Haunted House Claim in Court.
Chesterfield Magistrates were told yesterday by a probation officer that a 60-year-old woman who admitted being found drunk complained of noises in her house. The woman was Mrs Gladys Wilkinson (60). Miss Marjorie Seath, probation officer, said she lived in a “dreadful condemned house” in Station Lane, Old Whittington, Chesterfield. Miss Seath added: “Mrs Wilkinson has complained of noises and all sorts of things in the house and this has worried her. When she gets worried and depressed she goes off for a drink.”
Mrs Wilkinson told the magistrates: “I am sure the house is haunted. Even my dog is frightened to death. It will not stop in the kitchen and keeps running upstairs. I have had to get drugs from the doctor to make me sleep.” Mrs Wilkinson, who has four previous convictions for similar offences, was put on probation for a year.
Miss Seath told a reporter that Mrs Wilkinson had complained about tapping and banging noises in the house. Once Mrs Wilkinson claimed she found a candle lit while she was in bed.
Birmingham Daily Post, 8th July 1958.