North Wootton.
The repose of this quiet little village has recently been sadly disturbed by a ghost, which appears to have taken up its winter quarters in the vicinity of a carpenter’s shop. A few months since, an old carpenter died suddenly, leaving no will, but it was supposed a considerable sum of money was concealed in his house. Since the old man’s death the house has been occupied by his unmarried sister and nephew, who is carrying on his uncle’s business.
The house is situated a little more than a hundred yards from the village inn, and about the same distance from a grist mill, and persons going to the mill have to pass the “haunted” house. About a month since a farm labourer, trudging along with grist on his shoulder, was nearly frightened out of his small modicum of wits, by seeing the old carpenter sitting on the grind stone. Down went the corn, and away went the man across the fields towards his home, nor did he stop till he reached it, burst open the door, and fainted away, and kept his bed for a week afterwards.
Since then, noises have been heard in the shop several times a week, the horrid din of sawing, and hammering, and chopping, commencing about 10 o’clock in the evening and lasting an hour or more. During the visitation, the female occupant of the house flies to the mill, and the nephew to the inn; at both these houses the noises are distinctly heard. The supposed operator – the ghost – however, has been seen only once, and that was when he happened to be resting on the grindstone.
There is now scarcely a heart in the village stout enough to pass the ghost shop alone after dusk. Some of the villagers think the old carpenter has come back to finish a wagon he had begun just before he died; others suppose his spirit cannot rest because his death was so sudden he had no time to dispose of the gold concealed on his premises. – Bath and Cheltenham Gazette.
Shepton Mallet Journal, 19th February 1869.