A ghost story.
A few days ago, at the Birmingham Police Court, Charles Haines, zinc-worker, Watery Lane, appeared to answer a summons charging him with doing wilful damage to the amount of 1s 6d, by breaking a pane of glass in a house belonging to Benjamin Allington, baker, No.97, Watery Lane. This case seems to have sprung out of the antics of no less a personage than a “ghost,” which has lately made some stir in the neighbourhood of Watery Lane by demolishing the windows of defendant’s shop, and the whole of the houses in the yard at the back.
In vain three police officers in uniform and plain clothes have been on duty night and day for nearly a month, in hopes of laying the ghost, which attracted crowds every night. Stones would come hurling out of an adjoining yard in the very face of the gentlemen in uniform, and smash went the windows. A strict watch was kept in both yards, but with no avail – the “ghost” defied all their efforts.
At last, on the morning of the 22nd of October, at a quarter past ten, Mrs Allington, whose windows had suffered the most, saw the defendant Haines, who has a shop in the next yard, throw a piece of coal and break one of her bedroom windows. As ghosts, we know, retire at the first glimpse of dawn, the mystery seemed to have been solved, but the windows of the defendant’s own house were also all smashed. A summons was not taken out till some few days since, and up to the present the police do not seem to have caught other culprits, who still persist in their “larks.”
The throwing on the 22nd of October was clearly proved, and a fine of 22s and costs was imposed, and the damage also ordered to be paid.
Belfast Morning News, 18th November 1870.
Ghosts at Birmingham.
The “Birmingham ghost” which has taken up its quarters in the house of Mr Benjamin Allington, baker, of Watery-lane, survives, in spite of the persistent stone-throwing of the roughs of the neighbourhood. William Haines, a blacksmith, and Charles, his son, were on Thursday brought before the magistrates, charged with wilfully damaging Mr Allington’s door. The evidence was conflicting, but the defendants mainly relied on the plea that all the mischief was done by the ghost. The magistrates fined the defendants 1s each, and ordered them to pay 2s 6d for the damage they had done. – Birmingham Gazette.
Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 22nd November 1870.