Queer noises in house.
Spiritualists’ help sought by two ex-service sisters.
On Wednesday night, in a house in Fleetwood, I heard sounds – rappings – said to be a poltergeist at work. By which I mean one of those mischievous-seeming spirits that disturb furniture, make queer noises around a house and generally upset the residents. This particular one, I am told, has produced noises of footsteps, opened a cupboard door, rattled crockery, made a noise with a venetian blind, made rapping noises, gone round the place whistling, and, culminating offence, pulled a woman by the hair so that she nearly fell down the cellar steps.
Finally, the people of the house approached Mr C.T. Batley, president of Fleetwood Spiritualist Church, about it, as they were getting alarmed. At the invitation of Mr Batley I went along with him and some of the members of the circle of his church. Now myself, I reckon I’m a hard-headed sort of fellow, extremely sceptical where ghosts are concerned. With me I took another journalist, another sceptical ex-service type.
I found that the people who complained of the visitation were sisters, two married ex-service women. Ex-service women are also inclined to be hard-headed and sceptical and certainly not easily frightened. One of the sisters told me, “The first night after we moved into the house I slept in the front bedroom and heard all kinds of noises. Next day my mother told me I was imagining things, but it went on. I have heard people walking about and the floor vibrated, and crockery in a cupboard rattled, and the cupboard door came open. That first night there was a noise like someone running their hands up and down the venetian blind.”
The other sister had an even more alarming experience. “I heardnoises of someone rattling the venetian blind when I slept in that bedroom, and I have heard someone whistling around the house – not a tune, just whistling two or three notes. Then something knocked a clock off a chair in the middle bedroom. But the worst thing happened the other day. I was lighting the kitchen fire, and went down the cellar steps for some coal. I was going down the steps when something grabbed me by the hair and jerked my head back, pulling me backwards. I nearly fell down those steps! I thought afterwards my hair had caught on some shelves, but they are too high for that.”
I’m not going to say who these people are, nor where they live. They don’t want crowds of gaping sightseers outside their front door.
Mr Batley heard their story, then we went up to the front bedroom where most of the noises were heard. We sat around on chairs or on the floor, while Mr Batley called on whoever was there to give a sign. There was silence. I listened intently. Then there was a tapping noise. I glanced at my colleague sitting by me, thinking to myself “Why on earth does he want to move about on that chair?” He wasn’t moving, he was staring at the floor within three feet of me. From that direction came another distinct tap. One of the women said, “That’s it. That’s one of the noises it makes.”
Mr Batley sat concentrating, listening hard to something. Then he spoke, and gave a message to someone in the room. He looked tired and was perspiring visibly. The message was of a private nature. Then he spoke to the spirit again and afterwards a hymn was sung and Mr Batley gave a prayer. Afterwards I asked Mr Batley for an explanation. “There was a psychic force operating in this house,” he said. “We heard several distinct raps – there was a spirit form that was still in possession of material things and hardly realised it had gone from the world. It had made its presence known by disturbing the people in this house in various ways. I spoke to the presence and asked higher forces to take charge of him and explain the world of progress.”
Well, there you are. I’m convinced those two sisters were imagining nothing, they weren’t the type. And after all, my colleague and I, and everyone else in the room, heard that tapping noise. And, after Mr Batley’s visit, the noises ceased. On Wednesday night the people of the house had their first unbroken night’s sleep for about six weeks. – E.B.M.
Fleetwood Chronicle, 16th August 1946.