“Misty” figures inquiry.
Strange noises at almshouses.
The Society of Psychical Research is to investigate incidents at a 300-year-old house at Seymour Almshouses, Langley, Bucks. It is occupied by Mrs Florence Buckland, her daughter, June (18), her sons, Geoffrey (10) and Jackie (5), and Mrs Martha Shelock and her daughter, Edna (10).
A reporter who visited the house yesterday was told that soon after the family moved into the house, eight months ago, June awoke one night and saw a tall, misty figure standing near her. She did not tell her mother, but the family was soon trying to locate strange knockings and noises.
By Fireplace.
About three weeks ago Mrs Buckland awoke at 3 a.m. to attend to Jackie, who was ill, and felt a hand grip her waist. Two days later she awoke and saw a misty figure by the fireplace. At about the same time Mrs Shelock awoke, looked across her room to the bed used by June and Edna, and saw Edna lying fast asleep under the bed. June had not been disturbed and there was no sign of the bedclothes having been moved. The same thing happened a few nights later.
One evening Mrs Shelock heard the door open and the sound of footsteps, but nobody had entered. Six nights ago Mrs Buckland and Mrs Shelock were sitting downstairs when they heard a moaning noise, which continued for 20 min.
Both June and Mrs Shelock reported having had the bedclothes pulled off them during the night. June awoke once to find the bedclothes folded neatly back and the eiderdown lying in the corner. For the past few nights the family have kept lights burning and have not seen anything, but have heard strange noises.
Bradford Observer, 5th December 1946.
‘Langley Ghost’ meets women in No. 16.
Herald reporter, Langley, Bucks, Wednesday.
Sitting round a dying fire in the tiny sitting-room of a 300-year-old almshouse here tonight are a woman and a girl frightened to go upstairs to bed. They have seen “the ghost” in Anne Seymour House, Langley. The Society of Psychical Research has written offering to send an investigator. It is eight months since Mrs Florence Buckland came to live at No. 16 Anne Seymour House, adjoining the graveyard of old Langley church. With her came her dark-haired daughter, June, aged 18, and sons Geoffrey, aged 10, and Jackie, five.
Four nights in succession June woke up soon after midnight and “saw a tall white figure of a man” in the dark room. “It seemed to be made of a thick mist. It never spoke,” June told me tonight. “One evening I saw it down here in the living room before midnight.” Three weeks ago Mrs Buckland said she too saw the figure.
There are many other “happenings” in the house. “Noises start at all sorts of times,” said June. “Sometimes there is a weird humming in the living room. At other times, usually about 10.30 or 11 p.m., there are thumping noises upstairs.”
Two months ago a Mrs Sherlock and her daughter Edna, aged 10, came to share the Buckland’s two rooms. One night June awoke and found Edna under the bed. The clothes were lifted back from the bottom of the bed, but she had heard no sound of falling, and when the child woke up she had no idea of what had happened.
Before the Bucklands came to No. 16 two widows lived in the house. Both reported queer happenings.
It is midnight as I write. So far no ghost has appeared. But a Press photographer saw a heavy inside door open wide from no apparent cause.
June Buckland.
Daily Herald, 5th December 1946.
Rector to ‘exorcise’ ghost.
Bell, book and candle for the haunted old almshouse.
By JP Derriman, “Herald” reporter.
Langley, Bucks, Friday.
With “bell, book and candle” the ghost of Langley’s 17th century almshouse may shortly be “exorcised.” Tonight the Rev. TD Prentis, Rector of Langley, was delving into dusty ecclesiastical tomes in his library to find the correct procedure. He was seeking the ritual by which a priest of God was authorised by the Church in medieval times to rid a place of a “familiar” or “unclean spirit.” That solemn excommunication ceremony ended with the priest’s incantation over the Bible: “Do to the Book, quench the candle, ring the bell,” performing these actions as he spoke. If he can find the prescribed ceremonial, the rector hopes to end the “haunting” of No. 16 Seymour House, and give the Buckland family, its occupants, peace.
“But I shall await the verdict of psychical investigators before going ahead,” he told me. “I shall also acquaint the Rural Dean. Exorcism is definitely within the jurisdiction of a parish priest , and I do not need permission, but as a matter of courtesy I shall have to seek the advice of my superiors.”
Since the almshouse ghost came into the news this week, it has been working overtime. “Now the knockings and humming-top sounds go on all day,” said 18-year-old June Buckland, who has five times seen the six-foot “apparition.” “It is as if it were taking revenge for being disturbed – we are now keeping lamps burning all night.”
Her mother, Mrs Florence Buckland, has so far kept the details of the haunting from the children of the house – Jane’s brothers, Geoffrey, 10, Jackie, 5, and 10-year old Edna Shelock.
Last night a local medium called, and, after sitting in the tiny candle-lit room for a few minutes, told Mrs Buckland and her daughter that the spirit was a female who wished to communicate with them. “The medium told me I was psychic,” said Mrs Buckland, “and said that when the knocking occurred I should speak to it. But I am too frightened. All I want to do is to leave this place.”
One local suggestion is that the haunting may have some connection with a Joseph Pearce, who, says a decaying monument in the adjoining graveyard, was “most inhumanly murdered,” a century ago. But Alderman A. G. Trevener, chairman of the local trust which administers the Ann Seymour House, is sceptical. “I want proof,” he said tonight. “I should very much like to spend a night there myself to see what happens!”.
Daily Herald, 7th December 1946.
The almshouses are near the church.
Haunted then jeered.
No one may try to exorcise the ghost that haunts the 17th century almshouse at Langley, Bucks, because villagers have started jeering at the family which lives there. The six-foot ghost has become Langley’s most popular joke, but each night weird noises in the house, it is said, continue.
“We have been made a laughing-stock,” said Mrs Florence Buckland yesterday, “but people wouldn’t laugh if they had to live here.”
Mrs Buckland has decided to risk no more publicity by having the ghost exorcised, although many offers have been made. One man, with experience of African witch doctors, guaranteed success.
Daily Herald, 13th December 1946.
He laid the Langley ghost!
The man who laid the Langley ghost is opening a Spiritualist Fellowship on Sunday evening, at the Cooperative Hall in Windsor-street, Uxbridge. He is Mr Plume, of 3, Stoneycroft-avenue, Iver, and he holds the certificate of the Spiritualists’ National Union. It was about Christmas time last year that the first was heard of the ghost at Langley Almshouses. Mr Plume told an “Advertiser-Gazette” reporter: “I found out that the ghost was an old lady, and that she was not a poltergeist or an earthbound spirit. The trouble was that she was mystified as to why her old house should be occupied by a young mother and her children, when the houses were meant to be let to the aged.”
“As a medium,” said Mr Plume, “I had a long talk with her and explained that it would be better if she was to visit the house in the daytime when the occupants were not in. Since that talk the manifestations have quietened and everything is all right.”
Mr Plume added that the present occupant of the house had joined his circle and the woman brought her sons, who had been sick, to him for treatment. Mr Plume has acted as a medium in many parts of the country, and has been on the rostrum with Air Vice Marshall Dowding at a seance. He has also worked with Shaw Desmond, the famous author, and Dr Peters, M.P., both well-known spiritualists.
Uxbridge and West Drayton Gazette, 24th October 1947.