‘Ghost’ Drives Out Family.
Prayers by Rector.
A pair of semi-detached council houses in the hamlet of Horning Tops, near Liskeard, is the scene of strange happenings attributed by the two families concerned to supernatural causes. One of the families, Mr and Mrs Lewis Powell, and their two-year-old daughter, of No. 2 Council Houses, Horning Tops, have already left to stay with relations. The other, Mr and Mrs Reg. Hole and their three sons aged 20, 14, and one year and nine months, are to leave as soon as they can get other accommodation.
Thumpings, knockings and other noises, and “a tall shadowy figure gliding silently over a gravelled path and disappearing into thin air,” have been reported. Mr Powell told the “Cornish Guardian”: “It has been several weeks of hell.” He now wears a crucifix, and is receiving medical treatment. Mr Hole, who has lived next door for about five weeks, said his own family were at the end of their tether. He added: “We are getting no sleep and our health is breaking down.”
To escape temporarily from what they regard as a visitation they have slept in their car in a layby and also in a caravan. despite the £150 which Mr Hole estimates he has spent in improvements and decorations to the house, he wants to get out. At first, Mr Hole said, he attributed knockings at his front door to a practical joke by his neighbour, Mr Powell. But when the knockings continued while they were in each other’s company they had to look elsewhere for an explanation.
Mr Hole who has a pipe-laying contract with the East Cornwall Water Board called on some of his workmates for help. A watch was posted at both the back and front doors, but the knockings persisted, this time from the attics. Sometimes the noises sounded like heavy thumpings as though someone was banging the rafters with his fists. The ceilings were also knocked as if by a metal object.
Mr Richard Smith, of 43 Harwood Avenue, Tamerton Foliot, clerk of the works for the East Cornwall Water Board on the pipe-laying scheme, was one of the men called on by Mr Hole. Mr Smith said he was watching from the front porch from 11 p.m. to 12.45 a.m. and saw a figure move out of the hedge. It glided silently over the gravel, passed within six feet of him and disappeared. It was “a tall oldish figure with head bent forward.” The same figure was also seen by Mr Stuart Hole, aged 20, who said that as it “floated across the road” the gate opened in front of it.
Altogether 13 people are said to have heard the knockings, and four to have seen the figure.
Mr Harry Enever, clerk of Liskeard Rural Council, confirmed that the Powell family had given up their tenancy and said the original complaint so far as the council were concerned came from Mr Hole, and was to the effect that someone was getting into his premises from the house next door as there was no dividing wall in the attics. He added “We are very sceptical. We do not envisage any difficulty in reletting because people in need of housing accommodation will not pay much attention.”
The Rector of Duloe, the Rev. D. C. Freeman, has visited Horning Tops and offered prayers in the houses. Asked whether he believed the trouble was due to supernatural causes, he replied, “If as a Christian I said I did not believe in the supernatural I would be just plain stupid. So far as the church is concerned we have to examine every possibility of practical joke, human interference, and psychological disturbance before we would commit ourselves to a supernatural explanation. In this particular case we seem to have exhausted the possibility of a natural explanation. What we are concerned about is the well-being of the families and any efforts made by the church have this solely in mind.”
Cornish Guardian, 4th December 1969.