Noisy “Ghost” in Bow-st.
Strange knockings and moving lights.
Hand through a man-hole.
The residents at a shop and house in Bow-st. are becoming very much excited and distressed by what they believe to be a supernatural visitation. The tenant of the place is Mrs Blacklock, and she has two girls and two other women lodging with her, whilst her husband comes home at weekends. The first sign of what the women seem to be convinced is a ghost was about one o’clock on Sunday morning, when there was a sound as if some heavy article had been dropped on the top of the bedroom stairs. All the residents were aroused by the noise, and for some time afterwards sounds continued, sometimes as if stones were being thrown at the bedroom doors, and at others as if someone knocked sharply at the doors with their knuckles.
One of the girl lodgers today declared that she saw a man on the stairs, and a little boy says he saw a hand and arm under the bed. Twin lights are said to have been seen moving about the bedrooms. Every night since Saturday the noises have been heard more or less frequently, and even during the day footsteps have been noticed on the bedroom floors whilst the women have been downstairs.
All the women are in a state of alarm and Mrs Blacklock stated to an “Evening News” representative that though she has a good deal of sewing in, she is too upset to do it. The police have been called in. Mrs Blacklock states that a neighbour has told her previous tenants have heard similar noises, and have seen a hand holding a candle pushed through a man-hole in the ceiling of one of the bedrooms.
Bolton Evening News, 13th October, 1910.
A ‘ghostly’ visitor.
Experiences at a haunted house.
Spirit-rapping
“Waiting up” for the spook at Bolton.
The appearance of another “ghost” in Bolton has thrown one family at least into a state of abject terror, and residents in the neighbourhood concerned are greatly exercised over a series of mysterious occurrences this week.
A house and shop at the corner of Bow-street and All Saints’-street, within a few yards of Bridge-street, a main thoroughfare of the town, are popularly described as the “haunted” premises, and weird stories are being circulated as to uncanny nocturnal happenings in the upper rooms and about the stairs, which remained unexplained, despite sleepless nights and weary vigils by the occupants and sympathising neighbours. Sounds resembling the tumbling about of heavy boxes, the banging and thumping of doors and loud rappings on the floor are among the mystifying occurrences.
The tenant is a Mrs Blacklock, whose husband works in the Wigan district, and comes home at the week-ends. Their four children, whose ages range from nine to three years, stay with their mother, and there are also a widow and two female cotton operatives lodging in the house.
“It just seems as if someone is full of devilish amusement, but it has thrown us all into terror and misery,” said Mrs Blacklock to an “Evening Chronicle” reporter. They had occupied the premises for about five weeks, but nothing occurred to occasion alarm until Sunday last. Occasional noises had been heard at nights, of which little notice was taken. But about midnight, after we had retired, we were startled by a crash on a bedroom floor, as if a big box had been dropped. We all jumped up and searched through the place, but nothing to account for the disturbance was discoverable. This was followed a little later by a noise resembling someone falling downstairs, but a prompt search failed to account for that.”
“Unexplainable knockings and rappings were heard until daybreak, and there was no sleep for any of us that morning,” the lady proceeded. Every night since then there have been similar terrifying experiences for the household. So alarmed have they become that the police and friends have been called in to elucidate the mystery but without any tangible satisfaction.
On one occasion at three o’clock in the morning they rushed out into the street, so terrified were they, and got two men to enter the house and search the premises. The noises then resembled the heavy footsteps of a man walking about the rooms, and the search on that occasion also proved fruitless.
One of the girls, after hearing an alarming noise on the stairs one morning, rushed to find out the cause, and exclaimed, “There’s a man here.” No one was discovered, but the girl adheres to it that she distinctly saw on the stairs a man, who mysteriously vanished. The doors and windows downstairs were found locked and fastened. Mrs Blacklock’s nine-year-old son was lying in bed on Wednesday night, and following a loud banging on the floor, he screamed, “Oh, mother, I have seen it.” Asked what he had seen, the lad replied that he had seen a man’s hand knocking on the floor. He states that he saw the arm and hand clearly, but no other portion of the body.
Mrs Blacklock declared that she has seen mysterious lights representing luminous balls, flitting about the rooms. “I was in conversation with a former tenant a day or two ago,” she added, “and she tells me that she heard strange noises and on one occasion she saw distinctly a man’s hand in which was a lighted candle, thrust through a manhole in the ceiling of one of the rooms.”
This forenoon Mrs Blacklock told our representative that two men, friends of the family, had stayed in the kitchen all night and kept watch for the mysterious visitant. Strange knockings and rappings were heard by them during the early hours of the morning, but they were unable to find a satisfactory explanation.
A suggestion that possibly the mysterious occurrences were due to the presence of rats or mice between the ceiling and floors was scouted by Mrs Blacklock, who declared that it was an impossibility for any creatures of that kind to produce the weird “tap, taps,” followed by louder “knocking” just like blows from a man’s fist. They had been heard close to bedroom doors, which were instantly opened, but nothing to explain them was discoverable.
“I am convinced it is not rats,” she added. Her landlord had undertaken to have the whole place overhauled forthwith, to see if anything about the structure or condition of the premises would solve the mystery.
Inquiries from the police show that Mrs Blacklock has complained to the authorities about her experience during the week. On one occasion when a constable was making inquiries there a somewhat loud “bump” was heard upstairs, which, like other similar incidents, remained a mystery.
Manchester Evening News, 14th October 1910.
Bow-st. Ghost
Workmen trying to lay it.
The Bow-st. “ghost” is still continuing its mysterious bangings and rappings, and the tenants of the house and shop are, if anything, becoming more and more alarmed, though Mrs Blackwood says she is determined to know the end of it. She formed a theory that the noise might be intended to warn her of hidden money and has made a search of the premises, looking under flooring boards and in all kinds of likely and unlikely hiding-places. Her search has, however, gone unrewarded so far.
Last night relatives stayed with her in the house, and the “ghost” had a turn of knocking about midnight, and then rested until three o’clock, after which it continued intermittently until about 7.30, one of the girl lodgers hearing a loud thud immediately behind her as she was descending the stairs to go to work. The landlord is apparently of the belief that the strange noises are due to quite ordinary causes, and today workmen, acting on his instructions, are making serious attempts to lay the “ghost” by fastening down all loose boards in the bedroom floors and making the windows so that they will not shake.
Bolton Evening News, 17th October 1910.