Council on a ghost hunt.
They move woman and her son from home where things go bump in the night.
Things that go bump in the night have terrified a widow, Mrs Annie King, and her son, Alec, aged 13, and driven them from their home in Botcherby, Carlisle. The city’s housing department is giving them another home a mile away until they complete an official “ghost hunt.”
Department chiefs had listened to a tape recording made at two in the morning by Mrs King’s brother, Mr James Smith. They heard thuds, rattling door-handles, a sound like chains being dragged over a floor and the faint voice of a woman. Then they decided: “The Kings must have another house for their health’s sake – something is wrong.”
The noises began five weeks ago in the back bedroom of their terrace house, in Borland Avenue, where Alec slept. Mrs King, aged 46, said yesterday: “I heard them first, then Alec woke up, terrified. We fled to a neighbour’s house, but the same thing happened again and again on the following night. I have not slept in the house for four weeks, and I wouldn’t go back for a £1000. The health department have checked for vermin loose fittings and anything that might vibrate. I didn’t believe in ghosts, but I do now. My brother left a tape recorder running in the empty house for two hours one night, and that convinced the housing department that Alec and I weren’t imagining things. Now they have promised me another house in Oswald Street.”
As soon as Mrs King moves her furniture out of the house, for which she pays 28s a week rent, council workmen will move in and strip the house from top to bottom. Mr Cecil Eddy, Carlisle’s housing manager said yesterday: “There are noises on the tape recording all right, but we have no idea what is causing them. We intend to lift the floorboards and make a thorough investigation when Mrs King is re-housed. It might be anything, but I have no experience of ghosts myself.”
Mrs King, whose husband died four years ago, said: “The council have been very kind and understanding to give me another house.”
Newcastle Journal, 10th October 1964.
‘Haunted’ house searched.
Mrs Annie King, a widow, and her son Alec, aged 13, who were driven out of their home by ghostly noises in the night relaxed again yesterday. Carlisle city council has given them a different house after Mrs King said she was too frightened to spend another night in her “haunted” home in Borland Avenue, Botcherby. While they settled in at Raffles Avenue, Carlisle, council workmen searched their former home to find what caused the eerie rattles, bumps, and thuds.
The Guardian, 3rd November 1964.
Ghostly noises remain mystery after search.
A Council’s official ghost hunt in a neat semi-detached house ended last night – without a sign of a ghost. Workmen pulled up floorboards, examined doors and checked the plumbing. Then a spokesman for the surveyor’s department said 2We are sure there is absolutely nothing there. The house can be re-let immediately.”
Meanwhile Mrs Annie King aged 46 and her son Alec, aged 13, who refused to live in the house at Borland Avenue, Botcherby, Carlisle, because of noises in the night, have moved to a new house in Oswald Street a mile away. The Housing Department gave it to them after they produced a tape recording of rattling doors, dragging chains on the back bedroom floor and the faint voice of a woman. Then the Housing Committee ordered the ghost probe.
But last night a spokesman added, “There is just nothing to explain it and we are hoping that our investigation is complete. The family kept a dog and it might have been responsible. But we are convinced there is no ghost. I don’t think Mrs King will be asked to move back.” Mr Birt Moffet, Carlisle’s housing manager said: “Our committee ordered the investigation and now the surveyor’s report will go to them. Beyond that I cannot comment. We have no intention of putting anyone in the house for a night.”
Mrs King, a widow, left the house six weeks ago. She said then: “Alec and I were both terrified. We couldn’t sleep. I wouldn’t go back there for £1000.”
Newcastle Journal, 3rd November 1964.