Coals Weird Tricks.
Mystified London Family.
“Haunted coal” has been causing alarm to Mr and Mrs I S Frost and their family at Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, London, by producing a series of explosions and leaping from the grate all over the room. Among the pranks it played was to bombard windows and jump to the top of a high sideboard, take trips up and down stairs, mysteriously deposit itself on a landing where coal is never kept, and create a shower-bath of glowing embers, which rained from the walls and seemed to come through the ceilings without leaving marks.
The excitement had lasted for nearly a week, with a police-officer and neighbours looking on, when The Daily Mirror yesterday visited the “haunted” house and found the coal had broken three panes of glass in the kitchen and smashed a handsome frame in the drawing-room.
“No one here believes in Spiritualism,” said Mr Frost’s son to a reporter, “but when coal seemed to be descending from nowhere we became uneasy.” The coal has now been returned to the merchant who supplied it, and he has it “under observation.”
Daily Mirror, 1st February 1921.
Story of a “haunted” house.
Furniture that took flying leaps.
A series of strange happenings in a house at Hornsey were reported yesterday. “While we were having breakfast,” said an elder son of Mr J Frost, the occupier, to a “Daily Chronicle” representative, “the large mahogany table at which we were seated was raised by some invisible agency at least a foot from the floor. One of my nephews, a boy of eleven, was lifted in his chair two feet from the floor. He was very frightened, as he had had similar experiences before, and he came and sat on my knee. While I was soothing him, the boy’s empty chair rose to the ceiling, dropped back to its place, and then fell sideways. It was uncanny. We all saw it happen.
“Cups and saucers were flung off the table, two knife-boxes with their contents were dashed down, and a pack of cards flung at our heads. The cards fluttered over the kitchen floor. Another incident was the flying of a loaf of bread from the breakfast table into the coal scuttle. It sounds silly, but I am giving you nothing but hard facts. A tea caddy, too, came tumbling off the dresser. About 9 o’clock the boy was sent for a walk, and everything became quite normal. On his return, however, the trouble began again. All sorts of things began to fall about the rooms.
“During the morning we wired to the lad’s father to fetch him away, and we had a lively time of it until mid-day. Since then there has been a complete lull. The boy is sleeping at a friend’s house tonight, and the doctor is sending him into the country early to-morrow. Three weeks ago lumps of coal were thrown about the home. As each lump was thrown there were bomb-like explosions. The coal travelled invisibly.”
A friend of Mr Frost’s family, the Rev. A.L. Gardiner, the vicar of St Gabriel’s, Bounds Green, N., confirmed the story. He said: “I know nothing whatever of spiritualism, but my idea is that the boy is a ‘medium’. His mother died in the house about a year ago, and must, I imagine, be trying to communicate something to the family. On Monday the boy, with one of his brothers, was put to bed. I was in the house at the time, and a few minutes later we heard screams in the bedroom. We rushed up, and both the boys declared they had seen their mother, ‘dressed in red,’ at the foot of the bed. They also said that the bed had been lifted off the floor, and while I was in the room several articles were dropped or thrown about from no one knew where.
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 17th February 1921
“Haunted” house mystery.
Jumping coal and jumping crockery.
Ghostly visitations are declared to have been observed at No. 8, Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, London, rented by Mr JS Frost. It is a typical suburban villa residence, and a numerous family lives in it. One of the children, Gordon, a boy of eleven, seems to have been the centre of the manifestations.
The milder manifestations consist of the flight from shelf or table to floor of all sorts of crockery, brushes, food, and small objects; the more surprising are the sudden elevation from the floor of the child and his chair, or the raising 2 ft from the carpet of a mahogany table laid with breakfast things. The most terrifying experience the boy has had, and it was shared by his brother, aged nine, is stated to be the sudden appearance in the boy’s bedroom of an apparition in which they recognised their mother, who died of consumption last April. When this happened the children’s screams brought the family to the bedroom.
The Vicar of St Gabriel’s, Bowes Park, was present and went upstairs with the family. The boys declared that the apparition had lifted up the bed they shared and said she was going to take them away. That night, says Mr Frost, the Vicar took the boy Gordon away to stay at his house for the night. Yesterday more china was broken.
The first disturbance was caused some little time ago by coal being flung about the house, and last night a coal merchant’s carman described how he fetched about 19cwt of the stuff away. “Everybody’s asking round here now if the firm sells haunted coal,” he said. When the trouble began the police and the fire brigade were both consulted, but have since given up investigations. Several people in the house have been hit by flying bric-a-brac and general odds and ends, but none has yet been hurt. The boy was examined yesterday by a doctor, who declared him excitable but normal. The family is looking anxiously for another house.
Hull Daily Mail, 17th February 1921.
Haunted House Mystery.
Unseen hands lift boy and chair.
Ghost garbed in red.
Is the home of the Frost family in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, London, bewitched? Its occupants, and several of their friends, claim that it is, and prominent members of the Psychical Research Society are investigating. Among the occupants of the house are Mr and Mrs Frost, their son Ivan (the householder), and his two nephews, Gordon Parker (12) and Bertie Parker (9). Their mother died in April last. She was particularly fond of Gordon, and he and his brother aver that she has recently appeared to them garbed in red. Besides this, all manner of strange things are reported to have occurred in the house during the past three weeks.
It is said that there have been minor explosions, coal has been flung about the house; chairs, brooms, candlesticks and towels have moved without the agency of human hands, Gordon and the chair on which he was sitting have been lifted into the air and windows have been broken.
The mystery deepened yesterday. Gordon had been presumed to possess, quite unconsciously, mediumistic powers, and hitherto, when absent from home, the manifestations had ceased. Yesterday he went to the seaside.
At seven o’clock yesterday morning, declares his uncle, Mr Ivan Frost, a pincushion and other articles on a chest of drawers were flung to the ground; an orange lifted itself from a chair and fell on a bed, and a dressing gown, on a chair, overturned. No untoward incident is reported from the seaside home where the boy is staying.
Mr Ivan Frost stated yesterday that he slept with Gordon on Tuesday night. “The child fell asleep and began to tremble, so did I. Then the boy ceased to tremble and became dead cold.” Mr Frost added that he heard mysterious noise in another room and four knocks at the window. Next morning when he and the boy entered the kitchen all the crockery, the cutlery, and a pack of cards were hurled to the floor.
“At breakfast Gordon and his chair jumped about 2ft.; the heavy mahogany table lifted, but nothing was upset except the milk, although the jug did not fall over. Gordon and his chair rose again. This time he fell and hurt himself. The chair then jumped as high as the ceiling and came down again,” added Mr Frost.
The members of the family are not spiritualists, and the Rev. A.L. Gardiner, vicar of St. Gabriel’s, Bound’s-green, says he has seen strange happenings in the house. A doctor has examined Gordon and declared him to be normal. “Similar cases have occurred in every country and no solution has been found,” said the editor of the Occult Review to a Daily Graphic representative yestereday. “Such manifestations are opposed to all known natural laws. Many people believe that the work is that of spirits moving through a sympathetic medium, and I have known of ‘unconscious mediums.’ Maybe someone in the Hornsey house is a medium. On the other hand, there may be no medium there at all, and probably the manifestations will cease without the mystery being solved. That is generally the end of manifestations such as these.”
Nottingham Evening Post, 18th February 1921.
Nightmare House. Tables and chairs jump to ceiling. Ghost in red.
The mystery of a bewitched house in a town in Middlesex is to be investigated by the Society for Psychical Research. Within a few hours of the publication of the facts, a prominent member of the society placed himself in communication with the distracted household, and his services have been gratefully accepted. The theory that the whole trouble is due to the mediumistic powers of Gordon Parker, the twelve-year-old nephew of Mr Frost, the householder, has received a rude shock.
There was fresh trouble early yesterday when the boy Gordon was not in the house.
He is to be removed to a home at the seaside, and went away late on Wednesday night in the company of a local clergyman. According to Mr Frost, the disturbances were renewed at 7 a.m. A pin-cushion and other articles were flung from the chest of drawers to the floor. An orange lifted itself off a chair and dropped on the children’s bed. A dressing gown was overturned on a chair. The children, Mr Frost insists, could have touched none of these things.
An entirely independent witness is the Rev. A.L. Gardiner, a local clergyman. “Mr Frost told me about the coal flying about on Sunday,” said the Vicar, “and at first I was inclined to attribute the trouble to some explosive in the coal. I went to the house on Monday afternoon, and I saw some of the unaccountable things which the family has described with my own eyes. As I sat in the dining-room I saw pieces of coal dropping as though from the ceiling. A white cloth was put on the table and some of the coal fell on the cloth. The boy (Gordon) was sitting quietly with me in the room at the time.
“After he and his little brother had gone to bed, we heard a scream. I went upstairs. Gordon was very frightened, and told me his dead mother had appeared to him dressed in red and standing at the foot of the bed. She said he was going to be taken away.
“I saw a parcel and a tin box thrown from the chest of drawers to the floor. There was a tiny fairy lamp on the mantelpiece. It was swept off before my eyes as though a hand had been pushed behind it.
“I was at the house again yesterday, and as I was afraid of the effect of continual questioning on the boy, I got him out of the sitting-room and took him upstairs. As soon as he reached the landing he exclaimed: – ‘There she is. There’s mother,’ and said he had seen his mother dressed in red, as before, and that she had passed into the room in front of us.”
Mr Frost, the uncle of the two boys, told of his experience when he slept with Gordon on Tuesday night. He said: – “The youngster told me he would not sleep alone so I slept with him and Bertie slept with his grandfather. I took a lighted candle into the room. We both got into the bed and after a time the boy went to sleep. When he was fairly well aslumber he began to tremble, and somehow I began to tremble as well. I looked at the boy, and from his appearance then I thought I was sleeping with a corpse. He had ceased to tremble and he was dead cold. Then all at once the candle went off with a sort of ‘fith’ three times and I distinctly heard voices in the next room. Nothing had ever happened in that room before, and I could not distinguish what was being said – it was more like a muttering.
“Then followed four knocks at the window. I looked at the boy. He was fast asleep. I stayed in bed until half-past two, and I thought, ‘When that candle goes out and I am left in darkness I shall go mad,’ so I went downstairs. Between then and seven o’clock I went upstairs five times, and at the hour mentioned the boy woke and said, ‘Uncle, I have had such a nice night.’
“We both came downstairs and went into the kitchen. Immediately we reached that apartment the crockery, plates, and everything else on the shelves and on the table smashed on to the floor. Subsequently my father went to business, and no sooner had he gone than the teapot dropped from the table on to the floor, the tea of course being spilled. Then the knife box fell from the sideboard on to the floor, as did a pack of cards.
“As Gordon sat at the breakfast table his chair suddenly lifted up, and the chair and the boy jumped about two feet. Then the heavy mahogany table lifted, but nothing on the table was upset except the milk, although the jug did not fall over. Then Gordon’s chair went up again, and this time he fell and hurt himself. He refused to sit on that chair again. No sooner had I picked him up than the chair jumped as high as the ceiling and came down again.”
Leeds Mercury, 18th February 1921.
Hornsey’s haunted house mystery.
Happy home still being smashed up.
Brothers’ stories.
Further “manifestations” occurred in the house of Mr T.S. Frost, at Hornsey, yesterday, according to the statements of the residents, but nothing unusual happened during the visit paid by a “Daily Chronicle” representative. The Frost family are sincerely convinced that a “spirit” is associated with the circumstances. Gordon, the boy who was at first believed to be a “medium”, has been taken by a friend to the seaside.
Nearly all the lower rooms of the house yesterday were filled by sympathising friends and investigating journalists. Evidence of continued trouble was given by members of the family. Mr Ivan Frost said: “This morning, at 7, I heard noises in my parents’ bedroom. Several things had been thrown about, including an orange, which ‘flew’ on to the head of Muriel, the youngest child, and fell into the bed. A pincushion, my mother’s slippers, and some underclothing had also moved. Again, about lunch-time, there were mysterious happenings in the kitchen. A loaf flew into a drawer, and a knife was found stuck into the wall, while Miss Clifford, an elderly aunt, and the two children were in the room. Another time there were three loud taps on the wall.”
Another brother, Mr Lancelot Frost, also spoke of a continuation of the “manifestations,” and Miss Clifford said that in her presence a brick came down the chimney.
Windows are broken, dishes and lampshades, china objects and ornaments in fragments have been swept up and put into an ashbox. Other signs of the household agitation were the littler of small objects of furniture placed on the floor so that the “spirit” could not send them crashing from an elevated position.
Three persons have died in the house, and the suggestion made by the family is that it may be the “spirit” of one of them who is connected with these unusual events. On the other hand, a clergyman at Putney writes to Mr Ivan Frost that “it is a magnetic force which flows from the boy Gordon.”
London Daily Chronicle, 18th February 1921.
The house of mystery.
Tale of flying coal and gliding chairs.
Catalogue of thrills.
We have heard a good deal about the parental influence in the home. This is a story about the weird influence of a boy “medium,” whose presence in a house in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, N., is said to have coincided with all sorts of “spiritualistic manifestations.” As long as the boy remained outside the bosom of his family all was well, it was supposed. Yesterday a clergyman took him to the seaside to get braced up, but in the words of the half-terrified family “things were worse than ever.”
It is a queer story. It either makes you whistle “Phew!” or puts you on the telephone with the Psychical Research Society. Crowds gather and stare at the house of mystery, with its green ventian blinds drawn, even in the daytime.
The principal actors in this spiritualistic drama are: The Supposed Medium – Gordon Parker, aged 11. His Little Brother – Bertie, aged 9. Their Dead Mother – Mrs Parker, a victim of consumption. Their Uncle – Mr Ivan Frost. Other members of the Frost family in the house are a grandmother, an aunt, and one or two small children – too young to be spiritualists.
Sceptics in the same street say there must be an invisible hand at work. Perhaps, they say, it is a ghostly pestidigitateur whose particular forte is coal juggling .Some say the coal, tha tflies about the house like ping pong balls, is haunted, but the coal merchant who supplied it indignantly denies this allegation. The prices may be haunted, but not the coal. The family, however, say that the matter is too serious for levity.
“I was not a believer in spiritualism when these things came to make our life almost unbearable,” said Mr Frost when I arrived yesterday morning soon after a violent manifestation (writes a”Daily News” representative), “but I am now.”
The family were gathered in the front room, and appeared to be quite agitated by the latest manifestation, which took the form of coal throwing and the whirling of objects about the house and loud banging noises. “This is the first time there has been a manifestation since Gordon went away from home. That makes the whole thing more inexplicable than ever,” I was told.
The boy medium went away on Wednesday night with the Rev. A.L. Gardiner, vicar of St Gabriel’s, Wood Green, and he slept at the house of another local clergyman .But apparently the boy’s mediumistic powers on this occasion did not assert themselves, for a peaceful night was passed. Mr Frost said Gordon was an intelligent boy, never patronised picture theatres, and went to school like other good boys.
The following is a complete catalogue of the thrills that have disturbed the family peace and quiet since the first “manifestation” three weeks ago: Bomb-like explosions in the kitchen. Loaf of bread jumps into the coal scuttle. Step-ladder rises and falls. Shaving pot dashes downstairs. Tea-plates jazz on table and smash. Chair glides across the room. Orange bounces off the baby’s bed. Pin-cushion leaps to the floor. Brooms and cigarette-holders change rooms. General rattling of ornaments, glass, china, and bric-a-brac .Flying candlestick hits a woman. Boy and chair lifted bodily from the floor. Volume of “Alice in Wonderland” pirouettes on floor. Tappings and noises in different rooms. Flying lumps of coal, smashing kitchen windows. Apparition of boy’s mother at bedside.
Mr Frost showed me the smashed windows in the kitchen and pointed to a chair that had been upturned by the Invisible hand. People have written to the family asking to be allowed to spend a night in the house of mystery, and psychical research experts offer to join in the investigations.
Of course, whether they possess mediumistic powers or not, boys will be boys.
Daily News (London), 18th February 1921.
Haunted Furniture.
We fear that ghosts are beginning to get out of control and to exhibit the common tendency towards disorder and Bolshevism. They used to be evasive. One had more or less to detect them – to seek them out. Besides, they tended to be dignified and delicate, like the ghosts in Henry James. Further, they were always persons. They had human form or appearance.
Nowadays – as we judge from the latest “haunted house” story – they not only affirm their presences in a vulgar self-advertising manner, they are trivial and tricky too. They inspire coal to jump about and lumps of sugar to play the fool. They knock things off mantelpieces and object to pincushions, which they throw on to the floor. In fact, their “messages,” thus conveyed, seem to be of a meaningless irritability.
We appeal to them to them to think it iover. We request them to remember that we have quite enough trouble about coal as it is. We warn them that they will gain nothing from us by making chairs jump and imitating Maskelyne and Devant.
Daily Mirror, 19th February 1921.
Haunted boy at Broadstairs.
Gordon Parker, aged 11 years, who was the centre of strange manifestations in a Hornsey house, is stated to have been brought by a friend to Broadstairs, but so far no unusual happenings are reported in connection with his presence in the town.
Since his departure, however, more disturbances are reported at his Hornsey home. The boy himself, though declared excitable, is quite normal.
The most terrifying experience he had, and it was shared by his brother, aged nine, was the sudden appearance in his bedroom of an apparition in which both boys recognised their mother, who died last April.
He has come to Broadstairs in the company of the Rev. A.L. Gardener, and is staying at one of the homes.
Thanet Advertiser, 19th February 1921.
The Mischievous Ghost.
Latest performance in the haunted house.
Mrs Frost’s story.
More “manifestations” occurred at the home of the Frost family, in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey yesterday. Gordon Parker, the 12 year old motherless nephew of the householder, Mr Ivan Frost, presumed by some people to be an unconscious medium, has been at the seaside since Thursday, but his younger brother Bertie remains at the house. It is stated that during the past three weeks coal has been flung about the house, chairs, brooms and candlesticks and towels have moved without human agency, and Gordon and the chair on which he was sitting have been lifted into the air.
Mrs Frost, senior, mother of Mr Ivan Frost, and grandmother of the two boys, related her experiences yesterday to a Daily Graphic representative. She is slight of build, her hair is silver-grey, and there is a strained expression on her face. “These spirit manifestations are wearing me out,” she said. “At first I thought that my daughter, who died in this house last April, wanted to communicate with me, but I do not think she would do it in this mischievous way. I promised her when she lay dying that I would care for her two boys, and I have kept my word. The neighbours say I am likely to spoil the boys.”
Mrs Frost stated that the presence of strangers in the house during the past night had ensured comparative immunity from the spirit. “Just as day was breaking,” she added, “I felt my grandchild, who was sleeping beside me, move, and then saw a new boot, owned by my husband, lying on the bed. When I retired it was in the corner. I screamed, and as I made for the door a chair jumped on to the bed. The people down below came running up, but there were no more manifestations.”
Asked if it were probable that she was the medium, Mrs Frost emphatically said: “I am not, but I know every time when a manifestation is about to occur, I know because I feel very peculiar.”
Nottingham Evening Post, 19th February 1921
Haunted House. Vicar’s Story of Lamp’s Aerial Journey.
The Hornsey House mystery continues to baffle the psychical and other searchers for a clue to the mystery. Early yesterday several independent watchers were keeping vigil. A noise like an explosion was heard in one of the upper rooms, and it was found that a chair had been flung some distance on to a bed in a bedroom where Mrs Frost, wife of the householder, was actually dressing at the time.
A pair of boots followed the chair, and brought up so to speak “all standing” beside it on the bed. Mrs Frost was standing there very much frightened. The chair was not broken. There is a new dent on the bedpost where the chair hit it. With the exception of the boy Gordon, aged 12, who has been sent to the seaside, the Frost family are remaining at the house, but all of them are suffering as the result of wakeful nights and the suspense of the untoward happenings. Many of the household ornaments have been placed on the floor because of the frequency with which articles have been dislodged from shelves.
Mr Frost, senior, who is 70 years of age, continues his daily work in the city. “I have taken the opportunity,” says a Press represeentative, “of going over some points in the story with Mr Frost and an old family friend, Mr Millard. I was under the impression from conversation with Mr Frost’s son, that his father had actually seen, for instance, the flight of the brooms into the kitchen last Sunday morning.
“No,” said Mr Frost, “I didn’t see the brooms coming into the kitchen. They were just there after a terrific explosion.” A similar explosion goes with the fall of china, saucers, ash trays, bread platters, stepladders, and so forth. I went into this point very particularly. “You mean, ” I said to Mr Frost, “that when these things – brooms and stepladders and tea trays and the rest – fly into a room or jump up and down or fall to the ground the noise is not the natural noise that would be made if you or I took hold of a couple of brooms in the passage and flung them into the kitchen?” That was exactly what Mr Frost did mean. It was a noise quite different from the rattle and clatter that one would expect – a much louder noise.
Another point seems to deserve note. The Rev. A.L. Gardiner, vicar of St Gabriel’s, Bounds Park, was standing, I am told, in a room in Mr Frost’s house. Both the boys were behind him. The vicar saw a “fairy lamp” move from its place on a shelf and fall. But the manner of its fall was peculiar. The lamp did not drop instantly to the ground as it moved off the shelf. It went out in a straight line in the air for about two feet, and then fell.
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 19th February 1921.
O-o! O-o! O-o!
Vicar’s vigil in Hornsey’s “Haunted House”.
“In Heaven’s name, tell the public that the manifestations have ceased!” said Mr Lionel Frost to the Daily Herald investigator when the latter called yesterday evening at the “Haunted House” in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey. It was easy to understand Mr Frost’s anxiety, for the street was crowded with people whom the extra-duty police had no little difficulty to keep on the move. It was a curious crowd, alternately timid and facetious. When I was seen about to enter the house (writes our investigator) there was a subdued “O-o! – O-o!” and the crowd whispered, “I wouldn’t like to go in there! Would you?” This was the timid side of the crowd; the facetious side made remarks about being ready to “swap houses with ’em.” “If it’s true that coal comes out of the air from nowhere, well, I wouldn’t mind swapping anyway!” said one woman.
I asked Mr Frost if it was a fact that the manifestations had ceased, and he replied, “No! Only about five minutes before you called a big armchair in the kitchen was thrown over, so that we couldn’t open the door!” The absence of the boy Gordon would seem, therefore, to have had no quieting effect upon the “uneasy spirit.”
Yesterday, I had another interview with the Rev. Arthur Chandler, the vicar of St. John’s, Wood Green, and he again emphasised his complete scepticism. He entirely agreed with the views expressed by Mr Nevil Maskelyne that there was nothing supernatural about the phenomena. “I spent the whole of Thursday night in the house,” said Mr Chandler. “Myself, a friend of mine, and Mr L.N. Frost settled ourselves comfortably in one of the rooms. One by one the family retired, and eventually Mr Frost fell asleep on the sofa. My friend and I, however, remained awake the entire night – but nothing whatever occurred. It seems rather a pity, for I should have liked to have seen some of the wonderful happenings actually occur!”
I suggested to Mr Chandler that perhaps the “ghost” was afraid of him, and with a twinkle in his somewhat “Father-Brown-eye,” he agreed that it might be so.
The believers in the occult are, however, taking the “ghost” quite seriously, and last night Professor Mortimer Gunnell of the Society for Psychical Research, began an investigation in the house.
Daily Herald, 19th February 1921.
Hornsey’s Haunted House.
Views of Mr Nevil Maskelyne. Remarkable happenings in no way attributable to anything connected with spiritualism.
Mr Nevil Maskelyne, a member of the famous firm of illusionists, interviewed by a Press representative, yesterday, gave it as his positive opinion that the remarkable happenings during the past three weeks at a house in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, were in no way attributable to anything connected with Spiritualism.
“For 40 years,” said Mr Maskelyne, “my father and myself have been investigating Spiritualistic matters, and we have interviewed some of the most prominent persons connected with the movement – always with perfectly open minds. Incidents such as those reported from the Hornsey house have been brought to our notice, but never have we been satisfied that there was an atom of the supernatural about them. As showing that we have always been impartial, I would point out that we are open to conviction even now. No, there is nothing Spiritualistic about the recent trend of affairs in the Hornsey house.”
Leicester Daily Post, 19th February 1921.
Haunted house mystery.
Coal that flies and brooms that jazz.
Spook who works in daylight.
By a ‘Sunday Post’ investigator.
The mystery of London’s haunted house is attracting all classes to Hornsey. To-night there was a big crowd of watchers, and the police had to keep them on the move. Even at a late hour they endeavoured to hang about in groups, eager to hear the mysterious sounds or watch the shadows of investigators on the blinds.
Meanwhile the mystery is due a solution, although I have been given several ingenious explanations. The mystery, according to a noted physchist [sic] I met there last night, has solved itself. He is convinced that somewhere in the neighbourhood there is lurking what is known as a poltergeist, or elemental spirit, who is sometimes the forerunner of illness. His claim is based on the fact that the little grand-daughter of the house has developed measles. This has interfered with the investigations, and thinned down the ranks of investigators, among whom are local spiritualists, students of the occult, and people in search of thrills.
When I called at the house last night and offered to take the risks of any germs that might be flying about with the coal, I was courteously received, but informed that I would have to choose another evening for my investigation, as several members of the august body, known as the Psychical Research Society, were in attendance waiting to witness any manifestations. The result of their vigil will be known later. Meanwhile let me say that during my short visit I found the occupants of the house in a state of great agitation. I saw nothing about the place to suggest that anything had been happening lately which could not result from physical causes.
The hall of the house was neat and tidy. A brightly-lit jet revealed no coal jazzing about, and the furniture was as quiet and restrained as if it had settled down for a good night’s rest. A group of people hung about in front of the house, eagerly waiting a demonstration, but the lights in the house burned as steadily as if the air waves were as normal as in all the other houses in Hornsey. There were no unaccountable noises, and no uncanny feeling such as one has when awaiting the first manifestation at a seance. As a matter of fact, those who have spent a night in the house have been disappointed beyond measure. The alleged spook appears to be a thoroughly respectable fellow after dusk, anxious to get to rest after the manifestations of the day. He is a firm believer in an eight-hours’ day, and all the big things claimed on his behalf have taken place in the daylight.
One of the investigators I spoke to last night is impressed by the fact that he himself saw the boy Frost lifted up in the chair in which he was seated. This is what is known as levitation, and the explanation given me by a number of the Society for Psychical Research is that he may be mediumistic, and able to develop a lifting force or a magnetism, in other words, that when he is about either spiritual agencies are at work, or there is some force in the house which is unknown to present-day scientific men. This force may be vital electricity, which lifts up heavy articles and hurls them about the room.
The coal, I am informed, does not come straight, but appears to move with a swaying motion, as if borne on the air. When the elder boy first was in the house all sorts of loud noises were heard, and things moved in a most miraculous fashion. The Psychical Research Society have records of the case of a servant girl who manifested a similar manner by attaching hairs to the crockery, but in the Hornsey case the investigators declare that they are satisfied the boy is innocent of any trickery. He is also genuine in his belief that he has seen the wraith of a woman in the house.
The manifestations have been slighter and less since the boy left. The brooms do not jazz about, and the ghost seems to be losing his nerve! Mrs Frost, after an anxious night, discovered a boot and a chair on her bed. She says she heard the noise of it passing through the air, but did not actually see it. The younger boy, Bertie, was sleeping in the room at the time, but he denied emphatically that he knew anything about the matter.
The strangest thing about the affair is that even in the day the manifestations cease when certain strangers come into the house. A burly police inspector who visited the home had evidently no mediumistic powers. He is among those who think that even if Mr Smillie visited the house there would be no rise in coal. Whatever are the explanations of the mystery, there can be no doubt that the trouble is getting on the nerves of the occupants of the house. Mrs Frost and the other members of the family are at their wits’ end what to do, and feel they cannot stand the strain much longer. They are anxiously awaiting some helpful suggestion from the scientific men.
Sunday Post, 20th February 1921.
Madcap “Ghost.”
Jumping cups and saucers at haunted house breakfast.
Seance this week.
The noisy “ghost of Hornsey” continued his pranks yesterday at the home of the Frost family in Ferrestone-road, and so baffling has the mystery become that a spiritualistic seance has been decided upon as a possible means of finding the solution. The Sunday Pictorial found the whole family at tea yesterday. They said it was the first meal they had been able to sit down to during the day.
“The trouble began this morning at breakfast time,” said Mrs Frost. “We were sitting at the table when the metal teapot jumped up and fell on the floor. Then the marmalade jar followed, and a number of cups and saucers. Not much was left besides the tablecloth.”
“But that wasn’t the worst,” broke in her husband. “The boy Bertie here was sitting quietly on his chair when chair and boy both rose about a foot in the air, wobbled a little and then settled down again.”
Mr L Frost said that they could not stand the strain much longer. Mr Gunnell, of the Psychical Research Society, had been in the house all afternoon and had found no clue to the mystery. A representative of Maskelyne and Devant’s had had no better fortune on the previous day.
“Arrangements have now been made,” said Mr Frost, “for a spiritualistic seance to be held on Tuesday afternoon. I cannot tell you who the medium will be nor who is arranging the sitting, but the Rev. A L Gardiner, of St Gabriel’s, Bounds Green, will be present.”
Sunday Mirror, 20th February 1921.
Jumping Egg at Hornsey.
Yesterday in House of Pranks.
The rackety mysterious spirit, or poltergeist, which is tormenting the occupants of a house in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, by throwing the furniture about has turned his attention to eatables. Yesterday, according to the accounts of the occupants, it rolled an egg from the second shelf of the kitchen dresser on to the floor twice in succession without the slightest injury to the egg.
When a Weekly Dispatch representative called at the house last night, however, nothing happened. The poltergeist was quiet. According to Mr. Frost, the head of the house, the butter and the dish containing it had also jumped from the table to the floor. No one saw it jump: they only saw it when it reached the floor. The teapot is said to have followed suit, but most extraordinary of all, Bertie Frost, aged nine, was lifted up from his chair about a foot in the air.
The following curious incidents have already been reported: Loaf of bread jumps; Step ladder falls about; Shaving pot runs downstairs; Tea plates jump off table; Chair moves across room; Pin cushion hops about; Candlestick hits a woman; Book moves about the floor; Coal flies about, smashing windows.
Since the amazing happenings related by Mr Frost have been made public he has received hundreds of letters from people all over the country who relate similar happenings. “I cannot answer them all,” he said, “but will you convey my thanks to them through The Weekly Dispatch?” The chief complain Mr Frost has is that the poltergeist, or whatever is responsible for the happenings, has little or no regard for the breakage of windows and furniture which ensues. He resents the suggestion that the whole thing is the results of pranks by boys.
Weekly Dispatch (London), 20th February 1921.
Loaf and bread knife fly about room.
Queer happenings baffle all investigators.
Strange happenings are taking place at a house at Hornsey, and an effort is being made to ascertain if they are due to supernatural causes. Furniture has moved about, lumps of coal have suddenly come flying about the rooms, weird thuds and other noises are heard. On one occasion a boy (Gordon) and the chair on which he was seated were lifted into the air. One of the latest manifestations is that a loaf of bread suddenly flew off the plate into a drawer, the bread board fell on the floor, and the bread knife was flung against a wall. This happened while an elderly inmate and two children, a girl five years of age and a boy nine years of age, were in the room.
The house where these curious happenings occur is occupied by Mr J.S. Frost, a brassfinisher, and the inmates include Mrs Frost, her sister, 80 years of age, two grown-up sons, and three grandchildren named Parker, whose ages are 11, 9, and 5 years.
Some investigators are strongly of the belief that there is some agency other than human at work. Others believe that this is a case of poltergeist – the imp of mischief that acts through the medium of some young persons. The earlier happenings were thought by some to be due to the mediumistic powers of the boy Gordon, the elder grandchild. Gordon, whose nerves are affected by the weird happenings, has gone to Broadstairs for a holiday, and even though he is away the strange occurrences continue. This narrows down the scope of inquiry, and one of the investigators declares that under the circumstances it is impossible for the children to be the instigators of the happenings.
Mrs Frost says that at first she thought her daughter who died last April wanted to communicate with her, but did not think her daughter would do it in that mischievous way.
Dundee Courier, 21st February 1921.
A Noisy “Ghost.”
Tricks at Meal: Seance to be held.
The noisy “ghost of Hornsey” continued his pranks during the week-end at the home of the Frost family in Ferrestone road, and so baffling has the mystery become that a spiritualistic seance has been decided upon as a possible means of finding the solution. Whilst the family were consuming a meal, a metal teapot jumped up and fell on the floor. The marmalade jar and teacups and saucers followed. The boy Bertie was seated on a chair when both rose in the air and then settled down.
Mr L Frost said that they could not stand the strain much longer. Mr Gunnell, of the Psychical Research Society, had been in the house and had found no clue to the mystery. A representative of Maskelyne and Devant’s had no better fortune. “Arrangements have now been made,” said Mr Frost, “for a spiritualistic seance to be held on Tuesday afternoon. I cannot tell you who the medium will be nor who is arranging the sitting, but the Rev. A.L. Gardiner, of St Gabriel’s, Bounds-green, will be present.”
Daily Herald, 21st February 1921.
Furniture that takes flying leaps.
Boy’s weird influence in Hornsey house.
A vicar’s theory.
What is the secret of the strange things which are said to happen almost daily in an eight-roomed villa in a quiet road in North London? The occupants say weird occurrences are taking place. Loud explosions have been heard, lumps of coal fly in all directions, plates rattle, and tables and chairs go jazzing about the room. This has been the state of affairs for the past three weeks, and a curious feature of the trouble is that nothing unusual takes place while a twelve-year-old schoolboy, the grandson of Mr JS Frost, is away from the house.
The Rev AL Gardiner, vicar of St Gabriel’s, Bounds Green, Hornsey, and the Rev. A Chandler, vicar of St John’s, Wood Green, have interested themselves in the matter, and Mr Chandler took the boy on Tuesday to sleep at his residence. Arrangements are being made by the clergyman and some friends to send the boy away to the seaside. The Rev AL Gardiner, interviewed on Wednesday, said:-
“I know nothing whatever of spiritualism, but my idea is that the boy is a ‘medium’. His mother died in the house about a year ago, adn must, I imagine, be trying to communicate something to the family. On Monday the boy, with one of his brothers, was put to bed. I was in the house at the time, and a few minutes later we heard screams in the bedroom. We rushed up, and both the boys declared they had seen their mother, ‘dressed in red,’ at the foot of the bed. They also said that the bed had been lifted off the floor, and while I was in the room several articles were dropped or thrown about from no-one knew where. ”
The boy was examined on Wednesday afternoon by the family’s medical adviser, who declared that he was in perfect health.
“I believe it is the spirit of my sister,” said Mr Frost, the tenant of the ‘haunted’ house at Hornsey, when discussing the strange events at his home with a Press representative on Friday. “She is trying, I think, to get into communication with us,” he added. “She tried to tell us something before she died, but passed away before she could make us understand.” Mr Frost said the disturbances had continued all night at intervals. ‘Manifestations’ similar to those previously reported took place, and articles fell about and were smashed. Gordon, the little boy who was thought to be responsible, is still away from the place under clerical care.
Occultists, church officials, and many other people have visited the house, and on Friday night Professor M. Gunnell, of the Psychical Society, began an investigation on condition that complete privacy was maintained.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 23rd February 1921.
That mischievous spirit.
Possible explanation of the Hornsey manifestations.
The investigation of the Society for Psychical Research have so far neither laid the Hornsey ‘poltergeist’ nor discovered the origins of its manifestations. Nor have the investigations of the Pressmen revealed the identity of the mischievous spirit that throws Mr Frost’s coal about and smashes his crockery. There is no servant in the house, so that the line of inquiry which solved the mystery of the petrol poltergeist at Swanton Novers Rectory is barred. But there are, or were, a couple of boys of eleven and nine years of age at the house in Ferrestone-road (says Truth), and it will be remembered that in the case of the Aberdeen ghost, which created a local sensation about 12 months ago, two boys were also resident in the house where it appeared. Certainly among all the manifestations I have heard of none which would not be easily producible by a boy or boys with the assistance of a reel of cotton.
So far, the honours remain with the police. An inspector and sergeant who were called in saw the direction from which one of the pieces of coal had come and traced it to one of the boys, who had kicked it out of the bath-room. That apparently satisfied them, as it would me, that there is no need to look for unknown or supernatural forces to explain occurrences easily producible by ordinary physical means. It is noteworthy, also, that the children are by no means frightened by the manifestations. They perhaps look upon the poltergeist as a kindred spirit.
Nottingham Evening Post, 23rd February 1921
Haunted Boy Taken To Broadstairs.
George Parker, aged 11 years, who was the centre of strange manifestations in a Hornsey house, has been taken by a friend to Broadstairs, but so far no unusual happenings are reported in connection with his presence in the town. Since his departure, however, more disturbances are reported at his Hornsey home. The boy himself, though declared exciteable, is quite normal.
The most terrifying experience he had, and it was shared by his brother, aged nine, was the sudden appearance in his bedroom of an apparition which both boys recognised as their mother, who died last April. He has gone to Broadstairs in the company of the Rev. A.L. Gardener, and is staying at one of the homes.
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 26th February 1921.
A spook in Hornsey.
Without emphasising my own opinions on matters spiritualistic, a subject of which I am profoundly ignorant and hasten to profess my respect for accordingly, I confess there is a certain air of mystery in the occurrences gravely narrated as taking place in Hornsey. These manifestations, or by whatever name they can most suitably be described, are said to have been going on for a month, and no thoery capable of proof has thus far been advanced to account for them. they are of the usual kind associated with such demonstrations. Furniture is overturned – more or less unobtrusively, as it would appear – crockery is smashed, noises are heard in the chimney, and showers of coal descend in most unlikely places apparently from nowhere.
No doubt such experiences are apt to get on the nerves, particularly at night, though the Hornsey spook carries on his pranks with superb indifference to darkness or daylight. It is quite in agreement with all authentic records, aught that can be ever heard in tale or read in history, that these occurrences are known only by the noise by which they are accompanied or by their results. The latter, indeed, are the only visible proof of what occurs. By some strange coincidence nobody is ever on the spot just at the right moment to see what happens when it happens.
Far be it from me to suggest that such mischief is the outcome of commonplace, mundane activity. Only a cynical mind would encourage such a theory. Still, one would like to know, you know. Perhaps the Society for Psychical Research, which, I understand, is looking into things, will confute the sceptics.
Orkney Herald, and Weekly Advertiser and Gazette for the Orkney and Zetland Islands, 2nd March 1921.
What I think and why.
Those ghosts again!
By “Arjadee.”
Some friends of mine who have taken up, most unaccountably, the spiritualist cult, have been asking me with an air of triumph, what I think of certain curious happenings at a house in Hornsey, not very far from where I live. It appears that pieces of coal and other articles move about the house mysteriously, there are slammings and noises and other phenomena, which, at the time I write, have not been explained.
The Vicar doesn’t know how it was done, and neither does the doctor. Newspaper men and people who specialise in psychical research have been investigating but the secret is undisclosed. So those who believe in ghosts are loudly declaring that one of their pets is here at work, and sceptical persons like myself are being asked: “What have you got to say for yourself now?” All anti-spiritualists, apparently, are supposed to met their Waterloo at Hornsey, and there is nothing left for them to do but to embrace the faith once delivered to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I must confess that all this leaves me cold. It seems to be expected that I should produce an explanation of what is called the Hornsey Ghost, or else admit the case of the spiritualists – an entirely unreasonable demand. I will admit quite frankly that, accepting the statements which have been made by visitors to the house – and I have no reason to question them – I have no idea how the facts are to be explained. I remember that, on some previous occasions, equally baffling occurrences have been found in the end to be due to quite simple causes.
It is possible that even before these lines appear the Hornsey Ghost will have gone the way of the mysterious drippings of oil in a Rectory which puzzled the world some time ago and other “sensations” of the kind. I’m not going to be dogmatic about it though. I will face the possibility that no known agency is found to explain what has happened. What then? Well, I will admit my agnosticism. I will say: “Here are effects which must have had a cause, but I do not know what the cause was.”
The assumption that it is the work of a disembodied spirit is quite gratuitous. It would be just as reasonable – and unprovable – if we assumed that the coal and the table and what-not are inhabited by spirits of their own. Anybody but a fool will admit that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. Do we know the last word on the stoes of energy that may be locked up in the atmosphere around us? Is electricity an open book to us? Until we know a great deal more, I decline to accept ghosts as the only explanation.
Still less am I ready to see any sort of religious significance in the Hornsey capers. If the spirits of the dead really do indulge in throwing about the coal, playing tambourines, and slamming doors in this vale of tears we must accept the melancholy fact, and make the best of it. I can only say these are the last sort of Ghosts that I should want to have anything to do with. If any of my departed relatives can only send me “messages” in this fashion, I shall not feel at all hurt if they leave me alone and carry on their activities in a sphere in which, presumably, they are less limited. But when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tells me that I must hail all this as “A New Revelation,” I feel irritated.
To put these coal-throwing antics in the same category with the Sermon on the Mount is the crowning indecency. It appears to be imagined that all the unmeaning nastiness of the dark seance is given a religious significance provided the company sings “Lead Kindly Light” and some muddle-headed person gives an address on the lines of the New Theology. The fact about these so-called spiritualists is that they are the grossest and crassest of materialists. As though any spiritual truth were commensurate with table-turning! […]
Cornish Guardian, 11th March 1921.
Meanwhile the haunted house of Hornsey has dropped out of the headlines of the newspapers, and the spiritualists have been permitted to pursue their investigations in comparative peace. The results are to be published later, but meanwhile it is worthy of remark that the “racketty ghost” has been resting. It only indulged in its mischievous tricks when one or other, or both, of the two boys Gordon and Bertie Frost were in the house. Gordon has gone to recuperate at Broadstairs, while Bertie has gone for a visit to the British College of Psychic Science at 59, Holland Park, Kensington. In the absence of the two boys the crockery is safe, the beds lie still, and the chairs no longer pirouette round the tables. I suppose Bertie is going to college to be trained as a medium. He would seem to be promising material.
Truth, 16th March 1921.
The Hornsey Phenomena.
An Investigation and Some Results.
We have been shown a private document setting out an account of a preliminary experiment with a clairvoyant to discover the causes at the back of what is known as the “Racketty Ghost” at Hornsey. It was conducted by a Committee of Investigation on which the clerical, medical and legal minds were noticeably strong, and the intellectual capacity of these members was in some instances aided by that most important factor, knowledge of and experience in psychical science.
The document in question gives simply a description of what passed at a circle held last week and does not contain the findings of the Committee. Its private character, as relating to the domestic affairs of the persons principally concerned, forbids any publication. It is sufficient to say for the present that some of the statements made by the clairvoyants were of a convincing character, as some minute descriptions given by him were at once recognised as accurate, and afford presumptive evidence that he was actually in touch with human intelligences – at least one of them a former inhabitant of the house in which the disturbances have taken place.
The facts elicited reveal a very distressing story and in a great measure explain the disturbances as being the outcome of a spirit’s desire to communicate with loved members of its family on earth. Such opportunities are notoriously rare, and the disorderly character of the manifestations was accounted for in some statements made by the clairvoyant who discovered that the distressed spirit was being aided by others, one in particular, who by reason of exceptional psychial powers and an unusual opportunity presented by the conditions in the house, was able to affect the material side of things in the way described in the newspapers. From a statement made by the clairvoyant it appears that troublesome as the visitation has been, it was permitted by the more advanced minds in the other world, as involving a deeper purpose than the communication between a departed mother and her children. That is to say, it was to draw public attention by rather violent methods to the reality of the life after death and thus drive home what in some quarters seems to be regarded as an unwelcome fact.
This is all we are able to say for the present. When we receive further particulars suitable for publication, they shall be presented in ‘Light’.
Light, March 1921.
Child’s death in the “haunted” house.
“Ghost” that returned when her brother came back.
The strange happenings at Hornsey’s “haunted” house have caused the death of Muriel Frost, the five-year-old daughter of the occupier. Muriel took no notice of the manifestations until a chair fell over near her, and the fright caused her to bite her tongue. Since then she has been extremely nervous, and this accentuated the effects of a short illness, which has just proved fatal.
After her elder brother, Gordon, returned home and rejoined another brother last week, the weird events which preceded his departure on a holiday again occurred. They continued until Thursday morning, when the lads were sent to a neighbour’s house.
London Daily Chronicle, 2nd April 1921.
Haunted house mystery.
“Ghosts” cause child’s death.
London, Saturday.
The “ghosts” in Hornsey’s haunted house have, it is declared, brought about the death of Muriel Parker, the five-year-old niece of Mr Frost. “There is not the slightest doubt that Muriel’s death was caused by the strange happenings in the house,” said Mr Frost in an interview. “When my two boys, Gordon and Bertie, returned to the house about a fortnight ago, the manifestations started again. Chairs were thrown about, and pieces of coal hurled against the walls. These occurrences were too much for Muriel’s nerves, and she broke down. She was ill for nine days, and died yesterday. The doctor reported meningitis as the cause, but said that nerve strain had accelerated death.
“Sceptical people have laughed at the ‘ghost stories,’ and have said that we have caused all the happenings ourselves. Perhaps the death of my little niece will convince them that we are not reponsible . As a matter of fact, we are having a terrible time. We forced to keep the two boys out of the house as much as possible; our home is being ruined, and we are all becoming physical wrecks. There is only one course open to us now – to move into a new house. We do not want any sympathy. It is too late now. All we hope is that people will think a little in the future before they poke fun at things which are beyond their understanding.”
Muriel, it is stated, took no notice of the happenings for some time, but one day a chair fell over near her, and she bit her tongue. She afterwards showed signs of extreme nervousness.
Sunday Post, 3rd April 1921.
Hornsey’s house of terror and death.
Nerve-shattered tenants afraid to remain.
Exclusive to the Mercury and News.
London, Saturday.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and several men famous in the scientific and spiritualistic world are to seriously investigate the mystery of what must now be termed Hornsey’s house of death and ghostly happenings. The Frosts – the elderly father, and the son with his young family – have decided that they must leave this house where chairs slide along the floor, tables rise uneasily, and objects are hurled through the air. For the crowning trouble is that little Muriel, aged five, has died. She was apparently oblivious to the singular phenomena that filled the house until some days ago when the sudden falling of a chair startled her so that she fell and severely bit her tongue. After this she drooped and despite every care died of no organic disease but through the effect of acute nerve depression.
“The night Muriel died was fearful,” Mr Frost jun., the child’s uncle, told me. “The house was literally vibrating with movement. The walls trembled, the floors resounded with knockings, the furniture leapt and jumped about. And for the first time we seemed to hear voices – or rather whispers. It has affected our nerves to such an extent that we can stay here no longer.”
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intends to thoroughly examine the house, as soon as it is empty, before the Committee meet there. He is firmly of the opinion that it is a genuine case of a house haunted by some malignant spirit.
An architect of this neighbourhood points out the peculiar subsoil of this part of Hornsey renders it very favourable to conduct waves of vibration – such as that caused by the passage of heavy trains and motor lorrys – for a long distance. In a case where there may be a defect in the foundations of a house the effect would be to fill the building with vibrations that would undoubtedly produce very uncanny but perfectly explainable “phenomena.” He suggests an examination of the foundations of these supposed “haunted houses.”
Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 3rd April 1921.
Notes of the Month.
[…] The phenomena that have recently attracted attention to this class of happening at Hornsey are vouched for both by the vicar of St. Gabriel’s, the Rev. A.L. Gardiner, and also by the family doctor. Mr Gardiner told me that during three hours’ stay at the house, he witnessed something like fifteen different abnormal occurrences. One of those that struck him most was the fact that in the upstairs rooms pieces of coal fell from the ceiling, though there was no coal in the rooms to fall. The phenomena were associated here again with the presence of two boys, Gordon and Bertie, who are regarded as the mediums without whom the phenomena cannot take place. Certainly when they are both absent all is quiet. The phenomena occur in broad daylight, and Mr Gardiner tells me that he has had both boys in full view while they happened.
“From the observance of many others besides myself,” he writes me, “there can be no question about the phenomena and no possibility of fraud or trickery.” The Doctor also writes, “I know the family well, and as their medical adviser can certify them all physically fit and medically sound. I only wish that I could have seen more than I have, but as a medical man my time would not allow of this, although what little I have witnessed fully justifies my conviction that no human agency is at work here.”
It is noteworthy that on one occasion Mr Gardiner took one of the boys upstairs with him. When close to the top of the stairs he noticed that the boy was trembling and terrified. On asking him what was the matter, he said that he saw his mother (who had been dead about a year). Mr Gardiner could see nothing, but the boy persisted and was so frightened that the two had to return downstairs. The nerves of both boys have suffered as a result of these strange incidents. Among the occurrences which have taken place in this haunted home Mr Gardiner mentions large quantities of coal falling in unaccountable ways in all parts of the house; tables and chairs going up in the air, and moving about the room in his presence; cups, glasses, and other crockery moving off the kitchen dresser and the dining-room sideboard and table, and breaking in pieces when no one has been near them. An egg on one occasion, he told me, was thrown across the room without any apparent human agency to move it. In all such cases the phenomena witnessed show evidence of being produced by an agency possessing intelligence, but whether this intelligence is that of some astral entity or being on the other place, or whether it is the subconscious intelligence exercised unknowingly by the boy or girl medium, is a difficult matter in the state of our present knowledge to determine.
Occult Review, April 1921.
Hornsey Spirit Mystery.
Yet another phase of the coal problem.
Victims seek new home.
The Rev. A.L. Gardiner, Vicar of St. Gabriel’s, Wood Green, is appealing for alternative accommodation for the Frost family, victims of the Hornsey Poltergeist. This is as a result of a violent outbreak of manifestations last week-end, culminating on Monday last by the breaking of a large blue china pot which according to Mr Lionel Frost “rose in the air and then fell to the ground and smashed.”
A “Daily News” reporter who called at the house in Ferrestone-road yesterday saw the fragements of the pot still in the hall. The Poltergeist, the spirit supposed to be responsible for the whole affair, is resting at the moment, the two boys having been removed from the house by the orders of Dr. Lemerle.
“The doctor couldn’t explain it,” said Mr. L. Frost, “but he said that the boys must not return. He is afraid of the effect it may have upon them, and already they were in a very excited and nervous condition. They have gone to stay with some friends.”
The Rev. A.L. Gardiner, with whom our representative discussed the affair, said: “I appeal to anyone who can offer either rooms or a house for this distressed family to come forward now. There can be no doubt of the manifestations. I have seen them myself, and I have followed the case from its beginning in February. As to the cause, the Poltergeist theory is the only one which fits the facts.”
The vicar suggested that the Poltergeist might probably have been connected with the coal in the house. “The manifestation began with explosions in the coal,” he went on, “and with coal appearing mysteriously in rooms where there was none before. The spirit may have been imprisoned in the coal and released in some way through the mediumship of the two boys.”
The first thing to do in the vicar’s opinion is to find a new home for the family. The second is to have the evidence investigated thoroughly by competent researchers in order that the facts may be definitely ascertained, and an explanation found if possible.
Daily News (London), 11th April 1921.
The poltergeist has returned to the scene of his previous manifestations in Hornsey. So have the two boys. Effect and cause were never more clearly allied. Even the spiritualists admit this, but whereas the sceptic believes that the mischievous spirit is in the boys, the spiritualists believe that it is in an entirely separate entity.
The Vicar of St. Gabriel’s, Wood Green, for instance, is full of scorn for the ignorance of the people who think that the boys are up to some tricks. He thinks the poltergeist must be a kind of “monkey spirit,” who had possibly been imprisoned for a great number of years in the coal and released when the coal was put on the fire. After being imprisoned in the coal measures for a few hundred thousand years, no wonder he is lively when set at liberty, and it would also seem likely that if he burned his toes or singed his whiskers in the process he may have been cross enough to throw the furniture about. We are not very far away from the Dark Ages after all.
Truth, 13th April 1921.
Agitated Milk Can at Hornsey.
Revival of the Poltergeist Manifestations.
The mystery house in Ferrestone-road, Hornsey, comes again into prominence with the announcement that Gordon Parker, the boy who was supposed to be the cause of the Poltergeist manifestations, has been admitted to hospital in a convulsive seizure.
He had been to some friends at Brockley, and while there had to be forcibly restrained. He was taken to Lewisham Hospital, and still remains there, though the doctor can find no evidence of any known disease. He has, however, lost his memory. This becomes more serious when it is remembered that a month ago Muriel Frost, the five-year-old daughter of MR and Mrs Frost, the tenants of this strange house, died; it was stated at the time that her death was accelerated by the nervous strain of the occurrences at home.
A “Daily News” representative was informed last night that after Gordon’s departure from Ferrestone-road there was peace in the house until last Monday. On that day when Mrs Frost, the boy’s grandmother, went to the front door to take in the milk, the strange manifestations began its operations again, and the milk can is said to have followed her down the passage into the kitchen.
Brushes and furniture began to fly about, and the whole series of unpleasant phenomena was repeated.
At one time the theory was advanced that the Poltergeist was in the coal. It is now stated that the whole of the coal in the house was removed to the lawn, from which place it disappeared, materialising again in various rooms in the house.
The boy Bertie was playing in another part of the house when the fresh outbreak occurred.
The Rev. A.L. Gardiner, Vicar of St Gabriel’s, Wood Green, has appealed in vain for other accommodation for the family; he has also asked that an inquiry should be opened into the whole affair.
Daily News (London), 30th April 1921.
Haunted House Mystery.
Boy who felt pen writing inside him.
There has been a second startling sequel to the Hornsey “haunted” house mystery. The boy Gordon Parker, who lived with his grandmother and uncle in the house, has been removed to Lewisham Hospital.
Early this month Muriel Frost, aged five, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Frost, who occupied this strange house, died, and it was said that death was accelerated by the nervous strain of the occurrences at home.
The boy Gordon had been to some friends at Brockley. While there he had a sudden convulsive seizure, and had to be forcibly restrained. His friends called in a doctor, who suggested the boy’s immediate removal to a hospital. There he was visited by Rev. A L Gardiner, vicar of St Gabriel’s, Wood Green, who has all along greatly interested himself in the happenings at this house. The boy did not know him. He had completely lost his memory.
Gordon recently explained to the vicar that he felt a pen inside him writing. He spelt out the words “Amen. Bad luck to you,” and then the pen seemed to scratch out everything it had written. Gordon said, too, that he felt a light coming out of him, and the manifestations at once began.
The boy was a little better yesterday, and the doctor at the Lewisham Hospital says that he cannot find anything wrong with him.
Dundee Courier, 30th April 1921.
Regarding our own reported case at Hornsey the newspapers have apparently ceased to interest themselves in the matter in the absence of any evidence to show that the phenomena were caused by trickery.
Light, May 1921.
The house at Hornsey where so many disturbances occurred a few months ago is reported by the “Muswell Hill Record” to be still the scene of manifestations. These, however, are not so violent as before.
Light, September 1921.
Forgotten News. By Robert Lynd.
A correspondent, who has returned to England after a long residence abroad, has been making enquiries about a number of things that were prominent in the news before he left home. “What happened,” he asks, “about Joanna Southcott’s box? What was the solution of the Hornsey poltergeist mystery? Is the Fat Boy of Peckham still alive?” He has put these questions to one friend after another, and nobody seems to know the answers. There are probably hundreds of thousands of people living in England today who have never even heard of the Fat Boy of Peckham or the Hornsey poltergeist or of the great Joanna Southcott herself.
The truth is, the public soon gets tired of a sensation as it gets tired of a music-hall song. Sensation grows cold with time, like love in the ballad: O waly, waly, but love be bonnie A little time while it is new; But when it is auld it waxeth cauld and fadeth away like the morning dew.
It is impossible to go on being interested day after day even in the physical proportions of a Fat Boy. He suddenly recedes from the limelight, and his place is taken by some other nine days’ wonder, such as the Quintuplets. Alas, I have already lost interest in the Quintuplets!
It may seem ungrateful to lose interest in this fashion in one who, like the Fat Boy, once filled our thoughts. How many thousands of breakfast tables he brightened in the days of his glory! Yet not one in a hundred of those who once gaped in wonder at his photograph could tell you that he grew up and married, that he worked in the films, and that, at the age of 32, his waist measurement had increased to four feet and a half.
The fact is, we have only a limited capacity for wonder. If you lived beside Niagara Falls you would gradually come to take them for granted and be able to look at them without any thrill of astonishment – perhaps, without the slightest interest.
Consider the fate of the Loch Ness Monster. What a figure he cut in the world’s news a little over a year ago, and yet we have already ceased to care even whether he was real or not. Even those who live on the shores of Loch Ness, I imagine, have by this time ceased to look out nervously over the water for the sinuous splashings of this former prince of sea-serpents.
Even where a sensational mystery remains unsolved, we become apathetic about it in time and are content not to know the solution. Many of the haunted-house mysteries are never solved, but who cares after the first week or two? Who, except the correspondent to whom I have referred, is interested today in “the Hornsey poltergeist”? It has had its day, and since then we have had plenty of other unsolved mysteries to puzzle us.
[section about Joanna Southcott’s box]
It is no wonder that the returned Englishman discovered that his fellow countrymen had lost all interest in Joanna Southcott’s box and the Hornsey poltergeist. The ficklemindedness of the human race is beyond measuring. Its greed for novelty is as boundless. Even sea serpents and quintuplets pall. This, I think, may be a rather good thing.
Daily News (London), 8th February 1936.
Haunted House Propulsions.
A mystery that baffles the scientific.
Neighbour’s testimony.
There were fresh “manifestations” yesterday in the house in Ferreston-road, Hornsey, which has been reputed to be in the possession of some tricksy sprite which levitates furniture, throws coal about, and generally plagues the inmates. Mrs Frost, the wife of the tenant, states that during yesterday morning a chair was lifted from the floor in one of the bedrooms and propelled by an invisible agency on to a bed where one of the children was sleeping. There were disturbances in the kitchen during the afternoon.
Psychical and scientific searchers were in the house last evening to try to determine the cause of these queer phenomena.
Mr Dennis Coker, who lives opposite to the house, is a neighbour whose assistance was sought by Mr Frost three weeks ago when the coal started to fly about. Since the manifestations broke out afresh about a week ago he has visited the house a good deal. In answer to inquiries by a “Daily News” representative last night Mr Coker gave the following diary of his personal experiences.
“On Monday,” he said, “I had only just entered the hall when I was met by a great shower of coal coming down the stairs. I rushed upstairs, but though I examined every room and cupboard I could find no one there. Five or ten minutes later we were coming downstairs again when we were met by another shower of coal.
“On Tuesday as soon as I entered the hall again, a crumb brush came flying out of the dining-room. I ran into the room, and a biscuit bowl tumbled off the side-board. When I left the house and was entering my own gate I heard a tremendous crash. Going back I found that three glass dishes had fallen off the side-board, and had been shivered to atoms.
“On Wednesday I had been sitting in the dining-room with several other inquirers. We were rising to go, when we heard the thud of something falling near the window. It was a heavy ash-tray, which the people of the house said usually stood on a smoker’s tray at the fireside.
Mr Coker is of opinion that the explanation of the disturbances lies in a mysterious power unconsciously exerted by one of the inmates. It cannot be that the boy, Gordon Parker, acts as a “medium” because he has gone away to the seaside.
The Rev. A.L. Gardiner, the vicar of St Gabriel’s, took the lad away to Broadstairs. After visiting several institutions he finally gained admittance for his charge at a children’s home near the sea front. Mr Gardiner left for London yesterday. Gordon was not troubled by any “manifestations” during the first night of his stay at Broadstairs.
Mr Nevil Maskelyne stated yesterday that in his opinion there was nothing “spiritualistic” in the happenings at the Hornsey house.
The occurrences have created an embarrassing amount of public interest. Last night there were so many persons collected outside the house that the police had to move them on. The crowd then stood in two cordons, one across each end of the road.
Daily News (London), 19th February 1921.
Labor its own boss.
English home of mystery.
Flying boots and chairs.
Guyra is not the only place in the world where mysterious happenings dominate a house and terrify its dwellers. By the last English mail there came accounts of flying boots, falling coal, and tumbling chairs for which no adequate cause could be found (says the London “Daily Express.”) The poltergeist, evil spirit, or whatever it is that frequents the quiet villa of the Frost family in Hornsey refuses to rest.
It was as active yesterday as ever, though Gordon Parker, the 11-year-old schoolboy, whose alleged powers as a medium were thought responsible has been taken to the seaside by the Rev. A.L. Gardiner, vicar of St Gabriel’s Church, Bounds Park, in the hope that a change may restore his nerves after the hair-raising experience he has been through.
The Frost household was in a state of high nervous tension. Mrs Frost, the grandmother, expressed herself as more frightened than ever. “I went to bed last night with my grandson, Bertie,” said Mrs Frost to a “Daily Express” representative. “I thought that I should at last get a good night’s sleep, because Gordon had been taken away by Mr Gardiner to spend the night with him, and I supposed that all would be quiet. I lay awake, however, and when dawn was breaking there was a loud noise in the chimney. Bertie was awake in a moment, and asked if he should whistle for his uncle, but I told him it was probably a loose brick, and that my son needed his rest badly. A pair of boots leaped from the bedside at that moment and landed in the hearth. I could stand it no longer. I sent for help.”
Mr L.N. Frost corroborated this statement and said:- “I also had lain awake all night and heard the noise which disturbed my mother and nephew. I hastened to the room and met Bertie coming down the passage to find me.”
A curious feature of the disturbance is that, according to Mrs Frost, the objects which fly about so indiscriminately are never seen in transit, but when they strike the floor, often with sufficient force to break them, they suddenly appear to view.
The movement is not always heard. A heavy armchair turned noiselessly over on its side. Mr Frost illustrated how the chair had fallen, and showed that it had moved with as much circumspection as though guided by a human hand. Several members of the family have been hit by the ghostly projectiles, but have not been hurt by them. A china candlestick struck Mrs Frost in the back and then fell to the floor and was broken; an orange flew from the table and hit the little granddaughter on the head, but the child seemed rather pleased than otherwise, and said that it was evidently intended for her.
Another remarkable statement is that the coal with which the Frosts are bombarded often appears in rooms where no supply is kept. It apparently falls from the sky, as no source can be located.
The possibility of a practical joke seems remote, as the manifestations appear chiefly in the daylight, and in all parts of the house. The Frosts, several neighbours, and the Rev. M. Gardiner have all witnessed some of the strange occurrences and testify to them. Dr Lemerie, the family doctor, said he had never seen any of the marvels himself, but he knew others besides the Frosts who had, and there seems no doubt of them.
“I can testify to the normal character of the boy, but know nothing about spiritual phenomena,” said Dr Lemurie to a “Daily Express” representative. “I am greatly interested in the case, and would like to establish touch with some competent spiritualist, and probe the matter to the bottom.” The doctor may possibly be gratified on this point, as several eminent men in this line have communicated with the afflicted family and offered to carry out investigations. The results had not been published when the mail left England.
The Urana Independent and Clear Hills Standard (New South Wales), 6th May 1921.