(This is next door to a case from 1972).
The ‘ghost’ house children must stay.
Seven children who scream with fright at the thought of sleeping in their own house were refused admission to a children’s home yesterday. The children, whose home is the haunted house in Oak Tree Square, Kirkcaldy, were taken by their parents to the town council children’s department. An hour later, their request for [?] refuge turned down, they returned to No. 17 Oak Tree Squre. Tiredly clutching each other’s hands the children waited outside while their father went into the house and made sure the GHOST was not there. Their father, 37-year-old sea coal merchant, Mr James Forsyth, said: “The kids simply refuse to sleep here. It takes us all our time to get them to stay in daylight. Last night they stayed with friends throughout Kirkcaldy, but that can’t go on for ever. I am to sign a house transfer form tomorrow, and thought the town council would look after the children just for tonight.”
Acting children’s officer, Miss I Cuthbert said: “I was told to turn down the request. The housing factor stayed all last night in the house and he said there was no proof of any ghost.” Kirkcaldy town clerk, Mr Charles D Chapman, said later: “Miss Cuthbert brought the Forsyth case to my notice, but I gave her no instructions. It is a matter for the children’s department.”
At 17 Oak Tree Square, Mrs Forsyth, 35-year-old mother of nine children, the oldest 15 and the youngest 9 months, sat huddled in her coat she never takes off (“I don’t know when I’ll have to run from here”) and sobbed: “I wish I’d never seen this house. I can’t stand it any longer.” As she spoke her doctor paid a special visit and prescribed sedatives for her.
But just over a mile away in the downstairs flat at 54 Laurel Crescent, Kirkcaldy, the Jankowski family chatted gaily about their planned move to the haunted house. “The move will be a good one for us,” said 52-year-old Marcel Jankowski the Polish builder who has volunteered to switch with the Forsyths. “We shall be moving into a cottage-type house out of a flat. But before I sign any papers tomorrow I want a ‘ghost’ clause in my missive. I don’t believe in ghosts and things like that. But I want a clause in black and white that if there are any strange occurrences in the Oak Tree Square house I will get a transfer.” The Jankowskis have three of a family – Muriel, 24, Harry 15, and Margaret, 10.
Last night Kirkcaldy house management committee convened. Mr Cyril Niven said: “Under the circumstances I think such a request is reasonable.” Last night, Mr Jankowski returned to spend his second night in the Oak Tree Square house. And Constable Dave Williams of Kirkcaldy said: “I will volunteer to stay in the house all night by myself. If there is anything in the house that opens doors, pulls drawers along the floor and makes the sound of footsteps, I guarantee to catch it.
Mrs Mary Kidd, the spiritualist who formerly lived at No. 17, said last night: “I was in the house for only six months, but there was never anything untoward while I was there. I never held seances in No 17, although I have held several here in Leslie where I stay now. By the sounds of this presence in the Forsyth’s house, it is a visitor from the other world. I suggest that if they sit down quietly and pray it will go away or make its intentions clear. It appears to be some spirit wanting to get in touch with someone in the Forsyth family.”
Daily Record, 10th September 1958.
The Ghost of Oaktree Square. A new mystery.
The ghost which haunts the five-apartment Corporation house at 17 Oaktree Square, Kirkcaldy, has not yet been laid. At least, the tenant, 37-year-old James Forsyth, does not think so. On Thursday, Mr Forsyth said he thought the house was “clear”. Yesterday, however, he was not so sure, and while he was talking to a “Fife Free Press” reporter in the living room, he received a rude shock which shattered all his hopes.
His 12-year-old daughter, Janet, who had gone upstairs to the bathroom, came rushing down to tell her father that furniture in the main bedroom had been moved. Mr Forsyth, accompanied by his daughter and the reporter, went up to the front room and found that a wardrobe, which normally stands diagonally in a corner and is at present empty, had been moved about two feet from the wall, a wicker chair had been moved from the opposite corner to a position in front of the window, and the window itself was open. Janet said she had noticed the family’s pet dog, Silver, a Cheviot collie, going into the room. When she followed, she found the furniture had been moved and the window was open.
Mr Forsyth said: “Everything was in order when I was up here early this morning. The wardrobe and the chair were in their usual places, and the window was shut. The door was also shut when I went downstairs. No one has been upstairs until Janet came up a few minutes ago. Last night, three other men and I sat up and we heard absolutely nothing. I brought Silver upstairs at 2.30 a.m. and everything was all right then. Silver won’t come up here if the spirit is around.”
Mr Forsyth added that this was the first time the furniture had been moved in this way. Up to then, the manifestations had been of a purely aural character – footsteps, tapping of a stick, opening and closing of drawers, and scuffling as if a fight were in progress.
Earlier, Mr Forsyth agreed that when spiritualists visited the house on Wednesday night they detected nothing untoward. “I could have told them the spirit wasn’t there then,” he said. “It has sometimes gone away for four or five days, and then come back again.” The last time that ghostly noises were heard in the house was Sunday night. Apart from Tuesday night, when the house was empty and locked up, several people had kept vigil with Mr Forsyth each night.
Mrs Forsyth, with three of her children, has been sleeping at the home of her sister, Mrs Jessie Ewing, 222 Lismore Avenue, this week. She refuses to spend another night in her own home, and Mr Forsyth’s efforts to get another Corporation house are continuing. Four children remain at Oaktree Square with their father, and two others are residing with a friend in Overton Road.
Earlier in the week, Mr John Lees, Burgh Factor, approved an exchange of houses by Mr Forsyth and Mr Marcel Jankowski, who occupies a five-apartment flat at 54 Laurel Crescent. After viewing the flat, however, Mr Forsyth turned down the exchange. He said: “There is a long dark lobby in the house and my wife would be frightened every time I went out to work, especially in the winter.” Mr Forsyth has been unable to follow his occupation as a seacoal merchant for about a month because of the upheaval in his domestic affairs.
He feels that it would help him if he could have a talk with Mrs William Neil, a well-known Edinburgh spiritualist, who visited the house on Monday night and is said to have detected the presence of a spirit. “After she had been here,” he said, “I felt differently somehow, I was able to get some sleep and to take food. If I could only see her again, I think she might help me with some of my problems.”
Fife Free Press, 13th September 1958.
Kirkcaldy ghost? “Stuff and nonsense” – M.P.
But the Forsyth family think otherwise.
Complete disbelief in the “ghost” said to haunt the five-apartment municipal house at 17 Oaktree Square, Kirkcaldy, was expressed by Mr Tom Hubbard, M.P. for Kirkcaldy Burghs, yesterday. Mr Hubbard, who had spent the previous night in the house, which is occupied by Mr James Forsyth, 37-year-old sea coal merchant, his wife, and nine children of 15 years and under, alleged: “It is absolute stuff and nonsense and there doesn’t seem to be a shred of truth about it at all. Nothing at all happened during my stay.”
Mr Hubbard, who said he had been in the house from 11 p.m. on thursday night to 4.30 a.m. yesterday morning, spent time alone in an upstairs room reputed to be haunted. But his vigil passed without incident. He also stated: “I am mainly worried about the children because of all the talk they have heard about ghosts. They are nice little kiddies and they cannot possibly grow up in these conditions with this creation of fear before they go to bed.”
Told of Mr Hubbard’s reaction, Mr and Mrs Forsyth declared yesterday afternoon: “We definitely deny that it is ‘stuff and nonsense.’ We will give anybody the chance to come in here and spend the night, and we defy anybody to say that it is ‘stuff and nonsense.’ Mr Forsyth added: “Mr Hubbard heard nothing, but there was running up and down all night, so how could we expect to hear anything unusual?” After mentioning that there were three independent witnesses who claimed they had heard mysterious noises in the house, Mr Forsyth remarked: “Despite what is said, I know what I have heard and you must experience it to believe it.” He went on to say: “For what reason would anybody put together such a story from one point to another? Can anybody tell me that?”
In further statements, Mr Forsyth expressed his concern about the children and their health and said he was out to do all he could for them. The Forsyth family moved back into the house on Tuesday after having spent ten days with friends and neighbours. Following their return, Mr Forsyth claimed that they had heard taps from an upstairs room “but we couldn’t define what they were.”
Fife Free Press, 20th September 1958.
“Haunted House” Tenant Receives Notice to Quit.
Alleged to be £16 in arrears of rent.
Mr James Forsyth, tenant of Kirkcaldy’s “haunted house” at 17 Oak Tree Square, has been served with an eviction notice by the Town Council. He is alleged to be in arrears of rent to the extent of £16. Earlier in the month, Mr Forsyth declared he would not pay another penny in rent until he was given another house. He claimed that his present home was subject to manifestations, strange noises and other queer occurrences, and so he asked the Burgh Housing Factor, Mr John Lees, for an exchange of house. Although Mr Lees did not hear anything unusual when he spent a night in the house, he agreed that if Mr Forsyth found another tenant willing to exchange houses the transfer would be approved.
Later the Forsyth family were offered a house in Sycamore Avenue but turned it down. Last Thursday, Mr Tom Hubbard, M.P. for Kirkcaldy Burghs, stayed overnight in the house and declared the “ghost story” was nonsense.
The Forsyth parents have since been warned by the education authorities that their six children of school age must attend school
The eviction notice to quit was served on Thursday.
At her home on Thursday, Mrs Forsyth said that she and her husband had gone to the Housing Factor and told him they would pay the arrears as soon as possible if they were given another house. “We were informed instead that the Council had decided to go ahead and bring an eviction action into Court. It is due to be heard on October 1.” Mrs Forsyth went on to say that her husband, a sea coal merchant, had not been working because the house was haunted. If they got another house he would be able to return to his work and they would have the arrears of rent paid off very quickly.
Fife Free Press, 27th September 1958.
New Tenant for “Haunted” House.
Forsyth family move out.
Mr and Mrs James Forsyth, who claim that their 5-apartment Corporation house at 17 Oaktree Square Kirkcaldy, is haunted, are moving to their new home this weekend, with their nine children. They have arranged an exchange with Mr and Mrs Alex Dewar, who occupy a 5-appartment ground-floor flat at 11 Wright Place. The Dewars, who have three girls and a boy – their ages range from 2 1/2 to 17 years – are not perturbed in any way by all that they have heard about their new home. It was they, in fact, who approached the Forsyths in regard to an exchange, on seeing an advertisement inserted by Mr Forsyth in a local newspaper. The exchange of houses will be effected immediately after the missives have been signed in the burgh factor’s office today.
An action to evict the Forsyths was dropped by Kirkcaldy Town Council this week, on payment of over £13 in respect of rent arrears. Mr Forsyth said that the money had been loaned by friends to ensable the exchange of houses to go through.
Another problem now confronts Mr Forsyth. Being unable to work for some time owing to loss of sleep, he has fallen into arrears with payments for the van he uses in connection with his seacoal business. He has been told to return the van by this weekend.
Fife Free Press, 4th October 1958.