Torquay woman hopes she has laid a chair ghost – with her axe.
Two Torquay houses are having “ghost trouble” and the occupiers are wondering if the chopping up of a “haunted” chair will bring peace to their homes. The chair, a seemingly innocuous piece of Victoriana with its padded seat and carved wooden arms and legs, stood beside the fire at 14a, Queen-street. But since it arrived in early December, Mrs Irene Howard, who occupies the flat with her husband, has:-
Seen the mysterious figure of a stout old woman in old-fashioned clothes sitting in the chair in the middle of the night; had her jumper tugged by an unseen hand; seen a vase of artificial flowers flung all over the room; and had a plate snatched from her hands and thrown to the floor.
But the “things that go bump” by day and by night are by no means confined to 14a. The unseen visitor, be it ghost or just a practical joker, has been at work in the upstairs flat at 14 and in the house next door, 15, as well. Here the occupiers have come home to find clocks, ornaments and clothing strewn around the place, and no one can offer a rational explanation.
At 14a there have been several incidents over two years, but when the chair was taken to the flat they became more than just annoying. The story began in early December and at first Mr and Mrs Howard did not connect the disturbing chain of events with the chair. “I was standing in the kitchen when something started tugging at my jumper,” said Mrs Howard. “I turned around and could see my jumper being pulled – but nobody was there.” With water in the bowl she was holding, slopping everywhere, Mrs Howard started shouting and the tugging stopped, only for the incident to be repeated a few days later.
“I was standing in the kitchen again days later washing the dishes, when a plate I was holding was taken from my hands and thrown across the room,” added Mrs Howard. There was no explanation for this or for the time she retuned to her flat to find a row of potatoes neatly arranged in a line along the kitchen floor.
Naturally Mrs Howard became a little worried and frequently a light was left burning during the night, although most of the occurrences took place in broad daylight. Meanwhile Mrs Howard noticed that her cat was taking a particular interest in the old fireside chair. “The cat would walk round the chair in circles and purr, putting its paws up as if begging to someone,” she explained.
The young couple could hear the chair creaking during the night and until now had been satisfied with the explanation from neighbours that “it was caused by the heat from the fire.” Now they began to put two and two together and more was to happen to confirm their suspicions.
A vase of artificial flowers was thrown all over the room, then, while sitting in her living room one evening, Mrs Howard was struck on the face. Looking down she found it had been a piece of coal which had come from the bucket beside the chair. No one else was in the room.
The most startling incident occurred one morning when Mrs Howard got up at about 4 o’clock. She walked into the living-room and was confronted by the chair. In it was a dark shape – “I thought at first it was a bundle of clothes.” But it was not. It was the figure of a stout old woman dressed in rather old fashioned black clothes. “That was enough for me,” said Mrs Howard. “That morning I took an axe and smashed the chair.” Now the piece of furniture has ended its century-long life as firewood, a solution to the mystery is unlikely to be found.
But while talking to neighbours who had previously owned the chair, Mrs Howard learned something which deepened rather than solved the mystery. It had started its life in the household of a Chelston woman who was described as stout and always dressed in long black old-fashioned dresses. The chair was her favourite. A previous owner of the chair in Queen-street had also heard things in the night – sounds as if someone was walking around in th eroom where the chair was. On investigation there was nobody there.
The bottom flat at No. 14, however, is not th eonly place to have been visited by some form of the supernatural. Upstairs where the house owner, Mrs Margaret Somerwell lives and next door at No. 15, the home of Mrs Beatrice Endicott, an uninvited guest seems to have a “thing” about clocks. He, she or it, has been “dropping in” at the two houses over the past two years and each time starts throwing clocks around. Miss Somerwell has frequently returned to find clocks, ornaments and clothing, in all sorts of strange places. They have been thrown or placed under wardrobes, under chairs and in the middle of the living room.”It seems to occur about once every month,” she said, “Each time I have been away from the house all day. It has been locked up and there is only one way in.”
Mrs Endacott’s story is the same. She, too, has returned to find her clocks ticking away in all sorts of unlikely places. No one can offer any explanation for these events. No doubt many people will say that the residents have a very vivid imagination. Another possible explanation may be that there is a practical joker operating in the street. It all really depends on whether or not you believe in poltergeists and the like.
Torbay Express and South Devon Echo, 22nd March 1966.