Two ghosts of cottage number 13.
Former home of a murderer.
Footsteps and a woman in grey.
Two ghosts, one a benevolent spirit, the other an evil one, haunt an old, creeper-clad house facing Three King’s Pond, on Mitcham Common, Surrey. The house was formerly the home of J. Canham Read, the Southend murderer, and it is here he was arrested 33 years ago. It is called Rose Cottage; recently it has been given a number – No. 13, Commonside East.
Mrs Ellis Burton, an official of the Mitcham Athletic Club, has lived in th ehouse for 17 years. She told a graphic story to the Westminster Gazette yesterday. “For yeasr we have heard uncanny noises, furniture has been moved, and I have sensed an uncanny prsence near me without seeing anything. The ghosts are revealed generally by footsteps and each time they have been heard, the house has been filled with a powerful scent of lavender. Shortly after the house was numbered I saw one of the ghosts – a woman – for the first time. That was on the Wednesday night after Christmas. She was a middle-aged woman in a grey Empire costume, with a most stately walk. I could not see through her. I was standing at the top of the stairs about ten p.m., when I saw her pass from the drawing room to the dining room. I thought it was a late caller and asked my husband to see who it was. He could find no one. We have not seen her since.”
“Some time ago my husband and I came home rather late, and distinctly heard heavy footsteps in an upstairs room. My husband, thinking it was a burglar, dashed upstairs and found – nothing. Our son and daughters were peacefully asleep. This is the one we regard as the malevolent spirit. Another time, when all the family were at supper, we heard a great crash upstairs, and a heavy chest of drawers was found nearly upside down.Visitors won’t sleep in th ehouse. The same noises were heard when my husband’s aunts lived in the cottage 20 years ago.”
A few years ago a deep well filled with water was discovered under the drawing-room, and was filled with soil. The well is said to be mentioned in the Domesday Book.
Westminster Gazette, 30th January 1928.