Ghostly links with past.
Grim discovery in old house.
While restoring an old house, Treasure Holt, on the outskirts of Clacton-on-Sea, Mr and Mrs P. S. Hayward, the owners, found under the floor of a living room human bones in unslaked lime and charcoal. With them were a shoe buckle and a token dated 1793, with the wording “John Wilkins, iron master.”
Mr and Mrs Hayward speak of mysterious knockings on the front door, generally when anything of a festive character is taking place.
Mrs Hayward and her daughter Iris allege that they have seen in the grounds a figure dressed in velvet, with knee breeches and buckle shoes, and heard sounds of horses’ hoofs on the cobbled yard at dead of night. The local belief is that John Wilkins surprised a party of smugglers making merry and that he was murdered and his body buried beneath the floor.
Belfast Telegraph, 14th May 1928.
During the re-flooring of a room at Treasure Holt, Great Clacton, the residence of Mr and Mrs P.S. Hayward, a quantity of human bones, old coins, etc., were discovered. The articles found included a shoe buckle, a token with the date 1793; pieces of a clay pipe; and some petrified tobacco; also a piece of an old flagon. A party of Roundheads is said to have halted at Treasure Holt on its way to destroy Little Holland hall and chapel. Tradition also has it that a Cavalier was killed in a fight there.
Chelmsford Chronicle, 18th May 1928.