Extraordinary Scenes At Hezzlehough, Near Wortley.
Alleged “spiritual manifestations.”
During the past few days the township of Wortley and its immediate surroundings have been much “exercised” over a series of extraordinary and unaccountable manifestations, of which a secluded farm house known as Hezzlehough has been the scene, and which, in the absence of any rational explanation, have been attributed to “spiritual” agencies.
To begin with the locus in quo, the farm house above named is, we may state, situated near the hamlet of Smithy fold at or close to the boundary which separates Tankersley (of which Wortley forms a part) and Ecclesfield, and within a very short distance of the far-famed “Wharncliffe of the demons.” It is a lonely domicile, standing by itself in the midst of some trees. The name of the head of the house (an old man of about 70) is Charles Webster, and the family, which has occupied the premises only about a month, consists of the husband and wife (also advanced in years), a son, and a servant girl, the latter about 14.
On Saturday last – so goes the story current in the district, which we simply reproduce, leaving our readers to test its accuracy – about half-past eleven in the forenoon, the first of the manifestations commenced. The master, mistress, and servant were in the kitchen together at the time, the two latter being engaged about their ordinary household duties. The first thing out of the usual way which attracted their attention was a young calf, which, after moving about in the yard for some time apparently terribly “out of sorts,” came and laid itself down on the doorstep. These movements, though in themselves unusual, would not have attracted a deal of attention, had they not formed the prelude to doings much more unaccountable.
The coal scoop, buckets, tin cans, frying pans, gridirons, and other kitchen utensils, seemed to become suddenly endowed with animation, and began to rattle about in a most unaccountable, to say nothing of undecorous fasion, as if by way of varying the monotony of their every day existence, and providing a little entertainment for the household, the intended dancing a hornpipe.
Pieces of burning wood flew from the grate to the middle of the floor, thence to the roof of the house, and back again, with a rebound; a basin containing milk leapt from the top of the sink, and dashed itself to pieces on the floor, spilling its contents over the hearthstone; the coal-scoop, not to be outdone, turned a somersault, and deposited its contents on the same spot; while a quantity of dough, which the old woman had been preparing for pie-crusts, followed suit, landing somewhere about the same place. The little deal table upon which the dough had been in course of preparation, straightaway commenced capering about in a most extravagant fashion, while chairs, as if anxious to escape from the general melee, hobbled to the door, and narrowly escaped breaking their backs on the doorstep.
A frying-pan, containing a quantity of meat in course of preparation for dinner, bolted up the chimney, and returned minus a portion of its contents, probably retained by the spirits; and as this was followed by some raw potatoes, which the servant girl was busy paring, the natural inference is that the poor spirits were desperately hungry, and unable to put off their mid-day meal unti lthe ordinary process of cooking had been completed. The kettle leapt from the hob; the poker and tongs, influenced by the power of sympathy, joined in the general melee; the water-tap came off; a black-lead brush was propelled by some invisble and mysterious power to the top of a tree, where, according to common report, it was to be seen on Monday and Tuesday; a watch, with visible alarm upon its usually placid countenance, leapt from the top of a chest of drawers, and escaped by the window; and many other wonderful things occurred, which, according to our informants, are, in auctioneer’s phrase, much “too numerous to mention.”
This continued for between five and six hours, and all attempts on the part of the family to arrange talbes and chairs for dinner proved futile. Baffled in their efforts, so far as the kitchen was concerned, they removed the table to the door-stone, but with no better results; and at last they carried it to the cart-shed, where its “understandings” became somewhat more stable.
The servant girl who, by the way, was the least put about member of the family, professed to have heard sounds inaudible to other ears, and seen sights invisible to ordinary mortals, one of the latter being “something in the form of a woman (we quote her own words) going down to the cellar.” In other respects, however, she does not seem to have been in any way favoured by the spirits; for it appears that while she was milking the cow in the mistal, they ran away, or attempted to run away, with her piggin and milk.
Night brought a cessation of the extraordinary hubbub, the spirits, evidently worn out with their day’s exertions, having retired to rest at an early hour; but on Sunday the proceedings were renewed in much the same form, though not quite to the same extent, and were continued, at intervals, over Monday and Tuesday.
Such is, in substance, the narrative which has been circulated in the neighbourhood during the week, and which was the means on Sunday and Monday (especially the former day) of drawing hundreds of visitors to the house. We don’t wish to tax the credulity or insult the understandings of our readers by asking them to accept it as genuine. We simply state what we have received from more than one or two respectable and trustworthy inhabitants of Wortley township. As neither of these parties were witnesses of the extraordinary scenes enacted, though they received reports from individuals who had been on the spot, of course they don’t furnish direct testimony; and the character of the alleged doings is such that a very large percentage must be put down to – it may be unintentional – exaggeration.
As we have stated, the scene is laid within a short distance of Wharncliffe; and one hypothesis, set up by the wags, is that it must be the shade of the famous and (if the old ballad is to be credited) once terrible “Dragon of Wantley,” which, like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, has been revisiting “the glimpses of the moon,” (we should rather say the sun.) and that undeterred by the dread of any modern “More of More Hall,” it has been indulging in a few eccentricities, by way of testing the material the men and women of the nineteenth century are made of. If so, its doings, as reported, are of a strangely eccentric, and most undragon-like character, and seem to indicate that the poor old monster has reached the period of drivelling imbecility. If, as the servant girl’s excited imagination would lead us to believe, the spirit is of human mould, all we can say is that its doings are equally, if not more, unaccountable.
Will any of our spiritualistic friends, of whom there are a few in Barnsley, take a run over to Wortley, and solve the mystery? If they could, at the same time, induce the spirit or spirits to pay a visit to Barnsley, we might have a series of first-rate seances before “bumper houses” in the Mechanics’ Hall. Joking aside, however, we believe it will be found, on inquiry and examination, that Hezzlehough has been the scene of some unusual but explainable natural phenomena, and that the bulk of the accessories have been supplied by the over excited imagination, of the frightened household.
One thing is clear: there have been strange, and to some extent, unaccountable goings on there during the week, and these goings on have been the means of securing for the lonely farm-house a temporary local notoriety. More we will not venture to affirm; and we conclude by expressing the hope that when the ghost next goes “abroad,” we may be “there to see.”
Barnsley Chronicle, 8th June 1872.
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