Uproarious ghost.
Bangs, crashes and stealthy steps.
Dog thrown down the stairs.
Bed seized and shaken.
Oxspring, near Penistone, a village with few inhabitants, has a weird phenomenon troubling it. Some would have it that a ghost is causing the trouble, but the tenant of the house where the actual trouble occurs does not believe in ghosts or any of their ways. Mr George Rowse, a locomotive driver on the L.N.E.R., who lives in Sheffield Road, Oxspring, has been awakened from his sleep time after time during the last two months by eerie noises on the landing outside his bedroom, by the same footsteps walking slowly and stealthily round his bed, by his bed being shaken, and by innumerable other weird things in the middle of the night.
Their ten-years-old daughter has seen glasses shake on the washstand, has seen chairs move beside the bed, has heard crashes and noises in the attic, and has had the very life frightened out of her by what her parents deny to be a ghost.
In the middle of the night, the Rowses told “The Sheffield Independent” yesterday, an uncanny noises, like the footsteps of a human being, will be heard coming up the stairs, along the landing, into the bedroom, and round the bed. Then the bed will shake as though someone had hold of the bed rails and were leaning and swaying on it.
One night a terrific crash occurred in the garret, and although investigations were made, nothing could be found to account for the noise. There is an old zinc bath up there with a lot of tools in it and it sounded as though these tools had been thrown from a height into the bath. But when a search was made the tools were lying there undisturbed and the bath had not moved.
Having been disturbed from their sleep on several occasions they invited a friend to come and sleep in the mysterious bedroom. This friend knew nothing of what had happened. In the middle of the night she was awakened by stealthy footsteps, and she roused up in horror at the sight of a drinking-glass shaking and wobbling on the washstand. She shrieked out and the Rowses came to her aid. But nothing was to be found.
On another occasion there was a terrible bang on the bedroom window, just as though someone were crashing their fist on it. Another peculiar fact, said Mrs Rowse, is that the dog never seems to hear any sounds, although the people in the house can hear them quite plainly. On one occasion, however, Mrs Rowse became so alarmed at the noises of eerie footsteps that she called the dog upstairs. The dog answered the summons but it could not get upstairs! When half-way up it fell down again and resolutely refused to mount the stairs again.
Mr Rowse is very often at work during the night and the terrifying experiences are unnerving to his wife. Both he and Mrs Rowse declared that neither of them are imaginative and do not believe in supernatural visitations.
Sheffield Independent, 11th September 1926.
Haunted House.
Weird Happenings in Dead of Night.
Footsteps on the stairs.
Shaking bed and moving chair.
From our own correspondent, Sheffield, Saturday.
Weird happenings are occurring almost nightly at Oxspring, a tiny village between Sheffield and Penistone. In the dead of night in the house of Mr George Rowse, a railway engine driver of Sheffield-road, footsteps can be heard mounting the stairs, walking along the passage into the bedroom and round the bed. Then the bed shakes as though someone were leaning on the foot of it, the chair by the bedside will move, and the glass on the washstand will wobble.
Mr and Mrs Rowse will not believe in supernatural visitations, but they cannot account for the weird happenings. An extraordinary thing about the occurrences is that a dog which is kept in the house never appears to hear anything, yet the tenants can hear the noises and feel the furniture shaking quite plainly. On one occasion, when Mrs Rowse was perfectly terrified, she called the dog upstairs, but it could not get to the top. When half-way up it fell down again, and could not be persuaded to remount the stairs.
It has been suggested that the house might be the scene of the visitations of what is known as the poltergeist. Poltergeist is the term applied to certain phenomena of an unexplained nature, such as the movement of objects and noises without any traceable source. The Rowse family certainly do not believe that the noises and the shakings are caused by any super-normal influence, but they are at a complete loss to account for them. They have made every possible investigation, but in spite of everything the noises continue, and have continued regularly for about two months.
A similar thing happened to them about four years ago, and the most extraordinary things happen in their house, they say. The bannisters on the stairs will give out loud cracks for no explainable reason, crashes will occur in the attic, the bedroom window has been known to give out loud cracks, and other things of an unnerving character have occurred regularly.
Liverpool Echo, 11th September 1926.
Bad-mannered ghost may be to blame.
Simple spook haunts a washstand.
By “The People’s” Correspondent.
Who flung the dog down the stairs? Who shook the drinking-glass on the washstand? Who banged on the bedroom window? And who walks round the house at an hour when all respectable householders are asleep? That’s what they want to know in this tiny village, where the residents of an otherwise normal house have been terribly disturbed by such sinister happenings as these. If it’s a ghost – and the tenants flatly refuse to believe that it is – it must be the noisiest spook ever!
All the best ghosts have chains and rumble in hollow tones, or point deadly white fingers through the darkness. No well-bred spectre would stoop to fling a well-meaning dog down the stairs or interfere with the household “gods.” But this Oxspring one is different. Just listen to what he’s been up to:-
Mr George Rowse, a locomotive driver on the L.N.E.R., who lives in Sheffield-rd., has been awakened from his sleep time after time during the last two months by eerie noises on the landing outside his bedroom by the same footsteps walking slowly and stealthily round his bed, by his bed being shaken and by innumerable other weird things in the middle of the night.
His ten-year-old daughter has seen glasses shake on the washstand, has seen chairs move beside the bed, has heard crashes and noises in the attic, and has had the very life frightened out of her by what her parents deny to be a ghost. In the middle of the night an uncanny noise like the footsteps of a human being will be heard coming up the stairs along the landing into the bedroom and round the bed. Then the bed will shake as though someone had hold of the bedrails and were leaning and swaying on it.
One night a terrific crash occurred in the garret, although nought could be found to account for the noise. There is an old zinc bath up there with a lot of tools in it, and it sounded as though these tools had been thrown from a height into the bath. But when a search was made the tools were lying there undisturbed and the bath had not moved. Having been disturbed from their sleep on several occasions, they invited a friend to come and sleep in the mysterious bedroom. This friend knew nothing of what had happened. In the middle of the night she was awakened by stealthy footsteps, and she roused up in the horror at the sight of a drinking glass shaking and wobbling on the washstand.
Another peculiar fact, says Mrs Rowse, is that the dog never seems to hear any sounds, although the people in the house can hear them quite plainly. On one occasion, however, Mrs Rowse became so alarmed at the noises of eerie footsteps that she called the dog upstairs. The dog answered the summons, but it could not get upstairs. When half-way up it fell down again, and resolutely refused to mount the stairs again.
Mr Rowse is very often at work during the night, and the terrifying experiences are unnerving to his wife. Both he and Mrs Rowse declared that neither of them is imaginative, and do not believe in supernatural visitations.
One theory of explanation is that the Poltergeist (a term applied to phenomena such as objects moving without traceable cause) is visiting the house. Similar happenings occurred there four years ago.
The People, 12th September 1926.
Only a Joke.
Oxspring “Ghost” merely a “leg-puller” for workmates.
With regard to the Oxspring “ghost” sensation, a “Sheffield Telegraph” representative yesterday interviewed Mr Rowse, whose house was supposed to be haunted, and was able to obtain facts which entirely destroy the whole fabric of the ghost story. It appears that Mr Rowse told the story in fun to his workmates and was naturally indignant when he saw it in the newspapers.
He has, however, successfully laid the “ghost” for his opening words to our representative were “Does a ghost eat cheese?” It appears that Mr Rowse, who had never given any credence that his house was inhabited by spooks had put some cheese on the joists and later the cheese had vanished, proving without doubt that the noises complained of, which had a similarity to feet padding along the floor, came from rats jumping from the joists on to the plaster or latting.
Mr Rowse was somewhat staggered when a simple joke brought the whole newspaper world to his door.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 13th September 1926.
Theory of the Oxspring Scare.
A very prosaic theory for the peculiar phenomenon experienced at Oxspring is given by an Oxspring man in a letter to the “Sheffield Independent.” In the home of Mr George Rowse, a railway engine driver, of Sheffield road, Oxspring – according to Mr Rowse – peculiar noises and rumblings have occurred, the bed has shaken and a glass on the washstand has shaken. The letter from the Oxspring man is as follows:-
Oxspring tunnel is only a stone’s throw away, and when one of the LNER engines is puffing away in the tunnel I myself have heard and seen the windows and door shake; but the vibrations cease on the engine emerging from the tunnel. This does not happen every time an engine is going through, but the fact remains that the houses shake at times when an engine is going through the tunnel.
Late one night after I had lit the gas there came a thud at the window. I was startled, but I went to investigate and found the phenomenon was a young bird on the window sill. Who would have guessed the culprit was a bird at a late hour?
Sheffield Independent, 14th September 1926.
Oxspring has once more been brought prominently to the notice of the public. This time it is by a remarkable story, told by a workman to his mates, of strange sounds during the dead of night like the tramp of stealthy footsteps mounting the stairs, walking along the corridor, parading around the bed, which was made to shake, and certain other articles of furniture and ornaments were made to tremble.
The story got to the ears of the Press, and a reporter was attracted to the place, and was told a similar story which in due course was presented to the public. Various explanations of the sounds heard in the dead of night were given: rats in the rafters, trains passing through the tunnel nearby. But whatever the cause, it is some satisfaction to know that the “ghost” has been laid.
Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express, 18th September 1926.