Exorcist told to evict ghosts with high spirits.
Families in a Midland council tower block have taken desperate steps to evict unwanted tenants by calling in a Ghostbuster. Almost everyone living in Victoria House, at Leamore, Walsall, claim their homes are being squatted in by three ancient spirits. And they say the unwelcome visitors are causing havoc every night. According to the terrified tenants, the ghouls have: Knocked photographs off walls; Stolen food from their fridges; Punched a sleeping resident in the stomach; Stolen a pet hamster without opening its cage.
One resident, Ms Kathleen Dallaway, aged 26, claims to have had the most embarrassing experience with a ghost. She said on Wednesday: “I was sitting on the toilet one evening when the chain flushed and the door opened and shut. I hadn’t moved. But I sprinted out after that happened.” Ms Dallaway, a mother of three, also claims she was temporarily paralysed by an eerie spirit when it slipped into her bedroom as she slept. Now Ms Dallaway and her neighbour, Ms Rebecca Barton, aged 19, have called in Walsall’s self-styled psychic social worker, Ms Denise Bakewell, to exorcise the silly spirits.
Ms Bakewell, aged 52, said: “There are certainly spirits in the block of flats and I don’t think they liked me going there. One of them attacked me when I went into the building and another tried to push me over.” Ms Bakewell, who has exorcised ancient spirits from several pubs in Walsall, said the ghosts are spirits of people who used to farm the land in the 1840s.
Birmingham Daily Post, 20th April 1995.
Mystery Knocks
Story of Police Visit to Walsall House.
What is the mystery lying behind the weird midnight noises that have been alarming people in the Leamore district of Walsall? When an Evening Despatch reporter made inquiries today he was informed that the police had visited the house in Cope-street where the peculiar knockings have been heard. He was also informed that the knockings – suspected by some people in the district to be spiritualistic manifestations – ceased last night, following a message which, it is stated, has been received by a spiritualist medium. This message, so far as can be learned, is to the effect that someone who has been receiving treatment for an illness must be sent away for a holiday.
The knockings, which began about a fortnight ago, continued every night, increasing in intensity in an upstairs room. Removal of the floor boards failed to solve the mystery.
Evening Despatch, 20th May 1933.
Mystery at Leamore.
Neighbourhood disturbed by eerie midnight noises.
Suggested “spirit knockings.”
(“Times” special.)
Mysterious midnight happenings at a house in Cope Street, Leamore, have thoroughly mystified not only the occupants but the whole neighbourhood during last week. At number 57, where Mr H Fellowes and his family live, a strange and unaccountable knocking has been heard every night, commencing shortly after eleven and lasting until about four in the morning. The noises commenced on Friday of last week, and since then have every night increased in intensity and have been heard plainly in the neighbouring houses. They are believed to come from the middle room upstairs, above the sitting room, where Mr Fellowes’s young son sleeps.
When the knockings continued on Saturday and Sunday nights the family began to get uneasy, particularly as they got louder and louder. A man from next door was called in; and, as the week progressed and the mystery remained unsolved, a number of occupants from houses in the vicinity joined in the investigations. So far they have not succeeded.
Every night, with eerie regularity, the strange knocking is still heard, growing more and more clamorous and shaking the bed and furniture in the room. The floorboards have been taken up, but without revealing any possible explanation of the mystery.
On Wednesday night, it is understood, three policemen were present, one of whom patrolled the street outside the house to discover if somebody knocking on the wall might afford a solution. But it was not that.
The floorboards have been laid back in their place, but not nailed down. Bricks have been placed upon them, which, it is stated, have been seen to shake and “wobble about” whenever the knocking recommences.
The bed in the room has also moved, and one stout-hearted neighbour who volunteered to lie in it during the night felt it shake violently beneath him.
The suggestion has been put forward that Mr Fellowes’s son has mediumistic qualities, that the strange noise follows him about wherever he stays during the night, and that when he goes to sleep he falls into a kind of coma which induces spiritualistic manifestations. Other witnesses claim, however, that it is impossible to discover the precise spot from which the knockings come.
It is understood that a lady spiritualist was present in the room on Thursday night, and that she made efforts to exorcise whatever influence is at work there, but without effect. Mr Samuel Wiggin, who is a prominent Bloxwich spiritualist, visited the house on Friday. He says he has heeard of cases where young people have possessed such powers as it has been suggested might be possessed by Mr Fellowes’s son, but he has never actually come into contact with such a case before.
There have been previous cases, in various parts of the country, where houses have been disturbed by ghostly noises of this kind, and in which no satisfactory explanation has been forthcoming. Usually they have bewildered the neighbourhood for a period and then stopped as suddenly as they commenced.
Rugely Times, 27th May 1933.
A Leamore Mystery.
Excitement caused among residents in the district.
All Leamore has been agog with excitement and speculation during the last three weeks over mysterious happenings that are said to have centred around the 14 years old son of Mr and Mrs Fellows, of 57, Cope Street, of whom it is said that a spirit has been trying to get into communication with him in order to give directions for the treatment of back weakness from which the boy (Victor Fellows) has suffered as the result of accidents.
Strange knockings in Victor’s bedroom, a shaking of his bed without any apparent cause, and the reception of spirit messages are among the remarkable phenomena that are stated to have been experienced, and which local Spiritualists, including Mr. S. Wiggin, of Bloxwich, have investigated with extreme interest.
On Thursday an “Observer” reporter called at 57, Cope Street, and learned from Mr Fellows that his son Victor had gone the previous day to spend a short holiday with an older brother at Willenhall and that news had been received that he had passed a normal and peaceful night there.
Seeking first-hand information as to what had occurred in the home before Victor went away, the “Observer” representative was met with the reply: “If the story is worth anything to you, it is worth something to me.”
Mr Fellows was prepared to confirm the principal features of the story that has gone around the district – of the rappings, movements of the bed, and spirit messages – but went on to complain that there had been a lot of exaggerated talk in the neighbourhood. “It’s getting on my nerves, and the wife’s,” he said.
“Then let the ‘Observer’ state the facts as you know them,” suggested our representative, but Mr Fellows sought refuge in the suggestion that the story was “worth something.” All he would say was that neither he nor his wife believed there was any question of “spoof.” “We are satisfied,” he declared, “that it has come from God above.”
It seems that the first intimation that anything was amiss came nearly three weeks ago when a sound like the fluttering of huge wings was heard in the house. This went on with monotonous regularity, always at night time when the son, aged 14, was in bed. Eventually it developed into knocking which became so loud that neighbours were disturbed by it as well as the occupants of the house.
It was perfectly natural that the mother and her daughters should become apprehensive and very distressed. The noises, coming regularly each night, and getting louder and louder with an accompanying shaking of the boy’s bed, were getting on their nerves. Finally they decided to send for the police, who, excellent though they are in dealing with human intruders, have to admit themselves handicapped when it comes to dealing with the supernatural. The police arrived but they could get no nearer to a solution. A watch was kept inside and outside the house but nothing unusual occurred that anyone could see although the noises came just the same. In their efforts to find the source of the mystery the Fellows have gone to the length of having the floor boards up but without result.
It is stated that on one occasion the boy Victor forsook his regular bed for a box ottoman but even this began to shake but was found to be empty when an expectant circle of people lifted the lid. One of the neighbours who was early on the scene when the mystery began to deepen, is said to have put questions to the source of the knocking. One of his first was to ascertain whether a method of signalling would be acceptable – one knock for “yes” and two for “no.” The answer, it is said, was one knock. The story has it, too, that a subsequent message (in the same evening) mentioned that the boy Victor should go to a Sanatorium.
One of the suggestions was that a spirit followed the boy about but when acting on a suggestion, he went to a house on the other side of the road, the noises ceased – for that night.
Yesterday week, Mr Wiggin and a few friends – all keen Spiritualists – held a seance at the house. The party comprised Mr and Mrs Wiggin, Mr and Mrs Baddley and Mrs Westwood, and they went into the boy’s bedroom, a record being kept of the proceedings. It is stated that there were only faint knocks and when one of the party – the clairvoyant – asked the boy who had come into the room, he replied “My Grandma.” To two other similar questions he replied respectively “Auntie Polly” and “The black man, but he is not going to take me.” Asked to describe the man and the reason for his appearance the boy repeated the message which ran something after this fashion:
“I have brought you these leaves to make you better. I shall not come again now that you know what I came for. I want you to go away for a holiday and when you come back you will be better. The leaves contain olive oil which they want you to drink and have your back rubbed with it.” From the Spiritualist’s scientific point of view it was noted that the boy was afterwards quite composed.
On Monday night there was a sequel. A large crowd had gathered outside the house shortly after midnight and there were a number of people in the entry under the boy’s room. A man came out and said he had heard the boy say there was someone listening at the bottom of the entry: they had to be brought in and their names taken. Some fifteen people went to the room where the boy was lying on the bed. When the names were called one man (it is said) fainted.
Walsall Observer, 27th May 1933.
Leamore ‘ghost’ laid?
Suggested explanation for midnight mystery knockings.
A disused pit shaft?
“Times” special.
Since the exclusive announcement in last week’s “Times” of mysterious midnight knockings at a house in Cope Street, Walsall, there have been extraordinary scenes and much speculation in the locality as to the possible cause of the eerie happenings.
The house is No. 57, occupied by Mr H Fellowes and his family – including a son of about thirteen years suffering with ill-health, who it has been suggested is a possessor of strongly-developed mediumistic qualities. Local spiritualists, including Mr Samuel Wiggin, have interested themselves in the phenomenon, which has recurred regularly every night for more than two weeks.
The noises, it is said, begin shortly after eleven at night and continue until about four in the morning. It has been thought that they come from the middle room upstairs, above the sitting room. It is there that Mr Fellowes’s son sleeps. Neighbours have been called in. The street has been thronged with mystified sightseers, many of whom have stayed until the early hours of the morning. The floorboards have been taken up – and, it is said, have been seen to shake and “wobble” about together with the furniture in the room. The local police have been present.
It has been suggested that the son is a medium, that the noises follow him about wherever he stays overnight, and that when he goes to sleep he falls into a kind of coma which induces spirit messages. It has even been said that when the boy was lying in bed a man knelt by his side and asked him questions – to which the mysterious knockings replied by rapping once for “yes” and twice for “no.” One man, on Monday night, fainted and had to receive attention.
A “Times” reporter learns that during this week the boy was removed from the house to the home of a neighbour, but his temporary absence seems to have had no effect on the noises.
The claim has been put forward that a certain “spirit guide” has been revealed – one of the influences which, according to the spiritualist doctrine, everyone possesses as a controlling influence on his destiny. Every man and woman is supposed to possess a number of “spirit guides” who influence his or her life for good or evil, and it is suggested that in times of critical emergency one of the guides comes forward and helps. Spiritualist photographs have frequently been taken of spirit guides, who may have lived upon earth hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
“Mysterious house knockings are of quite common occurrence,” a prominent official of Walsall Spiritualist Church told the “Times.” He added that there may or not be any particular significance in such disturbances, and that they usually cease as suddenly as they commenced.
A possible explanation of more material character was given to our reporter by a local mines expert. “I think the most likely explanation is this,” he said. “There is no doubt that there are some old pit workings somewhere beneath the houses in Cope Street. There is an old lady in the neighbourhood who remembers the time when there was a pit there, and she is positive that one of the houses must be right over what was formerly the pit shaft. So it does not take much consideration to come to the conclusion that this may well be the very house. The knockings can be explained thus. We know that sound travels with great facility through old coal workings, and, if another pit is heading in the direction of some of these old disused workings, the noise from the working pit will vibrate through this old cutting.”
“But why should these noises be heard only during the night?” asked the reporter.
“The reason may be this,” was the reply. “The working pit may be one which fills often with water, and a pump may be working during the night shift which lasts until four o’clock in the morning. The sound of the pump may very easily pass through the old workings and vibrate in the house. You would not hear the picks during the day, but only the pump at night.”
Rugeley Times, 3rd June 1933.