BBC will relay ‘ghost’ with chopper.
Manor gardener hears knocking, opens door…
“Daily Express” Special Correspondent. Meopham (Kent), Monday.
Mr Frank Peters, a grey-haired gardener at Dean Manor, a lovely old house five miles from Meopham village, does not believe in ghosts. But he told me tonight that he gets up at midnight to open the front door to a ghost. He does not want to see it, but he gets tired of hearing noises in the night. These noises the BBC will try to broadcast on the night of March 10. For Dean Manor is the secret house from which the “Ghost radio” will be made.
The house lies in the cleft of the hills between Meopham and the villages of Luddesdown and Harvel. Its foundations are said to go back to the seventh century; its cellars are twenty feet below ground, with walls five feet thick. Simon de Meopham, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born there. Knights and ladies lived within its walls. It is a perfect setting for a ghost story.
Most nights Mr Peters sleeps there alone except for a white bull terrier named Tao. He would almost rather do without Tao because the dog whines all night and runs up and down the kitchen floor. “There are two kinds of noises,” Mr Peters said to me. “One noise is just knocking on the front door. The other is like the sound of an axe gripping into a block of wood. The second noise seems to come from the cellar below where I sleep. But there is no wood in the cellar, and a man could not stand straight enough in it to strike a good blow. And the only axes about the place are the one I use myself and one like a battle-axe, without a handle, that I dug up a few yards away from the house.”
Noone inMeopham village believes in ghosts, except an old man in Fox-terrace, who claims to have seen a girl weeping and dressed all in white, at the Manor Gate. She is, he says, the ghost of a poor servant girl who eighty years ago hanged herself from the rafters of the barn, since pulled down.
Next week the BBC moves in; already the outer walls have been “wired for sound.” Mr Harry Price, psychic investigator, and Mr F.H. Grisewood, announcer, will listen for ghosts. So save up your weeping, lady in white, and your wood-chopping, man with the axe…
Daily Express, 3rd March 1936.
A Kent Ghost to be BBC ‘Star Turn’.
Listen in for her eerie step in the old manor.
Broadcast attempt to radiate a supernatural ‘atmosphere’.
Dean [Dene] Manor, near Meopham. Inset: Mr Frank Peters.
A Kent ghost – if she will oblige – will be the “star” turn in your evening radio programme next Tuesday. If she is not too microphone shy you will hear her ghostly footsteps and other eerie sounds emanating from the centuries-old manor near Meopham where, in a granary, her earthly form was found hanging from a beam. A ‘Kent Messenger’ representative visited the home of this tragic ghost and describes below her history, his impressions of the manor, and BBC arrangements for the broadcast.
F.Pitt Clark describes a visit to the haunted mansion.
Muffled knocks on the door at dead of night … Sounds as of an axe biting deep in to wood… Body of a servant girl hanging from a beam in a granary… These are some of the ingredients of a perfect ghost story as I heard it this week in the appropriate setting of an old Kent manor house standing solitary in the bottom of a lonely valley hidden away in the folds of the North Downs, near Meopham. It is the story of The Ghost of Dean Manor, the ghost that may make a name for itself int he history of things supernatural if the BBC succeeds in its plan to broadcast its eerie tappings and choppings next Tuesday night.
When I called at Dean Manor this week to find out something about the ghost, the tenant, Mr Barry Richards, was not at home. I heard the tale, however, from Mr Frank Peters, 69-years-old, grey-haired man-about-the-place, who has got so used to the ghost now that he only wags his head and says, “There she is again,” when he hears her start her tappings. “I don’t believe in ghosts,” declared Mr Peters, “but these noises certain are weird and there’s no accounting for them. When I first came here with Mr Richards last May I was in bed one still, moonlight night when I heard what I thought was someone knocking at the door. I went out to see who it was, but when I opened the door there was not a sign of anybody. I looked out into the dark side of the hill opposite and to the moon sailing across the skies above the valley. After I got back into bed again I heard another noise like someone bringing an axe down into a log of wood. This time the noise came from the cellar. I went down and investigated – but again there was no one to be seen. So it has gone on, at intervals, ever since. I don’t take any notice of it now. The last time I heard it was two nights ago.”
The tragic story of the servant girl I had from one of the villagers who used to work at the Manor. “We used to hear her about the place when I was a boy,” he said. “My old dad told me the story. Apparently a servant girl was suspected of having stolen a golden sovereign – so she hanged herself from a beam in the granary. My father had heard her himself, I heard her and so did other boys who worked with me at the time… but no one ever saw her.”
BBC officials have already listened – without success – for the ghost. They even put down white powder to see if they could get her footmarks. The men who meet in the low, timbered dining room of the old house for the great experiment on Tuesday night will be locked in. From inside the room will come the tale of the tragic serving maid, told by one of the villagers. That much is certain. But whether the lady will oblige by “doing her stuff” at the appropriate time remains to be seen. Anyway, if the “Kent Messenger” sends me along to join the party I shall be glad the door is locked… Because just outside the drawing room is the door to the cellar whence proceeds the sounds of the act with the axe. – And, do what they may, try as they will, they simply can’t make that door keep shut.
Maidstone Telegraph, 7th March 1936.
Ghost Hunt Packs a Village.
Harvel politely sceptical of BBC experiment.
From our Radio Correspondent, Meopham, Sunday.
Motorists, cyclists and hikers descended in hundreds today on the tiny Kentish village of Harvel, near Meopham, the scene of the BBC’s ghost hunt. They camped outside the grounds of Dean Manor, where the occupier, Mr Barry Richards, is trying to prepare a suitable atmosphere for Tuesday’s broadcast. Local inhabitants do not take the experiment seriously, but it is welcomed as light relief from the monotony of preparing hop-fields and orchards.
Dean Manor, standing alone in a field at the foot of a hill, is undeniably an appropriate-looking spot for spooks. Its 800-year-old walls are five feet thick, and it has queer attics, odd corners and walled-up recesses. There are no other houses nearby ; in fact, the district is one of the most sparsely populated in Kent. The mysterious manifestations of knockings and icy blasts of wind are said to centre round the walled portion of the manor’s wine cellar.
Daily News (London), 9th March 1936.
All is ready for the “ghost broadcast” at eight o’clock to-night, from Dean Manor, the centuries-old mansion three miles from Meopham, Kent. The caretaker, Mr Edward Wishart, said yesterday that since the BBC men have been about the house, the “ghost” has been much more active.
Coventry Evening Telegraph, 10th March 1936.
Ghost did not walk at “Haunted House” broadcast.
While the BBC was hunting for ghosts in Dean Manor, near Meopham, Kent last night, policemen, specially posted at the gates, were keeping out an excited crowd of “ghost-hunters” who had arrived by car, bicycle and on foot. They were keen to see the engineers at work at the first of the “haunted house” relays, or to get a glimpse of the ghost itself. Seven people were seated round an old oak table, with the latest scientific instruments to detect the presence of anything material. But the ghost refused to walk.
Daily Herald, 11th March 1936.
BBC Watchers record ‘something strange’ but the ghost goes west.
Twice last night a (supposedly) shuddering Britain huddled over its radio sets and listened to the great ghost broadcast from Dean Manor, the haunted twelfth century mansion of Meopham, Kent. There were thrills – but no ghosts. Yet there was evidence of “something strange.” The thermograph showed a mysterious and violent change in temperature in a cellar. Now read on.
At your end of the mike – Eerie Moans (A Dog).
“Daily Express” Radio correspondent.
For three hours last night six men sat round a table in a haunted house in Kent – waiting to broadcast to the world that they had seen a ghost. They were disappointed. The house was in darkness. A clock in the dining-room ticked out the long minutes and chimed quarters. A coal fire clinked and blazed. A dog whined and snuffled. Down in the cellar was a thermograph (to check alleged cold draughts) and a live microphone; up in the attic another microphone. These to pick up ghost noises. In the dining-room was a third microphone – for the use of the investigators. Over this microphone they told listeners – from 8 to 8.20 – how the ghost hunt would be conducted.
At 11.45 they broadcast their experiences. They were: 8.50 – Water noises heard from the attic microphone. Investigations in attic showed a dripping tap. 9.5 – A creaking in the attic (unexplained). 9.15 – Footsteps in cellar (later proved to be echoes of footsteps from dining room). 9.35 – Thermograph reading. Found to be steady. 11. – Another thermograph reading. Big jump up and down in temperature (steady throughout the day) recorded. Investigators considered this significant.
For listeners, the greatest excitement came during the preliminary broadcast. From the moment of going over the microphone gave forth strange noises. Announcer Frederick Grisewood told us the history of the house, and he spoke to the accompaniment of unearthly bangings, tappings, moans and whistles. “Did your father see things really?” he asked the house owner. “Whee-ee-ee,” replied the loudspeaker. Then just as some one was describing the ghostly visitant in detail a clock struck… Three of us listening in a darkened room started violently.
These are the strange happenings attributed to this house – A door opens. The sound of an axe striking on wood is heard. Sudden cold draughts are felt. Knocks are heard on the door. The investigators put a check on any possible happenings. The door opened – a red light glowed. If cold draughts blew, they would be recorded on a temperature machine. Wax and powdered starch showed if anybody stepped on the floor. Graphite was put on the doors to reveal fingerprints. But the ghost had taken the night off. One event should be reported. Just before the end of the 8.20 broadcast a voice was heard to say, “Thank goodness that’s over…” Perhaps it was the ghost’s.
At Dean Manor End: Eerie Lights (Police)
It was a pity the BBC could not televise the ghost hunt at Dean Manor here tonight for they would have shown ghosts, ghosts, ghosts. Deep in the great black hollow of the countryside, almost directly beneath a blood-red moon, half buried in the clouds you would have seen the dim lights shining from the old house. at the main gate of the drive, 300 yards from the house itself, police would have appeared on the televisor. The haunted house with its BBC watchers is completely surrounded by police. At eight o’clock, when the first broadcast was sent out the watchers of a television screen would have seen a line of nearly twenty cars in the lanes around the house. Cyclists, motor cyclists, even walkers, five miles from anywhere, climbed the hedges and banks to get a glimpse of the place. As I write now, nearly eleven o’clock, the night is full of ghosts that can be seen and heard. The owls are hooting, the undergrowth beside the lane rustles, suddenly somewhere near the house a swinging spot of light is answered by another and yet another. Still the mysterious will o’ the wisp lights flicker across the fields. But they are only the lights of the police watchers. The house is in semi-darkness. Very occasionally the windows glow, as though with torchlight. The ghostly figures in the lanes watch the dark shape of the house. An owl flits across the still rising moon. A rabbit squeals. Police torches flicker in the darkness. Whatever may happen inside that old house, the watchers in the lane can see that it is haunted tonight. But it would take television to prove it.
Daily Express, 11th March 1936.
The Kent Ghost
Scared of the BBC.
The BBC must feel rather small after the elaborate arrangements they made to discover a ghost in old Dean Manor at Meopham on Tuesday night. In the ordinary way these apparitions are rather shy and maybe the ghost of Meopham is the same, and therefore there there was little chance for him or her to appear before microphones and all sorts of weird apparatus which had been rigged up in various parts of the house.
The announcer told us about all the pre-preparations which had been made in a loud voice, enough to put any ghost on its guard. He said that a photograph would be taken. But ghosts don’t like snapshots. Was it likely that this shy shadow would face half-a-dozen men who were posted in various parts of the house and outside as well, and, worst of all, wax with powdered starch was placed on the floor to obtain footprints. The announcer told this secret to millions of listeners, and one of them might be the ghost. Added dto this, it would have heard us being told where all the watchers were stationed and how a scientific instrument had been placed in the cellar to register any varied temperature.
We have always understood that ghosts were shy and the only result of many hours’ silent watching was the fact that the air in the kitchen varied in temperature at various times. From eight o’clock until midnight these serious men from the BBC waited to hear strange sounds. Presently heavy footsteps were heard outside. Excitement! Breathless excitement! The sound died away and it was found that a mere mortal of a man had walked past the window. That was the only sound they heard during their vigil, save a train in the distance, the bleat of a sheep, the whimpering of a dog in the distance, and the hoot of an owl. All these experiences occurred between eight o’clock and midnight. If there should be a ghost in the old manor house of Meopham, it declined to appear that night; it will choose its own time with fewer mortals about.
Now why is this manor house supposed to be haunted? People who have lived there have heard strange noises. One of them says that in the granary strange tapping used to be heard, starting from the roof and coming down towards the floor, soft at first and then louder. This is the description given by a man who worked there. A resident of the Manor said there were sudden gusts of wind in the cellar; sometimes there was a bang as if a door had suddenly shut; and on other occasions a noise resembling an axe striking a block of wood could be heard. On one occasion a dog suddenly started whining and rushed out of the house, so scared that it began to pine away and was at last mercifully destroyed.
It is said that there may be two ghosts walking this earth at Meopham, one being the ghost of a servant girl who, charged with being a thief, hanged herself, while, the second was a member of the old county family of Twisden, a strong adherent of Cromwell, who signed King Charles’ death warrant. He was taken prisoner at Dean Manor by the Royalists and had his throat cut! It was on the strength of these stories that the BBC last Tuesday night went down to Meopham full of hope, and returned disappointed.
Kentish Express, 13th March 1936.
Kent Ghost Was Microphone Shy.
Refused to walk for BBC.
Meopham was sceptical from the first!
The ghost of Dean Manor – if ghost there be – proved coy when on Tuesday night she was invited by the BBC to proclaim her existence to a listening world. The broadcast, so say the BBC, was a serious investigation, not a stunt, and if it has proved anything, it is that ghosts are shy beings, who at the first breath of publicity retreat into the outer space where they are doomed to wander. Neither muffled footsteps nor mysterious rappings rewarded the listeners, – though it was a thrilling entertainment, well staged and well carried through.
But Meopham has heard so many ghost stories that the villagers refused to take the matter seriously. Few of them even troubled to listen and those who did listened condescendingly. “We mustn’t grudge the BBC its little joke,” was their attitude. One of them – and he something of an antiquarian – told the “Kent Messenger” that it was “a lot of rot.”
It is true that at one stage the temperature in the cellar was observed to fall – a sign, it was said, that a ghost might be about – but it might, on the other hand, have been due to the folk sitting round the table above getting cold feet through having sat still so long! But it was good fun, – and perhaps Mr Harry Price and Mr F.H. Grisewood will have better luck next time.
Maidstone Telegraph, 14th March 1936.
The “Haunted House” of which an investigation was recently arranged to be broadcast by the BBC: Dean Manor, near Meopham, Kent.
The BBC announced for March 10 “a scientific investigation, by Harry Price and F.H. Grisewood, into the alleged haunting of an old manor house.” The cellar door, it is said, refuses to remain closed unless locked, and muffled footsteps are heard. Microphones were placed in the cellar and an attic. Preparations were made to record finger-prints or foot-prints. Dean Manor, which dates form the twelfth century, was the birthplace of Simon de Mopham, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1327 to 1333.
Illustrated London News, 14th March 1936.
The Ghost of Meopham refused to walk or talk for the BBC. Special precautions were taken to ensure that no practical jokers broadcast instead. Picture shows a police officer guarding the entrance to Dean Manor.
Maidstone Telegraph, 14th March 1936.