Biggleswade Chronicle, 1st March 1929 (pages 1 and 6 of 6).
“Haunted House” at St. Neots.
Weird Events in Ex-policeman’s Home.
Many visitors completely mystified.
Poltergeist: or practical joking?
Weird and almost incredible things, of a nature hitherto unheard of in this neighbourhood, are said to be happening in a side street near the river Ouse at St. Neots. Since the night of Friday, February 15th, the inhabitants of No. 9, River Terrace, Mr R. McLennan, a retired Metropolitan policeman, and his wife and 15 years old son, have been tormented by some mysterious agency which moves the furniture, causes the kettles and saucepans on the kitchen range to dance, and hurls articles of all descriptions, from small glass jars and crockery to chairs and heavy pieces of metal, in every direction. Another weird experience is an unaccountable banging in different parts of the house and a strange hissing noise which moves about the rooms and follows Mr McLennan into the street.
The phenomena had, until last week end, been growing more and more violent and pounds worth of damage has been done. Frankly sceptical persons have visited the house and confess themselves at a loss to explain the things they have seen happen. The phenomena are, apparently, similar in nature to a “poltergeist” disturbance, of which there are a number of instances on record. The events have caused quite a stir in the neighbourhood, especially on Saturday and Sunday evenings, when crowds numbering several hundreds visited River Terrace. On Sunday evening a neighbour who was apparently tired of the disturbance decided to disperse the crowd. He appeared at his front door draped in a sheet. The crowd dispersed.
Our anonymous correspondent sets an exciting scene, and his story has immediately been given the front page of the weekly-published Biggleswade Chronicle. The headline doesn’t beat about the bush: straight away it offers the possible interpretation that the ‘almost incredible’ things are supernatural. Then, as now, readers can’t resist a tale of weirdness. He assumes his audience are familiar with the concept of a poltergeist, as he doesn’t feel it necessary to define the word. Maybe we should bear in mind that if his readers know what a poltergeist is and does, then we could assume that at least some members of the McLennan family were well aware too.
The profession of the head of the house is stated in the sub-titles. The testimony of a retired policeman carries weight: we’re surely supposed to infer that such a person wouldn’t be lying, and there’s a further implication that his powers of observation would be reliable.
Below we give various statements we have obtained from people connected with the occurrences and leave readers to draw their own conclusions.
THE HAUNTED HOUSE
During the last week a representative of the “Biggleswade Chronicle” has made an investigation of the occurrences, and writes the following account of what has occurred:-
During the past week a number of people in St Neots who have been pronounced sceptics all their lives, have had their unbelief in the supernatural badly shaken. I have spoken to several persons who have visited Mr. McLennan’s house, who, before they went, were perfectly satisfied that the phenomena were nothing but practical joking, but they have come away confessing that the things they have seen are incomprehensible to them. If the happenings have a natural explanation then an extremely clever conjuror is at work.
Our author offers further support for the authentic strangeness of the situation. If long-standing sceptics looking for trickery can find no mundane explanation, then there are only two options: something supernatural, or sleight of hand generally beyond the man in the street.
I visited the “Haunted House” on Friday afternoon last week. River Terrace is a row of about a dozen houses, backing on to the river. The street, which is a cul-de-sac, leads off one corner of the Market Square and is a very quiet and unfrequented corner of the town. All the houses in the row are of similar design, with a high brick wall facing the road, enclosing a small yard. The houses stand about six yards back from the road and there is a passage way serving each pair. In addition to the ground floor and first floor there is a basement scullery and kitchen. Two short flights of stairs lead from the hall to the basement and there is a passage (out of which the kitchen and scullery open) under the hall, leading to the front yard. There is a small back garden at the rear between the house and the river.
When I called on Friday afternoon I found only Mrs. McLennan at home. She told me that her husband and son had gone out because while they remained in the house there was perfect pandemonium. While they were away things were comparatively quiet. Mrs. McLennan was herself considerably upset. Her housework was at a standstill and she was unable to find anything she wanted.
Poltergeists, of course, are said to require someone who acts as a ‘focus’ in the house.
I called again about 6.15 in the evening when all the family were at home. Mrs. McLennan was sitting with a box of matches in her hand and a lighted candle, as she said the gas kept going out. Mr. McLennan told me that he and his son Ronald had been for a walk along the river during the afternoon and even there they were not free from molestation. He was hit on the back by a clod of mud and numerous pebbles, although where they came from he had not the remotest idea.
THE FIRST DISTURBANCE
He then proceeded to tell me his experiences and the following account is, as nearly as possible, exactly as he related it to me. The trouble started the previous Friday evening, about 7 o’clock. They were sitting in the kitchen when several empty biscuit cannisters on the mantelpiece began to wobble. Suddenly an iron kettle on the kitchen range, for no apparent reason, fell to the ground. He bent down to pick it up and one of the cannisters fell and hit him on the head. After that things began to happen in real earnest. Little pictures and photographs, ornaments and clothes brushes, commenced to fly in all directions. Mr. McLennan showed me a nail which, springing up about two feet from the mantelshelf, had stuck itself in the wall. This extraordinary and alarming demonstration ceased about 10 o’clock on Friday night.
A strange thing Mr. McLennan noticed, and which he has confirmed since, was that, except on very rare occasions, no one is able to see the articles move, however cumbersome they may be. They are not aware of the objects being moved until they crash into the wall or strike the ground. Mr. McLennan and his son, did, however, see one of the cannisters fall from the shelf, and on another occasion Mr. McLennan saw a candle rise from the table to within an inch of the ceiling and then fall to the ground. A still stranger fact is, that although they have all been struck numerous times by the flying objects, they have never been harmed. Mrs. McLennan has been struck on the leg with a glass jar and escaped without a scratch.
Flying Crockery.
CHAIR HURLED FOR SEVERAL YARDS.
Everything was quiet until Saturday evening, when about the same hour as on Friday, a recurrence of the alarming happenings was heralded by the noise of breaking crockery in the scullery. It was found that a quantity of bottles and jars which had been stored on shelves, were flying across the room and doing considerable damage among the crockery. A lot of bottles were thrown out into the front yard but immediately the door was opened they came flying in again. Mr. McLennan experienced a particularly violent phenomenon as he was entering the basement passage from the front yard. He had just lifted the latch, when he felt a terrific crash on the other side of the door. He found that a carpet chair which had been leaning against the wall at the other end of the passage, covered by a pile of clothes, had been hurled along the passage with the result that one of the arms, nearly 1 ½ inches thick had been smashed.
A new and even more alarming thing which now commenced, was an unaccountable banging in different parts of the basement. Mr. McLennan was trying to discover the cause of a bang he had heard in a corner of the kitchen when he felt something cold and flabby fall upon his neck. He raised his hand and removed a parcel of fresh herrings which his wife had purchased during the afternoon and laid upon the table. During the evening, a steel fender which was leaning against the wall in one corner of the room, fell down. Shortly afterwards a heavy leather trunk, full of clothes, and weighing about 1 ½ cwt., turned on its side and fell over. The kitchen table also commenced to move. Although all these things have occurred many times since, no one has actually seen them fall.
STRANGE BANGS: A DANCING BOX
On Sunday the demonstration commenced at mid-day. More jars, crockery and small articles flew about in the scullery and played havoc among Mrs. McLennan’s best crockery and glassware. In fact she told me on Friday that the dustman had already removed about a hundredweight of broken crockery. While Mr. McLennan and Ronald were in the kitchen a small Formamint bottle crashed on the floor from the shelf. It was replaced on the top of the safe. Nothing happened while they were looking but immediately they turned their heads the bottle crashed down with such force as to knock a big piece of enamel off a large washing basin. An old pie dish full of corks, crashed down from a shelf and a V-shaped piece was knocked out. Mr. McLennan picked it up and placed it in a hand bowl standing on a washing stool, and in less than half a minute it bounded on to the floor at their feet and smashed into twenty pieces. A wooden potato tray lying on a box by the sink rose up and crashed onto the floor.
To old bicycles which were firmly tied to nails in the passage, fell down, the nails still remaining in the wall. The cycles were placed in a cupboard under the stairs but such terrible bangs ensued that they were thrown outside in the barn. The banging however had continued intermittently ever since. While the family was sitting in the kitchen a clattering was heard in the passage and they found that the box and potato tray from the scullery had danced out of the door and along the passage for a distance of seven or eight yards. Buckets of water turned over seemingly of their own accord and Mr. McLennan showed me a gas shade which had been broken by a chess-piece springing up from the table.
The disturbance continued on Monday until a late hour and various articles flew about in the front yard while Mr. McLennan and Ronald were there.
It has been found that nothing occurs in the upstairs rooms where Mr. and Mrs. Harry Matto, members of a theatrical party, are residing, although the clattering and banging are plainly audible there. Both Mr. and Mrs. Matto have seen things fall to the ground and Mrs. Matto witnessed a couple of tea cups whirling round in a basin, when she went to the kitchen on one occasion. Mr. and Mrs. Matto have now left the house.
I was told that the phenomena had continued until one or two o’clock in the morning and the family had in consequence lost much sleep.
On Tuesday the disturbances became even more violent. Mr. McLennan got in the habit of spending the whole day outside, only coming in for meals, as when he was at home the place was in an uproar. During the evening, however, he was walking along the passage when a heavy footplate from the kitchen range was hurled out of the room, took a left hand turn, whizzed past Mr. McLennan and crashed against the door at the end of the passage with such force that a piece of the metal was broken off. When he came back he found the tea caddy kept flying off the kitchen table. He placed it on the floor with a brick upon it to hold it still, but in a few seconds the brick had flown off! It was no use bringing coal into the house as it attempted to fly out again immediately their backs were turned. Mr. McLennan showed me numerous marks on the doors where jars and bottles and pieces of coal had crashed into them and knocked the paint off.
WEIRD MOVING NOISES
During the evening another weird and even more mysterious experience began. The whole family heard a hissing noise moving about the walls and floor of the kitchen which sometimes changed to a sound like a cork being pulled out of a bottle. In one corner of the room they could hear a kind of moaning sound. About 8 o’clock the uproar became so unbearable that Mr. McLennan went out. He returned about 10 o’clock and attempted to read the newspaper in the kitchen, but little ornaments and knick-knacks kept hitting him and then a stool standing in one corner of the room, fell over. He went out again about 10 o’clock but Ronald came and told him that the uproar was “getting something awful.” He found the kitchen door was blocked and when he got in discovered a kitchen chair and an armchair piled on top of the clothes trunk. This occurred while both he and Ronald were out.
TWO OLD FRAGMENTS OF BONE
One of the most curious things that happened on Tuesday was the breaking away of a solid piece of mortar in a bricked-up door-way in the basement passage. In the crevice were found two old fragments of bone – whether human or animal is not known.
Mr. McLennan told me that it was impossible to relate everything that had happened. It would fill a book.
It was 2 o’clock on Wednesday morning before the uproar subsided.
On Wednesday the disturbances were renewed with unabated violence. While trying to write a letter at the kitchen table, Mr. McLennan was bombarded with cotton reels and marbles and numerous small ornaments and finally a photograph of Queen Alexandra flew out of the cupboard and fell on his pad. They were all in the room at the time. During the evening the hissing noise was heard again and this time it was moving about the room and in their ears. All the family went out during the evening and Mr. McLennan and Ronald walked over the river bridge as Mr. McLennan said there was an old saying that “an evil spirit will not cross a running stream.”
FOLLOWED BY HISSING NOISE
The hissing noise followed them, however, for nearly three quarters of a mile. They met three young ladies and asked them if they could hear anything and they said they could. I spoke to one of them afterwards and she expressed herself as being sceptical of the supernatural nature of the noise and suspected practical joking or attributed it to the cracking of the ice in the river. She had not heard of the other events which had occurred in Mr. McLennan’s house.
On Thursday the phenomena again commenced at mid-day. While Mr. McLennan was eating his dinner three potatoes flew out of the vegetable dish and smashed on his head! During the evening two blacking tins flew off the window sill and smashed the globe of a lamp on the mantelshelf. The lamp was placed on the table and immediately fell to the floor.
“I have been about a good bit” Mr. McLennan told me, “and I have spent thirty years in London, but I have never seen anything like this before. I have never believed in spirits or anything like that, but I cannot explain these happenings.”
He was at first inclined to suspect Ronald of perpetrating tricks, as nearly all “demonstrations” occurred while he was in the house, but he now feels certain that the boy is not to blame.
This concluded Mr. McLennan’s relation of his experiences to me on Friday last week. When he had finished, I asked him if he would go out of the room in order to see whether any phenomena would take place. I had been in the house for about two hours and had neither seen nor heard anything of a supernatural nature. Mr. McLennan and Ronald went out of the room and shut the door, although he said the phenomena did not occur when some people were in the house. A few seconds later something crashed into the kitchen door and on opening it we found two boot brushes which Mr. McLennan said had come from the scullery. This could not, of course, be taken as bona fide evidence by a sceptic, because it would have been easy for the incident to have been a practical joke.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SEEN.
Other visitors have apparently been more fortunate than I.
A “Daily Chronicle” Special Correspondent, who visited the house on Thursday last week, writes: “While I was in the house – and Ronald was out – there were two mysterious noises. In one case there was nothing to account for the sound, but in the other we found that a metal flower-bowl had moved from its position beneath the hall stand and was standing upside down at the head of the stairs leading down to the kitchen.”
Another visitor who was present when several manifestations occurred, is Mr. A. McKeeknie, of King’s Road, St. Neots, a very well known and highly respected inhabitant. Mr. McLennan, who has been known to him for several years, asked him to call on Tuesday afternoon last week. While he was in the kitchen with the rest of the family a clattering was heard outside and they discovered that the metal bowl from the hallstand had hopped down the stairs. They went back into the kitchen and soon after there was another sound outside. This time they found that the bowl had turned the corner and hopped down into the basement passage. Just as they were going out of the kitchen a fish slicer crashed down behind them. He was, and always had been, very sceptical of anything of this nature, but he frankly confessed that he could not explain what occurred while he was in the house. He naturally expected that it was merely practical joking and he kept his eye on the boy, in consequence, but could say that he did nothing. The previous day he had called on a neighbour next door, who told him of the noise which was going on at Mr. McLennan’s house, but who had apparently not heard that it was attributed to a supernatural agency. He had been told that, shortly after he left the house on Tuesday, a jam jar, full of ice, was found in the passage, with a raspberry jam label upon it. It had evidently come from outside but the door was shut and Mrs. McLennan said they never had raspberry jam in the house.
INVISIBLE.
Mr and Mrs. W.H. Carr, of Windmill Row, St. Neots, had an even more convincing experience. On Thursday evening Mr. Carr told me that they met Mr. and Mrs. McLennan who had come out because they could not stand the racket any longer. They went to the house and could hear a banging inside. They went into the kitchen and sat down. They had not been there long when a piece of candle, for no apparent reason, fell from the mantelpiece. Nothing happened for a time, and then, suddenly, there was a loud smash and he picked up a large frozen potato from the hearth. All he could hear was the whizz as it went through the air. Shortly afterwards a large pair of bellows shot out of the cupboard behind Mrs. McLennan, over Mr. McLennan, who was smoking a pipe and crashed into the stove. Ronald was sitting several yards away. The amazing thing was that he did not see it flying through the air. He could understand not seeing the potato but the bellows was unexplainable. He also had always been sceptical of such happenings and had naturally suspected practical joking. He had kept his eye on the boy all the evening and could say that he did not move. When they went out, he noticed that the large clothes trunk which had been flush with the wall when he went in had moved about a foot. He felt the weight of it and thought it would take two men all their time to lift it.
As regards the theory that the occurrences are due to practical joking the suggestion that Mr. and Mrs. McLennan have voluntarily smashed up a hundred-weight of crockery, besides numerous other articles of furniture, seems too absurd for consideration. Besides they are not at all pleased with the unasked for publicity which the occurrences have brought them. Ronald is a high spirited boy and is, I am told, as full of mischief as most boys. There is a feeling however that the phenomena that have occurred are beyond the capabilities of any boy, and he would certainly be a remarkable youth if he chose to do several pounds’ worth of damage to his parents’ property.
“POLTERGEIST.”
“Poltergeist,” says the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, “is the term applied to certain phenomena of an unexplained nature such as movements of objects without any traceable cause, and noises equally untraced to their source; but in some cases exhibiting intelligence, as when raps answer a question by a code.
“In the word Poltergeist, the phenomena are attributed to the action of a Geist, or spirit; of old the popular explanation of all residuary phenomena. The hypothesis in consequence of the diffusion of education, has been superseded by that of ‘electricity’; while sceptics in all ages and countries have accounted for all the phenomena by the theory of imposture….. But we have not to deal only with a belief that certain apparently impossible things may occur and have occurred in the past. We are met by the evidence of sane and credible witnesses, often highly educated, who maintain that they themselves have heard and beheld the unexplained sounds and sights. It appears, therefore, that in considering the phenomena of the poltergeist we are engaged with facts of one sort or another; facts produced either by skilled imposture, or resting on hallucination of the witnesses; or a mixture of fraud and of hallucination caused by “suggestion.” There remains the chance that some agency of an unexplored nature is, at least in certain cases, actually at work……
“…….. On the whole, while fraud, especially hysterical fraud, is a vera causa in some cases of poltergeist, it is not certain that the explanation fits all cases, and it is certain that detection of fraud has often been wrongly asserted. No good chronic case has been for months sedulously observed by sceptics. In short lived cases science appears on the scene long enough after date to make the theory of exaggeration of memory plausible…..
“On the theory that there exist mysterious agencies which now and then produce the phenomena, we may ask what these agencies can possibly be? But no answer worthy of consideration has ever been given to this question. The usual reply is that some unknown but intelligent force is disengaged from the personality of the medium. This apparent medium may not be present; he or she may be far away. The Highlanders attribute many poltergeist phenomena, inexplicable noises, sounds of viewless feet that pass, and so forth, to Tàradh, an influence exerted unconsciously by unduly strong wishes on the part of a person at a distance….”
A SPIRITUALIST’S EXPLANATION.
A theory which is widely recognised as the cause of these disturbances, is that they are due to the interference of some “mysterious agency.” I accordingly called upon a lady spiritualist who resides in this neighbourhood, on Tuesday afternoon, and asked her what explanation was given by spiritualists for such occurrences. A “poltergeist” disturbance was, she told me, either caused by the efforts of a spirit to get into communication with someone in the house or by a mischievous spirit employing a mysterious power possessed by either Mr. McLennan or his son, to cause objects to move and fly about. I asked her if she could obtain any information on the subject from the spirits with whom she was in communication, and she promised to do her best.
The following afternoon, Wednesday, I called again and she said that the previous evening she had sat for a time and had asked the spirits who came through to her, if they could tell her anything of the case. The only reply she received was “We can tell you nothing.” This was no more than she expected, as it was an invariable experience that no information could be obtained in such cases as they were “destructive” and not “constructive” – the object was not to destroy but to build. She could not say from the reply she received whether the spirits had information on the subject and would not divulge it or whether they were not aware if the case was a genuine one or merely trickery and practical joking. If it was a genuine case and whether it was a spirit endeavouring to establish communication or merely a spirit causing wilful damage, it was a wrongful action in either case, as it was causing trouble in the home. She told me that to make sure she had used her power, of which the glow went forth to the spirit concerned as a kind of electric wave, to prevail upon the spirit to desist from creating further disturbance as it was causing such trouble and damage in the home and she was hoping that there would now be no further manifestations.
THE OPINION OF A PROFESSIONAL CONJUROR.
The solution of the disturbances which will immediately occur to many people, will be that they are nothing more than trickery or practical joking. With this in view I have obtained the opinion of a very accomplished conjuror, Mr. Sid Loraine, who has spent many hours in Mr. McLennan’s house, investigating the occurrences. Mr. Loraine, who comes from Toronto, and who is spending a holiday in this country, is staying in Cambridge Gardens, St. Neots. In the course of his career he has investigated a number of similar cases and has had considerable experience of spiritualistic seances. He was the winner of the Highest Award at the International Brotherhood of Magicians’ Convention, 1927.
Mr. Loraine told me that he had never seen or read of a case in which the phenomena occurred with such frequency and violence as they had done in the earlier phases of this case. Ever since people had commenced to visit the house, however, the frequency and violence of the phenomena had abated very considerably. This was not unusual. The scientific explanation of the phenomena was that some member of the household possessed an abnormally developed “electrical aura,” which was sufficiently powerful to move objects. When, however, other people came in contact with this person the power of the aura was lessened, which would account for the decrease in the number and violence of the phenomena. He had himself known cases in which the abating of the disturbances was accounted for in this way.
I then asked Mr. Loraine if it would be possible for the things which had occurred in Mr. McLennan’s house to be produced by conjuring or practical joking. He said that it would be possible to produce many of the phenomena by means of conjuring, or to give another natural explanation for them. From a professional point of view the most puzzling phenomena to explain would be the movement of the heavy articles. He had carried out his investigations as a conjuror and had failed to find any definite proof of the existence of trickery. While he had been in the house various things occurred (similar in nature to those I have already mentioned). Although he had made careful investigations before and afterwards he had not found anything to suggest that they had been caused by fraud. Nevertheless, he was not prepared to make a definite statement on the subject. The occurrences were of such a nature that it was extremely difficult to come to a conclusion. A spiritualist would look at them from a spiritualist’s point of view; a scientist from a scientist’s point of view; a sceptic from a sceptic’s point of view; and he, as a conjuror, from his point of view.
A SECOND VISIT.
I paid another visit to Mr. McLennan’s house on Wednesday evening, in company with my brother. We arrived about 7.45 and found Mr. Loraine was already there. Mr. McLennan told me that since my last visit, although the phenomena had by no means ceased, heavy objects did not move. The manifestations were confined to small articles flying about and the intermittent sound which had previously described as a hissing noise like the sound of a bicycle pump.
Below are recorded some of the happenings which have occurred during the past few days, exactly as Mr. McLennan related them to me.
On Saturday evening, Mr. Edward Barnes and Mr. Hedge, both of Eaton Socon, were sitting in the kitchen (Mr. McLennan and Mr. Loraine were upstairs) when a dictionary flew out of the fireside cupboard and alighted at their feet. Shortly after they saw a tin cannister on the mantelpiece move and then fall to the ground, nearly hitting Ronald on the head. On the same occasion several balloons which were in a basket hanging close to the ceiling, flew out.
On Sunday Mr. McLennan went out about one o’clock. They had been kept up until two o’clock the previous night, and had not risen till late. He went for a walk alone leaving his son at home. When he returned about 3 o’clock he was told that nothing had happened and he went in to have some dinner. While he was sitting eating his dinner, the dictionary which he had placed on the windowed sill, flew out on to the table, while Ronald was standing by his side. Shortly afterwards, a stool and a box of clothes in the corner fell down. He spent the rest of the afternoon and evening away from home, returning about midnight, and went to bed about an hour later, in the kitchen, where he has been sleeping for the past fortnight. He has never heard anything after going to bed.
Nothing of a very startling nature occurred on Monday.
On Tuesday the most noteworthy demonstration occurred during the evening, when a new pair of lady’s rubber heels came out of the drawer in the kitchen table and flew up, completing the destruction of the lamp globe and smashing the mantle. Another incident that occurred an hour or two before I arrived was that a fork came out of the same drawer and stuck into the curtain in front of the cupboard. A metal pencil also flew from the drawer and made a hole in the window blind.
Mr. McLennan told me that nothing ever hits Ronald. He is convinced, however, that it is through his son that the phenomena occur by means of some spirit making use of some mysterious power possessed by the boy.
About 8.45 I suggested that, as nothing had occurred, I should go outside, leaving my brother in the kitchen with Mr. McLennan and Ronald. Mr. Loraine left at the same time as myself and I was away about half an hour. When I returned I was told that two occurrences had taken place. The first was that a stool and box of clothes which was standing in the corner had fallen over. I had previously examined this and found it to be in an unstable condition and drew Mr. McLennan’s attention to it. He said that however they placed the stool underneath it always worked back towards the wall. My brother was naturally sceptical and, like everyone else, suspected Ronal of practical joking, but he was unable to find any possible means by which he could have caused the stool to fall. It stood on a brick floor, clear of any carpet. Shortly afterwards he heard a click on the floor and Mr. McLennan pointed out a dog collar which had apparently fallen from nowhere. And again my brother was unable to detect any trick on the part of the boy.
Peterborough and Hunts Standard, 1st March 1929 (p7)
Weird Events in a St Neots House.
Domestic articles fly about ex-Policeman’s home.
Umbrella stand’s route march.
By our own representative.
In company with a friend I visited on Tuesday afternoon the house of Mr R McLennan, a retired Metropolitan policeman, who lives at 9, River Terrace, St Neots. Here very strange things have been happening during the past two weeks, and are still happening. By some mysterious agency articles fly about, crockery is broken and furniture is moved, and all the time there are weird noises – apparently all the phenomena usually associated with a poltergeist disturbance.
The family, it should be explained, consists of Mr and Mrs McLennan and their 15 year old son, Ronald, and the remarkable events have been occurring since the evening of last Friday week. On this day canisters and other articles on the mantelpiece in the basement kitchen began to wobble and then fall to the ground.
“Just the sort of place–” The house is one of a row and the back overlooks the river. At any time the houses present a sort of “shut in” and mysterious appearance with their walls bordering the roadway, and this and the dismal weather which prevailed on Tuesday enhanced the feeling of eeriness which is usually experienced when a house reputed to be “haunted” is approached.
The whole town is ringing with the stories of what has happened at N. 9. The majority of people are sceptical and treat the whole matter as a joke, but Mr McLennan assured me that this was not the case with some people who had visited the house and had actually been present when queer things had occurred, apparently without any human agency being at work.
The house has been “in the public eye,” so to speak, during the past week, and large crowds gathered outside there on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Unfortunately there were no “demonstrations” while my friend and I were in the house, but Mr McLennan’s lucid and unhalting explanation of his experiences, and the many things which he showed us to emphasise the truth of his words, certainly made us feel that some very mysterious agency is at work in the house. At any rate I could not account for the damage that has been done to innumerable articles.
“Almost Incredible.” In reply to my rap, Mr McLennan came to the front door and admitted us, and almost his first words were “Almost incredible things have been happening here during the past week or two.” He first of all showed us a metal flower bowl which stood at the bottom of the hall stand. He said one day last week this bowl left its place beneath the stand and bounced down the stairs leading to the kitchen, three stairs at a time. It stopped near the kitchen door and then returned to the landing of its own accord
“I never told anyone about it,” said Mr McLennan, “Because it seemed ridiculous.” He met a gentleman, however, who is well-known in the town and told him about it, and this gentleman visited the house the next day. The visitor examined the bowl in question, and after he had put it in its place and they were going downstairs to the basement together the bowl went bouncing down after them. The bowl dropped at the bottom of the stairs and spun round for a short time, but on this occasion it did not return to the hall of its own accord.
Referring to the visitor Mr McLennan said “He was the first one who was convinced of these things.” He pointed out another metal flower bowl on the hall stand which he said bounced down the stairs from the floor above. “It is a rare thing to see these things move,” observed Mr McLennan.
The Stand That Walked. He drew my attention to a tall umbrella stand made of some composition which was standing on the opposite side of the hall. The stand was broken, and he explained that this was caused by it hurling itself with full force to the other end of the hall.
He said members of a theatrical company were lodging at the house at the time, and on hearing a shuffling noise, one of the lodgers opened the door and looked into the hall. To her consternation she saw the umbrella stand moving about and trying to get into her room. She put the stand in its pace and watched it and noticed it wobble. She had no sooner turned her back to return to the room, when she heard a loud crash and on looking round she saw that the stand was up the other end of the hall.
“Curiouser and Curiouser!” “That is how all these things have been happening,” said Mr McLennan, who added, “Those are only minor happenings, as things have happened fast and furious.” Umbrellas had left the stand in the hall and flown down the basement stairs, and one of them narrowly missed one of the lodgers. On the same day the metal wells in the bottom of the hall stand went hurtling down into the basement.
Mr McLennan said the house had been visited by scientists, and he had also received a letter that day from the Society for Psychical Research, but none of them could fathom the cause of the happenings. He said “They can only put it down to the twin imp in my boy of 15. It is said that if you have an imaginative and tricky mind these things seem to work in sympathy with you. A poltergeist disturbance is the proper name they have for it.”
The Comical Side. “Comical things happen which make you laugh,” added Mr McLennan. “They started again to-day, but not much.” He said he was trying to write a letter that morning when all sorts of little things came flying after him, and a metal box belonging to Ronald, which contained Ovum, and was on the floor of the basement kitchen, flew up and dented the writing pad he was using.
The bottle of ink jumped on to the floor and some of it was spilt, and while his wife was holding the bottle “something” whizzed past her head and made her spill some of the ink on a newspaper. (Later on, when we were in the basement kitchen, I saw ink splashes on the floor and on that day’s newspaper).
When we were standing in the hall a cat came to the foot of the basement stairs and Mr McLennan said “They say animals have an instinct. When anything strange is happening the cat’s tail swells up like a brush and it quivers and makes piteous noises. It is only a young kitten too.”
Mr McLennan then took us down to the basement where, he said, most of the things had been happening. On the way down the stairs he remarked “The place is all upside down.” On entering the kitchen the first thing I noticed was that the glass globe of the gas lamp was broken, and I asked how that was done. Mr McLennan explained that he and his son were trying to have some tea one evening, but they could not get on because things were flying all over the place. They had candles lit because the gas kept going out. They had a chess piece which had been lying about for a long time, and one day it came flying into the kitchen. On the evening in question it was lying on the table and all at once the gas globe went crash and they found the chess piece lying on the other side of the table. It was the chess piece which broke the glass, although, at first they thought it was a bit of coal, pieces of which were flying about the room.
The Skittish Crockery.
Mr McLennan said some of the things made a sound like a gun being fired. All the things that had been happening that day were quite harmless. He pointed out a silk scarf and another long article which were fond of flying up and winding themselves round his neck.
One evening they were having tea when all the canisters and tins on the mantelpiece wobbled and fell to the floor. The tea caddy also jumped off the table on to the floor. Three times the tea caddy did this, and in the end he got a heavy fire brick and put it on top of the tea caddy on the floor! Mr McLennan showed me the fire brick, and he said that after he had put it on the caddy he went out of the room. As he opened the door to return to the room there was a loud crash, and he found the brick had left the caddy and had hit the door. The brick came across the room with such force that it would have broken his leg had it hit him! He replaced the brick on the caddy, but it again flew across to the other side of the room.
“People would not have believed it unless they experienced it,” said Mr McLennan, and he added that several people had been there and experienced it.
“Like a War.” During the conversation Mrs McLennan had come into the room and she remarked: “What noises there have been. They have been like bombs going off. You would think there was a war on. It is as bad as being at the war.” She pointed to a gap in the wall and said she moved a favourite picture of her husband’s because it was dancing about and was in danger of being broken. She also said she has lost pounds worth of stuff.
Flying Metal. Mr McLennan had been out of the room and when he returned he had with him the heavy footplate which had been on the kitchen range. He said that one evenign this footplate was hurled – or hurled itself – “like a shot out of a 16-pounder” from the range, out of the room, took a left-handed turn out of the door, and whizzed past him and hit the back door with a terrific bang. He showed me were a piece of the metal was broken off.
Mr McLennan also said that other heavy metal articles had hurled themselves from the range. He also pointed out to me that the steel fender was no longer in front of the range. They could not keep it there because it used to dance about and mount on to the couch on one side of the room!
Both Mr and Mrs McLennan pointed to some boxes and a big travelling trunk standing in a corner of the room which they said were in the habit of moving about and toppling over. The travelling trunk is packed full and Mr McLennan said it gradually edges out from the wall. Referring to a box standing on the top of another one, he said “It will shuffle and wriggle, and will topple down when you don’t look at it. It comes down almost every day.”
Mrs McLennan added still further to the mystery by relating several other strange incidents. She said bits of candles had been flying about that morning and coal had come flying downstairs from a coal scuttle on the first floor. Another thing which had happened was that the kitchen table moved about of its own accord. Mrs McLennan also corroborated several other things which had been told me by her husband.
Mr McLennan also drew my attention to a long nail which was sticking in the wallpaper above the mantelpiece. He said his son actually saw the nail wobble about before it bounded up from the shelf and stuck itself in the wall.
Havoc in the Scullery. When Mr McLennan took me into the passage he showed me pieces of potatoes lying on the floor, and said potatoes had been flying about that morning and smashing themselves against the walls and the doors. One evening a potato hit him on the back of the neck with considerable force. We then went into the scullery and Mr McLennan viewed the empty shelves with a rueful gaze. He said the shelves were full of crockery which had all been smashed, with the exception of a few plates which his wife had taken upstairs. Small articles had flown about, he said, and played havoc amongst the crockery and glassware.
One of the most curious things that has happened is the breaking away of some mortar at the top of a bricked up doorway in the basement passage. In the crevice were found two old fragments of bone – whether human or animal is not known. Mr McLennan produced the pieces of bone from his pocket for my inspection and showed me where the mortar had come away. He said three pieces of mortar came out, and one piece landed near the kitchen door, a few feet away. Referring to the bones, Mr McLennan said “I don’t think there is anything very supernatural about these.” He said both he and his wife saw the mortar move before it fell and he replaced the pieces of mortar and they came away again.
Mr McLennan, who is between 50 and 60 years of age, observed “If I live another 60 years I should think of all this as a nightmare, and that it was almost impossible for it to have happened. Scientists have been here and told me this sort of thing has happened before but that in this case it had been more varied and violent.” He also said “I have not exaggerated at all. People have been here and seen it. Soemthing has happened when people have been here to put the wind up them.”
He thought these sort of things were caused by an “imp” in a boy or girl of 15, which worked in sympathy with them. In this case he thought he was acting as the intermediate because nothing happened when he was out and all kinds of things came flying at him. It was said that nobody was really hurt by such happenings. Mr McLennan also said “It does not upset me but the wife is a bundle of nerves. I put it down to magnetism at first but now I don’t think it is that. These sort of things have happened before in connection with a boy or girl until they have been sent away.”
In reply to my question, Mr McLennan said nothing happened at night-time when they were in bed.
Moving Noises. Another weird experience which the family have had is to hear a hissing noise moving about in the kitchen. Mr McLennan said the noise was like a bicycle pump being used very quickly and it was followed by a noises like a cork being drawn from a bottle. One night this eerie sound had been hissing about his and his son’s ears and they decided to go for a walk to see if they could throw it off. “It may sound surprising,” added Mr McLennan, “but the sound followed us out and when we got on to the river bridge three young ladies who came along also heard it and were thunder-struck.” The sound followed them for about three-quarters of a mile and all the way back. Mr McLennan said the sound left them for three days, but it returned on the previous day and had been heard by them that morning.
There is a curtained recess in the kitchen, and Mr McLennan said innumerable articles flew out from behind the curtain. He produced a small English dictionary which he said was in the habit of continually flying from a small cupboard in the recess. He also pointed to a very old Bible resting on one of the low beams of the room which he said threw itself about the room of its own accord.
Interrupted meals. Mr McLennon described humorous incidents connected with meal times and said sometimes they could get hardly any food. He said his pipe was in the habit of flying from his pocket and one day it did so while he was attempting to spread some toast with dripping. The pipe went into the dripping and spoilt it. In the next minute the piece of toast lifted itself from the table and went on to the floor.
On another occasion they had difficulty in eating the potatoes at dinner time because they were jumping about. One potato went on to the mantelshelf. After the meal he was assisting his wife to wash up the dishes when three potatoes which had been left on the kitchen table sailed out of the room one after the other and hit him on the back of the head.
Mr McLennan also said he had a boiled egg one evening and after he had put the shell on the fire it jumped back on to the table.
Biggleswade Chronicle, March 8th 1929 (page 3/6).
The “Haunted House” at St Neots.
No Abatement of Weird Phenomena.
Mystery Still Unsolved. More Sceptics “Satisfied”.
The weird events which have been happening, during the past three weeks, at No. 9, River Terrace, St. Neots, the residence of Mr. R. McLennan, have shown no abatement during the past week, and the cause of the extraordinary phenomena still remains a mystery. Practically every evening Mr. McLennan has entertained a number of “investigators,” and, although many of them had pronounced themselves sceptical, they have, after witnessing the phenomena, been convinced that some mysterious force is at work, as they have satisfied themselves that the disturbances are not produced by trickery.
During the past few days there has been a change in the nature of the phenomena. Heavy articles are no longer hurled about and there has not been such serious destruction among the crockery, and the terrific bangs which used to shake the house have not been heard. The phenomena have been confined to an extraordinary number of petty annoyances, which, although not so destructive, are equally exasperating.
THE LATEST.
The “Biggleswade Chronicle” representative writes the following account of the occurrences during the past week:
I visited Mr. McLennan’s house on Monday evening, about 6 o’clock. All the family were at home, including Mr. McLennan’s elder son, Kenneth, who had arrived from London the previous Friday.
In the course of conversation, Mr. McLennan told me that the phenomena were most violent when he and Ronald, his youngest son, were alone. A most remarkable thing was that nothing occurred while Ronald was by himself or alone with his mother. The presence of Mr. Kenneth McLennan in the house has had no effect on the disturbances.
“I don’t expect that people believe me when I tell them of the things that have happened here. I shouldn’t believe it myself,” said Mr. McLennan.
Mr. McLennan described many of the occurrences which had taken place during the past few days. It would be quite impossible to recount them all, but I have chosen a number of the most striking.
On Thursday a phenomenon which has occurred many times since, occurred for the first time. While the family were sitting in the kitchen, the table drawer, which is full of knives and forks and other household requisites, suddenly shot open about eight inches. Mr. McLennan endeavoured to shut it, but it “back-fired,” nearly breaking his thumb. This has occurred a number of times since. Another happening of a similar nature is the periodical jamming of the damper on the kitchen range.
During the evening an event occurred which again demonstrated that the phenomena are not confined to the house. About 8 o’clock, Mr. McLennan and Ronald walked over to the St. Neots Paper Mill, which is about a mile from the town, to visit a friend. They had been sitting in a wooden hut for about half an hour when one of a number of small logs, piled on a seat, was hurled across the shed. Just as they were leaving, three other logs flew across the shed, one after the other.
On Friday a great many things occurred during the afternoon and evening. Mr. Kenneth McLennan arrived about 6 p.m., but the phenomena continued without abatement.
TEAPOT FLIES TO THE CEILING.
On Saturday several particularly noteworthy incidents occurred. About 8.30 a.m., an unusual hour for the phenomena, Ronald was in the kitchen, when an enamel teapot suddenly sprang from the table, hit the ceiling, which was splashed with tea leaves, and crashed to the ground. While the family were at dinner, on the same day, the teapot performed the same evolution. Some days previously Mr. McLennan had removed two tins of peas, which he was keeping for seed, from the kitchen cupboard, and placed them in the cupboard under the stairs and locked the door, for safety. While the family were at dinner on Saturday, a crash was heard outside the kitchen door. On opening it one of the tins of peas was found outside. The cupboard door was still locked, but the other tin was nowhere to be found. Mr. McLennan was just returning to the kitchen when there was another crash and the missing tin fell at his feet. The tins were afterwards removed to the lavatory in the front yard and locked in an old oil stove. During the evening, however, although both the yard door and the kitchen door were shut, peas commenced to fly about the room in threes and fours, hitting members of the family and bouncing off the table.
AN AWFUL DAY.
Sunday was one of the worst days since the disturbances commenced on Feb. 15th. Two of the most surprising incidents occurred during the day. Mr. McLennan was in the scullery when his son, Kenneth, saw a salt barrel, nearly a foot in height, glide down his back and crash to the floor. On the same day Mrs. McLennan saw a boot brush glide up and down Ronald’s back while he was standing in the kitchen. The disturbances became so frequent during the evening that it was impossible for the family to do anything. The most persistent of the phenomena was the extinguishing of the gas. During the evening this occurred dozens of times. This has been experienced several times before, but never with such frequency. On each occasion articles of clothing, socks and gloves and woollen coats, in some cases articles which had been lost for some days, flew across the room and twined themselves round the gas pipe, and the light was immediately extinguished, simultaneously with the extinguishing of a lighted candle which is kept for cases of emergency on the mantel piece. On each occasion it was found necessary to re-adjust the air-valve before the gas could be lighted, and on some occasions the supply was found to be turned off at the meter.
Mr. Kenneth McLennan told me that he attempted to write a letter but he was bombarded with lumps of salt, buttons and socks and the gas was extinguished so frequently that he had to leave off. During the evening a large lump of burning coal from the kitchen fire, suddenly flew out and crashed into the kitchen door, filling the room with smoke.
A SHOWER OF PEAS.
I was told that, apart from a shower of peas in the morning, Monday had been comparatively quiet. Nothing else had occurred until just before I arrived, when a dish cloth flew out of the scullery and extinguished the gas in the kitchen. While I was in the kitchen Kenneth and Ronald offered to go into the scullery and walk back along the passage into the kitchen, as this had been proved to be a certain means of invoking phenomena, numerous articles having followed them and flown over their heads into the kitchen. They walked backwards and forwards about eight times, and on one occasion a broom fell down in the passage behind them. On two successive occasions a dish cloth and a towel were found in the kitchen doorway. I also sat for about ten minutes alone with Ronald in the kitchen, but the result was negative.
During the week Mrs. McLennan has lost a valuable cut glass salad bowl and a biscuit barrel, which she prized very highly.
Mr. and Mrs. McLennan have had a number of visitors during the week, and I have spoken to several who have witnessed phenomena.
Two young ladies who paid a visit on Saturday evening were convinced that what they saw was not possible by practical joking. Ronald and his elder brother walked to and from the scullery a number of times, and as they stood in the doorway of the kitchen, a dish cloth, towel, floor swab, a half-penny and other articles shot over their heads across the room, in some cases several seconds after they had reached the kitchen door. As the visitors were standing in the hall, just before leaving the hall clock stopped and a small snuff box flew up the stairs from the kitchen, and the gas was extinguished. All the family were in the hall at the time.
“SATISFIED.”
On Tuesday evening I received the clearest and most convincing evidence of the genuine nature of the phenomena, that I have yet heard. The extraordinary nature of the occurrences is such that the normal individual is sceptical of their genuineness, and is, not unnaturally, unconvinced until he actually witnesses the phenomena with his own eyes. A number of quite “normal” people have now visited Mr. McLennan’s house and have come away after exhaustive investigation, absolutely satisfied that the happenings cannot be explained by practical joking or trickery. I give below a statement from Mr. S.T. Pearce, of the “Station Hotel,” St. Neots:
“I visited Mr. McLennan’s house on Monday evening about 9.30 and remained there until 11.15. I had heard a good deal of the disturbances which have taken place there and my reason for going was to see for myself exactly what happens. I am rather interested in conjuring and it was purely to satisfy my curiosity in that direction that I went. I stayed there until I had thoroughly satisfied myself that no trickery was being practised, and unless I was absolutely convinced, I should not tell you. When I first arrived there were six or seven persons present, including the whole family, but later on three of them left and things became much more lively. In fact it seems that when a large number of persons are present it affects the strength of the phenomena. Another thing which has been discovered is that when Ronald is with certain people the phenomena are much stronger, and it seems as though the other person acts as a ‘medium.’ Mrs. Fred Carr, who was one of the first to visit the house and who was present on Tuesday evening, is a particularly good ‘combination’. Mr. McLennan believes that the phenomena are, in some unexplicable way, connected with Ronald.
“During the evening a number of those present experimented with the boy, but the most remarkable results were obtained with Mrs. Carr. One gentleman, a Mr. Kirby, who was making fun of the whole thing, had his scepticism severely shaken, I think. He and Ronald went into the hall alone and walked back down the stairs into the kitchen three times, the boy keeping his hands on Mr. Kirby’s shoulders. When they returned from the hall for the third time and when Mr. Kirby was nearly at the bottom of the stairs with Ronald still holding his shoulder, a metal bowl standing under the hall stand two or three yards from the head of the stairs, commenced to roll after them down the stairs. I had particularly examined this bowl myself. Mrs. Carr and the boy repeated this manoeuvre several times in exactly the same way, and on nearly every occasion the bowl followed them. Once it was seen to turn at the foot of the first flight and bounce down to the basement passage. I can say personally that on several occasions the bowl did not commence to move until they were actually passing down the stairs.
“Several persons who were present, including myself, walked to and from the scullery with the boy, but again Mrs. Carr proved to be the most successful ‘medium.’ Altogether they repeated this experiment dozens of times and on a great many occasions articles were heard to fall in the passage or to follow them into the room. I sat immediately opposite the door. Mrs. Carr walked along the passage to the scullery and returned immediately with Ronald holding her shoulders with both hands. On nearly every occasion some article followed them. Swabs, house flannels, nail brushes, boot brushes, halfpennies, and wash bowls either clattered down into the passage behind them, or hit Mrs. Carr and the boy, and in some cases came flying into the room. I could not, of course, always see these articles and could only hear them fall in the passage or hear Mrs. Carr or the boy call out when they were hit.
“I determined not to be satisfied until I could actually see Mrs. Carr, with Ronald holding both his hands on her shoulders, standing in the doorway, when the articles hit them or flew over their heads. I saw this occur distinctly, three times, and it left me no room for doubt. All the family were in the kitchen at the time. On the first occasion I plainly saw a boot brush strike the boy on the back and fly off into the kitchen with a twirling motion. On the second occasion a spoon whizzed over their heads and crashed into the door post, rebounding into the room. On the other occasion a tube of Colgate’s toothpaste, in a carton, was placed in the scullery and, when both Mrs. Carr and Ronald had returned to the kitchen and were standing clear of the doorway, straight in my line of vision the tube flew over their heads and hit the door post, followed almost immediately afterwards by the carton.
“Nothing occurred after 10.45, and Mr. McLennan told me that the disturbance ceases earlier each night and he is now hoping that it will eventually stop altogether.”
On enquiry yesterday (Thursday) morning, Mr. McLennan informed me that the disturbances are still continuing.
Peterborough Standard, 8th March 1929 (p7)
There appears to be no abatement at present of the weird events which have been happening for the past three weeks at 9, River-terrace, St. Neots, the residence of Mr. R. McLennan, a retired Metropolitan policeman. As recorded here last week “demonstrations” have been occurring at the house which bear all the resemblance to a poltergeist disturbance, and the whole thing is most mysterious.
When our representative visited the house again on Tuesday evening, he found that Mr McLennan’s eldest son, who works in London, was home on a short visit, and that in the basement kitchen there were two married women, a young woman and a girl who had come to “investigate.” Some more stories of surprising happenings were related by Mr. McLennan, who remarked that he was beginning to get “sick and tired” of the unnatural events. He said that during the afternoon the back door was opened when his son went out and a jam jar, a bottle and a tile came flying in from the back yard and broke themselves on the basement passage floor.
On Sunday evening they had an “awful time” said Mr McLennan. Articles of clothing flapped round the gas, which they could not keep alight, and strangest of all pieces of burning coal flew out of the fire in the basement kitchen. “The room was full of smoke and nearly choked us” added Mr McLennan.
Mrs McLennan remarked that the unearthly hissing sound had come back to worry them.
The gas light in the kitchen was poor owing to the mantle having been damaged by some missile, and several candles were burning on the mantelshelf. Mr McLennan observed that it was strange that the candles should keep alight so long. He said that if he gave a candle to his youngest son, Ronald, it would not keep alight, and he also remarked that after the gas went out of its own accord, which frequently happened, he always had to adjust the regulator before he could light it again.
A Bombardment! Both Mr McLennan’s eldest son and one of the women visitors spoke about queer things which had happened while they had been in the house. The latter said she had paid four or five visits to the house and had seen boxes move and a penny, a nail brush, a tube of tooth paste and all sorts of things come flying into the kitchen.
She related how she was trying to drink a cup of tea one evening when some peas which Mr McLennan had kept for planting landed on the table, coming seemingly from nowhere. On another occasion the bellows left one of the corners of the room and collided with the shovel kept by the fireplace.
The woman already mentioned and the boy, Ronald, then went out into the basement passage to “experiment” and for a few minutes there were some lively happenings. Twice the woman and the boy traversed the length of the passage together and came into the kitchen. On the first occasion they had only just arrived at the kitchen door when a small brush came flying from somewhere and hit the door frame, narrowly missing the boy’s head in its flight.
On the second occasion their entrance into the kitchen coincided with a loud crash in the hall, and investigation showed that there was a metal wash-bowl lying about half-way up the passage. The boy was then given a halfpenny piece by his mother and he took it out of the kitchen and laid it down at the end of the passage. He had no sooner come into the kitchen again than the halfpenny was heard clinking on the tiled floor of the passage, and the coin was found close to the kitchen door. On another occasion the woman and the boy had come down the passage together when a rattling noise was heard and an old tooth brush was found on the floor, close to the door.
Bowled! This did not finish the happenings, which were as humorous as they were mysterious. The woman and the boy went up two flights of stairs to a landing where a metal flower bowl stood on a small table. When they came down the stairs together, and after they had passed the bowl, a loud noise was heard and it was found that the bowl had followed them down the stairs. The experiment was repeated several times, and on nearly every occasion the bowl came rattling down the stairs. Once the spectators actually saw the bowl turn at the foot of one flight of stairs and then bounce down the other flight. The woman who accompanied the boy down the stairs on each occasion vowed that the boy did not touch the bowl when they passed it.
Mr McLennan remarked “She acts as a good medium,” and Mrs McLennan said the things only happened when there was a certain person with the boy.
Other persons present accompanied the boy down the stairs but the bowl did not then move, although once it was heard to rattle.
The mystery of how these sorts of things are happening still remains unsolved.
Biggleswade Chronicle, 15th March 1929 (page 5/6).
The “Haunted House” at St. Neots.
The extraordinary disturbances which have been taking place during the past month at 9, River Terrace, St. Neots, the residence of Mr. R. McLennan, are still continuing. The phenomena are now confined to a variety of irritating incidents. During the week-end there was a period of forty hours during which there were no phenomena of any description, and it is hoped that the disturbances will eventually cease.
Biggleswade Chronicle, 22nd March 1929 (page 5/6).
The “Haunted House.”
The extraordinary disturbances which have been taking place for the past five weeks at the house of Mr. R. McLennan, a retired Metropolitan policeman, of 9, River Terrace, St. Neots, have now practically ceased. During the past week, apart from several small articles flying across the kitchen, no phenomena have occurred and it is hoped that, in the near future, peace will be completely restored. It seems unlikely now that the disturbance will be proved to be due to any particular cause.
Recently a Research Officer of the British Society for Physical [sic] Research, investigated the occurrences. Mr. McLennan told the “Biggleswade Chronicle” that she did not express any definite opinion as to the cause, but advised the family to keep their minds off the subject and to think that it was not going to happen again. The more fuss that was made, the longer it would continue.
A THEORY.
Mr. McLennan admitted that he had no definite opinion himself, although he was convinced that the disturbances were connected in some way with his 15 years old son, Ronald, as the phenomena rarely occurred when he was not in the house. He inclines to the opinion that the occurrences were due, in some mysterious way, to the working of the boy’s subconscious mind, although he is certain that Ronald himself, is not consciously responsible.
This is a very interesting theory and is entitled to consideration, as there is no doubt that the mysteries of thought, imagination, subconsciousness and nervous energy are, at present, far from being fully understood.
Lord Frederick Hamilton, in his book published in 1921, states that Col. Barnard, Chief of Police in Calcutta, attended a demonstration of the famous Indian rope trick and actually saw the rope rise straight into the air, and a boy climb up out of sight, etc. During the performance the Colonel took several snaps with his camera, and on returning he at once developed the negatives, with astounding results; neither the boy nor the rope had moved at all.
Biggleswade Chronicle, 29th March 1929 (page 6/6).
“The Haunted House” at St. Neots.
Opinion of Psychical Research Officer.
As reported in our last week’s issue, the remarkable occurrences which have been taking place since February 15th, at the house of Mr. R. McLennan, a retired Metropolitan policeman, of 9, River Terrace, St. Neots, were recently investigated by a Research Officer of The Society for Psychical Research. We have received the following letter from Dr. V.J. Woolley, an officer of the Society, in reply to our question as to whether the investigator had formed any opinion as to the cause of the disturbances or if she favoured any particular theory:-
“Dear Sir. – In reply to your letter of the 18thinst., my assistant, Mrs. Brackenbury, did as you say, spend some days in St. Neots and witnessed some of the remarkable occurrences you refer to. In those she witnessed there appeared no reason to suppose that they were due to any supernormal cause.
Yours faithfully, V.J. Woolley, Research Officer.
The Society for Psychical Research, 31 Tavistock Square, London, W.C.1.
From The Annual Report of the Council for the year 1929, in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Volume 27.
“Two supposed poltergeist hauntings were visited, in St Neots and in Lambeth, but in neither case could any satisfactory evidence be obtained that the disturbances were of a supernormal character.”