… The fog was probably responsible for a remarkable story told at Harley. Two farmers were travelling by car near Low Harley, where a stream runs alongside the road, about midnight on Monday, when, one reports, “a ghostly figure reared before the headlights, waving long white arms.” The driver of the car was not prepared to admit that the shape might have been a ghost. “There was certainly a white shape in front of the car,” he said. “It must have been a wisp of smoke or mist.”
Penistone, Stockbridge and Hoyland Express, 28th November 1936.
Harley’s “Ghost.”
Since the publication of the Harley “ghost” story a few weeks ago, the “ghost” seems to have made a permanent home in the village. Half-a-dozen people are now asserting that they have seen or heard it. Mr W. Todd, of 46, Occupation Road, Harley, said: “I am almost convinced, because I have seen the shape twice. The first time was twelve months ago. I said nothing about it then, thinking I should not be believed, or be laughed at. The second time was recently and both times it appeared on Barrow Hill. It was a white shape, about seven feet tall, gliding along the roadside.” Barrow Hill is near to the spot where the two youths saw the apparition a short time ago.
Other people report strange knockings in a new building in the village, while at a farm near by there have been self-opening doors, knocking on floors, trundling of barrows, and glidings across the farmyard. Independently, within a few minutes of each other two men entered Harley’s only inn one night, and said they had seen “him” across the road. A knot of people at the door of the Welfare Hall, following the whist drive on Monday, all heard mysterious knockings a few yards away.
But while half the inhabitants of Harley are laughing at the story, some are “not so sure,” and others are convinced.
Penistone, Stockbridge and Hoyland Express, 19th December 1936.