Ghostly visitor at Padfield.
We have been told this (Friday) morning, that a ghost – a veritable, bona fide ghost visited Padfield last night. They want something to waken them up over there, and it may be as well one thing as another. The deceased gentleman, it seems, was not satified by the way his money was being spent by his heir, and so he came back, kicking up an awful rumpus. We wish the ghost every success.
Glossop-dale Chronicle and North Derbyshire Reporter, 29th January 1876.
The Padfield Ghost.
As we mentioned last week, the good people of Padfield have been lately disturbed by a nasty, disagreeable, noisy visitor from another world. As far as we can learn, the spirit seems to have been called back to the world by a ‘medium’ residing at Ashton. some parties from Padfield had been led by curiosity to visit him, and amongst others the spirit of an old neighbour took possession of the entranced “medium,” and spoke to them with all his old quaintness of phraseology and peculiarities of utterance. The parties were simple enough to attack the spirit on his weak point, telling him that his heirs and successors were not practising the same economy he had done. That was too much for the ghost, who bolted out of the medium (who, by the way, is a native of Padfield himself) with a whizz just as if the steam was being let off a railway engine.
The scene then changes to Padfield, which the spirit had, evidently reluctantly, determined to re-visit. The lady of the house says that ever since they sold a piano of which the spirit when in the flesh was fond, they have had no rest in the house. The house is a double one, and the parties living in the other have also been much disturbed, but their terror culminated last week. The house being empty that night, they heard awful noises coming from it; pots were shaken tremendously without being broken, and the screams of a female as if in the act of being strangled were heard.
Nay more, the kitchen door has of itself opened in the daytime, and neighbours have been brought in to see the wonder. Need we be surprised that the couple living in the other house were terribly frightened, – that in their fright they fell upon their knees and prayed as they never had prayed before; or that they should go in visible and apparent terror to the gentleman who collects the rents to give him notice to leave.
The peculiarity is that these sounds are only heard in the house at the back, and that in the three beyond they are allowed to sleep undisturbed. Has this medium in Ashton, we would like to know, done a mischief which he cannot repair by bringing the spirit amongst the crockery in the cupboard? Has property to be injured and rendered tenantless, and yet will no action for damage lie against the medium, or for trespass against the spirit. As to the latter, the difficulty would be to catch him; but the medium can be caught, and if he is wise, or if he would even do a neighbourly act, he will forthwith travel to Padfield, and try to reason with, or exercise or do something to stop the pranks of this mischievous ghost.
We have a suspicion a rat trap might do as well, but those who know most about it seem to believe in the spirit most sincerely. – R.I.P.
Glossop-dale Chronicle and North Derbyshire Reporter, 5th February 1876.