Mystery of a “Haunted” House
Furniture Moves as Though it Were Alive
Safes Topple Over
Experts Baffled by Strange Series of Incidents
Amazing incidents in a house at Roose, near Barrow-in-Furness, are puzzling experts who have been sent there. Furniture has behaved as though alive, a table leaping into the air and a kettle flying off the hob. The house is occupied by a railway station-master and his family. Railway experts have been unable to explain the incidents.
Flying Kettle. Son Struck by It as It Flew Through Air – Experts Baffled
From our own Correspondent – Barrow-in-Furness, Friday.
There have been some strange happenings at the Station House at Roose, near Barrow-in-Furness. It is occupied by Mr. J. M. Jackson, the stationmaster, his wife and son. “The incidents began at a quarter to five last Sunday,” Mr. Jackson told me. “We have two meat safes in the living room. Suddenly, without any warning, one of these safes fell over. In the safe was a dish of eggs, but none of them was broken. The other safe toppled over later and the contents were strewn all over the floor. We did not pay any special attention to these things, but the following morning the kettle, which was on the gas stove, was flung across the floor.
“Tuesday was a terrible day. About 11 a.m. the top of a large oil stove fell over and later the bottom half fell, the oil being sent all over the floor. Just when we had finished tea that day the table began to tremble and lifted up six inches and a chair toppled over. A copper kerb fell over and the kettle on the hob was flung right across the floor. On one occasion, when my son was coming downstairs, the kettle was flung off the ring and hit his finger. Much crockery has been broken and our Christmas stuff all spoiled. It has been a most uncanny experience and I am thinking of leaving.”
Other Roose railwaymen have seen some of the happenings. The house has been visited by experts of the L.M.S. Estates Office, but nothing has been found that would cause the trouble.
Daily Mirror, 27th December 1930.
A story of strange happenings at the stationmaster’s house at Roose, near Barrow, England, is being told. The house is occupied by Mr John M Jackson, his wife, and son, and is near the railway station.
Mr Jackson states that the strange incidents began on Sunday afternoon. “We have two meat safes standing in a corner of the living-room,” he said. “Suddenly, on the Sunday afternoon, one toppled over and a dsih of eggs fell out, but not a single egg was broken. We did not attach much importance to this, but the same evening the other safe fell over and the contents were strewn over the floor.On the Monday morning a kettle on the gas-ring was flung off the ring right across the room. It was absolutely amazing. We wondered what was going to happen next.
“Tuesday was a terrible day. About eleven o’clock a large oil-stove suddenly toppled over and just missed my boy’s head. I placed the two portions up again and in the evening the bottom portion fell over and the oil was deposited on the floor. In the evening I felt the table trembling, and as I got up a chair fell over. we had just had tea. The table jumped inches. The kettel, too, was thrown off the fire hob, and hit my son’s finger.
“It has been an uncanny experience,” he concluded, “and we cannot stay here any longer if it goes on.”
Some of these happenings, it is stated, were witnessed by other railway men. Officials of the L.M.S. Estates Office have been to see the place, and declare it to be a mystery.
Wicklow People, 3rd January 1931.
A Haunted House.
Table that Jumped.
Kettle flung from stove.
From our own correspondent. Barrow, Friday.
During this week there have been some weird occurrences at the station-master’s house at Roose, near Barrow-in-Furness. The house is occupied by the station master, John M. Jackson, his wife and son.
“These strange things,” said Mr Jackson, to-day, “started last Sunday afternoon, when, without any warning, one of the meat safes in the living room fell over. There was a dish of eggs in the safe but none was broken. Later in the evening another meat safe fell over and the contents were strewn over the floor. Not a deal of importance was placed on these happenings, but on the following day a kettle boiling on the gas ring came flying off and was flung across the room. It was amazing,” said Mr Jackson, “but Tuesday was terrible. About 11 o’clock the top of an oil stove toppled over, and later the bottom half also fell over. Just after we had finished tea the tea table started trembling and jumped up six inches. A plate was thrown into the curb and a chair was turned over. A large copper curb with box ends was overturned and the kettle on the hob flew across the room. We dare not put the kettle on the gas ring. My boy was coming downstairs and the kettle flew off the ring and hit him on the finger. A lot of crockery has been broken. Some of these occurrences have been witnessed by others.”
Railwaymen officials of the L.M.S. Estates Office have made an inspection, but the affair is a mystery.
Leeds Mercury, 27th December 1930.
Weird Happenings.
Furniture that moved in a Roose house. Occupants find new home for Yuletide.
An alarming state of affairs is reported at the stationmaster’s house at Roose, Barrow, with the result that through the mysterious moving of furniture and other articles on the ground floor without any apparent reason, the stationmaster, Mr. J. Jackson, his wife and child, and his mother, have had to find a new home during Yuletide in Risedale-road, Barrow, in order to escape the weird experiences which began to prevail on Sunday night last and continued unexpectedly until Tuesday night.
Yesterday Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, when interviewed at Roose, stated that they did not wish to make any statements, as the cause of the happenings was being investigated by railway company officials at Barrow. It appears that Mr. Jackson, who came from a Cumberland station to be the stationmaster at Roose about two years ago, had resided at the station house some little distance from the station without anything unusual occurring at the house until Sunday night last, when one of the safes in the back kitchen fell to the floor and caused a loud crash. Mrs. Jackson thought nothing about it except that she could not ascertain the reason why it should have crashed.
After that, however, on Monday and Tuesday evenings, there were other mysterious happenings. On Monday night Mrs. Jackson was alarmed because a table moved and knocked against her and then fell over. Her brother-in-law actually saw this happen, and could find no reason for it. An oil cooker, in which mince pies were being backed, fell, and the contents were scattered all over the floor. Jampots have fallen, a plant pot on the window sill fell to the floor, and many things, including the kerb around the fire, moved on to the kitchen floor.
All these movements appeared to originate from some cause or other in the floor, which is of ordinary wooden boards. Several of these boards were removed by Mr. Jackson and others who wanted to assist in finding the cause of the occurrences, but there was no reward. The concrete foundations of the house seemed without flaw, and there was no difference in any of the windows, doors, or walls. No pictures have fallen and nothing has been disturbed upstairs.
Policemen have watched the house at night-time, and nothing unusual has been heard or seen, and as the mystery of occurrences remained until Christmas Eve, some of the furniture was removed, and Mr. Jackson and family left.
The house stands within a few yards of the up railway line between Barrow and Carnforth, but a close observation does not disclose that the heavy railway traffic has any effect upon the house. Nothing has happened previously to last Sunday night of an unusual nature.
The furniture is being removed to storage until a new house is found or the real reason is discovered. It is thought in some quarters that there may have been some disturbance in the earth, either through water or gas, and that explosions or the passing of air from one socket to another in what is believed to be a subsoil on peat may have been the cause of the shocks to the floor of the house.
Lancashire Evening Post, 27th December 1930.
The Roose station-house “ghost” has been severely snubbed. L.M.S. Railway experts refuse to recognise its existence or give it credit for the strange happenings which are said to have taken place in the stationmaster’s house at Roose, near Barrow-in-Furness. Officially there is no ghost.
This is the position to-day, and it arises out of a visit to the “haunted” house which was paid yesterday by Mr John Inman, chief surveyor in the District Estate Agent’s office at Preston, and representatives of the company’s electrical department at Barrow-in-Furness.
Mr Inman discredits the “ghost” story. “I saw the stationmaster, Mr J.M. Jackson,” he told a “Lancashire Daily Post” reporter to-day. Undoubtedly he is of the opinion that certain strange incidents which have already been reported did, in fact, happen. “The company, of course, own the house and it was up to us to examine the property, so I went up yesterday. I may say there was no question of ‘ghost hunting’ about it. I went as a surveyor, not as an investigator of the supposedly supernatural. It was purely a case of seeing to the company’s property.”
“I examined the structure, and could find no evidence of any disturbance in the walls or floors – in fact, the incandescent gas mantles are intact. The premises were tested by an instrument for electrical or magnetic disturbance, and there was no evidence of this. We found no evidence at all of electricity in the walls. It is difficult to believe that the incidents, as related, actually took place, although it is quite possible some movement of the furniture might have occurred, caused by vibration, seeing that the house is situate between the railway and a main road, being only a few feet from the former and immediately adjoining the latter, and heavy traffic passes over both. The suggestion that the cause was a supernatural agency is, of course, ridiculous.”
In the meantime Mr Jackson and his family have removed from the house, and when Mr Inman’s attention was drawn to the fact he replied, “Well, if he doesn’t go back, I don’t think the company will have much difficulty in letting the house again.”
Lancashire Evening Post, 30th December 1930.