Weird Doings on a Farm.
Jumping Crockery: Moving Chairs.
Uncanny happenings in an old farmhouse at Mason’s Bridge, two miles south of Redhill, Surrey, are being eagerly discussed by the villagers. The house, known as Mason’s Bridge Farm, Mason’s Bridge-road, Salfords, is a picturesque, half-timbered building, between 400 and 500 years old.
Mr. Christopher Roads, the tenant, has only been in occupation for 18 months. Besides his wife and a boy of six years, the other occupants are a maid of 16, and a youth who is learning farming. A few days ago the family began to be alarmed at mysterious happenings. Heavy pieces of furniture were shifted and crockery was found to have fallen from the shelves.
A woman representative of the Spiritualist Church, after investigation, concluded that the maid is a highly developed medium, and that the spirits have been attracted by her presence. Constable Dixon says that when he called, Mrs Roads, on going upstairs, found that her bedstead had been turned round.
Five chairs from the dining-room had been moved mysteriously into the drawing room. Next morning she heard her little boy crying from his bedroom, ‘Mother, someone is moving my bed.’ Running upstairs she found that the bed had been turned round, and the boy was terrified. A pair of boots disappeared from the scullery, and were found in the drawing room.
Two local farmers called. While they were talking in the kitchen a pot of jam moved from its place on the table and fell on the stone floor without breaking. A woman who visited the house opened one of the china cupboards, and a child’s teacup jumped out and fell on the floor at her feet.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s private secretary supports the view that the occurrences are due to the presence in the house of the mediumistic maid.
Gloucestershire Echo, 18th August 1928.