Rabbie’s ghost makes a family quit home.
A family of five fled from their council house claiming it was haunted by the ghost of Rabbie Burns. Now pipe-maker Norman Penman, 21, is to apply to Cowdenbeath Town Council for a transfer of tenancy from the house at 6 Greenbank Drive. He said yesterday: “I’ll never go back to that house again. I never believed in ghosts before but I’m completely convinced now.”
During the week Mr Penman took his wife, Annie and their children Norma, Caroline and Michael, to stay with relatives in nearby Chapel Street. He told yesterday how knocking in the night started a week after they moved in three months ago. The final straw came last week when Mr Penman woke up during the night and claimed he saw an apparition over the foot of his bed. He said: “It was dressed in old-fashioned clothes, was grey in colour but sort of glowed[?] all over and was just like Rabbie Burns. I pulled the bedclothes over my head and shouted. I only wish Annie had seen it. I certainly was not dreaming.”
Mrs Penman said: “I believe my husband. The house is definitely haunted. We could never go back there now. I hope we can get a new house.”
Mr Penman also told how screwdrivers and a quarter pound tin of corned beef disappeared from the house. He said: “I thought at first the missing corned beef was connected with the ghost but I realise now there might be an explanation for that. But it doesn’t explain the knocking or the ghost.”
Town Clerk Mr J. C. L. Gibson said: “The tenant has already reported this matter to the housing manager and when a formal application for a transfer of tenancy is received it will be considered.” He added, with a smile: “I don’t know if there are such things as ghosts – especially with a taste for corned beef.”
Sunday Mail (Glasgow), 30th August 1970.