Strange happenings in Glasgow.
Bed rises from floor.
Ghostly taps on woman’s shoulder.
The “haunted” house at Knightswood. Inset – left to right – Mrs Polk, Mr A.L. Polk, and Miss Winnie Devine, their maid.
Strange things have been happening in a house in the Knightswood district of Glasgow. The tenant, Mr A.L. Polk, a carrier, has been in residence there for close on ten years. Before he took up occupancy of the house, a large villa surrounded by trees, and situated at the junction of Alderman Road and Anniesland Road, it had been standing empty for twelve months.
From the first Mr Polk and his family heard strange sounds, which always seemed to come from the upstairs rooms, but they paid no attention at the time, thinking that underground workings of the old mines which existed in that district might be the cause. But latterly matters have taken on a vastly different complexion, and both Mr Polk and his wife are convinced there is “something strange” about the place. They will not admit that the house is haunted, neither of them being in the least degree superstitious. But they cannot provide any satisfactory explanation of such weird happenings as the following: –
The opening and closing of doors; The ringing of bells from upstairs rooms; Mysterious footsteps in the hall and stairway; The finding of the bedclothes from one of the beds piled in the centre of the floor. And in one room sleepers were awakened by the bed appearing to be lifted from the floor. Then an unseen presence laid a gentle touch upon Mrs Polk’s shoulder.
The first manifestation of anything unusual occured some years ago, half an hour before a relative of Mrs Polk passed away in the house. The family were seated in the house, when suddenly a door opened wide, and then shut again with a slam. Greatly startled, one of the party nevertheless dashed across to the door. But there was nobody in sight on the landing, and no footsteps were heard.
For a time after that they were not disturbed, but within the past few weeks inexplicable happening have been taking place with increasing frequency. Mrs Polk was working in the kitchen one day, her daughter having just gone out to do some shopping. She heard the front door open and sounds as if somebody were walking through the hall. She called, expecting that her daughter had returned for something she had forgotten, and, on receiving no reply, immediately proceeded upstairs to her daughter’s room. She was surprised to find that she was quite alone in the house.
Mrs Polk is a certified nurse, and her duties take her out at all hours of the day and night, but she asserts that she has never actually seen anything or anybody about the house, the haunting, if such it is, being confined to noises. The biggest noise was heard once when the family were sitting downstairs prior to retiring for the night. From one of the bedrooms upstairs there suddenly proceeded a great din, as if someone with a sledgehammer were running about the room smashing the furniture to pieces. This continued for some time, while the family sat listening, somewhat awe-struck. When the noise stopped they went upstairs, to discover that everything was exactly as it had been left.
One room seems to receive the particular attention of the “presence,” for nobody, with the exception of the master of the house, has been able to spend a peaceful night there. Several guests have laughed at the idea of the room being haunted, and have offered to sleep there. Invariably they appear in the early morning hours with a story of being wakened up by the bed rising into the air, then bumping back on the floor, or of mysterious noises in the room. Mr Polk has twice slept in the room, and he experienced nothing unusual, but he frankly confessed that he would not like to make a habit of sleeping there.
Perhaps the strangest experience of all befell Mrs Polk one day when she entered the bathroom. Immediately she went into the room she had a feeling that she was not alone, although she knew perfectly well that the idea was quite absurd. “I stopped, and stood in the centre of the room for a moment,” she told a “Sunday Post” man in an interview, “when I suddenly felt a light pressure on my shoulder, just as if somebody had gently laid a hand there. I cannot describe the peculiar sensation it gave me. I have heard it said that at such a time one’s hair seems to stand on end, and I cannot think of a more apt description of my sensation.”
The happenings do not upset the Polk family, and although friends have expressed surprise at them continuing to live in the house in view of such uncanny experiences, they have no intention of giving the place up.
A spiritualist friend of the family has requested permission to spend a few nights in the haunted room, expressing the belief that the haunting is due to the fact that some person had died there with an earthly mission unfulfilled.
The house is almost a hundred years old. Mr Polk informed “The Sunday Post” that the ninety-nine years’ lease it carries expires next year.
Sunday Post, 19th August 1934.
“Ghost” Absent for Two Years.
Weird Occurrences in Knightswood House.
(From the “Evening Times.”)
The occupants of Knightswood’s “haunted house” – a residence at the corner of Alderman Road and Anniesland Road tenanted by Mr. A.L. Polk and his family – are more troubled just now by reporters and sightseers than ghosts. “We are fed up with people chasing around here wanting to know about the ghosts,” Mrs. Polk told a “Times” man the other day. “The whole thing has been very much exaggerated. The truth is that nothing mysterious has happened in the house for over two years. We have come to the conclusion that the ‘ghost’ has ‘snuffed it’.”
The “haunted house” is nearly a hundred years old – the 99 years’ lease expires in a year or two. Since the Polk family took up tenancy ten years ago, mysterious manifestations have occurred, such as
Doors opening and closing without apparent cause;
Mysterious footsteps;
Noises of furniture being moved, though none was moved;
Ringing of bells from upstairs rooms;
A “haunted” bed.
Regarding the last-named “manifestation,” the bed was said to have risen from the floor and bumped back into its place, much to the alarm of its occupants. “That is an exaggeration,” Mrs. Polk said, “the bed merely trembled, and that could happen without any supernatural cause. We are not in the least superstitious, and we don’t believe that these occurrences have any supernatural explanation. This old house is built over ancient underground workings, and slight subsidences from time to time probably account for all the mysterious happenings. That could certainly cause doors to open and close and noises that might be mistaken for footsteps.
The one thing that Mrs. Polk cannot explain is a weird experience that befell herself. Going into one of the rooms one day she suddenly felt a light but firm pressure on her shoulder. It was exactly, she said, like a hand on her shoulder. She could feel the pressure quite distinctly. “One of these days,” Mrs. Polk added with a laugh, “people will come along and find the chimneys of this old house sticking out of the ground. Then they will know that subsidences were the cause of it all the time.”
Milngavie and Bearsden Herald, Friday 24th August 1934.