[…] Lifted and Shelves Broken.
[…] Unnerving Experience.
[…] are not unknown even in Ryedale. […] be filled if one had to record all […] be said and written on this subject. […] have been both “seen and heard” not once nor twice, but many times by many people in this district. In one of our villages there has been some sensation caused by the vagaries of one of these uncanny visitations, and the people residing in the vicinity of the “haunted” house are not a little perturbed. The “manifestations” are quite of the ordinary character and included in the repertoire of the “spirit” is the customary knocking and rapping.
The “ghost” has been quite vigorous recently, and among other things has lifted beds and broken shelves. It – we have yet to learn the sex – has even spoken to one of the inmates of the house, and has nearly frightened the life out of one or two more. It is reported that an endeavour has been made to exorcise the evil spirit by prayer, but from latest information received there is still much uneasiness and fear owing to the continued vagaries of “the ghost.” People who have gone to the house to hear for themselves have come away considerably scared. More will be heard of the Nawton ghost, we feel sure.
Only yesterday a well-known insurance agent called at the house and was greatly upset by the manifestations, the ghost causing pictures, furniture, and other things to move about in a most weird and disconcerting manner. Psychological investigators will no doubt be attracted by the sensational stories, some of which are stated on good authority.
Yorkshire Evening Press, 25th August 1910.
Ghostly Village Visitant
A great deal of excitement has been caused in the village of Nawton, between Helmsley and Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire, by the story of a ghostly visitant to a cottage occupied by a mason’s labourer named Underwood and his wife and family, says a “Daily News” correspondent. They have lived in the cottage about four years, and some little time ago the family was startled by strange knockings and noises in one of the upper rooms, but the most diligent searchers failed to discover a cause for the sounds. Later pictures have been observed to sway on the walls, and even a bed, it is reported, has been seen to rock.
A friend who visited the Underwood’s cottage at Nawton was told a strange story. According to Mrs Underwood the “ghost” seems to be particularly interested in her eighteen-year-old daughter Sarah, and the knockings are only heard when Sarah is about. The girl was asked by her mother to go upstairs and sing in order to “raise the ghost.” She mounted the staircase and began to sing a Methodist hymn. Only a few bars had been sung when a series of knockings were heard overhead, and these continued, although Miss Sarah could be seen sitting on the stairs some distance from the bedroom door. A subsequent inspection of the room did not reveal any solution of the knockings.
When the knockings had ceased a large picture in the living-room began swaying to and fro, and then the strange noises overhead commenced. As soon as she ceased so also did the mysterious demonstrations. When Sarah returned to the living room she strenuously denied that she was the cause of the strange sounds. “I cannot account for them at all,” she added.
“Have you no idea why these noises should worry you; have you seen any ghost?” asked the visitor.
“Yes,” was the reply of the girl. “Thrice I have seen a vision of a lady in white, and I believe she is the cause of the noises.”
Friends who have visited the cottage have been so frightened, it is stated, at the knockings and noises that some of them have dropped on their knees and prayed to be delivered from harm.
On one occasion the mother says she was much alarmed at seeing a bed move about when Sarah and her sister were asleep.
Bridlington Free Press, 2nd September 1910.
A Lady in White.
Ghostly Visitation in a Yorkshire Village.
Preacher rebuked in chapel.
Message delivered to a family.
The latest story – and a strange one – of a ghostly visitation emanates from the pretty little Yorkshire village of Nawton, which lies between Helmsley and Kirbymoorside. In a small four roomed cottage on the fringe of the village resides a mason’s labourer named Underwood, his wife, and several children. Since April last, according to the evidence of members of the family, mysterious noises have been heard in the house, and sometimes the pictures on the walls have been seen to move in an uncanny way.
The noises, it was noticed, seemed to follow a particular member of the family – an eighteen-year-old daughter named Sarah. The noises would commence immediately this girl went upstairs, and particularly if she began to sing. The knockings seemed to the family to come from under the step leading down into the bedroom in which the girl Sarah sleeps with her sister, and they ripped out the woodwork, but found nothing to account for the phenomena. Mr Underwood also nailed a piece of wood over a sort of crevice opening into the kitchen, but this was unaccountably torn off.
Strange still, Miss Underwood who is described as a typical country girl, with rosy cheeks, and of quiet demeanour, states that three times she has seen a vision of a beautiful lady in white. Unfortunately, only this meagre detail of the vision has been given.
The last phase of the story, as told by the Underwoods, is that an ‘angel from Heaven’ has, in a voice of unmistakeable clearness, delivered a message to the family. What this message is has not been divulged.
A ‘Leeds Mercury’ representative, who paid a visit to the Underwoods at their home on Tuesday, found the members of the family not at all disposed to talk about the ghostly visitation. Until recently they talked readily enough of their strange experiences, but owing to the scornful scepticism with which the statements have been received they have changed their attitude, though they stoutly maintain the truth of all that they have hitherto stated.
Mrs Underwood, a middle-aged woman, of serious mien, spoke for the family to a representative yesterday. “It is all true,” she said. “We understand what it means now. We have had a message from an angel in Heaven, and we are quite reconciled to it. Those who make light of it now will regret it some day. They need to hear the voice, and they could do it if they would only listen. When my daughter (Sarah) goes out, they laugh at her, and call out, ‘There goes the lady in white.’ But she can stand that, and does not mind. We still hear the angel’s voice, and we understand it all, and are not afraid. It is a message of warning to the family.”
Here another daughter, who was carrying a baby (Sarah herself was not present) remarked gravely, “You have been told not to tell, mother. You will be punished if you do.”
“I could not say what it is for anything,” continued Mrs Underwood. “We understand the message, and we do not mind what others say. That is all we have got to say about it. We have not done anything wrong, although people say all sorts of things. Someone else heard the message as well, but I shall not tell you who it was.”
At this moment Mr Underwood, a slightly built man of about forty, came in from work for his dinner. “It is all true, and we understand it,” he remarked, speaking as seriously of the matter as the other members of the family did. “We are not going to say anything more about the matter.”
The members of the family, it should be remembered, are devoutly religious, and attend the little Primitive Methodist Chapel in the village. At a recent service in the chapel the preacher, in the course of his sermon, related an anecdote, and then added, as if in rebuke of the Underwoods, “This is no ghost story.” Mr Underwood was present, and he stood up and told the preacher that the remark was uncalled for, adding that if some of the people there had heard the voice from Heaven they would treat the matter very differently.
It may be imagined that the village gossips have had a rare time of late. They are not a credulous folk there, it would seem, for the Press representative could find no one in the village who credited the story of the visitation. Everywhere mention of it called up a smile eloquent of cynical unbelief, and wordy ridicule in plenty. Yet in just such a sleepy village one would have expected superstition to flourish.
It ought in fairness to the Underwoods to be mentioned that a Pressman who some time ago visited the cottage has placed it on record that he heard the noises and saw the pictures move.
It was mentioned that the noises seemed to follow the daughter Sarah, and when he called the mother asked her to go upstairs and sing. The girl did as requested, sat on the stairs, and began to sing. In a few minutes (according to the testimony of the Pressman) there were about half-a-dozen heavy knocks in the corner of the ceiling, followed by knocking immediately above his head. Then followed a most uncanny sound, as though some one was dancing in a circle in the room above. Glaring up at a picture he saw it apparently sway backwards and forwards distinctly.
He tried to similarly move the picture afterwards, and could not do so. He then crept to the stairs and looked up at the girl, who was leaning on a rail at the top of the stairs. Her right hand appeared to be moving, but no sound followed. He made a remark to the girl, and she answered him as though waking from a dream. Then she went to the door and moved her right arm as though writing on the door. No further knocking followed.
This testimony notwithstanding, the villagers remain unconvinced.
Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser, 10th September 1910.