The “Haunted” Printing Works In Old Bedford Road.
Ghostly footsteps in the night…
Unmanned circular saw started moving.
Bottles flew through the air… an unmanned circular saw started turning… and all the time there were those ghostly footsteps and mysterious rumblings. It went on for years. Now they have stopped, but the men who work overtime in the “haunted” printing firm of Clegg & Holden at 90, Old Bedford-road, Luton, still get that feeling that someone is peering over their shoulders and watching them. And the printers are asking themselves: “Has the ghost gone for ever? Or will it return and play more supernatural tricks on us?”
Clegg and Holden, the founders of the firm, are dead. Joint proprietors of the firm now are Mr. Vic Toyer and Mr. John Carter. Said Mr. Carter: “Every one of my men has heard something or seen something supernatural. We are all level-headed men and we couldn’t have imagined these happenings. One man, working overtime on his own, said he heard mysterious footsteps in the passage and vowed never to work on his own here after dark again. He never did.”
Added Mr. Toyer: “Nothing uncanny has happened for some time, but we all get that feeling after darkness has fallen that someone we cannot see is watching us. It doesn’t scare us. Far from it. It’s just, well, that sort of feeling that makes you turn around suddenly to find no-one behind you…”
First, take the case of the circular saw. Apprentice Barry Perry had only been with the firm a few months. At 9.30 one morning (yes, in the morning) Barry was sent into the loft to check over some stock. He had been there only a few minutes when a circular saw, with a foot-pedal drive, began to turn. Said Barry: “I spun around when I heard the saw moving. I was the only person in the loft and about ten feet from the machine. The pedal was going up and down and the saw was revolving. I was scared stiff. I couldn’t move for a moment and then scrambled down to the next floor to tell the men. We immediately climbed into the loft. But the saw was still. We tried pedalling it but it was stiff. We never used it much. We had to push the pedals hard to make the saw revolve. It couldn’t have moved on its own.”
Then there was the case of the midnight lights. On this occasion police were called in, but left completely baffled. It was nearly midnight on this particular night when someone living in the house across the road from the printing plant saw lights on in a room in the front of the building. He called two other people and they confirmed the lights. Thinking burglars were in the printing plant, he called in the police. A squad car arrived and the building was cordoned off. But no-one was found inside and the lights were off. “We always switch the electricity off at the main every night,” said Mr. Toyer. “This had been done the night the lights were seen on in the front room. Police were baffled. And the safe which was in the room had not been tampered with. Three people said they were sure they saw lights on in the room.”
Thirdly, take the case of the flying rum bottle. “We were all washing our hands one night,” said Roy Odell “when a small rum bottle flew through the air, as if thrown by someone behind us, and hit the floor in front of us. We kept the bottle for some time and then threw it away. It couldn’t have been thrown by any of us. We were all together.”
No-one has come forward to explain the case of the disappearing clock key, either. “We always keep the key on top of the clock,” said one printer. “One day the clock wound down and we looked for the key to wind it up. We couldn’t find it, although we searched everywhere. It was missing for months before someone found it inside the clock itself. Incidentally, that clock has never gone right since…”
Ghostly footsteps were often heard. “I was in my office one night,” said Mr. Toyer, “when I distinctly heard footsteps in the passageway. When I opened the door I felt something brush past me. But I couldn’t see anyone. I was all on my own that night. We’ve all heard unexplained footsteps many a time,” he added.
Beds and Herts Pictorial, 11th February 1958.
‘Ghosts’ of Industry.
Workmates watch for signs of Old Cleggie.
Report by Caroline Fysh.
Old Cleggie they call him – a mysterious figure who appears to watch over men at work, and shifts their machinery about. It’s said he lingers in hallways, walks up steps and opens doors, operates a circular saw and has smashed a mirror. And he never appears at the Luton printing firm in Old Bedford Road for over three seconds. He’s thought to have appeared twice in the last few months but employees at Clegg and Holden can feel his presence.
John Claxton explained: “I have only worked here for 12 months, but I am the only one who has actually seen him lately. He looked at me across the room, a slim man, about 50, with a sunken face and wearing a grey suit.”
They call him Old Cleggie because they believe he may be the ghost of the man who founded the firm in 1911 and retired 25 years ago. Trevor Davis has worked at the firm for 15 years. He explained what happened three years ago: There is an old mirror that has hung on the wall for years. One day somebody decided to clean it, but a workmate said, ‘Old Cleggie wouldn’t like you doing that,’ and the mirror just smashed into pieces.” Now the frame hangs without any glass in it.
The six employees also tell of other strange happenings. An ancient circular saw was seen to move round unattended, things have disappeared for weeks and then turned up in unexpected places. Shreds of torn paper have appeared and jumpers have been thrown off coat hooks to the other side of the room, say the workers.
Mr Claxton said: “We don’t know that it is Clegg but we call him that affectionately because he seems to watch over us.”
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle, 17th July 1975.