Priest to bless a haunted house.
Apparition in clerical garb.
Family terrified.
“It is my intention to go to the house to call God’s blessing upon it. I shall bless the house by sprinkling holy water in the rooms.” Father J. Drescher, parish priest of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Eccles, made this observation to a Manchester Evening News representative this afternoon regarding the report of the appearance in a home in Liverpool Road, Eccles, of an apparition in the garb of a priest. It is reported that at the home of Mr and Mrs Lees, in Liverpool Road, Eccles, the family have been constantly alarmed by the appearance at night of a ghost. It is known that a Roman Catholic priest, Father Shorrock, died in the house more than 40 years ago.
Last Sunday Father Drescher called for blessings on the family. “I, myself, have not seen this ghost,” Father Drescher told me. “The case was reported to me by a friend of the family, and since then the family has come to see me. I heard their story and acted accordingly. Had only one person seen this apparition it might have been considered imagination, but this, I understand, is vouched for by others.”
Father Shorrock was the first Roman Catholic parish priest at Eccles. It is understood that an apprition in the garb of a priest visits all rooms of the house at night. Mr and Mrs Lees and family have been living in this house for about six years, and the ghost has been visiting them for the last four. The appearance of the ghost, it is stated, is usually followed by noises. Beds have been moved in the rooms, and the family can offer no explanation for this.
Manchester Evening News, 22nd October 1931.
“Ghost House” Drama.
Long-dead priest walks through a wall.
Blessing from his successor.
“Daily Express” Correspondent. Manchester, Thursday.
A priest was called in to-day to bless a house at Eccles in which apparitions and noises are said to have terrified the occupants. These declare that for the last five years they have been visited at intervals by a ghost in priest’s clothes who, on being seen, disappears through a wall. The moving of beds and strange nocturnal noises are other unexplained phenomena complained of in the house, which is used in the day time as an insurance office.
Father Sharrock, a priest at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Eccles, lived in the house and died there thirty-eight years ago. The apparition is believed to resemble him.
To-day the occupants, unable any longer to bear the strain of these eerie happenings, visited the present parish priest, the Rev. J. Drescher, and called in his aid. “I went to the house this afternoon,” Father Drescher told me to-night, “and pronounced a blessing on it after sprinkling holy water in the rooms. It was the customary blessing bestowed on houses. Anything in the nature of exorcism would have needed more elaborate preparations. I should certainly have had to see for myself whether the allegations were well founded. I do not think these manifestations, however, have anything to do with evil. The Catholic Church recognises that an apparition comes either because a dead person left something undone on this earth, or to serve as a reminder that another world awaits us beyond our own.” Father Sharrock is buried in Moston Catholic cemetery. Prayers were said for him to-day in his old church, in accordance with the practice of making intercession for those believed to appear in spirit form after death.
A friend of the occupants of the haunted house told me some of the events that led up to to-day’s ceremony. “One visitor to the house,” she said, “saw the ghost walk through a wall at the bottom of the stairs and disappear. My friends have said that they have wakened up at night and found their beds moved from the positions in which they were when they went to sleep. One of the occupants has been interested in spiritualism for some time, and has attended spiritualist meetings.”
The previous tenants of the house lived there for nine years, and noticed nothing unusual.
Daily Express, 23rd October 1931.
Priest summoned to haunted house.
Sprinkles rooms with holy water.
Into each room of a house in Eccles (Lancs.) yesterday went a Roman Catholic priest sprinkling holy water and murmuring blessings to allay fears of the occupants caused by nocturnal visis of a white-clad figure. Resembling a priest who died 40 years ago in the house, the strange visitant is said to have walked noisily about by night, dissolving into nothing when challenged. The house, which is in Liverpool-road, is occupied by a family named Lees. In response to their appeals, Father J. Drescher, Roman Catholic rector of St. Mary’s, Eccles, yesterday visited the house and formally blessed it.
“I went into each room and sprinkled holy water,” said Father Drescher, “but I was in no way trying to exorcise an evil spirit. There is a special service for this purpose for which the bishop’s permission must be obtained. This, I think, is unnecessary here, as the ghost is believed to be that of Father Sharrock, who was first rector of St. Mary’s, and died in the house, which was the Presbytery 40 years ago.”
Nottingham Evening Post, 23rd October 1931.
Ghostly figure in priest’s garb.
Lancashire family terrorised by nocturnal visitations.
Strange happenings in former presbytery.
A spectral figure clad in the garb of a pries who makes nocturnal visitations to the bedrooms in a house in Liverpool Road, Eccles, Manchester, has terrorised the family of Mr and Mrs Lees. Several members of the family have seen the figure during the past few months, and all are agreed that it is that of a priest. A supposition has gained credence in the neighbourhood that the figure is that of the late Fr. Sharrock, the first rector of St. Mary’s Church, who died in the house which was then the presbytery, forty years ago.
The appearance of the figure would seem to be the culmination of many strange happenings in the house, and in the hope of putting an end to visitations of the terrorising figure, the family, who are not Catholics, sent for Fr. Drescher, the present parish priest of St. Mary’s, and requested him to bless the house. This he did on Thursday.
The family are naturally reticent to speak about the affair, but the story of the happenings gleaned from an authoritative source by our representative is given below.
The story in circulation that on one occasion Mrs Lees was awakened during the night and felt the hands of the figure round her neck, a subsequent examination showing distinct finger-marks on her throat, is totally untrue.
From investigations made by our representative, it would appear that during the last four years the family have heard strange noises in the house on several occasions. Little importance was attached to these until a few weeks ago, when the climax of several strange happenings was reached by the actual appearance of a figure. Mrs Lees was sleeping with her daughter in one of the rooms. During the night she was aroused to wakefulness by a strange rattling noise in the room. In the dimness of the room she behld a figure which, she says, she took to be that of a religious [sic], for she could discern on the figure a habit which went to a point at the head. The rattling noise appeared to come from the lower part of the figure, and she assumed that the noise was made by beads hung round the waist. Terror-stricken, she roused the family, but when lights were secured no trace of the figure could be seen.
Mrs Lees saw the figure on a subsequent date, as did her daughter and two of her sons. Shortly after these occurrences, Mr Lees, who at this time was in a sanatorium, returned home. The strange happenings were not mentioned to him. He slept in the room in which Mrs Lees had seen the figure. Next morning he came downstairs and remarked that he thought the house was haunted as he had seen a figure in his bedroom during the night. The description tallied with that of the figure seen by the other members of the family.
Shortly after these events a woman who came to clean in th ehouse rushed to Mrs Lees in a very agitated state and said she had seen a ghost. She described the figure as having gone into the cellar. Lights were secured, and members of the family searched the cellar but found nothing.
On a further occasion one of the sons went upstairs in the dark. Putting out his hand to guide himself by the banister, he felt a hand take his and guide him along. He was so overcome by fright he fell downstairs.
In an endeavour to waylay the figure digging operations were commenced in the cellar in the hope of finding some subterranean passage through which the figure might go, but without result.
More recently three actresses slept in the room, and were terror-stricken during the night to see the figure. They fled downstairs, saying they had seen a ghost. Nothing would induce them to sleep in the room again until Mrs Lees promised to sleep with them. During the night, however, she left the room while the girls were asleep. Shortly after, the girls were awakened by a noise, and were again terror-stricken to see the spectral figure. In the morning they rushed off to St. Mary’s (they were Catholics) and obtained some holy water, with which they sprinkled the house.
The surmise is that the figure is that of the late Fr. Thomas Sharrock, who died in the house on Januray 24, 1893, it being then the presbytery of St. Mary’s. He was formerly a curate at All Saints’, Barton, and in the course of his duties there was savagely attacked by a dog, and was so badly bitten that for some time his life was despaired of. It was suggested to Mrs Lees herself that the figure was that of Fr. Sharrock by a Catholic friend of hers to whom she told the story.
Interviewed by our representative, Fr. J. Drescher said that, of course, he had not seen the figure, and might possibly have attributed the story to imagination had only one person seen it. The strange happenings had, however, been vouched for by several members of the family.
“On Saturday last a friend of Mrs Lees came to me and told me what had occurred; then on Thursday Mrs Lees herself came and, being obviously upset with the whole business, asked me if I would bless the house, as she felt I would have a good effect. I went round immediately and, sprinkling holy water, gave the customary house blessing. There was absolutely no question of exorcism. During the recitation of prayers for the dead in the church, I have of course reminded the people to remember the late Fr. Sharrock.”
Other than this Fr. Drescher can shed no light on the strange happenings.
Leicester Catholic News, 31st October 1931.