A Moss Side Ghost.
It is widely reported in Moss Side that a house in Edward-street has of late been visited by ghosts and although incredulous at first, a large number of persons who live in the vicinity now incline to the belief that there is some truth in the story of those who occupy the house. Apparitions, it is reported, have been seen on several occasions, and weird noises have accompanied the unwelcome and mysterious visitations. Last night the street was crowded.
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 25th August 1902.
Story of a Haunted House in Manchester.
An extraordinary ghost story comes from Edward Street, in the Moss Side district of Manchester. A little more than a month ago an electrical engineer and his family took one of the houses, and ever since they have complained of being disturbed nightly by strange noises, including the banging of doors, the running of water, the dragging of heavy furniture, and groans.
At first the neighbours laughed incredulously, but they do so no longer, for on the invitation of the tenant some of them have entered the house, and, it is said, suffered similar experience. Doors have mysteriously opened and shut, water taps have been turned on, and even apparitions have appeared. As the mother was singing to her child a few nights ago she says she was suddenly terrified by seeing the dim figure of a man with a round, clean-shaven face and bare neck, advancing along the lobby. For an instant she turned away, and on looking through the door again the figure had vanished. Her child also was frightened.
The woman’s sister says, confidently, that on Saturday night week she distinctly saw the figure of a little boy holding his hands pleadingly towards her from the lobby. Her screams attracted several neighbours, who found her half dead with fright. It is said that no tenant has lived in the house for more than a week or two.
Burton Chronicle, 28th August 1902.
Over-run with ghosts.
In the dead of night a door banged at 10, Edward-street, Moss-side, a residential suburb of Manchester. Then all was silent. But the family had been awakened, and there was a mysterious feeling that something was wrong. Presently there was a noise like the dragging of furniture across the floor. Frightened almost out of their wits the alarmed listeners plucked up courage enough to get a light, and make a search. Not a door was open, not an article of furniture had been moved.
What was that? The spectral form of a man glided across the room and disappeared. There was no more sleep for the human occupiers of the house than night. The following day the story went abroad, and now 10, Edward-street is the only place of interest in all that residential suburb.
It was about five weeks ago that a woman whose husband is at present abroad, went to live at No. 10, with her sister and their children. They had been but a few days in the house when one of the women heard a noise like the moaning of a child. This lasted but a few moments, and then there was a dying gasp, as of the child dying.
A few nights later the tenant was seated in the kitchen, when she saw a sight which is best told in her own words. “I was singing to my little boy,” she said, “when I saw the shadowy form of a man advancing towards the door from the lobby. I was in the shadow of the door, but there is no doubt of what I saw. He was a clean-shaven man, he had a round face, and his neck was bare. I was frozen to my seat with horror, but in a second the figure had vanished.”
The apparition of a little boy appeared the other night as one of the women was walking along the lobby. “It was a sweet little child,” she said, “and held out its hands to me appealingly.” So frightened was the woman that she screamed and fell down in a dead faint. There is plenty of corroboration for the ghostly stories told by the women. On Sunday night, it is stated, a gentleman friend arrived at the house, and, seated in the kitchen, saw the door open and a ghostly head peer round and then vanish. It is stated that some time ago a man lived in th ehouse with a little boy, and that when he left he had no child with him. A local spiritualist who has been consulted gives it as his opinion that a child of ten or eleven years of age has been murdered in the house. The landlord of the house, of course, ridicules the whole story, and the police adopt the customary non-committal attitude of “inquiries are being made.”
Pontypridd Observer, 6th September 1902.