Riddle of a home that goes bump in the night.
A phantom tapper is driving Albert and Ivy Cardwell up the wall. They say the drumming noise each night on their bedroom wall is causing their health to crack up. Council engineers have examined the heating system in their ground floor flat in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and a priest has been called in to bless their home. But the noises continue.
Mr Cardwell, aged 59, a retired driver, and his 58-year-old wife think it is the ghost of a disabled old woman who died in the flat after knocking in vain for hours to raise the alarm. Mr Cardwell said yesterday, “I don’t mind admitting I’m frightened. This thing is just driving us crazy.”
They have been hearing the noises since they moved into the two-bedroom flat with their son, Kevin, aged 24, in Oakhill, Rotherham, on July 7. Mr Cardwell added: “We have spent hundreds of pounds on furnishings and decorations for this flat and we don’t want to leave, but this thing could drive us out.”
Rotherham Borough Council said: “We are still looking into the case but could find nothing wrong in the flat. However, these flats are on a district heating system and pipes do run along the outside wall and there could be a fault some distance away which is causing noise to be transmitted.”
If the trouble was causing health problems then the couple would be given priority if they asked for a move, said a council spokesman.
Wolverhampton Express and Star, 26th August 1986.
Tapping drives Ivy up the wall.
A phantom tapper is driving Albert and Ivy Cardwell up the wall, and the drumming each night on their bedroom wall is causing their health to crack up. Council engineers have examined their flat in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and a priest has blessed their home. But the noises continue. Mr Cardwell, 59, said yesterday: “I don’t mind admitting, I’m frightened. This thing is just driving us crazy.”
Western Daily Press, 26th August 1986.
The Oakhill Flats were replaced by Springwell Gardens in 1997.