A Bramford Ghost Story.
During the past six weeks the village of Bramford, near Ispwich, has been under the spell of a supernatural manifestation. Women and children have been afraid to venture into the dimly-lighted street; frequenters of that cheerful hostelry – the Angel – have made haste to get there, and been more than usually disinclined to leave; and at every fireside the ghost has been the one topic of conversation. On the principle that one story of this kind “remembereth yet another” all the old bogies of childhood and ignorance have been raked up afresh, with the result that it might be said of Bramford lately – as Tom Hood once wrote respecting a dwelling of ghostly repute – that
A sense of mystery the spirit daunted,
And said, as plain as whisper in the ear,
The place is haunted.
The actual tenement which the ghost in this instance selected is a cottage standing in rear of the shop occupied by Mr Francis, nearly opposite the Angel Inn. It is the property of Mr William Squirrel, now living at Manchester (a relative by the way of the famous fasting woman of Shottesham), and is occupied by Mrs Parker, a widow, with her three children, and an old woman named Felgate. One of the children, Thomas Fennican by name – Mrs Parker having been married twice – is grown up; the other two are Ellen Parker, aged 13, and Cornelius, aged 11. This family have lived in the cottage for some time, and it was not until recently that they “heard anything.”
Nobody was ever murdered there, and although an old lady did hang herself in a cottage not far away, she had never been suspected of having re-visited the glimpses of the moon, and in any case would not have been so benighted as to hover about the wrong cottage. But some weeks ago, as has been said, a rumour was bruited abroad in the village that mysterious rappings had been heard in various parts of Mrs Parker’s cottage. The noise was exactly like that in which spiritualists profess to believe as the language of another world. It usually took the form of three distinct knocks, sometimes in the rooms below, at others in the bedrooms, and very frequently in a shed outside, which for present purposes may be described as an outhouse.
On several occasions the door leading to the upper storey was opened by some invisible agency. Mud and stones were hurled at the windows and the front door, the most remarkable thing in this connection being that the windows were never broken and the door never dinted, although the ghost showed a decided preference for such missiles as big flints and brick-bats. As time passed on, the village became greatly excited. People who went to the cottage to investigate the mystery confessed themselves puzzled. One man heard the knocks on a couch in the room where he was sitting, whilst the couch itself was pushed up against him by some inscrutable agency. Another inquirer, who came all the way from Blakenham, and said he would stay in the house till Whitsuntide unless the spirit “manifested” before him, distinctly heard a most astounding noise proceeding from the outhouse aforesaid. And the most extraordinary experience of all was that of a Bramford coachman, for he heard the sound of hand-bells ringing in the copper!
Under these circumstances it is hardly to be wondered at that the more superstitious among the villagers were considerably frightened. Some thought the house was under a spell. The deliberate opinion of others was that witchcraft was at work. One man said that if he only went to an old woman whom he knew in Ipswich and crossed her hand with silver, she would soon explain the whole matter. A good many people were more impressed than they cared to acknowledge, and several residents who were spoken to on Wednesday, declared a belief that there was something in it quite incapable of explanation on any material grounds.
The scare reached a crisis during the past few days. Last Saturday night a crowd of people assembled in the yard outside the cottage, and the manifestations were continued until a late hour. On Tuesday night there was a still larger gathering of the villagers, and the whole place was in uproar. In the meantime, Police-sergeant Leeks, who is stationed at Bramford, and had all along expressed the profoundest contempt for the Ghost, had made some singular discoveries. He found that, whenever Mrs Parker’s two younger children happened to be away from home, no noises were heard and the cottage was as peaceful as any other house in the village. The spirit never rapped when he was about, as though he or she were quite aware that a summons might be issued for disturbing the good order of the village, against the peace of her Majesty the Queen, her Crown and dignity. The sergeant flatly refused to believe in ghostly flints and brick-bats, and the upshot of it was that on Wednesday morning he waited upon the younger Parkers, and invited them to make a full confession. Master Cornelius thereupon spoke up, and admitted that his sister and himself had been playing the ghost at the instigation of Mrs Felgate. There can be no doubt that this is the real explanation, although it is thought that the poor old lodger was not in any way concerned.
The popular belief in the supernatural has not, however, altogether subsided. One of the neighbours declared that, “if they children had kept that game up for six weeks, they must be bedevilled.” The good woman was evidently determined to believe in a spirit of some kind, but it is hoped that the ghost has now been effectually laid, not by the aid of the parson, as in old times, but by the sturdy common-sense of the village policeman.
Evening Star, 11th November 1887.
The Bramford “Ghost”.
The excitement consequent upon the remarkable manifestations in the cottage of Mrs Parker, at Bramford, had by no means decreased on Sunday, when several persons from Ipswich visited the village for the purpose of enquiring into the mystery. Chairs, tables, sofa cushions, and even a Prayer Book, have been seen flying about in all directions, according to the statement of Mrs Parker, within the last few days, while brick-bats have not only been hurled at the door by some unseen agency, but one brick was actually seen to rise from the ground in the yard without any human being having any hand in the curious performance. Mrs Parker indignantly protests against the statement that her son, who is only nine years of age, freely confessed that he and his sister were the cause of the otherwise mysterious phenomena, and that they were urged to the trickery by Mrs Felgate, an old woman in her 82nd year, the fact being (she says) that it was under dire threats of punishment from the Police-sergeant, unless he confessed, that the little fellow made any statement at all. The whole affair, in fact, remains without any satisfactory solution, as it seems impossible to believe that two children (one of nine, and the other 11 years of age) were capable of carrying on such pranks without being discovered long ago, the strange proceedings having extended over a period of two months.
Evening Star, 15th November 1887.
The Bramford Ghost.
A correspondent writes that the mystery of the marvellous manifestation in a Bramford cottage has been exposed by four young men of Ipswich. According to the narrative, one of the young men in question first visited the Cock Inn, and obtained all the information possible about the strange goings on at the “Haunted house,” and then joined his three companions who had been reconnoitering near the cottage. One of the visitors named Burrows knocked at the door, calling the occupant by name, and while the man who took him for a friend, was telling his doleful tale, one of the other young men, Hobart, had a look round at the brick wall where the man said the brickbats came from, and discovered some of the bricks were loose. The party then went into the cottage, where one of the family began telling the young men that it was the worst day they had yet experienced. Thus they had seen ornaments thrown off the mantelpiece by invisible hands and broken to pieces, the boy’s hat and coat had been shifted from one chair to another by the same mysterious agency, the girl’s shoes unbuttoned and actually taken off her feet, and all the breakfast things thrown up to the ceiling, falling back on to the table unbroken.
Our correspondent then goes on to state that one of the party received the “tip” to watch the boy and girl while the widow was telling the others more strange tales, and distinctly saw the lad slyly draw something from beneath the sofa and throw it across the room, at which they all screamed out loudly. The girl shortly afterwards threw one of her shoes towards her brother, and he threw it under the table, the girl calling out “Oh! where is my boot, it flew off my foot.” After the boy and girl had played several of these little tricks, thinking they were not perceived by the visitors, just as the latter pretended to be much interested in a description of the hardships the famil had lately suffered in having the old lady’s allowance of flour cut off, one of the young men distinctly saw the boy artfully reach for the poker, which he threw under the table, screaming out loudly at the same time. Just as the visitors were leaving Hobart was directed to hang back, when he saw the lad throw the kettle where he had previously thrown the poker. The party then left thoroughly convinced that the boy and girl were the prime actors in this little farce.
Evening Star, 24th November 1887.
The Bramford Ghost.
November’s frost the turnpike road / Had made both hard and dry, / The sun had long since set behind / A dark and sullen sky.
The market folk who that day went / To Ipswich busy town, / Had hasten’d home for fear lest night / Should o’er their path come down.
The gas was lit in house and shop, / And every frozen street / Resounded with the noisy tramp / Of eager, bustling feet.
A strapping lad from Bramford went, / His purchases to make; / Some said he was a decent chap, / And some, he was a rake.
His age it might be twenty one, / Or maybe twenty two / But with the tale I’m going to tell, / His age has nought to do.
His purchases were quickly made, / Were in his pocket thrust – / And then he went to look about, / As country people must.
He first went here and then went there; / Now looked at this and that; / Admiring first a gaudy rug, / And then a new-shaped hat.
Thus loitered he about the town, / Until ’twas getting late, / And then, almost afraid to go, / He tried to find a mate.
But no acquaintance could he see, / Which made his nerves feel sore, / For from the town unto his house / ‘Twas three good miles or more.
Longer to stay it was no use; / So buttoning up his coat, / He turned his back on Ipswich streets, / With many a bitter thought.
His hurried way he homeward bent, / And darker grew the sky, / And loud and clear his footsteps rang / O’er footpath hard and dry.
To keep his feeble courage up, / And help him going along, / He whistled many a cheeful tune, / Or humm’d some favourite song.
But darker grew the lonely road / At every step he took, / And when a rustling sound he heard, / He started round to look.
The last houses he had long since passed, / And now the wind blew chill; / It moaned among the leafless trees, / And roared down Bramford hill.
Still on he went with hasty step, / And feared to look behind, / For all the dreadful tales he knew / Came fresh into his mind.
And now he wish’d he never heard, / A single goblin tale, / For being but a nervous lad, / He found his courage fail.
He fancied that each bush he saw, / And every dead tree stump, / Some goblin hid, which as he passed, / Would out upon him jump.
But soon he neared a lonely spot, / Of which queer tales were told, / He eyed that gloomy copse with dread, / And felt his blood turn cold.
He’d heard that once in days gone by, / A man had there been hung, / That three wild days and stormy nights, / The lifeless corpse had swung;
And when they laid it in the grave, / Wrapped in an old black coat, / The chain with which he had been hung / Was still around his throat.
But, so ’twas told in whisper grave, / Three days the corpse lay there, / And then it went – no one knew how, / And none knew when or where.
And now the Bramford people say / That when the old moon wanes, / His restless spirit wanders forth / Dragging its iron chains.
The lad got all his courage up – / He’d pass’d the dreaded part, / When just behind he heard a sound, / Which chilled his timid heart.
He glanced aside – nought could he see, / Yet still he heard the sound, / As though a rusty iron chain / Came clanking o’er the ground.
His whistling ceased, he held his breath, / His eyes stood out with fear; / His lips that just had moved in song, / Now moved in muttered prayer.
What could it be? He heard no step / Of woman, man or child, / So thought of course the chain was trailed / By ghost or goblin wild.
At last in sheer despair he stopped / Until the Ghost should come; / It stopped as well – nought could he see, / Beyond the darksome gloom.
So on he went with quicker step, / Yet still the Ghost came on, / His walk soon changed into a trot, / His trot into a run.
But still the Ghost came clink-a-clink – / His mind was on the rack, / For much he feared the dreadful thing / Would leap upon his back.
He stopped again, and down he knelt / Against a wayside trough, / And prayed that all the holy saints / Would keep the devil off.
But when he stopped , the goblin stopped, / Nor moved a step, until / He once more started on his race, / And came to Bramford Hill.
Then clink, clink, clink, the goblin went, / Fainter the lad still grew, / Until at last a twinkling light, / Came suddenly in view.
The village folks had all retired, / The street was dark and still, / Except when rough November wind, / Came moaning down the hill.
Then down the street with clattering boots / He ran with might and main – / Vowing that if he once got home; / He’d ne’er come out again.
So dark the night and great his fear / The door he scarce could tell, / And when he swung it open wide / The Ghost passed through as well.
Then up the creaky stairs he sprang / Some safe retreat to find; / Yet still his grim pursuer came / Following close behind.
With trembling step and eager haste /He in the closet popped, / But in the closet popped the Ghost – / Then suddenly it stopped.
He thought that now the murderer’s chain / Would wrap around the neck, / So held the door with both his hands / And fastened down the “snack.”
The inmates hurried up to see / Whatever ailed the lad, / For rushing up the stairs like that/ They thought him surely mad.
They took him down, and then he told / His tale with horror fraught, / And soon in every bed and box, / The honest people sought.
They went into the closet last, / And opening wide the door, / They saw the horrid Goblin lay, / Quite dead upon the floor!
Then soon they cleared the myst’ry up, / And brought the Ghost to light; / It knew no sin, nor ever tried / To frighten folks at night.
Guiltless it was of every crime, / No evil thought was there – / While he whom it had so much scared / Sat panting in a chair.
His wooden soles were old and worn, / The irons round the soles / Had once contained full many nails, / But now were full of holes.
As he had trudged his homeward path / Along the Gipping vale, / And strove the haunted copse to pass, / Out fell another nail!
Then clink-a-clink the iron soles / Went every step he took, / But whether the Ghost, or what it was, / He’d been afraid to look.
But when he in the closet sprang / And fastened tight the door, / The iron that had thus got loose / Fell off upon the floor.
Moral.
This Ghost is like most other Ghosts – / They frighten and appal, / Yet in the end they oft turn out, / To be no Ghost at all.
A lesson may be learnt from this: / Those who would fly through fear, / Should always try to ascertain, / If any danger’s near.
Fredk. W. Doubleday. Ipswich, November, 1887.
Ipswich Journal, 2nd December 1887.
The Bramford Ghost at Stowmarket.
Considerable interest (says our correspondent at Stowmarket) is being taken in the account given of the girl Parker, who visited her friends at Stowmarket last week. Mr Jeffery has been interviewed, and is certain “that there are indications of the existence of a force proceeding from the girl, of which she is at present unconscious, and which operates beyond the range of muscular action. What that force is, he is unable to say. One thing is certain – there is no deception, nor is he the dupe of mere imagination. The motions he saw were real, and the sounds were actual, which goes a long way to establish the belief of the existence of a force, whatever it may be, that moves and makes audible sounds on heavy bodies without physical contact or connection.”
This case, adds our correspondent, is considered by many who take an interest in “scientific”theories to be a most excellent subject for the “Society for Psychical Research” to take up, and as several members of that Society are residents in this town and neighbourhood, there is every reason to believe that further enquiries will be made, and the problem investigated upon a scientific basis. If the girl possesses an abnormal amount of animal magnetism, she may prove of some interest to scientists as a medium or a psychic.
East Anglian Daily Times, 5th December 1887.
The “Bramford Ghost” at Stowmarket.
The extraordinary circumstances attending the Bramford Ghost story have, our correspondent says, been repeated at Stowmarket. The girl, it seems, has a relative, named Jeffery, living in Bridge Street, California, Stowmarket, who invited her to spend a few days there.The girl came on Sunday night last, but nothing of any importance occurred until Wednesday night, when, on the girl retiring to rest, the most extraordinary manifestations occurred. Knocks were heard in her bedroom, boots were flung about, and noises of a peculiar kind were frequent.
Mr Jeffery went to the bedroom, but the girl was asleep, and no one else in the room. On the following evening the noises increased, knobs were taken off the bedstead and flung about, the washstand was hurled across the room, and a most terrible noise ensued.
Mr Jeffery is certain there is something most mysterious about the whole affair, but that the girl is a party to it he will not believe. She is, it is stated, entirely unconscious of what occurs. Her friends, rather than pass another night like that referred to, took her home on Friday.
Evening Star, 3rd December 1887.
The Bramford Ghost.
On Friday at the usual fortnightly meeting of the Guardians of the Bosmere and Claydon Union, Mrs Parker, widow, who lives in the house at Bramford, where it is alleged that a ghost has been wont to play capers, attended before the Board and requested that the allowance of 3s. per week which had been granted by the Board to her two children, and which, in consequence of the alleged presence of her unwelcome companion, had been stopped, should be allowed to continue.
Mr Fiske put a number of questions to Mrs Parker, in answer to which she stated that before she married the late Mr Parker her name was Farrington. At the time she married him he had a wife living , who had deserted him for about seven years.
Mr Fiske: I don’t think your name is Parker at all.
Mrs Parker: I beg your pardon, I have the marriage license.
Mr Fiske: But he had another wife living.
The Chairman: You cannot take the woman’s name away.
Mr Fiske: What do your children do?
Mrs Parker: They do nothing at all. It is not my children that do anything wrong.
The Chairman: What do you apply to us for?
Mrs Parker: Allowance for my children.
The Chairman: We will take you and the children into this Workhouse.
Mr Fiske: Is it not true that the things still keep moving about the house.
Mrs Parker: I have not seen them do so the last two days. I was not afraid that anybody should come into the house and see what took place.
Mr Fiske: Have you seen the kettle come off the fire into the middle of the room?
Mrs Parker: Not into the middle of the room, but into the cinder-pit.
Mr Fiske: Have you seen bricks come from the yard into the house without anybody moving them?
Mrs Parker: Yes, I have.
Mr Fiske: Then they picked themselves up and came through the door?
Mrs Parker did not answer this question.
Mr Fiske said that it was not fit for the woman to live in the house if the state of things she had alleged existed.
The Chairman: The Guardians will give you and your children an order for the Workhouse, and then they will see whether it is not requisite to detain the children in the House, and send you to Melton Asylum.
(Laughter.)
Mrs Parker: I am all right, Sir.
Mr Howlett: Are you not afraid to sleep in the house?
Mrs Parker: We have been.
The Chairman again repeated that the Guardians would grant an order for the Workhouse if Mrs Parker would like to accept it: that was the only relief they could give her.
Mrs Parker: Thank you gentlemen, I should not take it. She then left the room.
The Ipswich Journal, 9th December 1887.
When the story of the “Bramford ghost” was first laid before the readers of the East Anglian Daily Times the conclusion arrived at upon the facts then ascertained was that the whole thing was a conspiracy on the part of two artful children. It will be remembered that mysterious knocks and manifestations were heard in the cottage occupied by a Mrs Parker at Bramford, that the rumour of a ghostly visitation spread throughout the village – creating intense excitement – and that the two children of the house eventually confessed, in the presence of the village policemen, that they had caused all the commotion. Freaks of this kind have from time to time been detected, and with the plausible explanation given by the local representative of law and order there was apparently an end of the whole matter. Since that time, however, the mystery has entered upon a new phase. In the first place, the alleged confession was discredited. The little boy frankly owned that he told a lie in order to save himself from “a hidin’.” His sister declared that she could not account for the strange doings, and in any case the manifestations were continued with even greater vigour and variety than before.
From the comparatively harmless “knocking” stage, the spirit, or the psychic force, or whatever it was (and is, for that matter) went on to what is technically called levitation – that is to say, chairs and other solid bodies moved about the house of their own accord, and on one memorable washing day the house was turned inside out by some invisible agency. Some of these extraordinary phenomena have, it is said, been witnessed by scores of residents in Bramford and the neighbourhood.
Then came the rumour that the ghost had manifested itself at Stowmarket, and whatever may be the outcome of this singular business, the story of what took place there is most remarkable. Let it be understood, in the first place, that Mrs Parker has a sister at Stowmarket who is married to a respectable working man named Jeffery. He is in the employ of Messrs. Hewitt and Co., who give him the very highest character for sobriety and truthfulness. Hearing of his sister-in-law’s troubles, he invited the little girl Ellen to stay at his house, thinking that a change would do the child good. She came on Monday week, and what happened during her visit is best told in the words, as narly as they can be remembered, of Mr Jeffrey himself –
The girl came to my house (he said) on the Monday. My wife and two boys, and my wife’s mother live with me, and the little Parker slept with the last-named, who is of course her grandmother. During Monday and Tuesday nothing unusual happened. On Wednesday evening, however, my wife went to chapel, and when I was at the back of the house, the girl came to me and said that some boys were knocking at the door. I had left her seated at a table in the inner room writing a letter. I went back with her, feeling certain that nobody had been at the door, and then I heard a peculiar knocking – on the table, in the walls (as it were) and all around. The inner door, which nobody could have reached from the outside, was apparently struck with great violence – just one blow only. at that moment the girl was seated at some distance from the door, with her back to it. When my wife came home that night, she heard the knocks – in fact, we all heard them, the sounds going on around the girl as she went upstairs to bed. On that day, however, the knocking was all we heard. But when Thursday night came things began to look serious. The girl went to bed in good time with her grandmother, and directly she got upstairs different articles on the room began to move about. I heard the noise, and went upstairs. As I entered the room, the washstand, which stood near the door, fell over against me, and would have pitched on to the floor had I not pushed it back. A chest containing linen – the whole being so heavy that the girl could not have moved it by herself – had been shifted about the floor, the hot water bottle was taken out of the bed and thrown against the wall, and the brush and comb had also been shifted from one place to another. I told the girl to get into bed. When she had done so, I went into the room again, and then I saw the things moving myself. By the side of the wall there was an iron bedstead which I had not put up. Well, that was dancing up and down on the floor; then the washstand was thrown over, and the heavy chest again moved. All this time the girl was in bed. There was more or less disturbance during the night; it was more than we could stand, and next morning my wife took the girl home.
This was, in brief, the account heard from the lips of Mr Jeffrey himself. The narrative is not, as in most cases of a similar character, removed in the third or fourth degree from the actual observer. “People may believe me or not,” Mr Jeffrey said in conclusion, “I can only bear witness to what I actually saw; I am quite certain there is something on the girl.”
Under the circumstances, therefore, the sceptical inquirer in this dilemma – that he must either disbelieve Mr Jeffrey or admit that there may be something in the phenomena called spiritualism. Upon the first point, it can only be said that Mr Jeffrey’s absolute veracity is avouched by his frank and open manner no less than by his high character. It has been said that the village ghosts have fallen off a good deal now that people are becoming more sober; but no suspicion attaches to Mr Jeffrey in this respect, for he is a teetotaller. Of course there is the alternative opinion that he was mistaken; but if that view were hinted to him, his reply would probably suggest the conclusion arrived at by Macbeth, that on the occasion in question, his eyes were either “made the fools o’ the other sense, or else worth all the rest.”
The Society for Psychical Research includes amongst its members one or two residents at Stowmarket, and we understand that the Bramford “manifestations” have been communicated to the Secretary, and that the case will most probably be subjected to the strictest investigation. People who are inclined to believe in the psychical element, to use that phrase for want of a better, are much impressed with the extraordinary resemblance which the Bramford story bears to other well-authenticated phenomena roughly classified under the head of spiritualism. These poor people of Bramford, it is argued, could not possibly have heard of or read the communications collected by the Psychical Society, and yet the manifestations they have witnessed are exactly similar to those which have occurred in other parts of the country; therefore it is highly improbable that this is a case of trickery and deception. The contention is not unreasonable. We have been favoured with some reports of the “Proceedings” of the Society in question, and we propose to reprint one of these cases, which is too long for insertion in this connection, in to-morrow’s East Anglian Daily Times.
Having seen Mr Jeffrey, it was thought that any inquiry would be incomplete without an interview with the “medium” herself. In the evening, therefore, on the way back from Stowmarket, a visit was paid to Mrs PArker’s house – a small tenement situate in a yard nearly opposite the Angel Inn, and not by any means easy to discover on a dark winter’s night, for Bramford Street must be the worst-lighted thoroughfare in all Suffolk. The door was opened by Thomas Farrington – Mrs Parker’s grown-up son by a former husband – and the good lady herself was engaged in washing up the tea-things. Ellen (the “medium”) sat by the fireside with her brother, their ages being eleven and nine years respectively. The girl may be called rather good-looking; but she seemed nervous and frightened, and an old-fashioned arrangement of the hair, combed low down on the forehead, gave a somewhat sullen expression to a face otherwise intelligent enough. She has, in fact, passed the 4th Standard at school. Asked whether she had anything to do with the knockings and so forth, she burst into tears, and was rather severely reprimanded by her mother. To all the questions put, she would only reply “Yes, sir,” and “No, sir” – as the case might be – and even then she was prompted by Mrs Parker. The latter, however, and the grown-up son were very communicative. They told a most astounding story of having had all the furniture in the house upset until they were afraid to stop indoors, of extraordinary noises outside the windows and doors, of loose bricks actually following the girl about the house. “As God is my witness,” said the woman, “I have seen things rise from the earth of their own accord, and follow my little girl to the door. That kettle have often been shifted from one hob to the other, and the other evening this basin” – pointing to the big washing-up basin on the table – “was lifted off here and placed on the ground. We have seen sights in this house which we would give anything to have found out.” On the washing-day before referred to, the furniture would not stand upright; a table in one of the bedrooms was thrown down so many times that it was broken; and on several occasions the knives flew out of the cupboard and stuck in the little girl’s hair.
These are only a few among the many instances alleged of the work of some malevolent influence. Mrs Parker and the little girl were both asked whether anything could be done to set the spirit moving there and then – would the table turn if she touched it, for example? The woman shook her head, and said that these things might happen at any moment, but that they could not control them in any way. Pressed as to what their explanation was, both the son and Mrs Parker expressed a profound conviction that the child and their furniture were bewitched by somebody who had a spite against them. They had tried burning the furniture – a table, chair, and even a kettle having been committed to the flames – “but it’s of no use,” the woman added, “for that new kettle goes about just the same.” Then Mrs Parker complained about the conduct of the Guardians in having taken away her allowance, declaring most solemnly that she had made no money out of the business, but that, on the contrary, it was rendering her life intolerable. She certainly refused to take anything on this occasion. We stayed for some time, but no manifestations occurred, and there for the present the story must be left.
East Anglian Daily Times 8th December 1887.
The Bramford Ghost.
To the Editor.
Sir, – Just a few words in connection with the Bramford Ghost. We see in your columns of Friday’s paper that it is plainly (according to Mr Jeffrey’s statement) not the boy and girl who carry on this little scheme and cause all this commotion and disorder in the village. He says that he has seen the things move, such as the furniture, by invisible hands. Is not this imagination? Is it not possible that Mr Jeffrey has heard, but not seen these things?
But we, the undersigned, have seen with our eyes the things move and fly about the room, and also have seen from whence they came. We also have the confession of Mrs Felgate, who has left Mrs Parker’s, and she says that she dare not say anything, while she was there, for fear of being ill-treated. She says that it is the boy and girl again.
When there is anyone visiting the house a little bit stylish there is nothing seen nor heard barring the doleful tales of the occupants; but when four young men from Ipswich present themselves as ignorant dummies, and take the son by the hand and sympathise with the poor children, and scandalise the Guardians for their shocking conduct in cutting off their allowance, then, as it is only four friends and dummies who will be frightened out of their wits and spread the awful and intolerable life they are living, the ghost, or, as some say, the witch commences the performance. We think also that there is some little mistake.
The invisible agency must either have lost the train or else had some other place to call at, for the girl arrived at Stowmarket on Monday morning, but the ghost did not appear till Wednesday evening, and then took advantage of the poor girl when all the other occupants of the house were out. No doubt he is rather nervous, and afraid of being captured.
We know for a positive fact, as we went for the purpose of scrutinising the matter, and we planned that by acting as if we were ignorant we should solve the matter, and we can bring other witnesses forward who can swear that it is the boy and girl who are the prime actors in this little farce, and whether they are prompted by their mother or not it is certain that she knows that they do it, for she aids them by sittting so that the acting cannot easily be discerned.
We ask you, sir, for the sake of poor children, and the public at large, who are some of them being frightened into all sorts of things by hearing of this ridiculous and artful scheme, to insert this in your columns. We are, &c., Edward Burrows, 100 Crown Street. Arthur Bigsby, 101, Woodbridge Road.
East Anglian Daily Times, 14th December 1887.
To the Editor.
Sir, – After occasional long correspondence on spiritualism during th elast twelve years in county papers – the last one between Dr Wilde and members of the Ipswich Scientific Society – I have read with some interest in your columns of the Bramford manifestations. I thought here was an opportunity afforded to Dr Wilde, &c., to witness phenomena such as those seen by myself, and which the doctor could not explain.
Spiritualism being the only thing that explains the whole of the varied phenomena. Spirits out of the body seem determined that spirits in the body shall investigate.
I see by your editorial on the subject that the “Psychical Society” has been applied to to investigate the phenomena. I do not consider that they are the best investigators.
Professor Barrett’s narrative in your columns of 9th December only proved that Dr Carpenter’s (and Dr Wilde’s) muscular theory fell through. In the Bramford phenomena, as well as in hundreds of similar cases in Great Britain and many other parts of the world, there is evidence of an intelligent force. Why not try to find out what that intelligent force is? And this may be done by an intelligent spiritualist or an unprejudiced investigator who understands something of the spiritual circle. you have some good Spiritualists in Ipswich; but perhaps they do not care to risk jeers, persecution, and loss of business by acknowledging themselves as such. From my many years’ experience, I can hardly blame them.
It is five years since you, I think, published similar phenomena from “W.H.C.,” two of his children being mediums, and I would say to the Bramford parents, as I said to W.H.C., “Be careful to whom you trust your gifted children for investigation.” He (W.H.C.) did not follow my advice, and the result was very nearly a tragic occurrence.
Rather than remove the children from their home, let two persons visit them, one to report what occurs, the other, with the children and parents, to sit with their hands laid upon a table, singing some hymn that all can join in, and carrying out the printed rules for the spirit circle that I will send. If the distance was not so far, I should have visited the family myself. Home circles are spreading all over the world, and the ignorant wise ones cannot comprehend the blessings of such family circles.
I have been as brief as possible, in hopes you will give this a place in your columns. I am, &c., T. Dowsing. Framlingham, Dec. 11, 1887.
East Anglian Daily Times, 14th December 1887.
An Extraordinary Ghost.
What about the “Bramford ghost”? Of course, it is admitted by even the most superstitious that it is no ghost at all, but that at best – or at worst – the case is one in which a girl apparently possesses remarkable powers of attraction. For young ladies to possess uncommon powers of attraction is, however, nothing uncommon. But in this instance the girl seems to be capable of drawing towards her heavy articles of furniture – or, at all events, of causing them to jump and lumber about in a most extraordinary manner. Whether she occupies the humble house at Bramford which is her home, or visits relatives at Stowmarket, she seems to be accompanied by the same remarkable phenomena. There is talk of a scientific inquiry into the peculiarities of this strangely gifted girl, and should such inquiry be held, it is to be hoped that for the gratification of local curiosity, as well as in the interests of science itself, the results will be made public without delay.
The Ipswich Journal, 16th December 1887.
The Bramford Spirit Medium.
Mr Jeffery’s Account.
To the Editor.
Sir, – I see my name has been mentioned in your columns as connected with the Bramford ghost tale, and I have been asked to send you an account of what happened in my house. I willingly do so, as truth, however astonishing, will always bear telling, and it has been shown to me that eminent scientific men have seen and admitted the truth of what I saw.
The child came to my house on Monday, November 26th, in the evening. Nothing happened till the Wednesday night following, when raps came at my front door. No one was there. Closing the front door as soon as I got in, raps came inside the house till the child went to bed, sleeping with her grandmother. As the child went upstairs, raps followed her, and went on in the room. That was all that happened that night.
The next night, in the room where she sat, at about 7 o’clock, I was annoyed by hearing raps again in the room where the child, my wife, and the child’s grandmother were sitting. No one else was there. This went on till the child and her grandmother went to bed; raps followed them both up the stairs. I then heard a tremendous noise. Mrs Jeffery went upstairs, saw things moving about, and called me. I went up and found them in a terrible fright. I got them both downstairs for an hour, when nothing happened but a few raps, coming from were I did not know.
They went to bed again about 11. My wife went up, and as soon as the child and her grandmother were in bed I went up. There was no one in the room then but my wife, myself, and those in bed. As soon as I went in, the washstand fell on to me, no one being near it but myself; next I saw a clothes chest, weighing at least seven stones with its contents, jumping about the floor. I put it in its place several times. Then the chairs and all the movables in the room seemed alive; even the brass knob screwed on the bedpost was taken off and dashed across the room. All this time the child was in bed, and a bright light in the room. These disturbances went on till about 12 o’clock that night, when they ceased.
This is what I witnessed myself, but I must mention that in my absence, my wife, my two sons, and my neighbour (Mrs Read) saw very much the same things as I did. But I leave them to speak for themselves, confining myself to what I saw and heard myself.
I have been a resident of Stowmarket 32 years, and I am sure my friends will credit me as a truthful man to the best of my ability. – I am, &c.,
Robert Jeffery. Bridge Street, Stowmarket, December 14th, 1887.
Evening Star, 21st December 1887.
The Bramford Ghost.
Bramford is no longer troubled by the now-famous ghost or spirit medium. The Parker family have gone to live in Ipswich: their old house is shut up and left unto itself desolate. If any supernatural tenant should be there still – any genius loci of a perverse and uncanny disposition – nothing has at present been heard of it. No spirit raps on the walls; doors and windows no longer fly open of their own accord; the loose bricks of the kitchen remain quietly in their proper places. The law of gravitation (as one correspondent of the East Anglian Daily Times ‘cutely suggested) is not now violated in this obscure corner of the universe alone; and, truth to tell, the people who believed most firmly in the story at one time are now beginning to wonder whether it was not all trickery or imagination after all. One old fellow, who had pinned his faith to the witchcraft theory, when asked his opinion at the present moment, frankly confessed that he wished he had said “northin'” about it.
In justice to the owner of the house, however – for it would be a sad pity to depreciate the letting value of such a well-built lath-and-plaster semi-detached residence – it should be remembered that the property itself was never alleged to have been haunted. Only the furniture and the children were bewitched. But it is a curious fact, nevertheless, that the associations of the house rendered it a peculiarly fitting place for the development of the alleged manifestations.
The owner is a distant relative of the famous “Shottesham angel,” and under the auspices of the family which have just left, the Salvation Army once met there to organise an attack on Bramford. Between Spiritualism and faith-healing – in which latter phenomena the Ipswich members of the Army have lately professed a belief – there is no very great gulf fixed, so that, all things considered, the Bramford “medium” seemed to have made a very proper and deliberate choice.
It will be remembered that, at the beginning of these manifestations, an old woman named Fellgate lived with the bewitched family, and that she was compelled to leave on account of the annoyance to which she was subjected. Mrs Fellgate is in her 82nd year – a time of life when people require rest and quietude; and she was naturally a good deal upset when her furniture (for she had a few things of her own) began to jump about the house in a fashion alike erratic and reprehensible. She now lives with a respectable working man in the employ of Mr George Fiske, of Bramford, and the rumour that she could throw some light upon the doings of the “ghost” was the excuse for a recent call at her lodgings. Unfortunately, however, the old lady was ill in bed.
When she first went to the house, she was thoroughly upset. The slightest sound reminded her of the disagreeable rapping that went on at the old house, and she had the more reason to dread a repetitionof these experiences because she had been not only frightened but hurt. One foot was badly bruised, the injuries having been caused by the incessant fall of a table upon it. This very table, by the way, was the most active article of all, turning over so many times and with such violence that it became cracked from end to end. So said the Parkers, at all events, when interviewed some time ago.
The fact (assuming it to be one) recalls a spiritualistic experience which used to be told in the neighbourhood of Bungay. At a certain seance there, the spirit of the notorious Muller, who murdered Mr Briggs in a railway carriage, manifested itself through a table; somebody present inquired whether he (Muller) really was guilty; and the spirit said “no,” by giving one rap with such tremendous emphasis that the table was fairly splintered.
Returning to Mrs Fellgate, her present guardians assert that, when questioned, she will not say definitely that the children did all the mischief. She puts her explanation into an interrogative form, inquiring, “If the children didn’t do it, who did?” There’s the rub, of course. That remark leaves the question exactly where it was before, and the Psychical Society must be left to find the answer.
Before taking the story definitely from the neighbourhood of Bramford, there is just one other point to which some reference should be made. The Guardians cut off Mrs Parker’s relief, and by some people this was thought a great hardship. But the member of the Board who instigated this proceeding is well-known throughout the district as a genial, kind-hearted man, who is incapable of harshness or injustice. The fact was that he saw the bewitched family, that the mother told him of the extraordinary occurrences, now so well known – not one of them, as he heard the story, incapable of explanation on the theory that the children were the real “spirits” – and that she made a piteous appeal to him as to what she should do in future. “How could she live in a house,” she said, “where the furniture and tables would never keep still?” The case was over-stated, perhaps; any way, it proved too much for the good-humoured but sceptical Guardian, and he advised her to go into the House, where, among other advantages, she would find that the tables were all screwed down. That advice was scorned, and the relief was withheld.
Other reasons, beyond a disbelief in the manifestations, determined the action of the Guardians, and however grateful Ispwich may hereafter be for the honour of having a resident medium, the public opinion of Bramford is that the parish is well quit of the whole business.
In order to bring the story up to date, a visit was paid to Mrs Parker, at her Ipswich residence, on Monday evening. There was a great deal of the most pronounced rapping going on in the front room at the time, but this was not at all mysterious – the elder son was putting up the blinds. Having offered some apology for calling, Mrs Parker was asked how she came to leave the old house?
“Well,” she replied, “the landlord said we might stop if there was no more disturbance; but we couldn’t help it, and thought it best to leave.”
“You would not give a guarantee that there would be no more manifestations?”
“No, sir; how could we? Besides, one of the gentlemen who called on us from Framlingham – Mr Dowsing, I think – said that if we left the old house, the thing might stop. That did happen sometimes, he said.”
“And, as a matter of fact, have you had any scenes here?”
“Nothing at all up to the present, and I hope we never shall, for it was more plague than profit to us, I can tell you. It was downright misery to be in it at all.”
“Is the little girl at home now?” (Only Mrs Parker and her two sons were present.)
“Yes, sir; but she was very tired, and is gone to bed.”
“It is said in the town that she has been staying with some relatives, and that the same things occurred again.”
“Well, she did go out for a few days, sir, but she fretted a good deal, and we had her home.”
“Do you know if anything did happen where she has been?”
“I can’t say that I do,” was the reply, somewhat dubiously uttered. “But if anything of the kind did happen where she was I shouldn’t be surprised. They have heard things themselves.”
“Do you mean to say that these people are what they call spiritualists?”
“Oh, yes, and have been for years.”
The eldest son here remarked that he was at the house a few days ago, and something occurred like the doings at Bramford. He saw them himself.
“Have you had any letter from the Society in London, Mrs Parker?” was the next question.
“Not direct from them, sir. My brother-in-law at Stowmarket wrote and said that we might expect a call.”
“But you’ve got nothing for them to hear or see here?”
“Oh, no, sir, nothing has taken place here yet, and I’m sure I hope there won’t.”
In further conversation, Mrs Parker again complained of the parish relief having been cut off. It was a hard thing, she said, for the eldest son to support the whole family. Moreover, when she lived at Bramford, the girl, who had passed the 4th Standard, could have gone out to day work; now they had come under another School Board, and they wanted the child to pass the 5th Standard. But about all this she didn’t care so much, if only the old nuisance never recurred. Such were her last words as she said “Good night,” and that is how the celebrated Bramford ghost story stands at the present moment.
Evening Star, 10th January 1888.
Recollections of spirit phenomena.
To the Editor.
Sir, – Your correspondent “Common Sense No. 2” showed intelligence, as well as common sense, in his investigations of the Framsden knockings, and by his letter seems to have exposed the cause of the supposed phenomena of the knocks. I do not remember the case, but it seems very different to that at Bramford, where ponderous articles have been moved without muscular power. In my visit with a friend to Bramford, my purpose was accomplished, as far as could be expected in one visit. It seems the manifestations take place generally when the mother is absent, so she went into a neighbour’s house. After sitting at the table we heard knocks on the table, and seemingly under the poor girl’s chair. She seemed very fearful, and in tears good part of the time.
After instructing the inmates as to the way in which to converse with the unseen ones by knocks, we prepared to depart, and I instructed the girl to go for her mother. During her absence I was saying we did not expect to witness any physical manifestation, though we should have liked to witness something of the kind. I will just state how we were placed in the room. four of us had been sitting at the table – the boy, the girl, myself and friend. The boy now was sitting at the corner of the hearth rug, playing with some toy bricks; my friend stood in front of the fire; I was in the middle of the room, between the fire and the outer door; by my side stood a chair with my overcoat hanging over the back. A table that has played so many pranks inside and outside the house, stood under the window, having upon it a fine potted arum lily, and my felt hat partly hidden by my overcoat.
We were thus placed when the girl returned, after some few minutes absence to the neighbour’s. She had scarcely made a step into the room when she gave a little scream, and said that something had flown across the room toward the table. My friend thought it was the waving of the arum leaves from the drought on opening the door. I looked over my coat on to the table. There was my hat with a small iron poker twisted into the narrow band, and sticking up slantingly, like a feather. I took hold of the poker, and it was quite warm – I said hot at the time.
The boy said, “It was lying down here before the fire.” We were satisfied that neither the boy nor the girl could have placed the poker where it was. No doubt (as is generally the case when such manifestations takes place) very clever persons who were not present will declare they know all about how it was accomplished, ending with “common sense” expressions of “credulous,” “obscure,” &c.
The widow and her children have been cruelly treated – unlawfully threatened by a policeman, and if they did not confess to a lie, parochial relief refused; the poor widow told that her children could go to the workhouse, and herself to a madhouse. The landlord gave them notice to quit his house, which they were about doing the day after I left. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
But so the Bramford manifestations seem to come to an end. I am happy to say that a kind friend and his wife have taken the poor persecuted girl, and I trust the whole family may have a happy new year.
Since writing the above I have received a letter from the girl, who seems to be enjoying herself at the home of her kind host. She says that on the evening of her arrival there, the table began to move about, and they sat with their hands on it and got a few answers from it. After a while, the table knocked her head against the wall. There is no fear of any harm being done to her. I might say that the small poker spoken of was burnt thin at the point and turned like a hook, which would make it more difficult to twist into the band of my had. Mrs Parker told us that one time her floor was strewn with lucifer matches. She thought some one had emptied the box, but when she went to her box it was quite full. Another time the floor was strewn with small pieces of wire. I asked what she did with them. She said that what she swept up she put on the fire. But the children gathered some up, and gave them away to friends. I have two pieces. They are bright, silver-like, twisted wire, about half an inch in length. Where did they come from?
Should any further manifestation take place that I think it wise to make public, I may possibly do so. I have had application for books to read upon the subject, but not from “Common Sense No. 1.” I should like a line from him, and I would furnish him with many names of intelligent persons far above my position who have been and are, as he terms it, “possessed.”
I have been from home, or would have communicated earlier. I am, &c., F Dowsing. Framlingham, Jan. 7th. 1888.
Evening Star, 10th January 1888.
We wish the Bramford ghost would disappear, for we are being deluged with long letters which we have no space to publish. We have run the ghost during the Christmas holidays, but it has been a very dull, tame ghost after all, different indeed from the old-fashioned spectres which excited the credulity of Dr Johnson. Ghosts in fact have changed their habits. They no longer gibber in the streets of Rome, and walk about churchyards at night, but haunt that prosaic article of domestic furniture, the deal or mahogany table. The genuine integrity of the Bramford ghost it would be a sin to doubt, but we cannot help feeling that any clever school-girl up to a lark might produce a ghost quite its equal in her own home. The genesis of ghost lore is also a curious subject to notice. The veracity of the Bramford ghost mainly rests on a letter of Mr R. Jeffery, of Bridge Street, Stowmarket, describing what happened in his humble cottage on the occasion of Miss Parker’s visit. That letter was couched in the most elegant English. The punctuation would have won a prize at Ipswich School; every comma correct, the caligraphy being worthy of a banker’s clerk. Now we have before us an actual and undoubted letter written by Mr Jeffery, which commences –
Deer Sir i hope you will parden me for wrighting
– The author goes on to speak of the “grate truble” which Mrs Parker has experienced, and her inability to divine the “resen why” such things happened in her house. Mr Jeffery is not too literate a working-man, but by some mysterious agency was made to write like Dr Jessopp describing the Mannington Ghost.
Which is easier to believe – that the girl threw the things about, or that a spirit inhabiting a deal table did the mischief? A little while ago the particular form of superstition credible for the time was the divining rod. In Baring Gould’s “Myths of the Middle Ages” there will be found an excellent account of the divining rod, showing that it was formerly used for tracking murderers as well as finding water. Only slowly did the belief in its power of investigating crime disappear. Those who would scout the idea of using the divining rod for tracing murderers are still ready to believe in its power of discovering water. Superstitions die slowly. Two hundred years ago witches were convicted at Bury Assizes, and it is not very surprising after all that some belief in fetish still remains among common-place people as well as politicians.
Evening Star, 16th January 1888.
The Disturbances at Bramford, in Suffolk.
In November and December. 1887, paragraphs appeared in several London and provincial newspapers, giving accounts of mysterious occurrences in a cottage occupied by a widow and her family, at Bramford, near Ipswich. Stones and dirt were reported to be thrown at the windows, and small household goods and articles of clothing were tossed about the premises. A member of the Society paid a visit to the spot to make inquiries. He made the acquaintance of the occupants of the “haunted” house, however, and very carefully examined the witnesses. His conclusion, after hearing all the evidence obtainable, was that the children – a girl of 11 and two younger boys – had practised trickery.
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, vol III, 1887-8.
A sequel to the Bramford Ghost.
John Stollery, Waveney Road, was charged with assaulting Thomas Farrington. Complainant stated that on Sunday he was walking along Bramford Road, when he met defendant, who asked him if it (referring to the Bramford ghost) was going to act. Complainant said “What do you mean?” on which defendant came up to him and knocked him down. Complainant got up and defendant again knocked him down. He also knocked him down a third time.
On Sunday morning defendant told him that he was sorry for what he had done. The wife of complainant corroborated. Defendant, in defence, said these people (the complainant’s family) were those who represented the Bramford ghost about which so much has appeared in the papers.
Some time ago he went into the house where the “ghost” lived at Bramford, in company with some other young men, to see the “manifestations.” He had been told by the parties that the kettle went off the fire, up to the ceiling and back again. They also said that a basin and a lamp had likewise jumped off the table on to the ground and back again, without breaking. Defendant consequently watched, and saw a boy “act the ghost.” After that the complainant had a spite against him. He came to live near him, and had annoyed him very much since.
With reference to the assault complained of, he admitted he asked complainant when the “ghost” was going to act. Complainant then took off his coat and wanted to fight. It was only in self-defence that he struck complainant. – Thomas Bennett supported the latter part of this statement, and the case was dismissed.
Evening Star, 31st May 1888.
Reminiscences of the Bramford Ghost.
At Ipswich Police Court on Thursday, John Stollery, of Waveney-road, was charged with assaulting Thomas Farrington on the 26th ult. Complainant was accosted by the defendant on the Bramford-road, near the Tan Works, on Saturday evening, with the words, “Are you going to act that tomorrow?” Defendant explained that the words referred to the Bramford ghost – his mother’s affair, which he could not help. Complainant then struck defendant, knocked him down, and kicked him.
Defendant made a long statement in his defence. He said that the Farringtons were people who represented the Bramford ghost, about which so much had been written in the papers. Some time ago he went to Mrs Farrington’s, at Bramford, with some other gentlemen. He was told that the kettle once went off the fire up to the ceiling and back again without spilling, that some mugs went from the table on to the bricks and back again and did not break, and that the lamp jumped from the table and returned safely.
He saw defendant’s brother wroking the trick, and he told Sergeant Leeks how it was done. In consequence of the imposture the Farringtons were deprived of the relief which they were receiving from the parish. The family were naturally angered with Stollery for informing against them, and whenever they had a chance they annoyed him. The defendant and his wife followed him to Ipswich, and were in the habit of ill-treating his children.
The Bench dismissed the case.
The Ipswich Journal, 1st June 1888.