A Malvern Poltergeist.
Towards the end of January 1942, while living in Oxford, I was invited by the Secretary of the S.P.R. to investigate an alleged poltergeist case at Malvern. I reached Malvern the same afternoon and interviewed a number of persons who had witnessed various phenomena during recent weeks. In view of the number and variety of the incidents and the brevity of the time at my disposal – two days – I thought it best to concentrate my attention on two or three of the more striking phenomena alleged to have taken place. Two of these incidents I described in detail and forwarded the report with the signatures of the witnesses and carefully drawn plans, to the secretary of the S.P.R. As this report and nearly all the papers connected with it were apparently mislaid, I venture to offer for publication in the Journal a second account of one of these Malvern experiences which I have been able to put together from the rough notes of the original report which I have by chance discovered quite recently.
On reaching Malvern I was received with great kindness by Miss Clancy, the occupier of the house in question. I spent an hour or two walking about the house and seeing the particular places where the alleged phenomena had occurred. After tea Miss Clancy was good enough to call to gether nearly all the witnesses of the poltergeist happenings, including a well-known doctor in West Malvern. First hand evidence, both individual and collective, was forthcoming for alleged phenomena in various parts of the house – most of them in full daylight – inexplicable movements of various objects, cooking utensils, plates, dishes, brooms, etc. I thought it best, as I have said, to concentrate on the evidence for two striking incidents which had occurred in the kitchen and the pantry. All the alleged phenomena had taken place during the presence in the house of a Mrs Collins, one of the domestic staff, and ceased completely when she subsequently left Miss Clancy’s employment.
I give herewith a summary of what had taken place in the kitchen on a recent occasion when Miss Clancy had called in a plumber in order to find out whether by chance any arrangement of the pipes or of the large kitchen range could contribute to vibrations in the kitchen which might help to explain the frequent movement and fall of pots, pans, dishes, etc. The plumber had entered the kitchen in good light accompanied by Miss Clancy, Miss Marjorie Robins and Mrs Parry; Mrs Collins and Miss Woodhouse, two members of the kitchen staff, were already there. As the plumber, Mr Lawday, was advancing towards the large kitchen range, which was faced by the other five persons, a poker suspended from a hook to the right of the range, appeared to detach itself from the hook and rose in the air, pass in a curving flight some ten or twelve feet long over the top of the electric lamp suspended above the kitchen table and fell point downwards on the edge of the table opposite to Mrs Collins; it dented the surface of the table and fell to the floor. This phenomenon was witnessed therefore by six persons who appended their signatures to my original account. The plumber’s mate, advancing at that moment through a door at the back of the kitchen, witnessed the occurrence, and subsequently added his signature to the statement.
The enclosed sketch makes the position of the witnesses, etc., clear.
I venture to think that this case is well worthy of record by the Society. I am well acquainted with accounts of poltergeist happenigns in our Proceedings and Journal and I do not think we have a single case to equal the one I have described as regards the quantity and quality of the evidence and the good conditions existing at the time for clear observation. I have in my time witnessed alleged poltergeist phenomena, usually of an obviously fraudulent character or of dubious authenticity, but I find it very difficult to suggest any normal explanation for this happening in the Malvern kitchen. I may say that the plumber’s investigation revealed no possible solution of the mystery. The witnesses were completely baffled and could only repeat the remark made by Dr Shakespeare of Malvern about a similar phenomenon, witnessed by himself in the house, that “seeing is believing.” The statements of later cases follow.
“On the last week of January 1942, about 2.30 p.m. in good light, we, the undersigned, were present in the kitchen of Clarence Nursing Home, Graham Road, Malvern, Worcs. While we were all facing the kitchen range, the poker, suspended from a nail at the side of the range, detached itself from the nail, and passed over the suspended electric lamp. It struck the kitchen table point downwards near to Mrs Collins, and made a clearly visible dent in the top of the table. It then fell down to the floor. Signed: Julie M Clancy (ARRS, SRN, CMB, Matron.) “.
Identical statements have been obtained from Miss Marjorie Robins (Sister), Mr Lawday, the plumber, Mrs Valerie Parry (formerly Miss Jay) and Mr C.J. Ashwin (plumber’s assistant). Mrs Collins and Miss Woodhouse signed my original report, but I have been unable to obtain fresh signatures from them as their present whereabouts cannot be traced.
E.N. Bennett.
SPR Journal, v.33, 1943-46.