‘Poltergeist’ creates chaos in a cafe.
For several days there have been flying saucers and tea-cup tantrums in a cafe in St Margaret’s, Ipswich, and last night, the proprietor, Mr Leslie Dunget, decided to do something about it. He called in the Rev. A.C. Henning, an expert on the famous haunted Borley Rectory. “Will you rid me of my poltergeist?” he asked, and Mr Henning said, “I will do my best,” adding, “The remarkable thing is that the phenomena are vouched for by so many persons. That is most unusual” – the phenomena are vouched by eleven members of the staff.
The poltergeist went into action on Monday, when six cups and a plate were thrown through the air and smashed. On Tuesday a cup blew up and another flew off a shelf when no one was near. On Wednesday a teapot was smashed and yesterday a cup glided across the room and smashed on the floor as a waitress was serving a customer.
“This time last week I would have laughed at the idea of poltergeists – tonight I am a very worried man,” said Mr Dunget. Mrs Grace Ransey, the cook, said:- “I have always been cynical about spooks, but there is no doubt about this one. We have the evidence of our own eyes and ears. Two of the cups blew up with a noise like a gun-shot.”
Aberdeen Press and Journal, Friday 17th November 1950.
The Reverend certainly should have been an expert on Borley Rectory – he was the indeed the Reverend of Borley! You can read his book on the Internet Archive.
Poltergeist in Ipswich cafe?
Felixstowe girl is waitress there.
As a consequence of a series of inexplicable events at an Ipswich cafe, the Rev. A.C. Henning, rector of Borley and the author of a recently published work on poltergeists, has been called in by the proprietor, Mr. L.N. Dunget, to investigate any further happenings. Scene of the mysterious happenings is the Tudor Cafe, St. Maragaret’s Street, where, since Monday, a mystified staff have been carrying on their work while items of crockery periodically leap from their shelves and hurl themselves “with terrific violence” to shatter on the floor.
The first of these manifestations was on Monday afternoon. Employees working in the cafe heard a loud explosion. Thinking that it was an accident with the gas fittings, they checked geysers and points. Nothing seemed amiss so they carried on. Ten minutes later there was another crash and a plate was found to have shattered itself on the floor. No one was near the shelf from which it came.
Thinking that it was a ruse on the part of a would-be intruder to scare the staff away, they called the police. A constable arrived, and as he was looking over the scene, a cup rolled mysteriously at his feet. He then summoned an inspector, but neither was able to find any cause for the happenings. The next day, when a different section of the staff was on duty, a teapot was found smashed on the floor.
And the strange breakages are still continuing. The latest occurred yesterday afternoon, when an ‘East Anglian Daily Times’ reporter and photographer were in the building. Miss Pamela Bradshaw, waitress, of 115, Mason Road, Felixstowe, was serving a customer at the counter, when from a shelf about eight feet behind her a cup jumped to the floor, the pieces being scattered all over the room. Again, no one else was near.
Altogether, since the events started the cafe has lost 12 cups, two plates, and one teapot. Mr Dunget said: “At first I thought it was some sort of trick. Now I am convinced that there is something supernatural.” Although the building is of great age, there has been no previous history of similar phenomena.
Felixstowe Times, 18th November 1950.