Spirit Action
Theory of Ghostly Noises in Old House
Crowds are gathering nightly outside an old house at Brampton, North Cumberland, to listen to mysterious thumpings which come from inside. The house, which is occupied by an old resident, Mr Tom Scott, adjoins the Scotch Arms, one of the oldest hostelries in the district.
The mysterious noises are attributed to spirit action, although many people believe that movement in the fabric of the dwelling is the cause of the thumpings. Police and joiners have been called in to ascertain the cause of the noises, but at the moment the problem is unsolved.
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 25th January 1933.
Mysterious Knocks. House thought to be haunted.
A “ghost” is providing a thrill in the market town of Brampton in North Cumberland, and mysterious knockings on a wooden partition in a sick room are heard nightly. The house considered to be “haunted” lies in the centre of the town, and in an adjoining archway crowds of people have gathered to hear the ghostly rappings. The ghost began operations at midnight on Wednesday, January 18. The rappings have continued each evening since, sometimes starting at six o’clock and sometimes later.
The house is occupied by a bedridden man, Mr Thomas Scott, who is seriously ill, and the housekeeper, Miss Robinson, said yesterday: “I was very scared the first night it began. The noise started with a rapping, slowly at first, and then becoming sharp, rapid and loud. It has been on every night since. I cannot account for it at all. Men have been in the house trying to fathom the mystery. One man stated that as he put his hand to the point in the partition from which the knocking seemed to come the noise shifted further along the wood. There was no vibration.”
The theories advanced to explain the phenomena include suggestions that the hard frost is reacting on the wood, that the noise is the effect of passing traffic, and that it is caused by some form of sagging in the foundations of the house.
Meanwhile Brampton talks of nothing but its ghost.
Hull Daily Mail, 26th January 1933.
Police Puzzled by “Ghost”.
Dozens of people in the old-world town of Brampton (Cumberland) believe it has a ghost, for nightly mysterious noises – thuds and raps – are heard in one of the rooms of the house of Mr Tom Scott, an old resident. The house adjoins the Scotch Arms, one of the oldest hostelries in the district, and, after dark, crowds of residents gather outside to try to solve the mystery. But their efforts have been in vain, and even the police and joiners, who have carefully examined the room, have had to admit they are baffled.
The room from which the noises came is over an archway leading into the hotel stable yard, and was originally part of the hotel. Later it was added to the house occupied by Mr Scott, and the alterations at that time necessitated the erection of a wooden partition and the closing of the doorway leading from the hotel to the house. This partition, it is believed, holds the key to the riddle, for one resident told a press representative that the noises sound like a horse kicking against and smashing it.
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 27th January 1933.
Brampton “Ghosts.”
The discovery that the Brampton “ghost” is really a defective water pipe is reassuring, but not to many people surprising. In these days ghostly manifestations can usually, upon investigation , be traced to unromantic physical causes, and, speaking generally, disembodied spirits must, like other folk, be experiencing a slump in trade. […]
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 8th February 1933.