The ghosts of Rockingham.
Mystery spirit and a pretty lady.
Midnight searches.
Which is the most haunted village in Leicestershire, or on its borders? A remarkable story has just come to light from Rockingham where, in addition to the several spectres reputed to haunt the Castle, home of the Wentworth-Watsons, there is a ghost in one of the village houses, the behaviour of which suggests grimness with romance indeed. A thoroughly well-authenticated ghost, tenants of the house have now got quite used to his goings-on. He cannot be called a sprightly sprite, for his mode of procedure is to stamp upstairs with heavy but unseen tread, to one of the bedrooms – always at midnight, at certain times of the year.
The ghost goes always to one spot in the room, and, no matter what piece of furniture is standing there, ransacks it. If it is a bed, he throws off all the clothes; but he appears to prefer a chest of drawers, always turning out the contents of the third one, in order, apparently, to find some missing documents.
A Leicester lady who, some years ago, used to stay with her friends who were then tenants of the house, often heard the unseen visitor thumping up the stairs at a time when no one else was in, and heard him frantically searching in a chest of drawers on the other side of the partition wall.
Always the ghost’s procedure is the same. What is he seeking? Is he an earthbound spirit hunting desperately for faded love-letters of a dead romance, perchance hidden in a secret drawer of furniture that has gone?
Leicester Evening Mail, 5th October 1928.