Little Sutton
The Ghost.
The village of Little Sutton has managed to produce or attract a ghost, and judging from present appearances, “He,” “She,” or “It” is no wayfaring apparition turned aside to tarry only for a night, but evidently intends to settle down as a permanent resident. The ghost’s performances have hitherto been carried on in a house and outbuildings – which were wont, with a number of fields, to belong to a family of the name of Wade, but evil times having overtaken the scions of this old family tree, the property has all passed away into the hands of strangers, and the house in question has lately been converted into a provision shop, and occupied by a Mr Baird.
We understand that for some time after startling the business nothing unusual was seen or heard about the premises, but lately mysterious sounds have become almost of nightly occurrence. Rappings at doors, and scratchings on walls, and divers unearthly noises are the freaks in which the ghost indulges; and once at least it has deigned to put in an appearance, and to confound the sense of sight as well as hearing.
This vision was granted to the former proprietor, who, being about the outbuildings one night near midnight, found himself suddenly in the presence of a gigantic white robed female, whom he endeavoured to clutch and hold. When, lo! his arms only enclosed empty space, and the discomfited Joseph gives a wide berth now to the home of his forefathers whenever the shadows of evening fall.
Mr Baird has also made use of the Supreme Being’s name to demand of the ghost its business about his premises, but received no answer.
So much for facts! and we are all at our wit’s ends to acount for this unwelcome visitor. The following are some of the conjectures that occur to us. Some suppose it may be the spirit of a defunct Wade uneasily wandering round the old paternal home, whose tomb-rest has been broken through grief or anger on learning it had passed away to strangers. Others again connect it with politics, as it was a room in this house which was used by the local Liberals during the late election struggle, as Mr James Tomkinson’s “committee rooms,” and suppose this ghost may be some shade of the mighty Benjamin of Primrose fame, seeking to cast a wholesome terror upon the minds of Whigs and Radicals, so that they might not again oppose the up-holders of our “glorious institutions,” viz: Salisbury, Churchill, Cotton and Co.
Others again think that as this house is within a stones throw of that spot on the railway where the late Presbyterian schoolmaster (who after having the school closed against him by the board of managers) was found beheaded, this apparition may be the unflesh’d spirit seeking to make some important communication, without which life’s mission was incomplete;
while some of us believe this ghost has come in the interest of the religion of the “Salvation Leaguists” and from the “coign of vantage” the house affords, is watching if the joiner across the way has not commenced to make their timber minister, of which it might take possession, for their present one has entered on his year of doom. For it is well-known this interesting “flock” endure their ministers for just three years – the first they flatter him, and run in crowds to prayer meetings, and show signs of being egg full of grace and goodness; the second they become fault-finding and indifferent to the means of grace; while the third they keep their purse-strings tied, and keep back the needful salary, and defame him from house to house, which brings about his resignation in due course, so the suggestion of a working man that the only way to heal the breaches of this little Zion is to manufacture a wooden one, is, we understand, likely to have many advocates at the ensuing resignation; and on the basis of these facts we present our hypothesis of the ghost’s mission to Sutton, and think it is as true-like as any of the others in circulation.
Chester Chronicle, 5th June 1886.