Our council flat is haunted – say a family.
A young couple claim they are being terrorised in their new house … by ghosts. Hugh and Ellen Cassels and baby David moved into their council flat at 42 Calgary Avenue, Howden, Livingston, New Town, in December. Just a week later, say the couple, the trouble started… Ghostly impressions of hands appeared three times on the inside of windows. Spoons were mysteriously moved round the kitchen. The gas stove moved a couple of inches. Bumps and thumps kept them awake. An apparition of a man with a sad face twice appeared, sitting in the living room.
The local priest, Father John Byrne, has already blessed the house four times. He’s also contacted his Archbishop about the incidents.
Mrs Cassels, 23, says she is scared to stay in the house by herself and Hugh, 22, has now stopped going to his work on a building site. He said last night: “We have each lost a stone in weight. We didn’t pay too much attention to the noises at first. After all it is a new block of flats and mostly unoccupied. Since Father Byrne last blessed the house no more impressions have appeared, but we still hear strange noises.”
Father Byrne said: “I also saw the impression of a hand on the window. But I wouldn’t like to say what I thought caused it.”
The Howden area is surrounded by ancient burial mounds. And witches have been burnt at the stake nearby.
Daily Record, 18th January 1969.
Night with the haunted Cassells.
Laying New Town ghost.
East Scotland was startled to learn this week that a ghost has been haunting a house in the Craigshill district of the new town of Livingston. Bravely our reporter, Ann Broadley, volunteered to spend the night with the haunted family, in an effort to lay the ghost. Here is her story.
It was a wild, wet night, not the sort of night I would have chosen for “ghost hunting.” However, I was on my way to spend the night at 42 Calgary Avenue, Craigshill, the home of Mr and Mrs Hugh Cassells, who claim that they have been “haunted” ever since they moved in, shortly before Christmas.
Earlier that day when I had visited them, Mr Cassells had told me, “About four days after we came into the house, we were lying in bed when we heard three loud thumps. I got out of my bed and opened all the doors to see if there was anyone there. There was nobody, so I went outside into the corridor, but there was no-one either upstairs or downstairs. I went back into the house and shut all the doors. I returned to bed and then I heard one more thump, followed by a noise like running water. Our bedroom door opened. I felt as though my hair was standing on end.”
Mrs Ellen Cassells, his 23-year-old wife, pointed out that there had been “paw” marks appearing on the walls and on the windows, and hoof marks on the floor. The previous night her brother, Michael Docherty (15) of 705 Maryhill Road and her husband, had been on their way to telephone, when she had dropped the sixpence on the road. As Docherty bent to pick it up, he noticed a claw mark appearing round it, and after they returned to the house, the Cassells saw a similar mark on his forehead.
Marks and noises were not the only indication of a ghost. The Cassells say that they have seen a “white blur” hovering inside and outside the house. “On one particular occasion it tried to tear the crucifix off the wall” said Mr Cassells, and indicated a small scratch above it. It also hovered round the pram of their 7-month-old, baby son, David. “I am sure that it hates the baby, and it is because of him that it haunts us,” said Mr Cassells.
Michael Docherty said that he too had seen the “white blur,” but, he added matter-of-factly, “I saw them many a time on Barra.”
Mrs Cassells says that one day while she was working in the kitchen she saw a man with a long nose “like a wizard’s” sitting in the lounge.
The Cassells have tried several ways of “exorcising” the ghost. Mrs Cassells put some “holy water” at the window, and after several days she noticed a cross on the window pane. they believe that this is a sign that they are being protected. Father Byrne, of St Andrew’s Church, has visited the house several times. He told me, “I’ve gone up and blessed the house, and I’m trying to help them as much as I can.”
When I arrived at the house shortly before midnight, two of their neighbours were keeping the Cassells company. Said mother of two, Mrs Catherine Connor, of 22 Calgary Avenue, “We came over about 11 o’clock to try to help and comfort them.” Her companion, Mr Thomas Richardson (35) a bus conductor of 45 Calgary Ave., said “My own house creaks and groans, while doors open themselves, but that is because when they were built there was no allowance for expansion and contraction. There is in fact nothing that can’t be accounted for.”
Shortly after my arrival we heard a thud which seemed to come from the empty house directly above, but after that there was silence. It stayed that way for several hours after the neighbours had gone home, and as the night wore on the logical explanations seemed to become more and more plausible. Were the noises caused by the door which was standing slightly ajar on the flat overhead? Were the “hoof” prints on the lino made by a man with metal edges to his heels? The “paw” marks which resembled a mans’ fingerprints, might have been left by a workman who built the house and remained latent until recent atmospheric changes had made them obvious. The ghost’s identity is therefore more likely to be found in police records, than in any historical or parish ones!
As I left the house in the early morning darkness, I glanced at thewindow, and there, swirling upwards, I saw a white mist of condensation – the ghost perhaps.
West Lothian Courier, 24th January 1969.