Who’s that tapping on the stairs?
Loud tapping noises, low humming and heavy breathing is making life tedious for Mrs Marion Smout, of Hawthorn Road, Downall Green, near Wigan. For middle-aged Mrs Smout firmly believes that her modern semi-detached council house is haunted.
At home yesterday, she said: “I am out of my mind with worry. Since February there have been tapping noises on the staircase, the sound of someone humming, and on a number of other occasions the sound of heavy breathing.”
Mrs Smout is determined that if the noises do not cease she will ask her local clergy to exorcise the house. She added: “Other people have also heard these unearthly noises. They started on the night an elderly relative died after a long illness. I do not fear him or his spirit, but these noises are very unnerving.”
Mrs Smout’s sister, Mrs Phylis Wilson, of Grange Road, Ashton-in-Makerfield, said last night: “It is all quite true. I have heard them myself. When we enter the hallway to investigate the noises we find nothing there. Even the family dog Rex is disturbed by the noises.”
Liverpool Daily Post, 8th July 1964.
G-G-Ghostly Goings On At Downall Green.
The things that go bump in the night have become too much for Ashton housewife Mrs M. Smout. And now, in an attempt to lay the ghost which she claims is haunting her Downall Green Council home, she is considering asking a clergyman to exorcise the house.
It all began when her uncle died in February after a long illness, says 50-years-old Mrs Smout. She then started hearing strange noises at her home in Hawthorne Avenue, and they have grown stranger as time has gone on. What are the sounds like? – A tapping, a low humming noise, and heavy breathing. They come from the hall side of the house, and thorough searches have failed to reveal any cause for them.
And Mrs Smout has witnesses to these weird goings-on. Two sisters – one from Bryn and the other from Billinge – have also heard the eerie sounds. Then there is her dog, Rex. He, too, notices the noise – and whines and snarls his disapproval.
Any theories on the ghost of Downall Green?
Newton and Earlestown Guardian, 10th July 1964.