Police vigil in “haunted” house.
Tappings and dislodged ornaments.
Chesterfield police have been called to assist in solving the mystery of strange occurrences in certain cottages in Spencer-street, off Newbold-road Chesterfield. For some time past strange noises have been heard in the cellars of several houses. The sounds usually take the form of tappings and occur between 10.30 p.m. and midnight.
On several occasions, however, plaster has fallen from the walls, and one morning a woman in one cottage found that ornaments had been dislodged and were lying on the floor. The words “haunted house” have been used, and so insistent has been the complaints to the police that two officers and an inspector of the Water Board spent some time in the cellar of the cottage most affected. All they heard, however, were subdued tappings which might have been due to a “water lock” in the pipes. “Bumping” in the water service is no unusual occurrence in many towns.
Another theory is that there may be an underground tunnel from some old colliery workings in the locality. With the long spell of heavy rain a subterranean passage may have become flooded causing the rising water to produce mysterious noises.
Grimsby Daily Telegraph, 21st November 1936.
Knock Knock… Who’s There?
No answer to Chesterfield Mystery.
From our own reporter.
Mysterious thumps and shakings in houses in Spencer street, Chesterfield, have seriously affected the nerves of householders there, and some people even say that the neighbourhood is haunted.
So nerve racking has become the mystery that officials of Chesterfield public service departments have been forced to take action. Last night two police officers and a water inspector, of Chesterfield and Bolsover Water Board, took up a vigil in the cellar of a house, No. 24, Spencer street, tenanted by Mr and Mrs C Dawes, in order to try and find the cause of the unaccountable thumps.
They were unsuccessful, however, for although fainter rappings came, the greater noises were absent.
When I made investigations to-day, I learned that the mysterious sounds have been going on for some little time but have become more nerve-racking lately. Here are the chief ingredients of the mystery: The noises occur about every other night; They begin about 10.40, and do not cease until after midnight; They shake the whole houses, cause the plaster to fall off the walls and ceilings, shake drawers open, shake ornaments off their places of safety to the floor; Keep the residents awake long after their normal hours.
Complaint was first made when the noises broke out for the first time in the knowledge of a resident, three weeks ago. She had been in the house a year, but had not heard them before. Mrs C Dawes, of 24 Spencer street, was reluctant to talk about the mystery. She admitted that some of her ornaments had been found on the floor yesterday morning and came to the conclusion that they had been shaken off a bureau by vibration. “I don’t want to say anything about it,” she declared, “until we know what the cause is. Last night we had two policeman and a water inspector up in the house to see if they could trace the cause, but everyone is baffled. Last night, just when those people were in, the thumps only came softly. It was thought that the water main might be the case. But no one was able to find out anything. My nerves have been affected by the mystery, but it is ridiculous to say that the place is haunted.”
Miss Bowman, who lives next door, described the knocks as “just like sledge hammer blows, muffled, striking against the houses.” The windows rattle and people are almost shaken out of bed.
There is another story that an underground tunnel leads from the Parish Church to a cemetery at Newbold and that this might have something to do with the noise. But residents in the neighbourhood discount this theory, declaring that the tunnel does not exist.
Theories are that either a water and air-lock has occurred in a main somewhere or that there are disused underground workings transmitting sounds from mine workings further away.
Sheffield Independent, 21st November 1936.
Mystery Noises.
Midnight shocks for neighbours at Chesterfield.
Weird noises in a house in Spencer-street, Chesterfield, between 11 o’clock and midnight have caused consternation among householders. The noises start in whispers and work up to such a volume that they are heard in neighbouring houses. After that all was quiet.
It was feared that something had gone wrong with the water pressure, but Water Board inspectors have failed to find any irregularity. The noises were then attributed to underground subsidence, but, the question is asked, why do they always occur at irregular intervals at one house before midnight?
“We do not think the house is haunted,” said the occupant of the house.
The police and landlord had a long cold vigil in the cellar last night but nothing unusual happened.
Nottingham Evening Post, 21st November 1936.
Mysterious Noises
Chesterfield Resident’s Nerve-racking Experience.
What are the mysterious noises emanating from No 24, Spencer Street, Chesterfield. This is the question which is puzzling the occupiers, neighbours and local police. At about midnight on alternate nights during the past month have been heard loud bangs which have shaken the whole house from the foundations to the roof. Sometimes they have continued incessantly for as long as 50 minutes, and have been heard by residents several doors away. They keep the tenants and neighbours awake at night, and have been described as “most nerve racking”.
Mrs D C Dawes, wife of the occupier, told a representative of the Derbyshire Times that it was a most unpleasant experience. “We and neighbours on both sides hear the noises, which are very upsetting,” she said. “It is like a pump or sledge hammer. It goes ‘thud, thud, bang, bang,’ and it always happens at night. It is just as if someone is working underground. The police have kept watch on two occasions, but the noises were not heard then. Mrs Dawes concluded by extending an invitation to our representative to keep vigil.
Another resident who lives in the house describes the phenomenon in these words: “They are terrible bangs, and the whole house vibrates from the foundations to the top of the house. It is beyond human creation; and it is absurd to suggest that anyone is playing practical jokes. Neither are the noises called by rats. On Friday night the bangs started at 11.50, and at 12.20 I went down to the Police Station about it. The noise began with pulsating thuds, and then become louder and louder.
Miss Bowman, 22, Spencer Street (next door to No. 24) said to a representative of The Derbyshire Times: “The noises are like sledge hammer blows, and they go on for about half an hour. They might also be likened to fog signals. They have got to be heard to be fully realised. They move beds, shake the window frames, and can be heard halfway down the street. They also shake my house, and seem to strike up the dividing walls.
Mrs Gomm and Mrs Thompson, who reside at Nos. 18 and 20, Spencer Street respectively, both stated that they also heard the bangs.
The police have nothing to report on the occurrence. It is held in some quarters, however, that the noises my be due to air-locks in water pipes.
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 27th November 1936.
Mysterious Shocks Won’t Oblige for Chesterfield Police.
Mysterious noises that have kept residents in Spencer-street, Chesterfield, awake at nights, and brought plaster from the ceilings and ornaments from the dressers, continue unabated. The noises have driven the residents again to seek the assistance of the police in trying to solve the mystery, and on Tuesday midnight police officers stationed themselves in the vicinity in the hope of hearing the mysterious rumblings. They had visited the house of Mrs C Dawes, 24, Spencer street, once before without success, and this time they were again unsuccessful.
Why do they stop?
“Whenever a police officer or official comes on the scene,” a resident told a Daily Independent reporter, “the noises seem to stop or are absent. That is a most mysterious feature of the whole mystery.”
It is now suggested that the rumblings may be a hoax on the part of youths with an advanced sense of “humour” but the residents are sure that is not the explanation, and are inclined to think that the noises ocme from below the ground, either from workings, or from an underground tunnel, or from water mains which are suffering from an air lock.
At midnight yesterday 15 distinctive shocks were felt and noises heard so loudly that they brought sleepers, whose nerves were already on edge, out of bed in a hurry. This is the third week that the shaking of two or three houses has been going on, and the residents are no nearer a solution than they were at the beginning.
“It is time some drastic official action was taken,” one sleeper who had been awakened, told a reporter. “I think officials ought to take up quarters near the scene of the mystery and not go away until some explanation is found.”
Sheffield Independent, 26th November 1936.
‘Spirit’ Knock Return To Chesterfield.
Half-hour of thuds from underground cause fresh scare.
From our own reporter, Chesterfield, Monday.
The “Knock, knock, no one’s there” mystery in Spencer street, Chesterfield, is rapidly reaching a crisis. After a respite since last Wednesday, the mysterious knocks which have kept residents awake started again early this morning. There were 24 distinct, loud thuds, apparently from the bowels of the earth. The “call” lasted nearly half an hour.
People in Spencer street rushed out of their houses, but there was no one in the street. The thuds shook the houses, rattled the window panes and scared the residents anew. Mrs C Dawes, 24, Spencer street, told me she had been to the Borough Surveyor’s Department, the police, the Water Department, the Health Department, and to every other Corporation department in Chesterfield, in an effort to get the mystery solved. “They tell me they can give me little help,” she informed me.
I interviewed Mrs Dawes, Miss Bowman, next door neighbour, Mrs Bradley, neighbour on the other side, and Mrs Widdowson, next to Mrs Bradley, all of whom have become terrified by the phenomena.
A little boy living in one of these houses has been off ill with nerve trouble, and Mrs Dawes told me that she was rapidly becoming ill. Mrs Bradley said she had had little sleep for a month. “I have kept a diary of the mysterious knocks,” she said. “They have been heard 18 nights out of 27. I have kept a record of what time they commenced and finished, and whether they were loud or soft.
“There is no question of someone playing a joke on us. We have inspected a pump that was at first thought might be the cause of the trouble. We are sure it is not. We are told there are no underground workings. In the whole of Chesterfield there is no one who can tell us the cause of the bangs.”
Mrs Dawes told me that she intends to have her front garden dug up if the trouble persists in order to see if there is some tunnel underground.