A Bury Sensation.
Night scene in Whiting Street.
Weird noises and furniture smashing.
Neighbours alarmed and puzzled.
The setting in of darkness brought unusual excitement to the semi-residential Whiting Street on Wednesday evening, ghostly noises in one of the houses being followed by sounds as of the smashing of furniture, china, and glass within. The extraordinary phenomena included, it is said, the rattling of the pictures on the walls, and their transference from one side of the room to the other. This was between six and seven o’clock, and alarmed neighbours at once rushed to their doors and windows, wonderingwhat had happened.
Crash succeeded crash, accompanied by weird sounds which the superstitious regarded as supernatural, and alarm and wonderment prevailed in the vicinity, wild stories of a ghostly visitation passing from mouth to mouth.
Eventually Mr Hayward, carrying on business opposite as a licensed victualler, entered the house to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, but immediately upon his entry a lamp standing upon a table had the chimney swept off in some mysterious way. Mr Hayward seized the lamp, however, and proceeded to make a survey of the premises. A soldier billeted at the licensed house of Mr Hayward went to look for him, and as neither her husband nor the soldier returned, Mrs Hayward became very alarmed, and sent her son for the police.
A constable duly arrived, but no sooner had he entered the house in question, and begun to look round with his lantern, than his helmet was knocked off his head by some missile, believed to be a lump of coal. And so matters went on until the cause of the outbreak was discovered, a fit of mental aberration on the part of a usually inoffensive member of the household being stated to be responsible for the alarming occurrence.
Bury Free Press, 18th November 1916.