Phantom figures in the night.
Weird happenings in a derelict farmhouse.
“Sunday Mercury” special.
Finding myself within a few miles of the little hamlet of Boscamoor, near Penkridge, (writes a correspondent) – I decided to make my way there and enquire into the strange stories told about a derelict farmhouse styled Cotton Buildings. Everyone knows it in the district, but it is referred to with awe, for it has the reputation of being haunted! According to a carved stone let into one of the high eaves, it was erected in 1671, when, local tradition has it, it was a Roman Catholic chapel. Later it was converted into a farmhouse, and eventually divided into two cottages. For some years it has been deserted, and is now slowly falling into ruin.
One still hears talk of ghostly tappings and weird noises which used to be heard, and no one goes near the place after night fall. Mrs Merrick, one of the last people to live there, described to me some of the terrifying nights she spent in the cottages, both of which she occupied at different times.
In one Christmas week there occurred strange happenings for which she could give only one explanation – the supernatural. She was sitting in the kitchen with her daughter when suddenly the heavy oaken door, which had been fastened on the latch, opened and then slammed to with a resounding bang. At first she thought it was her son playing a prank, but when she searched the passage outside there was no one to be seen. Nervously she returned to the kitchen to be startled again almost immediately by the sound of gravel being thrown along the passage she had just left. A second examination was made but neither gravel nor any other substance was found.
Followed another period of strained silence, and then strange knockings began in the upper rooms. The daughter ran upstairs with a poker in her grasp, but though she went from room to room, there was no one to be found. As she entered one room the rap-rap began in another. For a full hour this continued, but no cause could be found.
On another occasion, it was stated, the same daughter awoke one night to see the phantom figure of a man crouching by her fireplace.
Mrs Merrick also tells of a terrible vision in the depth of the night. From the opposite side of her bedroom she saw glaring at her, with eyes of fire, a great black dog. She roused her husband, but when he struck a light the dog vanished.
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 9th September 1934.