A Lancashire Ghost.
An extraordinary story comes from Kearsley, near Farnworth, Lancs, the scene being laid in a house in Primrose-street, inhabited by a collier named William Jarvis, his wife, and family. One of the children drew the parents’ attention to smoke issuing from a drawer in a small dresser at the top of the house. The drawer was pulled out, but no fire could be discovered, the origin of the smoke being a perfect mystery, but there was a distinct smell of burning wood.
On the following night whilst Mrs Jarvis and a neighbour, Mrs Bottomley, sat in the house, the dresser moved forward about a yard of its own volition and tipped a number of glass ornaments standing upon it on to the floor, smashing them. Mrs Jarvis and Mrs Bottomley vouch for the accuracy of this amazing statement, which smacks of the fairy-tale.
Our correspondent wires that he examined that he examined the dresser, a common-place piece of furniture, the like of which is seen in hundreds of Lancashire cottages, but he could see nothing uncanny or weird about it.
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 8th April 1906.