Mysterious knockings cause alarm.
Uncanny noises at night. Crewe puzzle. Strange “smashing” sound.
Police-officers and plumbers have failed to solve a mystery which is puzzling and distressing residents in Lawton-street, Crewe. Mysterious nocturnal knockings in a house in this street have destroyed the peace of two households, and disturbed the whole street.
Police Baffled.
The knockings commenced about three weeks ago, when a gentle tapping alarmed the occupier of No. 24 [sic] a Miss Oakes. The noise appeared to come from a corner of an upstairs room, where the water cylinder is. Miss Oakes was in bed at the time, and her sleep was disturbed. Every night since then she has been kept awake by noises which have increased in volume. At first she thought that the noise originated in her neighbour’s house, No 32. The occupier of that house was away at the time, and it was at first believed that someone had gained access to the house and was playing a practical joke on residents in the neighbourhood.
The assistance of the police was requisitioned, and they made as complete a search as was possible without entering the house in the occupier’s absence. They found nothing. Now that the people at number 32 have returned, Miss Oakes is satisfied that the noise does not come from this house, but from No. 34. “You would think the house was being broken into – it is as though the doors were being smashed.” Miss Oakes told a “Sentinel” representative. “The noise seems to go from the cylinder to the fireplace.” Miss Oakes added.
The services of a plumber were next invited, but although he has cut off the water supply at Miss Oakes’ house he has been unable to stop the noise. “I heard the noise again last night, louder than ever,” Miss Oakes said. “I have heard it every night for three weeks. I don’t believe it has a supernatural origin. I believe in nothing of that sort. I have been told that rats my have caused the noise, but I don’t accept that. I have been up until early morning, and on one occasion it was as late as 4.30 before I got to bed, but not to sleep. I still believe that the water system is responsible for the knocking, and it is time it was stopped.”
Miss Oakes’ health has been affected by the ordeal, and medical attention has been called in. “It is mysterious,” a resident at No. 32 said. “I have heard the knockings, but they are less distinct than next door. It is a mystery that needs solution.”
Miss Berrisford, residing at No. 30 tells an unusual story of the mystery. She said that the noise only starts in her house when a young relative who is staying with her goes upstairs. If an adult goes upstairs the noise ceases. “It is a smashing noise,” she said. “It came suddenly with an awful bump yesterday morning. Sometimes it is as late as 5.0 in the morning when it stops. We have had less than eight hours sleep in three weeks through it. I heard a moan with the knocking. The knocking is like the banging of planks together. I cannot describe it. It is as though the place is falling. Every time the plumbers try to locate it, it stops.”
A woman member of the Crewe Town Council has been staying with Miss Beresford. Meanwhile the knocking continues, and the residents are alarmed by the uncanny sounds. Quiescent in the day-time, the sounds commence in the still hours of the night.
Staffordshire Sentinel, 14th August 1929.
Crewe Mystery. Night rappings distinctly heard. Tenants’ concern. Searching for a solution.
An “Evening Sentinel” representative who was in Lawton-street, Crewe, from 11p.m. last night to 1 a.m. this morning heard the knocking noises which have alarmed two households, and describes his experiences as follows: –
“Accompanied by two prominent townsmen, and later accompanied by a third, I arrived at Lawton-street at 11 p.m. The occupants of Nos. 30 and 34 had been joined by friends, and it was evident that a determined effort was to be made to solve the mystery.
“Miss Beresford, the tenant of No. 30, had already heard the knocking noise, and, while we were there, she claimed to hear them again. We listened intently, but heard nothing. “Later,” he states, “we visited Miss Oakes at No. 34. She had heard nothing at this time, but when we went upstairs the uncanny sounds were heard distinctly – banging in just the way they have come every night for the past three weeks. It was near midnight by this time, and for the first time for several weeks no satisfactory demonstration of the noises was forthcoming. We examined the water system, in accordance with Miss Oakes’s view that a defect in this direction was causing all the trouble, and we found that if this was so a substantial lead pipe would have to be moved 1/8th of an inch with sufficient violence to knock loudly against the board at the side. This was impossible, and the solution must lie elsewhere.
“Shortly after 12 o’clock we entered the front room of Miss Oakes’s house while a girl relative of hers stayed in Miss Oakes’s bedroom. Immediately, we heard a wierd tapping noise. It broke on the stillness of the house with an unearthly effect. We darted into Miss Oakes’s bedroom, and were informed by her young relative that she had heard it. She had, in fact, heard the noise several times during the night. After this nothing further was heard of the knockings, but the residents were prepared to leave the houses in the event of a resumption of the sounds.”
On enquiring later this morning the “Sentinel” representative learned that the noises were heard more distinctly soon after he left.
Staffordshire Sentinel, 15th August 1929.