Askerswell. A local ghost scare.
Remarkable Occurrences.
The little village of Askerswell is just now in a very perturbed state consequent upon some strange rumours of the doings of a supposed ghostly visitor at the house of a carter, leaving at Eype [sic]. The first occasion, according to statements made on which anything unusual happened was on Monday. The wife of the carter was cooking something over the fire, when suddenly she turned to her daughter and suddenly exclaimed “There’s an old woman under the table.” But the daughter saw nothing, and this so unnerved her mother that she had to be put to bed.
But more strange occurrences were in store. Whilst the mother was in bed the daughter and several others were sitting in the room downstairs talking over matters, when a candle – so the story goes – “floated” downstairs, only to be followed by a flower pot, which smashed at the bottom of the stairs.
A neighbour rushed to the room above, and there found fragments of pottery by the side of the bed, but no human agency to account for the mystery was visible. Later in the evening the globe of a lamp was smashed, and then came another “surprise” in the shape of a large stone crashing through the window. A search outside failed to account for the occurrence. The mystery thickened when just after a large stone tumbled into the door, apparently propelled by supernatural force. The occupants of the kitchen were naturally startled, but before the evening closed, so it is alleged by those present, the daughter of the woman – who had been sitting on a chair apparently unmoved by these “ghostly” performances – was suddenly lifted, chair as well, and carried by “unseen hands” across the room.
Locally, the girl is supposed to have some connection with all that has happened. She had previously been in domestic service at Coombe Dairy, Litton, at which there was a fire. The origin of the outbreak was a mystery, but the dairyman is said to have remarked to some acquaintances that whilst he and his family and the girl were temporarily occupying a cottage the table and chairs were seen to dance about the room. At the time the story was discredited, but now, in the face of subsequent “events,” some faith is put in the statements.
The girl, herself, on Monday left home without the knowledge of her parents, and is now said to be in Dorchester, but so far as can be ascertained her supposed ghostly associates have not made themselves apparent in the country town.
In a small and out of the way village like Askerswell, naturally superstition and witchcraft dies hard. The actual truth of the “supernatural manifestations” is difficult to ascertain, but the most probable explanation of the “phenomena” is that the story is either the direct or indirect result of the distorted imagination of some highly superstitious individual or individuals who are gifted with more than ordinary powers of making much out of little.
Western Gazette, 1st November, 1901.
What They Say.
That the Askerswell “ghost” has been the talk of the neighbourhood far and near during the past fortnight. That in a house in this village a garment, with only boots on, was seen to come downstairs and run across the room. That money flew about the house, and many visitors hoped some would come their way. That a daughter in the family says she is so charged with electricity things bang about beyond her control. That the Askerswell postman has been for his holiday and says he was glad of it, for he would never have got through Bridport, as the people were asking so many questions. That his opinion is the girl must have a marvellous magnet to “attract” the things as she is said to have done. That some think the girl is “possessed” and a clergyman should be appealed to to “pray the devil out of her.” That hundreds of people have flocked into the village and a roaring trade has been done at the Spyway public-house. That on Tuesday night the spirits “moved” again at Askerswell, and the sergeant of police on duty in the room was shot up with such force that when he came down again his helmet was left stuck in the ceiling, but on enquiry there was found to be no truth in the statement. That the whole thing shows that witchcraft dies hard in the West.
Bridport News, 1st November 1901.
Askerswell. A local ghost story.
“Angels and ministers of grace defend us! / Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn’d, / Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, / Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, / Thou com’st in such a questionable shape, / That I will speak to thee.” (Hamlet).
Old-time superstition has not yet quite died out in the West Country, and excitement, wonderment, and even fear has bubbled up with surprising vitality out Askerswell way in consequence of the bewildering “spiritual stories” that have gone the rounds. Rumours of a hair-raising nature have gathered like clouds in mid-winter, and up to the present no light has penetrated the gloom and uncertainty of strange enactments that have taken place at Mr G. Burt’s cottage at Spyway, which has been visited by hundreds of people, anxious to learn about, and, if possible, to witness some of the ghostly scenes that were reported to have happened.
Some said it was a ghost playing strange freaks with the household furniture, others said that the girl, Beatrice Burt, daughter of Mr G. Burt, was bewitched, and there are not wanting eye witnesses who solemnly swear that articles moved about the house without apparent motive power, but one and all are apparently convinced that the girl is in some manner or other connected with these strange happenings. Certainly, articles have been broken, strange noises heard, but I saw nothing to give the slightest cause for imagining anything supernatural in the matter.
To tell the truth, like many others, I went ghost hunting, for I number not any of that shadowy fraternity amongst my acquaintances, and it kind of makes you feel jealous to know that your neighbours are receiving “visitors” nightly when you are left severely alone. I was told that the “spirit” walked from five and six o’clock in the evening until three or four the next morning, which is a decided improvement on the old-fashioned ghost, and I felt pleased to think it would appear very shortly after my nerves were braced up with a strong cup of tea. The moon was hidden, but a greeny, ghostly light hovered over the cottage when I arrived, and, preceded by a gentleman from London, who was visiting some friends in the neighbourhood, and having heard the awful tales, had walked over from Shipton, I entered, eager for the fray.
Nothing, however, happened, the candles burnt steadily, without the suspicion of a flicker, and the chairs and tables behaved in a perfectly rational manner, the flower pots stood still, no stones entered, and rumbling noises were conspicuous by their absence. A ghost accompanied by rumbling noises is somewhat of a novelty, and, coupled with its early hours, makes one think it is the invention of a modern mind, for in the good old days of yore they generally came, clothed in silented-nothing, and beyond strange beckonings and other peculiar characteristics, disappeared as silently as they came.
But the “Askerswell Ghost,” according to rumour, is a fair “knock-out,” an up-to-date, 22-carat hall-marked, “fit-to-go” sort of spirit. One that comes in the house in a rollicking, well-met kind of style, and straight way proceeds to such little diversions as influencing the chairs and tables to hop round gaily, windows to crack and break, heavy clothes boxes to shift, flower pots and stones to drop from nowhere, and, in fact to move, as the auctioneers say, “other articles too numerous to mention.”
The “Unseen” first moved with marked effect on the 21st ult., when Mrs Burt, who was engaged in household duties, turned suddenly round, faced her daughter, Beatrice Burt, and said “I see an old woman under the table.” The girl saw nothing, but the mother became hysterical and collapsed, and had to be put to bed. Then it was the “programme” started. First the candle mystery and then the flower pots, until, as a man said, “they all wondered what had happened and put it down to the devil.” Stones flew through windows, and everything was shrouded in mystery.
Mr Williams, the landlord of the village inn at Spyway, and Mr Albert Cantle have been fortunate in being present at times when the “spirit moved,” and they unflinchingly assert that they are convinced that these things did happen, and the former was in the kitchen when a candle which he had seen upstairs just previously, came down the stairs without any warning. Another time, under a table on which Mr Williams was sitting, a lamp glass fell off a lamp and smashed, with the so-called “bewitched” girl, Beatrice Burt, sitting in the room all the time. Again, Mr Williams on one occasion was sitting opposite to the girl, when, he said, she was suddenly thrown clean forward, and the chair followed her. She came like a bolt from the cannon’s mouth, and when Mr Williams picked her up she was in a dreadful fright. He also stated that a flower pot came out of the bedroom window and fell downstairs, that the big clothes boxes moved across the room, that stones fell in the house, and a host of other such-like incidents, which he firmly believes happened without human agency. Mr Williams emphatically asserts that the girl had nothing to do with it, and, like the girl’s father, said, “Seeing’s believing, and what I saw, I believed.”
Why, even gridirons and knives were stated to have travelled down the chimney, and I couldn’t even get a glimpse of the shadow of a ghost.
Mr Albert Cantle is another eye-witness who vouched for the accuracy of his statement to the effect that he heard things shifting about, and that on Friday a flower-pot fell downstairs, the plant breaking, the earth falling out, without breaking the pot. Curiously enough, he says, no one heard the pot fall, and although it was not broken over night, next morning it was completely shattered, which is mystifying, isn’t it?
The members of the Burt family have strange and varied tales to tell, all bearing upon similar experiences, and the father of the girl related some equally funny and unexplainable happenings. There are many who are convinced that the girl has been bewitched, and one member of the family suggested that the clergyman should be called in to “pray the devil out.”
As I previously stated, I had no luck in my quest for sensation; everything as I saw it was of a very real type, and the “Askerswell Ghost” evidently had a fit of the sulks. Just imagine yourself surrounded by prancing chairs and tables and everything doing a sort of “hi-tiddley-hi-ti” dance, candles sedately walking around, knives and grid-irons descending the chimney and perching in strange places, articles shifting and dropping with bewildering frequency, and – well, all sorts of imaginary and unexplained things. But there was nothing of the kind, and it was a very prosaic state of things I had come to see.
To speak seriously, however, there can be no doubt that strange things have been witnessed , but in these days of enlightenment it is more than absurd to attribute it to any supernatural agency. The natural cause is to be found in some foolish freak on the part of somebody who has, up to now, with or without a confederate, been clever enough to avoid detection.
Beatrice Burt, previous to her return home to Spyway on Sunday the 20th ult., was in service at Coombe Dairy, Litton Cheney, where it will be remembered a couple of fires have recently occurred. On the night succeeding the fire on the 10th ult. three men stayed up to watch and guard against another outbreak, and then it was the girl first said the chairs and tables were moving about all over the place. Rumbling noises, it is alleged, were heard, and the girl complained that a red hot slate had fallen and hit her in the back. The chair she sat in moved about, but on one of the men sitting in it, it remained perfectly still. What happened after her return to Askerswell I have already mentioned, but now the girl has been sent from the district to stay with relations, I suppose the “Askerswell ghost” will be laid to rest. The affair has caused a great deal of talk and attention, but it is not an unusual thing for such to arise out of nothing. – “A DISAPPOINTED GHOST HUNTER.”
Bridport News, 1st November 1901.
Askerswell.
Extraordinary Ghost Story.
“Witchcraft” and Superstition.
A Village Mystery.
Some curious rumours have been afloat in the neighbourhood regarding some extraordinary things that have been happening in a house situated in a locality in this village. The house is occupied by a carter working at Eype, his wife, and family. A certain amount of superstition has implanted itself in every little country village, and in more than one rural locality in this county within recent years a good old ghost story has been lighted upon. There are very few places in the kingdom that do not boast of a “haunted house,” or at any rate some locality where supernatural agents are believed to hold high festival.
Superstition and belief in the “unseen” have grown by leaps and bounds in the village of Askersell within the past week or two, and there have been whisperings that “Ghosts are about.” The astounding belief among some is that a young servant girl has been brought under some unearthly influences. Where she is there are extraordinary antics on the part of household articles, such as chairs moving along the floor of their own accord, candles flying about, and stones coming down the chimney.
Just over a week a ago a remarkable story came from Coombe Dairy, near Litton. It will be remembered that a fire occurred there a short time ago and resulted in the complete demolition of the dairy house and other outbuildings standing near. How the fire originated is as much shrouded in mystery as the remarkable statement that the dairyman made to the bystanders on the night of the fire. He rushed out of the cottage that he and his family were temporarily occupying saying the table and chairs were dancing about the room. In the house at the time was the servant in question. It is needless to say that the Terpsichorean performances of the table and chairs were not generally credited, and the affair was attributed to the man’s imagination, notwithstanding, it is stated, that there were three witnesses prepared to corroborate the story. The inmates of the house concluded that the unfortunate domestic was somehow at the bottom of it, and she received a summary conge.
The girl went to Askerswell, and since then up to Monday has been living with her father and mother. from statements made by the villagers in this place, who, it appears have a firm belief in what they saw, it would seem that the “strange coincidences” accompanied the girl to her home. When she arrived there in this sudden manner on the Sunday following the fire the remark was made by several who saw her that she appeared strange in herself. For some years the girl has been said to be subject to fits, and it was thought that she must have had an attack whilst at Coombe.
Some astonishing revelations have now been made regarding a series of “strange occurrences” that are said to have taken place in the house on the night of Monday, the 28th inst., and which were witnessed, according to several narrators of the remarkable story, by half a dozen or more people. According to the statement made by one inhabitant of the village who lives close by the house and who was an eye witness of some of the “evenes,” it appears that early in the evening the mother of the girl was cooking something at the fire. Turning round suddenly she exclaimed to her daughter, who was sitting on a chair, “There’s an old woman underneath the table.” The girl replied that she could see nothing but the mother immediately went off into a fit of hysterics, and was put to bed. Meanwhile several people arrived in the house on hearing of the mother’s unusual behaviour. After this there occurred the curious succession of “strange doings” which have been described by several eye-witnesses.
The girl’s mother was upstairs in her bed, too frightened to move, whilst her daughter and several more people were in the sitting room below, the girl appearing quite her usual self. In the midst of the conversation a candle suddenly came downstairs. On someone going upstairs it was found that one of the candles which before stood lighted on a tin box was missing. The mother was still in the bed in a state of semi-collapse, and no other occupant was found in the rooms above the stairs. The daughter, who had her back to the stairs did not appear to take the slightest notice of the sudden appearance of the candle. This was mystery No. 1.
Some time after a flower-pot crashed downstairs and was samshed at the foot. A neighbour again rushed up, a second or two after the pot had fallen, with the remark – “Well, the devil must be up there!” On entering the mother’s bedroom that good lady was found still in bed apparently oblivious of everything going on around her, whilst by the side of the bed fragments of a broken flower pot were lying. A search was again made, but no one was found above the stairs.
Later in the evening a globe of a table lamp was smashed in a mysterious manner, and though several persons were in the room at the time, no one could account for it. There was a noise underneath the table (as an eyewitness put it), and one of the family found the globe smashed to atoms. Not long after a big stone came through the window, breaking two or three panes of glass. Those that were in the room immediately went outside, but nobody was in sight.
A few minutes later the mystery was intensified by another stone coming in through the door, as though it had been just truckled in. Just after ten o’clock the strangest incident of the evening occurred. The people in the sitting room were sitting discussing the previous “events,” when without the slightest warning (as the evidence of one of the company gave it) the girl and the chair she was sitting upon were “pitched across the room.” The occupants were considerably startled, as no one seemed to be sitting near the girl. When picked up off the floor she appeared quite sensible, and in reply to the questions put to her in rapid succession she said she felt as if someone had put their boot under her chair and kicked her across the room, and the chair after her.
These experiences are given here as they have been related by those who were in the kitchen all through the evening, and who are prepared to vouch for their truth. Naturally they have excited the talk of the neighbourhood and whilst there are plenty who refuse to place any credence in the story and put it down as pure imagination, there are as many others who superstitiously believe that “unseen agents” are at work, and connect the strange incidents with the unfortunate servant girl.
The house in which the family live has for some years had the reputation of being “haunted.” Some years ago the girl underwent an operation for her eyes, and formerly she was believed to be non compos mentis.She left her home on Monday, it seems, without the knowledge of her parents, and is now said to be in Dorchester.
Southern Times and Dorset County Herald, 2nd November 1901.
To The Editor Of The Times.
Sir, – The “mystery” house at Swanton Novers is my old home, which I well remember being built nearly 60 years ago. Similar phenomena occurred in this parish, but with this difference, that the showers were not of oil, but of stones, and they came not in the day but in the night. People came from a distance to witness these mysteries, attributed to supernatural forces, immense pieces of rock being hurled from one room to another, and all supposed to come from the ceiling. They ceased altogether, however, when an hysterical girl left the house for another, which was soon found to be on fire.
Your obedient servant,
H.P. BRYAN.
Askerswell Rectory, Dorchester, Sept. 3.
The Times, September 6th, 1919.