Family Flee From ‘Floating Ghost’
40 candles vanish at Midland house
Fear of a “ghost” which is blamed for the disappearance of 40 candles during the past month, has caused a Midland family to desert the council house where they have lived for seven years. The house is 87, Wrekin View, Madeley (Shropshire), where Mrs Elizabeth Murray (65), a widow, has been living with her married grand-daughter, Mrs Valerie Pritchard (20), and Mrs Pritchard’s husband.
Mrs Pritchard claims that she saw a candle rise out of a candlestick, “float round the room,” then fall to the floor. When candles were first missed from the candlestick, which always stood on a shelf in the scullery, it was thought other members of the family had taken them.
Later, mice were blamed, but scraps of food left beside the candlestick were not touched, and the candles continued to vanish. When three candles vanished in two hours the family decided to quit.
A Roman Catholic priest was called to bless the house and he placed six holy candles round the candlestick. The following day Mrs Pritchard visited the house with another of Mrs Murray’s grand-daughters, 15-year-old Norma Harris. “The candles were exactly as they were left on the table,” said Mrs Pritchard. “I went upstairs to get some things and when I came down Norma was just picking up a parcel off the table when one of the candles rose out of the candlestick, floated round the room and then dropped to the floor. We were both too frightened to say anything. After a while I picked up the candle and put it back on the table. Just as we were leaving I looked back at the table and saw one of the holy candles had gone.”
The family is arranging to attend a spiritualist meeting. Mrs Murray was told by a spiritualist she consulted that the occurrences were due to her husband’s spirit trying to convey a message.
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 29th December 1952.