Mysterious night noises in Glasgow tenement.
Secret cause discovered by simple experiment.
By a special correspondent.
The secret behind the mysterious midnight noises that have disturbed the people residing in a large tenement at 1909 Maryhill Road, Glasgow, has been discovered. The cause of the trouble, it has now been ascertained, is the action of the water pressure on a loose pipe.
The strange rapping noises on the walls and stairs of the building had made certain tenants so nervous that they refused to go to bed until the “wee sma’ oors” of the morning. On the stroke of eleven each night the knockings began, and despite a combined effort on the part of the householders affected and members of Maryhill police, under the charge of an inspector, to trace the cause of the disturbance, the eerie noises continued with unfailing regularity for several weeks.
Then a simple experiment was made which produced results that satisfied most people as to the origin of the sounds. The knocking began as usual at eleven o’clock in the evening and continued without interruption for about 20 minutes. Then a man who had a suspicion that the water pipes in the building were playing an active part in the mystery turned off the water supply for the tenement at the main tap. This simple operation acted like a charm. The knocking noises ceased. After a few minutes the tap was turned on again and the strange sounds resumed. The explanation proferred is that the noises have been caused by the change of pressure acting on a loose water pipe. The elucidation of the mystery will bring ease of mind to many residents in the tenement.
The peculiar rappings, which had been going on for some time, invariably kept the occupants of the houses in which they are most distinctly heard in a state of high tension for three hours each night. Five houses of the four-storey building are affected, and some of the occupants with whom I discussed the matter declared that there was no joke about it.
On the night prior to my visit to the tenement the strange happenings began with three short taps on the wall of the house of Mr Archibald Greenwood, who resides on the second landing. These continued for some time, and then they suddenly ceased. A moment or two of silence followed, and this was broken by a succession of loud rappings from the direction of the stairway.
Mrs W Black, an elderly widow, who lives alone in the centre house on the top storey, declared to me that her nerves occasionally got the better of her under the strain. She explained that she became a tenant of her house in March of last year. “Since the knockings first began, they have continued with disturbing regularity,” she remarked. “When I first heard the noises I thought they came from downstairs, and I concluded that Mr Greenwood, who lives below, was repairing boots or doing some work on the walls of the house. At times I was frightened by the knockings. They came so suddenly that they wakened me out of my sleep. The noises varied. Sometimes they were loud and regular, at other times they were soft, with brief intervals between each. This went on until I got a proper scare. The rappings on the wall travelled across the top of the fireplace and came round the wall of my bed. They stopped when they reached the vicinity of my head.
“Next morning I spoke about the matter to my son-in-law who lives next door to me. I asked him if hehad heard the knocking and he said he had, adding that he had been disturbed on several occasions. Apparently my son-in-law had met Mr Greenwood and had asked him about the noises. He also had been annoyed by them but thought they came from my house. We then determined to trace the cause if possible, but we were unsuccessful. The police came on the scene when some of the neighbours were assembled in Mr Greenwood’s house, and they confessed themselves perplexed. Since then the noises had continued, and I sat at night dreading the approach of the hour when they began. My son-in-law came in to keep me company.
“The other night the noises began wehn I was in bed. I was lying with my face to the wall, and the sound was just above my head. I knocked through the wall to my son-in-law, and the uncanny rappings ceased. I got out of bed, however, lit the gas, and opened the door. All was quiet. The time was then 12.30.
“The other night I lay in bed and counted the knocks. There were 26 sharp rappings, and after a pause I again counted 26. I was really frightened.”
Mr and Mrs Greenwood stated that the previous night members of their family were in the house and awaited the coming of the noises. “The sounds are sometimes like morse code signals,” said Mr Greenwood. “My wife is in a nervous state, and I know several of my neighbours are greatly upset. When the police were up the other night the noises were such that they wakened a young man who lives next door out of his sleep. He came to the door barefooted and putting on some clothing.
“The noises are like hammer blows on a wall, but sometimes they are soft. It is an eerie business. My niece, who used to sleep here, has refused to remain any longer, and has gone back to her mother. A son of mine who lives next door hears the noises faintly. He was astonished when he came in here and heard the sounds. Our nerves are all upset, and no wonder.”
Dundee People’s Journal, 14th June 1930.