They’ve got a ghost in their bedroom.
Mr Hopley pulls away the panelling to show the spot, where a door has been bricked up, that the tapping sounds appear to be coming from. Inset: The Hopley’s house.
Mysterious tapping on the wall, the sound of a grandfather clock chiming, and the hazy figure of a man appearing in the corner of the bedroom are three reasons why a Frodsham family chose to sleep in the living room of their little cottage. For over a month the family slept in the downstairs living room of their 90-years-old two-bedroomed cottage in Main Street because the back room was unfit to sleep in and the front one they believed – and still believe – to be haunted!
On nearly a dozen occasions during the past nine months Mr and Mrs Colin Hopley, of 21 Main Street, have heard a loud tapping on the wall of the front bedroom. On two of these occasions they have heard a grandfather clock chiming although they don’t have one and neither do their neighbours. And on all of these occasions, at some stage during the night, they have witnessed the materialisation of a hazy mist forming the outline of a man!
Twenty-nine-years-old Mr Hopley and his wife Lillian who is 27, moved into the house last May with their baby Glynn and between them and October they saw the apparition six or seven times. It was during October that they decided they had had enough and moved into the front living room for their sleep. After approximately a month they came to the conclusion that the thing, whatever it was, had no intention of going away so they moved back into their bedroom.
In an attempt to discover what was going on, Mr Hopley invited his next door neighbour Mr Ernie Pinnington to sit up with him, but to no avail, the thing just did not appear. Said Mr Pinnington: “I thought it was all a big joke. But I soon changed my mind. One night Mr Hopley said to me “let’s just go and have a look,” so I agreed. When we went into the room there was nothing unusual and I was just going through the door to go back downstairs when this mist appeared in the corner.”
“At first I thought it was the light shining through the curtains, so I closed them and shut the door. There was absolutely no doubt about it. Something is happening in that room that I can’t explain,” he continued. “I’m not pulling your leg or anyone else’s, I wouldn’t about a thing like this. There’s one thing that’s dead certain, I won’t go into that room again for any amount of money,” added Mr Pinnington.
Mrs Hopley told our reporter earlier in the week that she had woken up in the earlier hours of Monday morning and turned round quickly. “When I turned, my eyes caught the corner of the room and I noticed a broad line of white mist. Whatever it is, it never moves but always appears in that corner,” she continued. Said Mr Pinnington: “When Mr and Mrs Hopley moved in I said to my wife – ‘don’t say anything about the house’ – and thinking that the stories we had heard were only stories. And, when Mr Hopley came in to tell me what he had seen I thought he was hoaxing.”
The house, which is now in excess of 90 years old and in a clearance area, was occupied by a Mrs A Price and her husband at about the turn of the century when it was used as a chip shop. Her niece, Mrs Ethel Probin, now living at 13 Norman Road, Runcorn, lived with her aunt, uncle and cousin at the house over thirty years ago. During this time Mrs Probin lost all three, married and took her brother in. “We stayed there until three years ago when we left. My aunt, uncle and cousin all died in the house but I didn’t hear anything.”
“The lady who then lived next door, I remember, maintained that she had seen a ghost in the garden but I didn’t see it,” added Mrs Probin.
One thing is very certain – Mr and Mrs Hopley their son Glynn – who shivers every time he enters the bedroom – and Mr Pinnington – who won’t enter it under any circumstances – have all seen something. The question is WHAT?
Runcorn Weekly News, 18th January 1968.