Mischievous Spooks.
Pranks in Nottingham Tinsmith’s Shop.
The Clutching Hand.
King Charles’ Officers’ Mess Revisited.
In view of the Nottingham Castle ghost story (exclusively given in Saturday’s Evening Post) and the consequent renewed interest in the historical episodes inseparable from the locality, a Post representative last evening paid a visit to what is known as the haunted shop in Hounds-gate, where manifestations more alarming than those reported in the Castle caves are recorded.
The shop is occupied by a Mr A. Garner, who carries on the business of a coppersmith and tinsmith, and he declares that the premises were used by King Charles’s officers when he raised his standard here. But there is a more sinister association with those early days. Residents in teh vicinity tell how once a noble lady was lured to this very house and murdered, and they aver that her bones lie mouldering in the foundations, and that her spirit comes out at night. This disconcerting element about the house has not, however, driven Mr Garner away, and he has stranger tales to tell than the foregoing, which has caused the old shop to become known as “The home of the weeping lady.”
“One day,” he declared, “the door was opened and a courtly figure in uniform, wearing Wellington boots, entered, walked to the centre of the room, and then disappeared. On another occasion the door was opened, footsteps were heard in the middle of the room, and a voice called ‘Halt!'”
Such hair-raising experiences have not been confined to the witching hour of night. “One dinner-time,” continued Mr Garner, “I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, but on going to open the door I did not see anyone, but felt something touch my head. I closed the door and went inside the room, but the door opened again, and I heard somebody tramping about the floor, though I could not see anyone.”
Local spiritists have evinced much interest in this house of ghosts, and once a seance was held, the medium causing a sensation by claiming to communicate with King Charles himself! The theory that the place is haunted by the spirit of the person who took the life of the noblewoman finds many adherents among students of the occult, and the tenant’s evidence would seem to be on their side. Men have been seen to drop their tools and run from the building. But Mr Garner remains in the belief that there is still some luck about the shop in which he has traded for 15 years.
When the building has been left secure for the night, Mr Garner declares that dim lights have been observed through the second storey windows, and the figures of a number of men have been seen walking to and fro across the floor. Then articles have been moved from one side of the other on the following morning. “Hand machines, too,” he said, have been seen in motion, a most extraordinary thing.
“When these strange things are about to happen,” he continued, “a curious mist comes over the room, and we are unable to work. There have been times when it was almost impossible for either myself or workmen to do anything.”
The evil spirits which have frequented the house have had quite an influence over the men, and they have had to cease work. On one occasion bells were heard to be ringing in the room. They would stop and then continue again and once when a young man paid a visit to the premises to take part in the laying of the ghost, he was thrown heavily on to the room floor and cried for help. The other members of the party rushed to his assistance and the man declared that someone had been clutching him tightly round the throat. “Often I have felt hands on my head,” declared Mr Garner.
The dog, too, has rushed about the room jumping up as though he were biting someone. But nothing has ever been seen on these occasions, only footsteps heard as though someone were running about the building. When the door of the room has been locked the latch has lifted as though someone wanted to gain entrance, but investigation has show it is only the mysterious spirit again.
“The house has always been haunted,” said Mr Garner, who went on to speak of manifestations noticed prior to his tenancy. Paint buckets were emptied all over the floor, and a barrel containing oil was drained.
The Spiritualists, who visited this haunted domain to make investigations, declared that many of the nobility frequented the rooms during the reign of King Charles. The medium employed said she had been in communiciation with several of these people, and gave their names. Lord Dundonald was among the party who spent a great deal of his time here. It is asserted that the spirits of those who at one time visited the house when it was King Charles’s officers’ mess, have often returned to the scene of their earthly revels.
Mr. P.T. Selbit, the producer of the “Sawing through a woman” illusion at the Nottingham Empire, has challenged a lady medium to permit him to attend when she essays the materialisation of the ghost said to haunt the house on Standard-hill.
Nottingham Evening Post, 8th March 1921.