Phantom Night Visitor.
Tale of Haunted House in Midlands.
Strange tappings and a phantom figure stated to have been seen in the middle of the night, have terrified a family occupying an old Coventry house – 36, Far Gosford-street. The house is occupied by Mrs M. Rickhuss, her two sons, Sam and Jack, aged 17 and 16 respectively, and two daughters, Sarah, aged 11, and Joan, aged 9, as well as her married daughter and son-in-law, Mr and Mrs J. Turner, and their two children. A feature of the house is the number of doorways and cupboards which have been bricked in.
During the last few months, Mr Turner states, he has heard strange noises originating apparently from a cupboard on the stairs near a first-floor bedroom where the two boys sleep. The tapping sometimes prevented the family from getting any sleep. Not long ago, he declares, the whole household was awakened in the middle of the night by screams, and Sam Rickhuss was found to be sitting up in bed in hysterics. He shouted that he had seen the ghost. His description of the unwelcome visitor was: An old gentleman with a long white beard and outstretched arms. “He peered at me from the bottom of the bed,” said the terrified lad. The boy refused to sleep in the same bedroom again and has since had to receive medical attention.
The case for the presence of a ghost in the house does not rest upon the uncorroborated testimony of the youth. Mr Turner says that he also has seen the same figure in his bedroom, and that before he had time to try conclusions with it, it vanished.
The apparition appeared after the knockings had been heard much more clearly than previously. Every effort has been made to trace the source of the noise, but without success. The lifting of the floor boards in the bedrooms yielded no clue.
Birmingham Gazette, 26th June 1930.