Mystery Noises at Ramsgate House.
Corporation Officials Baffled
Manifestations of a poltergeist?
Mysterious night and day noises ranging from a slight rapping to a sound resembling the clang of a hammer on an anvil have been puzzling neighbours and worrying a family, living in a house on the border of Ramsgate and Broadstairs, during the past 10 days.
Rats from a derelict war-time anti-aircraft gunsite at Dumpton were at first thought to be the cause of the phenomena, but baiting in all parts of the house and the removal of floorboards has failed to reveal any trace of them. Every physical explanation for the inexplicable noises has been explored. Each has produced negative results.
The circumstances under which the noises are heard are in many ways analogous with the case of the Fox sisters, at Hydesville, New York, mentioned by the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his famous book “The History of Spiritualism,” and for that reason it is considered possible that the strange happenings at the Dumpton house may be manifestations of a poltergeist.
I was one of a party of five people who spent over an hour in the house last week, writes a Thanet Advertiser reporter, but during the time were were present no noises of any kind were heard. The other members of the party in addition to myself were Ramsgate’s Medical Officer of Health (Dr. J.V. Walker), the Borough Sanitary Inspector (Mr. Edgar Young), and Councillor and Mrs. Percy Turner, both of whom have had considerable experience in the field of psychic research.
But to begin at the beginning. When the noises first became persistent, the house was occupied by a young housewife and in the house on Monday night, her schoolgirl daughter. The noises, which had previously been heard in another house five doors away, consisted of a tapping, scraping and gnawing, as if someone were trying to turn an obstinate screw. The house itself, a well=built semi-detached building, is less than 20 years old.
At the New Year, when mother and daughter were away in Sidmouth, Devon, staying with the child’s grandparents, strange things began to happen. During the night, tappings and bangings were heard in the empty house. So loud and persistent did they become, that next-door neighbours were convinced that the house was occupied. From the back garden and the front garden they explored the house; they banged on the door and they called out. But there was no response. The house was empty.
Upon the return of mother and daughter, the noises began to occur more frequently. Rats were suspected and the Health Department of Ramsgate Corporation was consulted. One rat was in fact discovered but all subsequent baits remained untouched. Eventually the noises became so loud that they began to worry the housewife. Her mother came up from Sidmouth to stay in the house with her. Then the occupier of the house decided upon an experiment which gave rise to the suspicion that the sounds might be the manifestations of a poltergeist. She made a number of rhythmic taps with her hand. After a pause of some seconds, the exact number of taps she had made were repeated.
“The noises do not comeat any set time,” the grandmother told me. “We have heard them at half-past eight in the morning,” she said, “but more often about half-past ten or eleven o’clock at night. The worst night of all was last week, at half-past two in the morning when the banging was so loud that it seemed just as if someone was hitting an anvil with a hammer. The vibrations from the knocking were so heavy that it shook the beds.”
The Ramsgate Corporation official rodent operator was again called in. Bait was laid but was untouched. Floor-boards in the house were removed and no trace whatever of rats could be found. Even more curious was the fact that when Mr. Pearce, the operator, made a series of raps, the exact number were returned. The occupier of the house next door has also been called in on several occasions and he, too, has received a reply to his knockings.
The house has been subjected to examination by building experts, members of the N.F.S. have tested the water supply in the vicinity and police officers have search, but still the noises persist, unexplained.
Another experiment has also been tried. When the noises were heard in the upstairs bedroom in which the schoolgirl was sleeping, her bed was removed downstairs. The noises then reappeared in the room into which the child had been moved. So bad did the noises become one night that the family moved into the house of a neighbour, some doors away. The tappings were heard in the other house.
The sounds are not heard every night. “One night last week we heard nothing and we all slept soundly,” the grandmother said. “We thought we had got rid of our visitor. But the next night, at half-past two in the morning, they came on worse than ever. We called in a policeman, who searched the house and found nothing.”
Officials of Ramsgate Health Department are frankly baffled by the whole thing. “We laid special baits which no rat could have resisted,” Mr. Young told me. “They have not been touched. We have taken up the floor boards but we can’t find any trace of rats.” Up to the present, all attempts to find a physical explanation for the noises have failed. The only conclusion left is that they are some form of spirit manifestations. Many instances have been recorded in the past in psychic research of poltergeists operating in identical circumstances.
It was with a view to discovering if some psychic explanation would be forthcoming that we sat in the back ground-floor room. The time passed. We relaxed. We talked. But no noises at all were heard. After an hour, Dr. Walker, Mr. Young and myself left the house. Councillor and Mrs. Turner stayed on awhile. But the house remained silent.
Whatever the cause of the noises, the family want to put an end to them as soon as possible. “I knew the previous occupiers of the house and they had never experienced anything like this,” the housewife told me. “Our sleep has been disturbed for many nights now and we shall all be pleased when the whole thing is cleared up.”
Thanet Advertiser, 25th February 1947.
Mischievous “Spirit” Silenced
Noises no longer trouble family
Psychic revelations at councillor’s home.
After a week of intensive psychic investigation, a Ramsgate Town Councillor claims to have solved the mystery of night noises which have been worrying a local family for the past seven weeks. Mr Percy Turner thinks he has now definitely established that the noises were manifestations of psychic origin. Following a lengthy conversation with a “mischievous spirit” who passed on some time ago the noises have now ceased and the family has this week enjoyed nights of undisturbed sleep for the first time in many weeks.
Last week, the Thanet Advertiser published the first full account of noises which had occurred in the house, a modern villa on the border of Ramsgate and Broadstairs. The noises had ranged from mere tappings to bangs like the clang of a hammer striking an anvil and all efforts to provide an explanation for them failed. It was at first thought that rats were the cause of the sounds and officials of Ramsgate Corporation were called in to deal with them. Laying of baits and removal of floorboards, however, failed to reveal any trace of vermin. Following this, Mr. Turner, who has considerable experience in the field of psychic research, decided on a line of investigation to prove his belief that the noises were the manifestations of a poltergeist.
A Thanet Advertiser reporter who has been following the developments at the house since the disturbances became more pronounced, during the past two weeks, discussed the results of the investigations with Mr. Turner, on Thursday. Here is his story. Because of personal details which were revealed during the course of the investigations, substitute names have been given for the members of the family – an 11-year-old schoolgirl, her mother and grandmother. After spending four evenings in the house last week, Mr. Turner, who had been accompanied by his wife, arranged a call signal and an alphabetical code in order that the family could communicate with the spirit world. About midnight on Thursday, after Mr. and Mrs. Turner had left, taps were heard and Mrs. Waters, mother of the girl, got into direct communication with a spirit, who turned out to be a close relative. The conversations lasted until four o’clock the next morning.
On Friday night the manifestations reached their peak. Messages were received from a number of spirits. “My wife and I sat from 7 to 11 p.m.,” said Mr. Turner. “About 10 p.m. taps were heard and Mrs. Fry, the grandmother, came into the parlour to call me. We had previously been sitting with the ladies. Immediately she left the room the taps ceased and all was quiet. We left at 11 p.m.”
Then began the series of messages which lasted throughout the night. They were accompanied by a violent banging and clanging, followed by what seemed to be dancing in rhythm. This went on until 8 a.m. and the family were worn out and badly distressed by the time morning came. “As it appeared obvious that I wasn’t wanted – nothing started till we had gone – I arranged for Mrs. Waters, Mrs. Fry and the schoolgirl to sleep at my house, Fanling, St. Mildred’s-avenue, on Saturday night,” Mr. Turner continued. “Mrs. Waters and her daughter occupied one room and Mrs. Fry another. As they were worn out with loss of sleep they retired early. To begin with they occupied one bed, more for company than anything else, but I moved Mrs. Fry to the other room half-an-hour later as I was working on a definite plan. My wife and I also left the room after giving Mrs. Waters certain instructions. Almost immediately knocks were heard. The electric light was on in the room.”
The first message came from the spirit of an aunt, “Betty,” who intimated that she did not wish to speak to Mr. or Mrs. Turner. “Ultimately ‘Betty’ agreed to speak to Mrs. Turner but not to me,” said Mr. Turner, “so I stayed outside the door on the landing and listened. I could hear the knocks quite easily. They resembled a smart tap with the end of a finger on wood and they appeared to be on the bed frame.”
“Betty” revealed to Mrs. Turner that the disturbances had been caused by another spirit, named “Fred.” After this, the spirit allowed Mr. Turner to come into the room. Mr. Turner was able to contact the spirit of Mrs. Fry’s mother, who agreed to tell “Fred” that he must not trouble the family any more. After a pause, the call sign was heard again and “Fred,” cause of the disturbances, came through. “He was full of mischief and fun,” Mr. Turner told me. “He rapped louder and quicker than all the others. He never stopped for a moment.”
Mr Turner carried on a conversation with “Fred” and, in his own words, “then followed about 20 minutes never to be forgotten. Those present in the room were Mrs. Waters and her daughter, my wife, my wife’s mother and myself,” he went on. “The knocks became violent bumps which shook the bedstead. The vibration was terrific and periodically an extra heavy bump underneath the bed felt to those sitting and lying on the bed like a big kick from underneath. Mrs. Shooter, my wife’s mother, sat on the bed and said, ‘it’s like a kick from below.’ Whilst this was going on I talked to ‘Fred’ and tried to reason with him. Presently the bangs and bumps changed to a firm rhythmic tapping and simultaneously we all started humming ‘A life on the ocean wave’ and ‘Fred’ was now beating the time on the bedstead. After that came ‘Tipperary,’ ‘Pack up your troubles,’ and a lot of other well-known songs and dance tunes. We all forgot the occasion, I am afraid, and really enjoyed ourselves.”
Following this incident, Mr. Turner started up the hymn “The day Thou gavest Lord is ended.” “It was very noticeable that ‘Fred’ was only half-hearted with this and presently the raps ceased,” said Mr. Turner. “I told ‘Fred’ we would pray for him and he said ‘Yes.'” After this conversation Mr. Turner offered prayers. ‘There were no bangings after this – only a restrained tap-tap as questions were answered. We chatted awhile and told him now that he had left this place of existence and that life is continuous, he must now seek the Light and understand that he must continue his journey into the Higher Life which ultimately leads to God, and to do this he must leave earth behind.”
In the course of a conversation that followed, “Fred” promised not to worry the family any more. “On Sunday night the family retired again at 8 p.m. but beyond a few faint taps nothing happened,” said Mr. Turner. “The same happened on Monday and Tuesday nights and the family are now sleeping normally. On Wednesday night the family returned to their own house, where they all passed a peaceful night without disturbances of any kind. During the course of the investigations on Saturday night, the schoolgirl was taken out of the room in which the manifestations had occurred to be with Mrs. Shooter, Mr. Turner’s mother-in-law. The noises ceased altogether but reappeared when the girl went into Mrs. Fry’s room.
When the girl was brought back into the room with the remaining member of her family, the messages were at once resumed, proving that the family alone were able to provide the power through which the psychic influence made its presence felt. “We are hoping that my investigations have finally put an end to the experiences of the past few weeks,” Mr. Turner concluded. “The family are considerably eased in mind now that they know the reason for them. If no noises are heard this week they will all go away for a holiday after which they can return refreshed and undisturbed.”
[In view of the great interest aroused throughout the country by the incidents experienced by a number of independent people who have come in contact with the family, the Thanet Advertiser publishes the above objective account quite dispassionately as a matter of public interest. – Ed.]
Thanet Advertiser, 28th February 1947.