Mystery of Lifton.
Queer happenings in a cottage.
Beans that fall “from nowhere”.
The inhabitants of the little town of Lifton are completely bewildered by the strange happenings in an old-world cottage in their midst. One of a collection of pretty white-walled thatched bungalows, it stands in the shadow of the parish church, and its appearance suggests nothing but snug comfort and tranquility. In its tiny living-room, however, showers of twigs have fallen upon the floor, apparently from nowhere, dozens of kidney beans have struck the occupants and their friends, and dairy utensils have moved themselves in mysterious fashion.
For two days the residents, an elderly working man and his wife, their son and a girl help, were kept in constant wonder at what was going to happen next. They could not sleep at night because of weird noises, and even now they are dreading a recurrence of the remarkable events.
A “Western Morning News” representative found the story of the cottage on the lips of every villager yesterday. All in the little community were talking of little else, and for miles around gossip has carried the strange tale. Many with whom our representative conversed spoke of it with many chuckles and obvious disbelief, but others regarded it seriously as a visitation of apparent witchcraft and hinted at the possibilities of spiritualism. From one who actually saw most of the astonishing incidents a startling interview was obtained.
Occupants puzzled.
Villager’s amazing story of incidents.
The cottage is situated in a district called Buntry Hill, and is occupied by a dairyman, Mr. Ellacott, his wife, and their son, Percy. Mrs Ellacott has been in ill-health for some time, and has had the assistance of a girl named Doris Knight in her household duties and to assist with the dairywork. On the evening of Saturday, February 4, Mrs Ellacott heard strange dropping noises about the house, and said at the time that she thought it was a premonition of the death of Doris Knight’s grandmother, who had been ill. Actually on Saturday night Mrs. Knight did die.
On the Monday the mysterious happenings commenced. Twigs fell about the living room in the cottage, unseen until they came into contact with the furniture or the floor. Mrs. Ellacott became very worried, and next day called in a friend named Mrs. Jordan, and in her presence the mysterious events of the previous day were continued. Although Mrs. Ellacott was positive she had no kidney beans in the house, they fell about the floor and struck those in the room.
“Terribly worried.”
Mrs Ellacott declined to tell “The Western Morning News” representative anything about the incidents, as they had worried her terribly, and she had to be attended by a doctor twice during the week. “I know,” she said, “some people do not believe what has happened, but to my dying day I swear it is true.”
Mr. Ellacott and his son were away from the village at Launceston Fair yesterday, but Mrs. Jordan, who lives opposite the mysterious cottage, willingly told the story of her adventure in the living-room. She said “Mrs. Ellacott has not been well for a long time, and I generally call and see her in the mornings. On Tuesday I could not go over, and in the afternoon Percy came rushing in and asked us to go over, as there were sticks dropping about the house. I told him he was ‘kidding’ us, but he insisted, and asked me to come if only for the fun of the thing. We went over and I sat down on a chair, and after the table had been cleared Doris and Mrs. Ellacott started telling me about what had happened. Doris was taking up the plates, and as I was looking at her something seemed to happen, and with the same we heard a stick drop at my feet. It seemed to come from nowhere. It was about 18 inches long and had thorns on it, just as if it had been cut from a twig. As we were still talking more twigs fell near my chair and close to a little cupboard in the room. You could not see them at all until they hit something and made a noise.
Beans in the cream.
“Later on in the afternoon I called over again with some friends, who thought it was funny, and would like to see it. Mrs. Ellacott said we could come in, and no sooner had we got inside the door than we heard a lot of things drop, and we found them to be kidney beans. We did not see where they came from, and Mrs. Ellacott is positive she had none in the house. While we were still talking about it more beans fell on the floor and out in the scullery, where Doris was, you could hear things dropping on the floor. It seemed that wherever she passed beans would drop. I picked up quite a lot, but I burned them since. Later on Doris brought in a stick as tall as herself which had fallen near her at the back. It was a beanstick.
“I have never heard anything like it before, and it is unbelievable unless you see it with your own eyes. Other things have happened, too. Mrs. Ellacott had a pan of cream covered over in the dairy, and she found it quite covered with beans. How oculd they get there, when the dairy was all shut up, with the windows covered with gauze? Mrs. Ellacott also told me she had a pan of milk scalding on the stove, and on the top of it was a cover, with a long heavy handle. She left the room for a few moments, and returned to find the cover in a chair some distance from the stove. It could not have fallen such a long way. She then put some newspaper on top of the pan, and put a stick on top of it. When she came back into the room again she found the newspaper on the floor, with the stick on top of it. This happened on Tuesday, too, but since then nothing has happened.”
Mrs. Jordan said she had lived in Lifton for seven years, but nothing similar to the remarkable occurences she had witnessed had ever happened before. She told a “Western Morning News” representative that on the Saturday night prior to the eventful Tuesday Mrs. Ellacott had told her about a number of peculiar noises which she thought were a premonition of the death of Mrs. Knight, Doris’s grandmother. She had not been able to discover where the noises came from, and it was on Saturday night that Mrs. Knight died.
A villager said there was a great deal of superstition amongst residents in the Lifton district, and many think the happenings in this cottage are the result of witchcraft. Since Tuesday, February 7, nothing untoward had occurred, but the mystery remains unsolved.
Western Morning News, Wednesday 15th February 1928.
Superstitious Villagers
Magic or witchcraft at Lifton bungalow
Magic or witchcraft? Many residents of the little Devon village of Lifton, on the boders of Cornwall, are puzzled to find an explanation of queer tappings at a thatched
bungalow near the parish church. The occupants are a dairyman and his wife and son, and a girl domestic. They have been bewildered by strange noises in the house. These were regarded as premonitions of a death of a member of the family, and actually the servant’s grandmother died.
A day or two later the occupants of the cottage were greatly astonished to find twigs falling on the floor of one of the living rooms. Kidney beans also fell about the floor, striking whoever happened to be in the room. Sticks, including a long bean stick, dropped at the occupant’s feet, seeming to come from nowhere. A neighbour was called in to help elucidate the mystery, and as she was conferring with the cottagers, twigs fell about the chairs on which they were sitting. They endeavoured to trace where the kidney beans were dropping from, but failed.
The beans followed the domestic wherever she went, and once fell in a shower in a pan of cream in the dairy. A newspaper, kept down by a stick, was placed over the pan of cream one evening, and the next morning, both were on the floor. Nothing of the kind has happened since Tuesday last.
While many residents look on the story with amusement there are others who attribute the happenings to the power of the evil eye, which is not surprising in a district in which superstition has always been rife.
Western Times, Friday 17th February 1928.
Strange Phenomena At Lifton.
Sir, – The occurrences related are of great interest and, in my opinion, of great import. This is the third of such happenings that I have seen chronicled in the Press during the current year, and I have a book at home full of newspaper reports of similar and far more remarkable cases. I have been assured by credible people that one of the cases which I personally inquired about was correctly reported.
In another case investigated already by a friend of mine – a scientific man and an atheist – most remarkable things were experienced after the death of the mother of the family – objects sailed round the room, and my friend saw a thick book that lay in the window-sill torn asunder across its middle without a hand being near it. He got correct answers by a code of raps to his questions. Most people would be inclined after that to believe in invisible spirits, but my friend remained a stubborn unbeliever and an atheist.
The phenomena are produced under some intelligent control at any rate, and my own inclination is to attribute them to invisible spirits. It seems to me that they are organized at periodical intervals to call our attention forcibly to the fact that “there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy.”
In most of these cases, it never occurs to bystanders to question the invisible agency, and this is a pity as something of value might be deduced. It is utterly wrong to say that these cases are the result of trickery or superstition. My friend, an atheist, was neither superstitious nor credulous, and whatever be the cause they are facts in 99 cases out of 100 that I have noted. Whether the spirits in the case be high or low matters little, the great import to us is that our spirits survive death, and to this end I believe the phenomena are prearranged to assure us.
PRIMALIST.
Western Morning News, Friday 17th February 1928.
Phenomena at Lifton.
Sir, – The letter of a “Primalist” is interesting as calling attention to the possibility of some kind of spirit agency. Most people believe in spirits. The Bible teaches us that. But have they power to do such foolish and objectless things?
Why choose one place more than another? As suggesting trickery, let it be noted that nothing happened when anyone was present. If it is the work of spirits, one time is as possible as another, and evil spirits must be presumed (so I would suggest), for good spirits would have a good purpose, and no good purpose could be served by foolish things like these. May I make a suggestion to those on the spot. Let the vicar of the parish be called in, and asked to invoke the name of God and bid all evil spirits depart, making the sign of the Cross. “At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee,” says the hymn. This is not superstition, but truth. It is a f act that evil spirits hate the sacred sign. “Rappings” and questions are spiritist dodges, and can be worked to “prove” anything.
JAMES WILLIAMS
St. Breward Vicarage, February 17.
P.S. A writer on Spiritualism relates that at a seance the spirit fefused to make a cross on the planchette for a name, and wrote in large letters three times “No.” “Make a cross or go!” was ordered. Thereupon was written in large letters “Curse you,” and nothing further happened.
Sir, – May I add to “Primalist’s” remarks. As explained by St. Paul in I. Cor., xii, 7, “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to priofit withal.” To one is given one power or nature of manifestation, to a second is given another power, and so on throughout the whole of mankind. “But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
Apparently Miss Knight has “the working of miracles” (v. 10) – (Greek – energemata dunameon, i.e., operations of powers), and she is greatly to be congratulated on her powers. At death, soul and spirit pass into the eternal phase of life as manifested by Christ, with gradually unfolding vitality, mentality, and cordiality. The same likes and dislikes at first continue, but can only be expressed in the earth life by those means enumerated by St. Paul, or by similar means omitted from his list.
In the case at Lifton, apparently no injury, except, perhaps, to nerves, has occurred. Therefore the spirit individual (or individuals) who is taking advantage of Miss Knight’s latent and quite natural powers bears no ill-will. The continuation of life after death is being definitely demonstrated, and there is no witchcraft or sorcery at all. It is possible that some loving spirit individual – possibly Miss Knight’s grandmother – is either desirous of demonstrating her survival or she has something to communicate.
Hundreds of cases similar to this at Lifton have been investigated. There are many amongst your readers who have the gift of “discerning of spirits.” In the present case there should be no difficulty in clearing up the matter to the satisfaction of all concerned. Finally, may I impress upon your readers the great power for good which appears to be with Miss Knight if her gift be rightly used in prayer and adoration to the Good Father of all.
The knowledge of these facts may bring comfort to some whose nerves are shaken by these or similar occurrences.
W. BELK (Lieut.-Colonel).
Falmouth, February 17.
Western Morning News, Monday 20th February 1928.
A little cottage amid peaceful surroundings at Bunty Hill, Lifton, Devon, where a shower of beans and twigs, a log hurled through the air, and other mysterious phenomena are puzzling the inhabitants and the locality.
Daily Herald, Tuesday 21st February 1928.
Cottage Mystery.
Sir A. Conan Doyle’s Explanation.
So widespread has been public interest in the mysterious happenings in a cottage at Lifton that “The Western Morning News” has consulted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the well-known spiritualist, regarding the phenomena. It will be recalled that in Wednesday’s issue strange incidents in the cottage – the falling of kidney beans and twigs, apparently from nowhere, on the floor of the living room, and the mysterious movements of dairy utensils – described by a villager, were recorded. The cottage, situated in a district called Buntry Hill, is occupied by a dairy-man, Mr. Ellacott, his wife, their son, Percy, and a girl named Doris Knight, who assists in the household and dairy work.
An Unconscious Medium
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writing from Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex, says:-
“In answer to your query, the happenings at Lifton – presuming that they are exactly as described, and that no practical joker is at work – correspond very closely with those cases reported from Battersea, and also from Ashford, in Kent, during the last few weeks. Many hundreds are on record, of which Dr. Johnson’s Cock-lane ghost is one of the best known. They depend upon undeveloped or mischievous borderland entities, drawing their power from the bodies of unconscious mediums – in this case apparently the girl Doris Knight. The phenomena are nearly always associated with the presence of a young boy or girl, the time of puberty appearing to afford this particular sort of mediumistic power. When the boy or girl is withdrawn the phenomena cease, and they are naturally supposed to have caused them, whereas they have only been the innocent source from which energy has been drawn. The best cure is to remove the medium for a time and so break the sequence. There are, unfortunately, hooligans as well as angels in the beyond. The task of spiritualism is to attract the one and to repel the other.
Western Morning News, Tuesday 21st February 1928
‘Hooligan spirits’
Sir, – I am not concerned with the “Lifton mystery” in itself, not being an expert in occult matters nor a witness of what actually occurred. But the latest development, the publication of Conan Doyle’s spiritualistic views, opens out possibilities which concern us all.
Let us suppose that the phenomena in question had happened not close to Lifton Rectory, but in the Rectory itself, which, until some months ago, I personally occupied. Let us suppose further that a spiritualistic expert had then promulgated the view that what had happened was probably due to the action of certain “hooligans in the beyond,” though the energy that actually caused them was often unconsciously supplied by old gentlemen about the age of 70, in this case probably Andrew Keogh; and that the best remedy was to avoid contact with Andrew Keogh for a time. In such a case Andrew Keogh might be glad to discover that he possessed dormant mediumistic powers, or he might vehemently object to what he looked upon as a monstrous theory which might seriously hinder him in the performance of his duties.
Suppose that he took the latter view; would he be able to take legal action to clear himself from an imputation which might very seriously hamper him in his work?
For once admit that a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, can be, however unconsciously, the means of giving expression to the malignant will of hooligans in the beyond, and where can you draw the line? In this particular hypothetical case the phenomena might have been nothing worse than the sudden eruption of beans and battens and twigs, awhich would seem to point to emanations of a “Pucklike” rather than of a hooligan character. But in actual life we often see that certain people or certain places do seem to be haunted by a succession of happenings which really partake of the nature of terrible calamities. Suppose that we once allow that such events are possibly due to the expression of malignant wills in the beyond, that such wills draw their power of expression from the unconscious energy of a particular person, and that in this particular case everything points to the conclusion that the unfortunate agent is Andrew Keogh; what then?
If all this is allowable, are we not up against a very serious practical problem indeed?
ANDREW KEOGH.
Littlebere, Lifton, February 18.
Western Morning News, Saturday 18th February 1928
Haunted house? The cottage at Lifton occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Ellacott, where showers of twigs have fallen on the floor and dairy utensils have mysteriously moved about. Photo: Brimmell, Launceston.
Western Morning News, Friday 17th February 1928.
Beans from nowhere.
Thatched cottage mystery.
“The Evil Eye.”
From our own correspondent. Plymouth, Saturday.
“Give ’em beans” seems to be the motto of a playful spirit that is disturbing the peaceful villagers of Lifton, and particularly a dairyman farmer and his wife, a Mr and Mrs Ellacott. Suddenly, as from nowhere, thorned twigs fall on the chairs and tables, and often showers of kidney beans descend in the most unlooked for places. The odd thing is that, although the occupants may be struck by these mysterious missiles, they never actually them coming. First of all Mrs Ellacott regarded it as a premonition of death. Surely enough, the grandmother of a domestic help did pass away the same night, but even that did not appease the uncanny spirit. Still the twigs and beans continued to drop. Usually they fell by the domestic help or near wherever she was. She once brought in a beanstick as big as herself.
Unless you see it with your own eyes it is unbelievable (said a neighbour who went in to probe the mystery). Everywhere you go there are these beans falling. I picked up a lot myself.
Mrs Ellacott is positive she has none in the house. The twigs have thorns on them, as if they had just been cut from a tree.
Some of the villagers put down the strange happenings in the thatched cottage to witchcraft or the evil eye. Lifton is in that part of Devon which has long been noted for its superstitious beliefs.
Weekly Despatch (London), 19th February 1928.
The “Haunted” Cottage.
Odd Happenings In Village.
From our Special Correspondent.
Lifton (Devon), Saturday.
All sorts of queer happenings are taking place in a little whitewashed cottage which stands on the fringe of Lifton, a sleepy Devon village, and I found villagers who positively declared that in their opinion the strange manifestations are the result of witchcraft. The “haunted” cottage is an old place inhabited by a family named Ellacott, consisting of Mr and Mrs Ellacott and their son, and a 13-year-old girl named Doris Knight. The son told me that this is what has happened indoors.
Bean seeds have suddenly come flying into the kitchen. Small twigs have rattled all over the place. They have struck people and although the closest watch has been kept it is impossible to say from whence the missiles came. Two large logs once came hurtling into the room apparently from nowhere. The dipper jumped out of a tank, and the cover of the cream in the dairy was whisked off and beans peppered into the cream.
“We cannot tell where all the things come from,” said the son. “One of the twigs went into my tea, and the peculiar part about it was that it made not the slightest splash.”
When the manifestations first occurred Mrs Ellacott declared that it was a sign that Doris Knight’s grandmother, who was ill, would die. The same night the grandmother passed away.
I was allowed to go into the kitchen and sat for a little while in the presence of Doris Knight and others, but nothing extraordinary happened. I was introduced to Mr Littlejohn, who told me that he was a psychic from Exeter, and that he had come down to investigate the case. Mr Littlejohn said he had no doubt that the manifestations were the work of some supernatural power. “I am tracing it down,” he said, “and I am prepared to say already that it is the work of an earthbound spirit – that is, a spirit that cannot get away from earthly associations and has only risen into the mists.”
“Do you know who the earthbound spirit is?” I asked. “Yes,” said Mr Littlejohn, “I have succeeded in describing a man who died here many years ago, and these people have recognised him from my description. He is not a member of this family. I hope soon to build him up and be able to see him in this kitchen.”
Neighbours who have been in the house at the time of the happenings support the family in their declaration that they could not have been caused by anyone in the house, and the case is causing great interest in the West Country.
Daily News (London), 20th February 1928.