Weird “Ghosts”.
Strange affair in a vicarage.
Woman with small coffin in the house.
Strange happenings in the moorland vicarage of Weston, Yorkshire, have been related to an interviewer by the Vicar, the Rev. C. L. Tweedale. Mr Tweedale’s parishioners have, in a body, refused to attend church on account of his “spiritualistic sermons.” The vicar told a vision seen by his wife during the night. Mrs Tweedale noticed at the foot of the bed a man dressed in black, with a calm, grave face, his clenched hand resting upon the brass rail just as if he had struck it. Immediately the vicar awoke, however, the figure began to resolve itself into a luminous cloud and disappeared in the same manner as the column of light.
On another occasion a bunch of keys came mysteriously through the wall, and was flung with great force against the back of his wife’s head and rebounded some distance away.
All kinds of articles, says Mr Tweedale, have fallen from the ceiling in broad daylight. On one occasion, when he and his family were seated at breakfast, a shower of stockings and other articles descended; a biscuit tin dropped into a basin of milk.
Another singular occurrence took place whilst he was absent at church. On his return he found that the servants had barricaded themselves in the kitchen from fear. He inquired what was the matter, and was told there had been an apparition in the grey room. One of the servants was in the kitchen where the figure of a woman entered, carrying a small coffin. With this the figure marched up the front stairs and down the back. She then went up to the grey room and commenced singing. One of the maids, more curious and braver than the rest, went up to investigate, and the sound of a beautiful voice came from the room. The woman was singing or humming the hymn, “Peace, perfect Peace.” Then came a terrible noise, as of furniture falling, and the girl rushed back to the kitchen.
When Mr Tweedale returned he was accompanied by a member of the Psychical Research Society, and together they entered the grey room, which was found in a state of great disorder. The chairs were all upset, a large piece of wood was wrenched off the washstand, and a big wardrobe was thrown on its face. Mr Tweedale and his companion made an exhaustive search for fingerprints in the dust at the top of the wardrobe, but none could be found.
When inquiries were made, it was found that one of the vicar’s relatives had died precisely at the time the occurence took place. Mr Tweedale, on inquiring what was her favourite hymn, was told that it was “Peace, perfect Peace,” and that not being able to sing it in her last moments she hummed it.
This Mr Tweedale regards as a most important event. He put all his maids on oath, and took their written testimony, so that these can be verified.
Strabane Weekly News, 5th April, 1913.
Spirits in a parsonage.
Yorkshire vicar’s story.
A special correspondent, writing in the “Manchester Guardian”, furnishes an extraordinary story from the lips of the Rev. Charles Lakeman Tweedale, the vicar of a little hamlet in Wharfedale, Yorkshire, who has boldly avowed his belief in the possibility of communication with the spirits of the departed, and has justified the belief by describing an extraordinary series of phenomena which he affirms have been witnessed at intervals during the past seven years within the walls of his own vicarage. These teachings are not popular in the countryside, and one result has been to diminish the resident congregation to almost vanishing point, though, since Mr Tweedale’s fame began to spread, strangers from the towns have more than filled the empty pews.
At the present time Mrs Tweedale, the vicar’s wife, serves the parish as its sole churchwarden: at the Easter Vestry there were no competitors for the office. All these things have been brought to the notice of the Diocesan, the Bishop of Ripon, and it has been reported that an ecclesiastical inquiry is going to be held, though so far Mr Tweedale himself has had no official information about that.
In the course of his article the correspondent says; “I questioned Mr Tweedale about his own personal witnessing. As I have said, he confesses that he has not been much favoured by the major phenomena of materialisation, though he regards the evidences as conclusive. But he has heard the triple knocks, the volleying of bells, and the “direct voice;” on one occasion at least he saw, or believes he saw, the luminous manifestation at the foot of the bed; he has seen his furniture thrown into disorder for no apparent cause; he has heard violins hanging on the wall tune up of their own accord, and he has seen objects sailing across the room in the most unearthly fashion.
“I have seen a jar emerge from that corner,” he said, pointing over his shoulder, “as if through the wall, and shooting across the room like a catapult, crash on the floor without breaking.” This incident is matched by others which Mr Tweedale recounts – how his children have been p;elted with showers of coal in the bath, how a bunch of keys sailed out of the corner of the room and hit his wife on the head, and how a jar of ointment came out of the corner of the dining-room and deposited itself on the piano. He admits that things have slackened off a little of late. The most wonderful period was that of his mother’s first residence at the vicarage. Two or three weeks after her departure the manifestations virtually ceased, though not altogether, for his wife and sometimes the servants and his children saw apparitions.
The last of the “greater manifestations” was seen about two months ago, when the figure of his aunt reappeared, and, dragging something out of the hands of one of the members of the household, carried it two or three yards away and placed it on the table. The Vicar’s wife, as has already appeared, is the most important witness of many of the strange things which he describes. I did not see Mrs Tweedale, but Mr Tweedale believes that the fact that she had rather more than her share of the “manifestations” is due to the possession of strong clairvoyant powers. He is not sure that his mother has the same gifts; away from the vicarage she has had only one or two slight manifestations.
One of the experts for the Society of Psychical Research has visited and stayed at the Vicarage, and, according to a letter from the Secretary, has collected a great deal of evidence from present and former members of the household. One thing one should add in justice to Mr Tweedale. He sincerely believes, although the soundness of the belief will be disputed, that the things which he has seen or heard about at Weston Vicarage harmonise completely with the profession of orthodox Christianity. “My standpoint,” he explained, “is that spiritualistic phenomena, ancient and modern, have much in common. They differ in degrees of importance and intensity, but they are the same in that they are manifestations of spiritual beings. If you discredit the modern phenomena you cast doubt on the ancient phenomena at the same time; you undercut all the foundations of real religion and lay the path open to the advance of materialism and agnosticism. The modern is of the same warp and woof as the ancient.”
Edinburgh Evening News, 16th April 1913.
Spirits in a parsonage.
Vicar of Weston’s amazing narrative.
Visitants by day and night.
A special correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” has had a long interview with the Rev. Charles Lakeman Tweedale, the vicar of Weston, with regard to the remarkable series of phenomena which he affirms he has witnessed within the walls of his own vicarage.
There were many things (says the correspondent) which revolted the reason of one who has no special psychic gifts of his own, and I can only pretend here to give what Mr Tweedale told me (allowing for necessary compression) in his own words, and so far as I am concerned (though he speaks of clouds of witnesses) on his own unsupported words.
When a man tells one seriously and earnestly that he has seen a jar come out of the corner of his kitchen of its own motion, shoot over the room like a catapult, and crash at his feet on the floor without breaking, one’s natural impulse is to stare at the narrator very hard. This was one of the lesser miracles recounted, and I stared very hard at Mr Tweedale frequently in the course of the interview. But Mr Tweedale was talking calmly and coherently throughout in the accents of a rational and educated man, and, however incredible his stories, I formed the impression that at least he was recounting what he himself sincerely believed.
One is not surprised to hear that there has been some difficulty about getting servants at the Vicarage, and the door was opened to me by the Vicar himself, who was dressed for going out. He was whistling as he came, and when he opened the door the impression one got was that of the ordinary, well-nurtured country parson between whom and ghosts there is no obvious affinity. He was not exactly pleased to see me. He had had crowds of other inquirers, he explained; he was overwhelmed by correspondence, and altogether he did not feel in the mood for talk. It was only after hearing that I had come a long way, and that I was an earnest seeker after truth, that Mr Tweedale took me into his confidence.
The phenomena, Mr Tweedale says, began in 1905, and ever since, he says, “we have had a series of most amazing things. Our experiences were the most wonderful during the first residence of my mother with us. For about six months we had manifestations nearly every day; we lived in the midst of wonders. We heard the booming of great bells, like church bells, through the house; although there are no church bells nearer than a mile and a quarter, we had hundreds of volleys of bell-ringing, and these generally signalised that something had happened to the furniture. The furniture was upset in every room by unseen hands, and, besides this and the bell-ringing, we had marvellous manifestations of the ‘direct voice’ all over the house. We followed the ‘voice’ from room to room; it seemed to pass through the walls.”
One night before Christmas, the figure of Mr Tweedale’s aunt was seen to come out of the corner of the room and march right through the Christmas tree without disturbing its contents. His mother, his wife, his two children, and his servants saw it, and his mother made a clutch at it, only to find that there was no substance in it. “At the moment that my mother made the grab,” said Mr Tweedale, “four or five people heard the growl of an animal. This puzzled us very much. Several other apparitions of this figure took place, and they were always accompanied by curious scratchings and growlings which we could not understand. At last the mystery was solved by the appearance of the figure of my aunt again, accompanied by her dog, faithfully represented as it was in life. The dog died about 1900, and my aunt died in 1905. The dog and the mistress were seen together twice in broad daylight in the house by several witnesses.”
Mr Tweedale says he has seen his furniture thrown into disorder for no apparent cause; he has heard violins hangin on the wall tune up of their own accord, and he has seen objects sailing across the room in the most unearthly fashion. “I have seen a jar emerge from that corner,” he said, pointing over his shoulder, “as if through the wall and shooting across the room like a catapult crash on the floor without breaking.”
The incident is matched by others which Mr Tweedale recounts – how his children have been pelted with showers of coal in the bath, how a bunch of keys sailed out of the corner of the room and hit his wife on the head, and how a jar of ointment came out of the corner of the dining-room and deposited itself on the piano. The last of the “greater manifestations” was seen about two months ago, when the figure of his aunt re-appeared, and, dragging somethin gout of the hands of one of the members of the household, carried it two or three yards away and placed it on the table.
The Vicar’s wife, as has already appeared, is the most important witness of many of the strange things which he describes. I did not see Mrs Tweedale (says the correspondent), but Mr Tweedale believes that the fact that she had rather more than her share of the “manifestations” is due to the possession of strong clairvoyant powers. He is not sure that his mother has the same gifts; away from the Vicarage she has had only one or two slight manifestations.
One of the experts of the Society for Psychical Research has visited and stayed at the Vicarage, and, according to a letter from the Secretary, has collected a great deal of evidence from present and former members of the household.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 16th April 1913.
Ghostly tricks in a vicarage.
There is a weird appeal in the story of the amazing, ghostly visitations at the haunted vicarage of Weston All Saints, near Otley, Yorkshire, where because of the spiritualistic teachings of the vicar, the Rev. Charles L. Tweedale, the congregation has dwindled from hundreds down to one, and where, when a vestry meeting was called to elect a people’s warden, only the vicar’s wife attended, and she was appointed to the vacant office.
In defending his teaching that ghosts do appear in the ancient vicarage, which was built about two hundred years ago, the Rev. Mr Tweedale says: “The only difference between my sermons and those of hundreds of clergy is that I do not preach only on the hearsay of two thousand years ago, but prove the ancient Gospel by quoting instances of physical phenomena that have occurred in my own home, this house. On one occasion, for example, an aunt of mine who died five years ago, appeared to us all one Christmas evening. She was dressed in a long flowing robe resembling lace. She came right through the wall and walked right through the Christmas tree. When I got up to grab her she ran away through the door.
“I called to my wife and two others who were coming up the passage to stop her, and I hurriedly followed. The two tried to stop her in the passage but she passed right through them. As my wife grabbed at her we all heard (but could not see) a ghost dog loudly barking on the stairs, as though protecting his spiritual mistress. We have all seen it many times walking with my aunt. Even my little girl, Dorothy, who was about three years old at the time, saw the dog run round a room and under a bed. My other children and four independent passers-by told me afterward that they had seen a ghost dog running about my front garden in broad daylight.
“Articles move about in broad lamplight, ornaments dance about on the piano and tables, and on one occasion my children were playing in the sitting-room, when all the chairs were knocked over one by one. Great, heavy armchairs, some of them. But on one occasion only did the spirits do any real damage. We found a valuable set of bedroom ornaments broken. The spirits had forgotten to remove them from the dressing table before they moved it about. So I asked the spirits if they would please do not break any more goods, and ever since then they have not done so.
“They frequently throw things at my wife, evidently to attract her attention. I was in the room alone with her on one occasion, and, looking up, saw a large bunch of keys coming swiftly toward my wife. It hit her on the back of the head and bounced off on to the floor. Whenever they throw things they are always careful to hit you on a spot that will not be painful. for instance, every time they throw objects at my wife they always, with marvellous accuracy, hit her on the bunch of hair at the back of her head.
“The spirits are not always an annoyance. On one occasion, while sitting before the fire with some relatives, a jewel case suddenly dropped between us. The door and window were shut, so that we could not tell whence it came. It was covered with mould and moss and very decayed. Opening it we found a bracelet and a few other articles of jewelery, which we recognised as some my mother had lost twenty years before.”
Investigators from the Psychical Research Society have visited the vicarage and after careful investigation have convinced themselves that all these phenomena have really taken place.
Hamilton Daily Times, 19th July 1913.