause for the happenings. Mr. and Mrs. H. Pask, who live next door, have not been troubled by any strange noises, but as the houses are semi-detached, can hear the thumping sounds.
“Ghost” Answers
Mr. Pask is reported to have been able to make the “ghost” answer his raps on the wall with a further two raps. The noises are not always confined to night-time, as they occurred at 1.30p.m. on Wednesday.
Stapleford and Sandiacre News, 29th June 1946.
Notts. Ghost “Laid” by Medium.
The “ghost” at Stapleford which caused bangs and bumps, moved beds and dropped pictures for a week was laid in the early hours of yesterday by a medium, who said it was the husband (“Frank”) of the widow-tenant, who died two years ago. With a male friend of the dead man, writes a “Journal” reporter, the medium contacted the spirit and asked questions. Later Frank told them in a series of “knock knock answers” he wanted them to get a small box from a back bedroom drawer. Inside they found a ring. The spirit managed to pass another message. He asked his daughter to wear the ring often – so the girl slipped it on her finger. Then Frank gave his promise not to worry the family again. “He left ten minutes after – we felt the tense atmosphere suddenly lift like a fog clearing,” added the medium. Said another man who was in the house during the “interview,” “It is the queerest thing I’ve ever met yet.”
Nottingham Journal, 29th June 1946.
“Ghost” Vigil at Stapleford.
A crowd of about 50 people gathered outside the Stapleford “ghost” house last night to see if the spirit would keep its promise not to return (see Page 3). By one o’clock this morning no noises had been heard and by that time “disappointed” observers had gone home and only six people remained. In the house the police were present along with the widow and medium.
Nottingham Journal, 29th June 1946.
Believe it or not.
The strange happenings in the house in Stapleford where residents were disturbed by a series of supernormal manifestations, may not convince those who are incurably sceptical. To those who believe in such phenomena the course of events, culminating in the hoped-for quieting of an uneasy spirit by a young girl’s promise to wear a gold ring, will cause no surprise.
Cases of activity by poltergeists (the word is derived from the German for “racketing spirits”) have been recorded for many hundreds of years and among the classic examples are the occurrences in the Wesley household at Epworth in 1716-17. One common condition in recorded cases is that there is some one “agent” whose presence is essential for the production of the phenomena. Often the “agent” is a girl in her ‘teens – and in this particular the Stapleford case conforms with known precedents.
People who have experienced what are known in psychical research as “physical” phenomena are usually as confident in their belief as the sceptics are in their materialistic explanation. Between belief and disbelief there is no common ground.
Nottingham Journal, 29th June 1946.
Crowd of 70 stood in the rain to hear ‘spirit knocks’.
While a medium, a police sergeant and a police constable sat inside a house trying to solve the mystery of knockings from behind a bedroom wall, seventy people of Stapleford Notts (pop. 8513), last night stood outside in the pouring rain to hear what was going on. The owner of the house, in The Crescent, Mrs Sinfield, a widow for two years, recently heard the knocking and called in the police. But the sergeant and constable could not trace the noise, and Mrs Sinfield sought a medium. The medium told a reporter afterwards: “I received a message from the spirit world which I interpreted by means of knocks. I asked ‘Is that you, Frank?’ (the name of Mrs Sinfield’s husband) and it said ‘Yes.’. The spirit indicated that it wanted Mrs Sinfield’s daughter, Mary, to wear a gold ring which was in a drawer, and when she put it on the knockings ceased within ten minutes.”
Daily Mirror, 29th June 1946.
Stapleford “Ghost”.
Spiritualist alleges knockings were caused by deceased husband.
According to the story given to one of our reporters the mystery of the disturbing “knockings” at the house of Mrs. D. Sinfield, of The Crescent, Stapleford, has been “solved” by a spiritualist medium, who declared that the noises were caused by the spirit of the occupier’s deceased husband. The medium, Mrs. E. Cawthorne, of 2, Kent-road, Stapleford, was invited to stay in the “haunted house” in an attempt to solve the mystery, and in attendance were Police Sergt, A.R. Piper and P.c. Mallinder.
In a series of “knock-knock” questions and answers, Mrs Cawthorne is alleged to have established that it was the spirit of Mr. F. Sinfield, whose death took place two years ago, which had caused the noises. The reason for them was that the spirit wanted a gold ring (which was thought to have been mislaid) given to his daughter. Directions were given to Mrs. Cawthorne of the whereabouts of the ring in the house, and it was eventually found in a drawer. The daughter, Miss Mary Sinfield, slipped it on to her finger, and the noises ceased. The ring was intended to have been given to Mary on her fourteenth birthday as a keepsake, but had been lost.
“Spirit” in bad temper.
Mrs Cawthorne told our reporter that the noises began at 11.45 that night, in accordance with what she had foretold. The “spirit” of the dead man was in a bad temper because he could not make his family understand what he wanted. He knocked an article from a dressing table upstairs, and later threw something at a window. On one occasion, whilst the watchers were going upstairs, each of them felt the “spirit” pass them on the stairs like a cold draught.
Mrs. Cawthorne has been “psychic” since she was a child, but it was some time before she realised the significance of her ability. She is a native of Sutton-in-Ashfield, and has been living in Stapleford for 5 1/2 years. Her husband died eight years ago.
The late Mr. Sinfield was an employee at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Essex-street, Nottingham, and attended Trowell Parish Church. He had never been interested in spiritualism or anything connected with it, during his lifetime.
Stapleford and Sandiacre News, 6th July 1946.