The Haunted House
Strange happenings in a Warwickshire parish.
(From a correspondent).
Unaccountable knockings and noises, the appearance of an apparition, and at frequently recurring intervals an atmosphere of the supernatural, is the experience, and for some time past has been the experience, of the occupants of a house at Bedworth. The structure is old, and a possible explanation of the sensational nocturnal happenings may be a tragedy enacted in the distant past, and which is hardly remembered even by the oldest inhabitant.
The disturbances have been proceeding over a considerable period, and as the family does not seek publicity, it is only through the writer’s personal friendship that the facts are now available. The strict integrity and unimpeachable character of those actually concerned disposes of the suggestion of imagination and phantasm; the mystery actually exists, and has existed over a considerable period.
Only a few days ago an adult female was doing household duties in a rear room at a late hour, when a noise was distinctly heard. It was as though someone were rapping the window to obtain admission or attract attention. The individual had previously experienced this noise, and, in no wise alarmed, called out, “Come in! Come in! What do you want?” She knew from past happenings there would be no response! For a quarter-of-an-hour the noise continued, first at one point and then at another.
Some nights since, when the household had been in bed an hour or more, one of them was awakened by a rumbling noise in the apartment below. Growing in volume, it appeared as though someone were moving from point to point items of furniture. Others were aroused, and a journey downstairs showed that the room was exactly as it had been left at 11 p.m. There was a deathly stillness in the room, however; it seemed terribly uncanny, as if there were present in suspension some strange substance or invisible form.
It was up till recently the custom for a dog to spend its nights in the kitchen. One midnight it aroused the sleepers by its piteous whines, suggesting an appeal for assistance ratherthan a cry of defiance. Fear was reflected in the animal’s eyes. It had, for the remainder of the night, to be accommodated in an upper room. Now, at night time, it will not be left alone in the kitchen, nor will it venture there unaccompanied.
The strangest experience so far has been that of a person who was formerly employed in the house. Returning about 11-30 p.m., this individual, with the idea of not disturbing the sleepers, proceeded upstairs without slippers, and on the way had to pass through a certain room. To her surprise she saw a form in an armchair by the fireplace, which she took to be that of her employer; and as he did not respond to the usual “Good night,” she thought him upset or vexed over something. Next morning, it transpired that everyone, except the late-comer, was in bed at 10-30 p.m., and that the form in the armchair must have been an apparition.
The strange midnight happenings usually commence just before midnight, though on rare occasions they have been associated with 4 a.m. Sometimes a month or six weeks elapses between the “visitations,” but they never fail to return.
It has been suggested that a ghost-hunter of repute – such as Mr Elliott O’Donnell – might be called in to investigate, but the occupants of the house have no desire for this, and it is out of respect for their wishes and feelings that their names and the exact location of their house are not published now. But not a single item mentioned above is mythical; every detail has actually happened, is still happening, and probably will continue indefinitely.
Tamworth Herald, 2nd February 1929.