A Haunted Vicarage..?
Demolition men hear footsteps where there is no floor.
Weird happenings at Calverton’s derelict old vicarage have set two demonlition workmen wondering if there is any truth in ghosts. For more than two weeks the men have been demolishing the once graceful Georgian residence, reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a little old woman. “We have heard doors slamming shut upstairs long after the doors have been removed and a voice that can’t be accounted for,” Mr Wally Davis, of Ripley, foreman of the demolition gang, told the Advertiser.
But the biggest mystery occurred last week when Mr Davis and Mr Ivan Holmes, of Codnor, Derbyshire, were sitting in a downstairs room waiting for transport. “It was already dark and the others had gone,” said Mr Davis, “when we heard a shuffling noise in an upstairs room.” At first they thought it was another workman, Mr Eric Jacks of Calverton, who had returned for firewood. But there was no reply to their calling, only the sound of a door slamming and more shuffling footsteps.
Mr Davis went upstairs by the main staircase and Mr Holmes by the back staircase. They found the noise was coming from a bedroom which had been converted into a bathroom. They approached the room from different doors but did not go inside… for there were no floorboards in the partly-demolished room. After continuing for a few moments longer the shuffling faded away into a wall and there was a sound of breaking crockery. Puzzled, the men returned downstairs. “We just don’t know what to make of it,” said Mr Holmes. “I have never given such things much attention before, but it was a very peculiar experience.”
Some time ago, youngsters claimed they saw a ghost in the old vicarage and a resident of the village said he saw what appeared to be an old woman disappear into thin air near the entrance to the grounds. Commented the present Vicar of Calverton, the Rev. Thomas Hoyle: “Many people in the old village are convinced there is a ghost in the old vicarage. I think it would be rash to say outright that there is nothing in it.”
Newark Advertiser, 15th November 1961.
All night vigils… but no ghost came.
Two night-long vigils for evidence of the ghost said to haunt Calverton old vicarage have provided little material for those interested in psychical research. But many local people still believe a supernatural force has been at work.
Last week, the Advertiser told how workmen demolishing the vicarage heard shuffling steps in an upstairs room where there were no floorboards. Doors could be heard to slam when there were no doors; the sound of breaking crockery and a voice could not be accounted for.
Among those who kept vigil on Wednesday night for the ghost – said to be that of an old woman – was a local vicar, the Rev. Charles Harrington, of Woodborough, a member of the Churches Fellowship for Psychical Study. He invited the vicar of Calverton, the Rev. Thomas Hoyle, to accompany him. But Mr Hoyle was unable to do so becaus ehe had already arranged to go to London. Mr Harrington’s companions were six students, members of Nottingham University Psychical Research Society. Led by their bearded president, Barry Biddles, the students set up camp in what was left of the half-demolished building. Intending to take turns in keeping watch, they had with them camp beds, sleeping bags, a tape-recorder and photographic equipment.
While Peter Irwin, the society’s treasurer, was on watch, he heard something moving upstairs. A thorough search, however, revealed nothing. The students also heard rustling noises, but attributed them to either rats or mice. But Mr Wally Davis, head of the demolition gang, told the Advertiser that often while they had been worknig there, scraps of food had been left there overnight. In the morning they had found them untouched.
The students returned on Thursday evening. Their activities attracted the attention of a number of youngsters – including a group of teddy boys who tried to light fires and were twice moved off by the police. They returned, however, and continued to throw bricks at the building until 11.30 p.m. And, as a result of a hoax, Arnold fire brigade was called to the vicarage earlier in the evening.
Once during the night, the students heard footsteps, but a search again revealed nothing.
New information has been provided by a local resident, who recalls that in 1936 a skeleton was dug up in what used to be the rose garden of the vicarage, which was at one time Calverton Hall. The bones were found roughly where the present police house stands. There was a hole in the skull. It was in this area that several residents say they have seen the ghost of an old woman .Several dogs will not walk on the vicarage side of the road.
Footnote: Probably engaging in a ghost hunt, a young boy fell and broke his nose while climbing over the partly-demolished building last week.
Newark Advertiser, 22nd November 1961.
Odd stories without number…
Accounts of abnormal occurrences in Calverton are “without number and sincerely given” says the vicar, the Rev. Thomas Hoyle. There was the woman who, walking near the vicarage late one night and anxious not to be alone, increased her pace in order to catch up with a woman walking ahead – only to find there was no one there. And there was the bus driver who stopped to allow a late-night passenger to board – to find that the woman he had seen at the bus-stop had unaccountably vanished.
One of the odded accounts is of the villager who, walking with his dog after dark near the vicarage, noticed the animal appear to take fright. Turning, he saw “a phosphorescent glow of no special shape,” before which his dog flopped down in a sort of fit. Ever after that, even in broad daylight, the animal would never go near the spot, but would cross the road in order to be as far awayfrom it as possible. “I have talked with the man in question,” Mr Hoyle told the Advertiser, “and am certain that he is perfectly sincere in what he says.”
Newark Advertiser, 22nd November 1961.