Xmas Ghost with a Good Aim. Well-thrown Orange Finds Its Mark. Weird Happenings.
The Christmas festivities of Monkton Heathfield, a village near Taunton, are being enlivened by the doings of a ghost, who, forsaking ivy-clad castles, seems to have ensconced itself in a newly-built house. The residence in question was erected for his own occupation by a Mr Gardiner, a jobbing builder, and during the last few days, articles of furniture have been moved about the house without apparent human agency. So uncanny has the situation become that Mr Gardiner and his son no longer sleep there.
The trouble began last Sunday evening, when an extraordinary noise was heard, and Mr Gardiner was struck on the back of the neck by an orange which, a moment before had been reposing on a plate on the dresser. Other inexplicable occurrences are related by neighbours who were interviewed yesterday. A chain jumped from the floor on to the table, and a match-box, which was on the table in the kitchen, suddenly rose several feet into the air and then fell to the ground.
A pair of boots emerged backwards from the cupboard, and two prayer-books and a large postcard album flew from a bookshelf to the opposite side of the room. The climax was reached when amazed witnesses saw a lamp rise from the table and gracefully volplane to the kitchen floor.
These things have happened not only at night, but during midday meals, when knives have moved from one end of the table to the other, and the pepper-box has taken to walking.
No explanation has been found for the phenomena, which have only occurred when the owner has been present.
Sunday Mirror, 23rd December 1923.
Haunted House.
Weird Happenings at Monkton Heathfield. Furniture moves without aid.
The inhabitants of West Monkton and the surrounding district are greatly interested in the extraordinary occurrences that are said to have recently occurred at a newly-erected dwelling at Monkton Heathfield. The daily papers some short time ago gave great prominence to mysterious happenings in a house situated on the East Coast, when it was averred by many spectators that articles of furrniture moved about the house without the aid of human agency. It is said that an almost identical phenomenon has been noticed at Monkton Heathfield, a hamlet about three miles from Taunton. The trouble began on Sunday last, when, during the early evening, the occupier of the house noticed an extraordinary noise coming apparently from the window, and since then it is stated that various articles in the house have moved themselves from one point to another.
On Thursday our representative visited “the haunted house,” but was unable to find the occupier. However, he interviewed several of the leading inhabitants of the hamlet, who state that they personally have seen these strange happenings, and have seen articles in the house move from one spot in the room to another. He was informed, amongst other things, that an orange reposing on the dresser, without being touched, was seen to leave the shelf and float across the room and strike the son of the occupier in the back of the neck. A match-box, which was in a candlestick on the table, rose several feet suddenly in the air, and fell again on to the table, and a pair of boots was noticed to emerge backwards from a “siding” in the room many feet out into the room itself. Another sensation was when four books – a Prayer book, a Holy Communion book, a school book, and a heavy and large postcard album, “flew” from the book-shelf to the opposite side of the room. A tea-caddy was seen to come from another sideboard out into the room, upset, and the tea spill on the floor, whilst the spoon came out of the caddy at the same time. Vases, &c., have fallen from various places in the room, and even the pictures have not been allowed to remain undisturbed. The climax was reached when the amazed spectators saw the lamp rise from the table, float in the air, and eventually find a “resting place” on the floor.
Not only have these strange things occurred during the evenings, but also at mid-day, for during one of the mid-day meals the knives on the table have moved from one end to the other, the pepper-pot also “took a walk,” whilst a box of Quaker oats suddenly tipped over. Another amazing incident was when the occupier of the house was about to take a seat at the table he noticed the chair move to the other side of the room in an unaccountable fashion.
No solution whatever can be offered by anyone as to the cause of such extraordinary occurrences.
(The above appeared exclusively in the Somerset County Herald on Saturday last. In the evening it was broadcasted, and was copied in daily papers on Sunday and Monday.)
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 26th December 1923.
Somerset Hamlet’s Christmas Ghost.
An extraordinary story of a newly-built, yet “haunted” house comes from Monkton Heathfield, a hamlet near Taunton. The report, which is strongly supported by local gossip, concerns the residence of a Mr. Gardiner, a local jobbing builder who recently completed the building of a small villa for his own occupation. Since taking up residence there with his son strange and very uncanny things have happened, so disturbing, in fact, that the occupants left to spend Christmas with friends.
According to neighbours, the mysterious happenings have included the jumping of a chair from the floor to a table, the movement of a pair of boots, emerging backwards from a cupboard into the room, the falling of pictures from the walls, a tea caddy “hopping” about of its own accord, movement of Prayer-books and a post-card album from a bookshelf to the opposite side of the room, a lamp rising from the table and “floating” to the floor, and the shifting about of knives and a pepper-box at the dinner table.
These incidents are said to have happened both in the day and night, and to have taken place only in the presence of the elder Mr. Gardiner. The “ghost” story is naturally the talk of the district, and no explanation can be gathered.
Gloucestershire Chronicle, 29th December 1923.
Furniture that floats. Strange tales of haunted house.
Astonishing stories of a ghost said to haunt a new house and perform strange antics with the furniture, comes from the little village of Moroton [sic] Heathfield near Daunton [sic] in Devonshire [sic]. The owner of the house is Mr H Gardiner, a builder and contractor, who recently erected it for his own occupation, only to find that it apparently shelters an invisible and undesirable tenant of a weird type.
“I’ve had no end of trouble in the place,” Mr Gardiner said when interviewed. “The ghost, or what it is, seems to have picked me out especially for its vengeance, though for what reason I cannot think. Strange to say, nothing happens in the place when I am out of it. My son and I built the house, and it was only completed a few weeks ago. We went to live there, and had just got settled down when the trouble started. My son and I were sitting in the parlour reading when we heard a curious sort of noise. It was like a whining sound that went right through the house and made us feel creepy. The noise died down, and I was just getting out of my chair to investigate the mystery when an orange came floating through the air and struck me on the back of the neck. I called in some of the neighbours and we went all round the house, but could find nothing.”
“While we were standing talking in the room a heavy chair suddenly rose from the floor and seemed to float up in the air and finally rest on the middle of the table. No one touched the chair, and how it happened I cannot explain. Then a box of matches in a candlestick on the kitchen table rose up in the air, and when it nearly reached the kitchen ceiling it fell with a crash on the floor, all the matches being spilled.”
“While my son and I were picking up the matches a cupboard door on the far side of the room suddenly opened, and a pair of my boots came out with the heels first, and floated round the room, about four feet from the floor, and then dropped at my feet. I was too amazed to know what to do. That night several of the neighbours stayed in the house, and the strange happenings continued as before. Two prayer books and a large postcard album suddenly flew off the shelf in the bookcase and floated from one side of the room to the other. They struck the opposite wall and fell on to the floor.”
“The strangest part of the whole affair is that the moving objects always came from the opposite side of the room to which people are standing or sitting, and they always came straight towards me. But the climax came when a lighted lamp started to wander about the room. I was sitting reading quietly,” said Mr Gardiner,” when the lamp rose from the table and commenced to float towards the ceiling. It came right clear of the table, and then began to fall to the floor.
“My son caught hold of it as it was falling. I was too scared to move for the moment. If the lamp had fallen it would have exploded, and the house would have been fired. I thought that it was time to clear out after that, and went to a neighbour’s to sleep. No sooner had I gone from the house than everything was quiet, and there have been no repetitions of the uncanny events.”
Worthing Herald, 26th January 1924.
(note this is about a month late. but has more detail. yet the location is full of errors?)