The Flying Dictionary – At Widnes
Poltergeist, says medium
Clock shattered
A Methodist minister in Widnes and a spiritualist medium in Runcorn are in conflict over the cause of strange happenings in a house at 1 Byron Street, Runcorn.
The minister, the Rev. W. H. Stevens, superintendent of Widnes Methodist Circuit, says that while the happenings are super-normal, they are not of supernatural origin. The medium, Mr. Phil France, says they emanate from a poltergeist.
For six weeks the residents have been terrified by weird happenings while they are in bed. Furniture in one bedroom has been wrecked. The tenant is 68-years-old Mr. Sam Jones and also in the house are his sister-in-law, Mrs. Lucy Jones, and his grandchildren John and Eileen Glynn. The local police set traps to catch a joker – and failed. The spiritualist held a seance for three hours, but the manifestations continued.
This week Mr. Stevens, accompanied by another Widnes Methodist minister, the Rev. Kinsey Lester, of Hartland Methodist Church, spent a night at the house. Mr. Lester, torch in hand, kept his other hand on the light switch. Mr. Stevens, also with a torch, was in the room. The noises commenced. The heavy dressing-table commenced to vibrate violently. A dictionary flew across the room and hit Mr. Stevens. Other books, jars, and bottles were flung with great force. A clock was hurled from one side of the room to the other and shattered against the wall. In the darkness a heavy blanket-box suddenly began to vibrate, and then turned completely over. One of the men sat on the box and was lifted slightly from the floor. The dressing-table rocked again and moved.
Mr. Stevens said: “There is no question of this being a hoax. Things are beyond a joke. Mr. Stevens said he would go back and apply further tests. The Rev. Kinsey Lester told a reporter: “I went as a sceptic, and do not feel prepared, at the moment, to make a statement. But certainly the happenings were very strange and unusual.” He, too, plans to go back.
Liverpool Echo, 26th September 1952
Strange Tales From Byron Street.
Furniture – and witnesses shaken!
Minister, struck by flying book, has a theory.
The Byron Street ghost walks again and all Runcorn is intrigued by the renewal of the “unearthly happenings”. This time there has been a variant in the occurences – a young man having been lifted out of bed and deposited on the bed-room floor. On another occasion when a book was thrown it caught the Widnes Superintendent Methodist Minister in the face! But generally speaking, the occurences have been repetitions of the previous “visitations” – the movement of furniture about the bedroom and the throwing of small articles. On Wednesday night the visitation proved to be of a more violent nature than ever before.
The news that the “ghost” had come back was quickly known to the neighbours, and even early on Sunday morning quite a number of people were attracted to the house. Since then many people – a few of them members of the Psychical Research Society – have been given admittance, and many more have been content to remain out of doors and thus gain experience at second hand. Several cars bringing interested people drew up at the house on Tuesday night.
It was after a rest period of 15 days that the “ghost” returned on Saturday night. It came again on Sunday and Monday nights and had another night off on Tuesday.
On Saturday night, John Glynn, the young man who lives at the house, was disturbed during the night, and on the next night John Berry, who lives close at hand in Picow Street, volunteered to spend the night in John Glynn’s company. “Things started to happen just after midnight,” says John Berry. “There was the rumbling of moving furniture and I was lifted off the bed and put on the floor.” Mr. Berry’s father, a porter on Runcorn Railway Station, said he could not believe what he had heard about the ghost. He got permission to go into the house on the next night, when several ministers were also present, and some people from Widnes.
“The night’s business started with the movement of furniture in the bedroom,” he said. “When the dressing table was moved a drawer fell out – up-side-down. A book fell off another piece of furniture, and when other books were thrown, one of them struck a man standing in the room. A cover on the dressing table was torn down the centre, and an alarm clock was thrown to the floor and was damaged. These things happened at intervals and were kept up until about four o’clock in the morning. With all that movement going on it was impossible for anybody in that house to get to sleep.”
Corroborative evidence that someone was struck on the head by a book is given by the Rev. W.H. Stevens, Superintendent Methodist Minister in Widnes. He is in a good position to speak about the truthfulness of the statement. The book – which he says was a dictionary – hit him! He went to the house on Monday night, and gives a clear account of his experience.
Mr. Stevens has been a member of the British Society for Psychical Research for many years, and has a scientific interest in the manifestations. He told the Weekly News that the society is a scientific body concerned with facts and the conclusions that may be drawn from those facts. It is not a religious body, and has no connection with Spiritualism.
As a result of his experience on Monday night, Mr. Stevens has evolved a theory, but says he would like to conduct strict tests to support his theory. His theory is that the force which causes the manifestations stems from an individual, a young man who is a member of the household, and who sleeps in the bedroom where the manifestations have taken place. He said the force could be caused by surplus vitality which finds an outlet in a strata of the subconscious mind and affects the outside world. This had a scientific and philosophical significance, but no religious meaning, said Mr. Stevens. There have been scores of parallel cases which have been fully investigated. He thinks that the force builds up to full strength like energy in an accumulator and needs time to build up again after each manifestation.
Asked whether he believes in Spiritualism, Mr. Stevens said there has been no scientific evidence of spirit communication but that there has been evidence strong enough to convince sceptics. Spirit communication follows another line of investigation, he added, and has no connection with the present case.
He said that he was at Byron Street from about 10-15p.m. till 4a.m. About 11-30p.m., when the young man to whom Mr. Stevens referred earlier, had gone to bed and was settling down for the night, noises began in his room. Mr. Stevens was told: “It has started.” Together with three members of the household he went upstairs to the room where the young man was in bed. He found that the dressing table in the room was damaged as a result of violent treatment it had received during past weeks at the hands of the mysterious force. The mirror had been broken, and drawers had been damaged.
Mr. Stevens, with two of the other people in the room, was seated on a spare bed there. The fourth man was sitting on a heavy wooden chest fitted with iron handles when it started to rock, so he moved to the bed with the others. Mr. Stevens said a strong force would be needed to shift this box, but it was hurled over on to its side after the man had left it. On that occasion the force seemed to be centred on the dressing table and on the chest. The dictionary which hit Mr. Stevens flew across the room from the dressing table, but books on a washstand in another corner did not move. Mr Stevens said the washstand had been damaged as the result of earlier visitations when it was the centre of the force.
As an experiment he asked the mysterious entity to knock three times if it could hear his voice. There were no knocks, but the dressing table was given three vigorous shakes. On the third, Mr. Stevens flashed a torch on to the dressing table and could see it rocking. There was no one near and it was too large a piece of furniture to be rocked by an ordinary push, he said. As a result of the treatment it had received that night the dressing table has been moved about a foot, he added. A cover on the dressing table was ripped from end to end. The occurrences all took place in the dark and were consistent with the activities of a poltergeist, or noisy ghost.
Mr. Stevens said the young man whom he considered responsible for liberating the force impressed him as “attractively frank and straightforward.” He had become so accustomed to the activities of the poltergeist that he was not worried by them. Poltergeists were usually associated with young people, continued Mr Stevens, as they seemed the most likely to release the necessary force. He did not think that the manifestations were a hoax, as nobody had moved in the room when the movements started. “If it was a hoax,” said Mr Stevens, “it was more clever than the cleverest stage illusion.”
Apparently this refutal of a hoax also expresses the opinion of one of the police officers who was called to the house to make investigations when the manifestations were first recorded. “No one played any tricks while I was in the room,” he said this week. “I saw to that,” he added, and those who know him will readily realise there would be no half measures about his investigation.
The Rev. J. L. Stafford, the minister of Camden Methodist Church, Runcorn, was also in the house on Monday and again on Tuesday night. On the latter night there were no manifestations. But he was present when “things occurred” on Monday. It will be recalled that a week ago we quoted him as writing: “We cannot dismiss all the evidence collected by the Society for Psychical Research. We cannot dismiss the phenomena of mediumship.” On Monday night he experienced at first hand some of the evidence which has been accumulating in Byron Street. Already broadminded on this subject, he now has no reason to shift his position.
A member of the Chester Psychical Research Society who works in Runcorn, has also spent two nights in the house this week. Although it was all quiet on Sunday night, when the fairly heavy trunk in the bedroom was lifted on a number of occasions and then merely allowed to drop, until eventually it was moved about the floor. “I was lying on a bed and put my spectacle case and an electric light torch on the trunk. There came a period in the night when my spectacle case was thrown violently at the wall on the opposite side of the room, and the torch fell on the floor. Other things were thrown about the room. Some of them were thrown with vigour and others were merely “lobbed” from the position they had previously occupied. The now well known dressing table was also moved, and so also was a washstand. The young man of the house who was lying beside me on the bed, was tumbled off the bed and on to the floor. Somehow the phenomena seems to be centred around that young man and the dressing table. Of course, all the incidents occur in the dark, and I made the suggestion that a small-powered electric bulb should be left burning in that room during the night.”
Yesterday morning (Thursday) the bedroom was a shambles. This was the outcome of what Mrs. Lucy Jones, who lives in the house, described as “the worst night yet.” The dressing table, about which much has been said and written, is almost a complete wreck. The back has been knocked out, and the two ornamental sets of drawers originally flanking the top of this piece of furniture are now badly broken. They had been put back into their original position during Wednesday, but that night they were wrenched away. One was lifted right over the bed and in its passing, caught John Glynn on the head. “The other small drawer was thrown into another corner of the room,” said Mrs Lucy Jones yesterday.
Mr. Cecil Berry was in the room at the time and when he called at the Runcorn Weekly News office yesterday, he could display a considerable lump on top of his head. This was sufficient proof to him that the throwing of a drawer across the room is not an illusion. He was hit by the drawer.
On previous occasions the dressing table has been moved a few inches, and even turned on its side. On Wednesday night it was turned completely upside down – with its four legs, one broken, up in the air. The alarm clock had another battering during the night. Although it can be rattled like a money box, it is still going. Yet no longer can it tell the time. It lost the minute finger on Wednesday night when it was crashed against the wall over the fireplace with sufficient force to make a considerable hole in the plaster. Another hole over the fireplace was made when a chair was projected across the room.
“Books and other objects were flying about for long periods at a stretch,” said Mrs. Jones as she handled the washing basin and its accompanying big jug – both broken on Monday night. “That was the night,” she said, “when the dressing table was pushed against the bedroom window and broke it.” The glass, falling into the backyard, was heard by the neighbours.
On Wednesday night, John Glynn was again accompanied by his friend John Berry. They had hardly done much more than get into bed when they were both pushed on to the floor. Before being turned upside down, the dressing table was pushed right across the room, a distance of seven or eight feet. The fairly heavy trunk was again lifted up and down, and evidence of this banging can be seen in the kitchen ceiling immediately below, where the plaster is breaking and revealing the laths.
Mr. Harold Crowther, of the Farm, Heath Road, Runcorn, witnessed the occurrences on Monday night. “There were others present,” he said, “when I put my overcoat on the top of the dressing table and said, ‘If you don’t want it, give it back to me’! It was thrown back at me!” says Mr. Crowther. “And it happened three times. I was there when the minister from Widnes was struck by a book.” Yesterday (Thursday), Mr. Crowther revealed another interesting incident. “Things were being moved and thrown about,” he told the Weekly News, “and then I said, ‘Instead of doing all this damage, why not put the things back for a change?’ When something was heard I flashed on my electric hand torch and actually saw a dressing table drawer moving across the bed towards the dressing table. The drawer had previously been thrown across the room on to the trunk. I sat on the trunk and could feel it dithering, but when I got off, the trunk was pushed violently against the wall.”
Runcorn Weekly News, 26th September 1952.
Spiritualists to attempt to contact the “ghost.”
What is the secret of No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn? What is the tenant Mr. Sam Jones, hiding? These questions arise as the result of Mr. Jones ordering newspapermen off the premises on two separate occasions this week.
With the object of helping the Jones family and of giving the public a sober account of the mysterious happenings at Byron Street, the Weekly News has endeavoured to carry out investigations into the reported manifestations of ghostly activity at the house, but has been unable to carry out the most important test of all because Mr. Jones would not permit representatives of the paper to stay at the house.
On Wednesday night two Weekly News representatives were admitted to the house, together with a party of Runcorn spiritualists who were permitted to conduct a seance in the room which is alleged to be the centre of strange activity. Afterwards the two newspapermen were discussing the happenings at the house with a Widnes business man and the Rev. J.L. Stafford when MR. Jones came through from another room and ordered the journalists out. This followed an occasion earlier in the week when two reporters were turned away from the house after Mr. Jones had told them he could not promise they would be admitted then or at any other time. In spite of his cavalier dismissal of the Press on Wednesday night, Mr. Jones had no hesitation in admitting several people who were obviously complete strangers to him.
One inquisitive visitor who is understood to have been connected with spiritualist publications, and who admitted he is a believer in psychic phenomena, was allowed to stay in the house when others who had no connection with spiritualism were turned away. The treatment meted out to Weekly News representatives at Byron Street was in direct contrast to the reception given them by Runcorn spiritualists earlier in the evening. The spiritualists held a seance at which Mr. John Glynn, the young man round whom the disturbances at Byron Street centred, was present. The Rev. J.L. Stafford, Minister at Camden and Greenway Road Methodist Churches, was present at both seances.
The seance, which was held in another part of the town, took the form of what is known as a “trumpet circle.” In this, those taking part form a circle, at the centre of which a cone-shaped trumpet is placed. The ends of the trumpet are coated with luminous paint, so that it is visible when the room is darkened. If contact is made with the spirit world, the trumpet is supposed to float upwards and round the circle, issuing spoken messages to individuals in the circle.
After those taking part in Wednesday night’s seance had offered up a prayer, they began to sing hymns in an endeavour to make the atmosphere more propitious for spirit manifestations. Three women, who claimed they had mediumistic powers, said they saw spirit forms in the vicinity of the trumpet. Finally, one of these women, Mrs. Annie Newby, of Ivy Street, Runcorn, took Mr. Glynn by the hand, and went into what the spiritualists said was a trance. During this she told Mr. Glynn that the trouble in his room at Byron Street was caused by an earthbound spirit, and warned him against permitting large numbers of strangers into the house.
She advised him to join in prayer in his own room with genuine spiritualist friends who would form circles to contact the spirit world, and in time defeat the earth-bound spirit.
After that, Mr. Glynn left the gathering, and the spiritualists adjourned to Byron Street, where they held another seance in the battered remains of Mr. Glynn’s room. Though the trumpet was not used this time, members of the circle claimed that they saw a Zulu and two little girls in white, kneeling in prayer. The two Weekly News representatives were present at both seances, though impressed by the sincerity of those taking part, were unable to see any of the phenomena claimed by the spiritualists. These representatives heard Mrs. Newby give her message but because of the darkness in the room are unable to say that she was in a trance. There is no doubt that the spiritualists were genuine believers in this form of religion and that they also believed the trouble at Byron Street could be eradicated with the aid of prayer and contacts with the spirit world.
It is understood that some of the neighbours are to prepare a petition asking that the police should disperse the crowd of “sightseers” who have been congregating in the locality. They are doing this on the grounds that the noise created in the street is preventing them from going to sleep. Letters on this theme have been received by the Weekly News this week. One suggests that all the lights should be left burning in the house all night. “To pay for it” writes one reader “a collection could be made from the large noisy crowd who swarm round the place every night.” The writer suggests that something should be done for the sake of the “tired neighbours” who, on account of the noise, “have lost so much sleep.”
An octogenarian correspondent has sent a novel letter – completely in shorthand. He writes: “If they would keep a small lamp burning in the bedroom the ghost would be afraid to come in the night. But would it not deprive you of ‘copy?'”
The Rev. J. L. Stafford, minister at Camden and Greenway Road Methodist Churches, Runcorn, is taking a keen interest in the strange happenings at No.1 Byron Street, Runcorn. He says there is no doubt about the manifestations of unexplained power, and that there is no doubt that the occupants of the house are genuinely distressed and living under a great strain. He told the Weekly News that his main concern is to help these people.
On Wednesday night Mr. Stafford took a prominent part in two seances conducted by Runcorn spiritualists. At the first seance, which took the form of a trumpet circle, Mr. Stafford led the spiritualists in their prayers. Later, in the allegedly “haunted” room of Mr. John Glynn, at Byron Street, Mr. Stafford again led the spiritualists in prayer, calling on God to remove the evil influence from the room and from the house. Mr. Glynn took part in the first seance, but was not present at the second in his room.
Afterwards, Mr. Stafford told the Weekly News that he had been interested in spiritualism since before the war. In the post-war years he said he has taken an active interest, but would not admit to being a spiritualist. Asked if he considered himself clairvoyant, Mr. Stafford said he could only say that he has had premonitions, but that so have most people.
He did not think that the seances conducted by the spiritualists had been particularly successful, and said that the trumpet seances could not be expected to show clear results until there had been many of them. The spiritualists had only been using the trumpet for a short time, and it was too early to expect movement, said Mr. Stafford.
The Influence Operated Away from Home.
Latest claims in the Byron Street haunting affair involve manifestations of the unexplained power in full view of observers. A Widnes business man, closely associated with psychical research, claims that the power associated with Mr. John Glynn, who sleeps in the allegedly haunted room at No. 1 Byron Street, was manifested in broad daylight at his home last Saturday.
This man told the Weekly News that Mr. Glynn and his friend, Mr. John Bury, were guests at his home in Cheshire on Saturday. They were in the midst of their midday meal when a glass of lemonade which the man’s wife was pouring for Mr. Glynn burst in her hand, causing a slight cut on the thumb. Though there was lemonade in both the glass and the bottle from which she was pouring it, none fell on the floor or the table. A small spot fell on the host, and another spot on Mr. Bury, but Mr. Glynn was drenched.
Last Friday night the Rev. W. H. Stevens, Superintendent Methodist Minister in Widnes, carried out certain tests at Byron Street, and claims to have seen objects in motion. Several articles, including a jigsaw puzzle were placed on the dressing table in John Glynn’s bedroom. Mr. Glynn was tucked up in bed with his hands under the covers when the lights were switched out, and though he was within reach of the dressing table, Mr. Stevens claims that he could not have set the objects in motion. He says he heard a slight click, and switched on a flashlight immediately. The jig-saw was just taking off from the dressing table, and Mr. Glynn was still completely covered by the bedclothes, his arms being underneath.
Room a Shambles.
According to those who have visited the house this week unexplained manifestations in the bedroom have been very slight since early Monday morning. Experimenters from Liverpool University were present on Tuesday night. They had recording apparatus and an infra-red camera but there was insufficient activity to warrant the use of the apparatus. Though the tenant of the house, Mr. Sam Jones, would not allow Weekly News representatives in the house at night, his daughter-in-law, Mrs Lucy Jones told the Weekly News that there was violent activity after 3 a.m. on Monday when visitors who had been present, had left. She claimed that her nephew, Mr. Glynn, and his friend, Mr. John Bury were in bed when the dressing table, which seems to be the centre of the trouble, was lifted up and deposited upside down on top of them. They righted it but it was smashed to pieces, some of which flew about the room. Mrs Jones said one of the youths covered his face with a pillow but that this was snatched away and ripped down the middle, feathers being scattered all over the house and into the street where they were visible the next day.
There has been a stream of visitors to the house each night and some nights there have been 200 or more waiting outside in the street. The police have been called out to control the crowd.
Runcorn Weekly News, 3rd October 1952.
“Bring it to an end at once.”
To the Editor.
Sir, – Our attention has been called to the manifestations being made at Runcorn, to which several people are purported to have made investigations. I should like as an investigator of some experience in these matters to point out that idle curiosity or clamour for sensationalism is hardly investigation, and the continuation of this condition can have a very serious effect on the subject whereby the entity gathers its strength. IN an investigation of this kind, it is necessary to know something of the subject before embarking on this mission. Also the object should be to remove the entity, and not treat it as an entertainment.
I am greatly amazed at the “theory” of Mr. Stevens. It really shows how little is generally known of these matters, where one would expect to find knowledge. Incidentally, it is useless attempting to photograph this type of entity, as they are of a far different type than the so-called Ghosts. I would strongly advise the householder to cease allowing the place to be used as a centre of entertainment, and that a serious attempt be made to discover what the entity requires. To continue in the present way will only aggravate the position.
We should be pleased to advise any serious minded person the correct method to adopt, or to conduct this inquiry ourselves if desired, but the fact remains that this condition should be brought to an end as early as possible, for everyone’s sake connected with the home.
Charles Dean, Official Investigator, Chester Psychical Research Society. Lynton, Ashby Place, Chester.
Runcorn Weekly News, 3rd October 1952.
“There is danger at Byron St.” declares a researcher.
Since the commencement of the unexplained happenings at No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, the Weekly News has eschewed the sensational in an endeavour to establish facts which may throw some light on the happenings. With this object in view it has maintained close contact with the Rev. W.H. Stevens, Superintendent Methodist Minister in Widnes, who has now been appointed official investigator for the Society of Psychical Research, London. He has seen the happenings at Byron Street, and the Weekly News feels that his testimony is worthy of credence among a wealth of sensational but unconfirmed reports.
Another psychical researcher, Mr Charles Dean, of Chester, has contacted the Weekly News about the Runcorn happenings and last week a letter from Mr Dean was published. In this he advanced certain suggestions and also criticised a tentative theory advanced by Mr Stevens, whose letter in repy is published this week. The Weekly News does not wish to cause a controversy between Messrs. Stevens and Dean, but feels that the ideas of both are worthy of dissemination, though it must be remembered that Mr Stevens bases his ideas on first-hand observation.
Mr Dean, in an interview with the Weekly News, said his ideas are based on “the general pattern of the occurrences which confirms my own experience.” He has not been to Byron Street, but says he is satisfied with Mr Stevens’ judgment that the affair is not a hoax. This is further borne out by tests of the intelligence of the entity carried out by Mr Harold Crowther, of Runcorn, and reported in the Weekly News.
Mr Dean, who is official investigator for the Chester Psychical Research Society, received considerable publicity for his claims to have exorcised a ghost which, for more than a century, was said to have haunted an old Welsh tavern. The BBC broadcast the story, which was so remarkable that, at the request of Americans, Mr Dean made a recording which was broadcast in the USA. His offer to take part in an investigation at Runcorn, together with Messrs. Stevens and Crowther, still stands.
Mr Dean considers that the happenings at Runcorn always occur in darkness because they are caused by an entity which wanders in darkness and will never show itself as it does not belong to the light. Reports indicate that it was a poltergeist, said Mr Dean, who was naturally cautious about this, not having investigated himself. He defined a poltergeist as an earth-bound spirit which had learned to build up power to attract attention to itself. It could be that it wanted something done or put right, or that it was a mischievous entity. If in the latter category it could be dangerous, and great care would be needed in dealing with it.
“In these cases,” he continued, “it requires a strong will and some experience. There is need for everyone present to be on guard against attempts to instill fear. Whoever happens to be the leader must establish himself as the master and controller of both the company and the entity. These poltergeists can see, and are aware of people’s presence. The more humans there are about, especially adolescents, the stronger is the power of attracting attention. They augment their power from these humans, and that is why the numbers present should be small. One must never forget that while these poltergeists may have the intelligence of a child, they have the cunning of a fox. That is where inexperienced investigators can find themselves in a trap. They may think that the entity has gone, but in reality ‘it’ may be just marking time to break out afresh.” Mr Dean gave an insight into conducting these inquiries, the details of which are not suitable for publication.
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To the Editor.
Sir, – In reply to Mr Dean, who states he is an investigator of a pyschical society, I would point out that no investigation should start with a conclusion. He tacitly assumes at the outset that the cause of the Runcorn phenomena is a discarnate entity. This is the fallacy of “begging the question,” he is assuming what is to be proved. Because I refuse to accept such a conclusion without due evidence he has the effrontery to accuse me of ignorance. Really, Mr Dean!
There are three questions when undertaking a scientific investigation of this nature, vis: 1. Are the occurrences genuine? 2. If so, what precisely is to be explained, and 3. What is the explanation?
I believe the Runcorn phenomena to be genuine, and from what I have observed my initial theory stands. It is a considered theory based on careful expriments in the laboratory of the Society for Psychical Research. Beyond that I cannot logically go at present. Each case must be judged on its own merits.
No attempt has been made to photograph any supposed “entity,” as Mr Dean asserts. Attempts were made to photograph flying missiles, a very different thing.
I think the investigation can safely be left in the capable hands of the British Society for Psychical Research of London, who have appointed me to investigate. W.H. Stevens. “Epworth,” 38 Fairfield Road, Widnes.
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The Ghost is Good At Figures.
Yesterday (Thursday) morning, Mr John Glynn, around whom the activities seem to revolve, received through the post a plastic crucifix. Apparently this was intended as a talisman or lucky charm. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that Mr Glynn has received numerous letters from strangers from over a very wide area. Most of them are requests for permission to visit the house and experience the manifestations.
There are many people who cannot bring themselves to believe that the reported occurrences do actually take place. Mr Glynn says he has met quite a number who are still suspicious. “Last week,” he said yesterday, “I allowed four people to actually sit on me as I lay in bed. They wanted to make sure that I was not doing anything to move things in the bedroom. As I have nothing to hide, I agreed to them making the experiment. The manifestations continued all the time they were sitting on me. I hope that convinced them I was not playing tricks.”
To show that the entity can answer questions, Mr Glynn quoted a recent occasion when, lying in bed, he asked how many people were in the bedroom.The answer came back in the form of knocks. It knocked eight times. “It was not until we made the check that we found this was correct,” he said. “At the time I asked the question I was not aware how many were present.”
“The one thing I want,” he said, “is for the whole business to finish.” It was obvious he meant just this. His sincerity was proved by his general attitude, which was one of sincerity. There is nothing furtive about this young man. He looks one straight in the eye. One gathers the impression that the publicity now centred around him is something he did not court, but that by now, he has become so accustomed to it that he is not unduly troubled. To him the “entity” has become a nuisance. He is thankful when he gets a quiet night’s sleep.
This week’s events.
Since the violent scenes last Sunday night the atmosphere in the house has been one of tranquility. For three successive nights there have not been any signs of manifestations, and the hope is being nourished that the entity is finally departing. But Sunday night’s proceedings were vigorous. Furniture and various small articles were thrown about the room for a considerable period. All the happening conforming to the usual plan, and to the accompaniment of the usual noises. The previous demonstration by the entity was on Thursday night last week when the programme was performed without variation.
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Byron Street – Experts to investigate.
The strange events at No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, have aroused the interest of the Society for Psychical Research, London, which is investigating through the Rev. W.H. Stevens, Superintendent Methodist Minister in Widnes, whom it has appointed as official investigator.
Mr Stevens told the Weekly News that this week he received a letter to that effect from Mrs K.M. Goldney, organising secretary of the society who is herself a well-known researcher and who has written books on the subject. In the letter Mrs Goldney states that the society is willing to send a staff member to assist Mr Stevens or bring John Glynn, the youth around whom the Byron Street disturbances are said to centre, to London for investigation there.
Mrs Goldney’s letter stressed the advisability of avoiding too many independent investigators and expressed the hope that Mr Stevens as the Society’s investigator, would be given full facilities to carry out his tests and inquiries. Mr Stevens said he has also been in telephone communication with Mrs Goldney, who said she is prepared to come to Runcorn herself if his experiments carried out under test conditions prove satisfactory. She would bring with her an infra-red telescope used by the society for experiments in the dark, he said.
Discussing the fact that there have been no reports of unexplained activity in John Glynn’s room at Byron Street since last Sunday, Mr Stevens said the period of quiescence was in accord with the histories of similar cases investigated by the Society. This did not necessarily mean that the same set of rules could be applied to all these cases, because there were slight differences in them, many of which were very important. The scientific observation of these cases had enabled several eminent people to produce theories, none of which was accepted and all of which were open to criticism.
Typical of these theories was that of Dr John Layard, M.A. D.Sc., an eminent psychiatrist, who held that some of the unexplained phenomena could be brought about by a state of tension and neurosis in teh subject. Mr Stevens said he had applied certain tests to John Glynn and had found no indication that he was neurotic, though that was a state which could be hidden and not traceable except by experts.
Another eminent investigator, the late Sir William F Barrett, had succeeded in establishing a code of communication with a poltergeist by means of raps. These investigations showed that it was a very childish entity, and as a result Sir William had evolved the conclusion that the source of the manifestations was wrapped up in the subconscious mind of a child.
In other cases it seemed that the manifestations were unconnected with a particular subject and due to outside influences, said Mr Stevens. He said he had discussed psychical research with the well-known philosopher, Professor C.E.M. Joad, who had told him of actual experiences stemming from his own investigation of unexplained phenomena. In one case Professor Joad had claimed to have actually seen spirit writing on a wall.
The society’s investigations covered a wide field which dealt with the extent of time, the operation of the subconscious, and several other aspects of the unexplained which could now be examined in a true scientific light where unbiased examination of facts established by scientific investigation was the chief factor, said Mr Stevens. He did not know whether the society made any claims about dealing with phenomena such as those at Runcorn, as its main job was investigation.
Runcorn Weekly News, 10th October 1952.
Dies after fall
Woman walking on hill
Man hurt
Nellie Whittle, an elderly spinster, of 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, died in Runcorn Victoria Memorial Hospital just before noon to-day, following injuries received after falling about 40 feet on Runcorn Hill last night.
James Sutton, aged 73, of 9 Salisbury Street, Runcorn, is in the Chester Royal Infirmary in a serious condition suffering from a compound fracture of the right leg and dislocation of the right shoulder. It is believed that Sutton and Whittle were walking together over the hill last night when they fell over what is known locally as the “Frogs Mouth.” The police were quickly on the scene and it was with difficulty that both were removed. Sutton appeared to be the more seriously hurt. After receiving medical attention he was taken to Chester. Miss Whittles injuries did not appear to be so serious and she was taken to the Runcorn Hospital where she was detained. The house, 1 Byron Street, is where during the past few weeks, strange manifestations have been operating, attributed to a poltergeist, but it has not been so active of late.
Liverpool Echo, 17th October 1952.
Psychic Phenomena.
The Weekly News appears to be in trouble with a spiritualist writer. A publication called the Psychic News carries a rather sketchy mention of the Runcorn manifestation, assuring readers that “the poltergeist is still in action”… a statement which readers of that publication will not find difficult to believe. Unfortunately for those readers, however, their “expert writer” does not appear to be a competent reader, for a criticism of the Weekly News attitude in reporting this phenomena, indicates quite plainly that our account was not read closely – if at all.
Runcorn spiritualists, in fact, welcomed the Weekly News objective approach to the subject, and invited our representatives to observe them in their attempts to contact the Byron Street “spirit”. The Weekly News prefers to deal with these reported happenings as newspapermen, not as unqualified spiritualists (whatever that term means). The desire is to present the public with a plain, unvarnished and objective account of what happens “when the spirit moves” at Byron Street, and, so far as lies within the power of the Weekly News, that will be done.
Runcorn Weekly News, 17th October 1952.
Death riddle of haunted house woman.
Herald reporter.
Miss Nellie Whittle was the only person living at No. 1, Byron-street, Runcorn, Cheshire, who was not disturbed by the poltergeist that has been plaguing people in the house for eight weeks. Miss Whittle, who is 59, went walking on Thursday night with a friend, 73-year-old James Sutton, of nearby Salisbury-street. They went to a local beauty spot near an old quarry. The next thing anyone knows is that a boy heard a man shouting for help.
Police found both had fallen down the quarry. Mr Sutton was injured and taken to hospital, Miss Whittle was only slightly hurt. But in hospital, later, she collapsed and died.
The happenings at No. 1 , Byron-street are being investigated. Objects are moved and there are inexplicable noises. Recently a researcher was attacked by a three-foot long wooden leg torn from a side-board. The poltergeist is active only when 17-year-old John Glynn, who lives at No. 1 with his grandfather, aunt and small sister, is present. John told me last night that he thought there was no connection between Miss Whittle’s death and the poltergeist. “It was just an accident, I suppose,” he said, “although strange things have been happening around here lately.”
Miss Whittle had been a lodger in the house for several years. The house is believed to be about 70 years old and has always been occupied by members of John Glynn’s family.
Daily Herald, 18th October 1952.
Tragedy strikes at Runcorn’s ghost house.
Inquest on lodger at No. 1 is adjourned.
When Miss Ellen Whittle, aged 59, of 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, pitched to her death from the top of Runcorn Hill last Thursday night, tragedy knocked at the door of this unfortunate house in Byron Street where for weeks past some unexplained force, said to be a poltergeist, has given the residents little rest. There has been no suggestion that the indiscriminate hurtling around of books and furniture in a bedroom at No.1 Byron Street had any connectino with Miss Whittle’s unfortunate death, but what appears to have been a sad coincidence, is made doubly sad by the fact that the occupiers at No. 1, Mr Sam Jones and his family, had been little troubled by unpleasant visitations for a few days previously.
Miss Whittle, who had lodged with the Jones family for several years, had a room adjoining that where the unexplained activity occurred. According to her brother, Mr James Whittle, retired boilermaker of 64 Mather Avenue, Weston Point, at an inquest into her death in Runcorn on Monday, she had not been concerned about the so-called poltergeist. “It did not trouble her. She made very light of it. The newspapers are trying to make a lot of it,” he told the mid-Cheshire Coroner, Mr R.A. Daniel.
When the accident occurred Miss Whittle was apparently walking with Mr James Sutton, aged 73, of 9 Salisbury Street, Runcorn, in the vicinity of the Frog’s Mouth on Runcorn Hill. They both fell about 40 feet into a disused quarry at the bottom of the hill and a youth who was walking past at the time called police after hearing cries for help. Miss Whittle and the old man were found at the bottom of the quarry and Miss Whittle was taken to Runcorn Victoria Memorial Hospital where she died the next day.
Mr Sutton was taken to the Chester Royal Infirmary where it was found that he had a compound fracture of the right leg, a dislocated right shoulder, bruises and shock. At the inquest, Sergeant Noden of the Cheshire Police, told the Coroner that it would be probably three months before Mr Sutton was well enough to give evidence, according to advice from the hospital. Before adjourning the inquest sine die, Mr Daniel said he would want to hear Mr Sutton’s evidence and that he would probably have a jury. He would also require photographs.
After giving evidence of identification, Mr James Whittle said his sister was an unemployed spinster. She had worked before the war at a hostel at Helsby. She had been in the habit of visiting his house every Thursday and on the night of the accident had left his place about 7.40 o’clock. She had said she was going straight home and that she would see him again next week. She enjoyed fairly good health and did not complain.
Asked by the Coroner if he knew Mr Sutton, Mr Whittle said that as far as he was aware he had never seen him in his life. He also told the Coroner that his sister had given him the impression that she never troubled to go out with anybody.
Doctor Walter La Frenais of 27 Halton Brow, Runcorn, said he arrived at the scene of the accident at 9-15 p.m last Thursday. He saw Miss Whittle in an ambulance and again at the Runcorn hospital. Mr Sutton was lying in the quarry and after attention was taken to the infirmary at Chester. The doctor said Miss Whittle’s condition gradually grew worse and she died last Friday morning. His examination had showed the body to be in an emaciated condition. He described the injuries which included a fractured right collar bone and bruises, and said death was due to shock caused by multiple injuries.
The funeral of Miss Ellen Whittle took place at St Helens on Wednesday morning, following Requiem Mass at St Edward’s Church, Runcorn. The interment took place in the family grave at St Helens Borough Cemetery.
Runcorn Weekly News, 24th October 1952.
John Glynn says he saw no “glow.”
After a quiet period covering the best part of two weeks, the unexplained manifestations at 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, have started again, according to John Glynn who sleeps in teh bedroom where books and articles of furniture have been thrown about by the mysterious agency. Yesterday he said that early last Monday morning he had seen a flash, something like that of a camera flash. John, his grandfather, Mr Sam Jones, and a friend, Mr Tommy Palin, were trying to get to sleep when John saw the vivid flash, which originated in the corner of the room, where there is a washstand. By its light John could see his grandfather , who was in bed with him. The flash seemed to travel between the beds to a far corner of the room, where it disappeared.
As far as John knows, there were no more manifestations after that, for he went to sleep, but he says Mr and Mrs Ron Brown, of Runcorn, the Rev. J.L. Stafford, of Runcorn, and some Liverpool men who were in a downstairs room, heard noises which brought them upstairs to the bedroom.
There were no more ghostly manifestations till Wednesday night, when John said that, together with his grandfather and his friend John Berry, he retired about 11.40 p.m. Five minutes after they put the light out a book flew across the room and hit Mr Jones, who was in the single bed in the room. Later on, John says, he heard a tapping which seemed to come from the door of a bedroom adjoining his.
“It sounded,” he said, “as if someone was tapping on the door with one finger.” He eventually went to sleep between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. but up till then books were thrown across the room four or five times. He said his grandfather felt something straining at his bed, bu it had not moved, though there was some movement of a pillow.
Asked about reports of a glow in the spot formerly occupied by a dressing table which had been smashed by the mysterious power, John said there had been nothing like that. Some people had claimed to see a glow several weeks ago when the trouble first started, but this had not occurred again as far as he knew.
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“The phenomena of Byron Street.”
The phenomena of Byron Street is the subject of a special article in the current issue of the Runcorn Camden Methodist Church Magazine. “Since Mr Stafford’s name has been mentioned in the Press in connection with the local ghost,” says the article, “it was felt that a few notes on his attitude to the matter might clear up misunderstandings.”
“For the past 30 years Mr Stafford has been interested in the study of psychology. He feels that if he is the Minister of a Gospel to save souls, it is his business to know all that can be known about the souls that are to be saved. What has been known as para-psychology as well as normal psychology must therefore come within his province. He has therefore been alert to the findings of psychical research and in the course of 30 years has accumulated a certain amount of knowledge of these affairs.”
The writer, having ascertained that Mr Stafford believes that the phenomena is genuine, continues: “With regard to teh question of the activity of a ‘Spirit’, Mr Stafford feels that this cannot be ruled out as a possibility, but that the evidence does not compel that view. The mental content of the phenomena being very uncertain up to date, the chaotic character of the physical phenomena suggests something sub-personal. The co-operation achieved with the alleged Spirit on the night of September 23rd suggested some understanding of the position, but whether it was the understanding of a mind substantially independent at present we have no sure means of knowing. If the matter could be brought under control this question could be examined at leisure.”
“Mr Stafford was asked what the Weekly News meant by saying that he would not admit to being a Spiritualist. He replied that he had no idea what the Weekly News meant, but that his position was quite clear. He agreed with the Spiritualists that our dead sometimes communicate with us, but he doubted whether the procedure could be regularised so that it happened almost on demand. In any case the failure of the Spiritualist National Union to recognise the spiritual calibre of Jesus Christ left one in doubt about the Spiritual sensitivity of the leaders of the movement. Mr Stafford had more sympathy with the Christian Spiritualists, but his remarks on the uncertainty of the methods of communication applied equally to them. Mr Stafford agreed that the Spiritualist movement had made a great contribution to the atmosphere of modern thought, and only wished that the N.S.U. would not insist upon bogging it down.”
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America shows an interest.
The story of the Byron Street ghost has been broadcast over the wireless in America. A Runcorn lady learns this in a letter received on Wednesday from a friend in Ohio. The friend describes how, having notified the receipt of “sensational news” the wireless announcer told of the recent happenings in Byron Street. He naturally made great play of how the furniture was thrown about the room, and how the ghost threw a book which hit a clergyman on the head.
Runcorn Weekly News, 24th October 1952.
John Glynn moves from No.1 Byron Street.
‘Ghost’s’ farewell performance.
Last Saturday John Glynn moved from the “haunted” house at No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, to the home of his mother, Mrs Nora Glyn, 116 Stenhills Crescent, Runcorn, but so far there has been no sign that the Byron Street “ghost” moved with him though according to some theories young John releases the power which enables the “ghost” to perform its tricks.
He told the Weekly News yesterday that the transfer to his mother’s home was purely a domestic matter, and made it plain that he had not been chased out by the “ghost.” Since John moved on Saturday there has been no evidence of unexplained activity in the room where he slept. The occupier, Mr Sam Jones, John’s grandfather, has been staying with friends, and John’s aunt, Mrs Lucy Jones, who also lives there, has been sleeping at a friend’s house nearby for many weeks, as she refuses to spend a night in the house while the “ghost” is operating there.
The night before John left, the “ghost” staged a fairly active farewell performance, he said. He was in the double bed with his friend, John Berry, and a neighbour, Tom Palin, was in the single bed. Palin is alleged to have been thrown out of bed twice, once before John Glynn and John Berry retired for the night, and once after. On the second occasion John Glynn said he was lying in bed smoking a cigarette when he saw something white, high up above his head. He switched on the light, and saw that Palin and all his bedding had been tipped on to the floor. The white object he had seen in the dark had been part of the bedclothes. John said that on the same night a brick was thrown out of the fireplace, hitting Palin on the knee, and that a book and an Easter egg [case?] were thrown across the room.
On the previous night John said he was in bed with John Berry, and his grandfather was in the single bed, when a three-foot strip of wood, studded with nails, and formerly part of the dressing table which the “ghost” is alleged to have smashed, started to bang against the rail of the double bed. Both he and Berry ducked under the sheets, and the wood then started to bang them across the legs, after which it moved over to Sam Jones, and started to hit him on the shoulder. After this performance Mr Jones chopped up the remains of the dressing table, said John, because he did not want it to cause any more damage.
Runcorn Weekly News, 7th November 1952.
John Glynn says ghost still walks at Byron Street.
The ghost at No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, is still active according to John Glynn who said yesterday that there had been manifestations in the bedroom where he used to sleep while he was not there. He said this was of particular interest as it showed that the manifestations were not associated with power given off through his subconscious mind as had been suggested.
John said that since he moved to his mother’s home last Saturday week there had been no one sleeping at Byron Street except on odd occasion. One of these was Thursday night of last week when his grandfather, Sam Jones, had slept there with Tom Palin, a neighbour. It was that night that books and other articles had been flung round. John said that though he had not been present that night he was there till 12-30 a.m. on Saturday with his friend, John Berry. On that occasion they heard noises coming from the direction of the washstand in the corner but that was all.
John said he also spent the whole night there with his grandfather last Saturday but as far as he knows, nothing happened. Though he has now been living with his mother in Stenhills Crescent, Runcorn, for nearly a fortnight, John said there had been nothing untoward there.
BBC recordings made at Byron Street a few weeks ago will be broadcast next Wednesday in the North of England Home Service at 10.30 p.m.
Runcorn Weekly News, 14th November 1952.
John Glynn Reports More Violence at Byron St.
Ghostly glows are claimed, but minister fails to see them.
Two people are reported to have seen a mysterious glow in the “ghost” house at No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, last Friday night but a third, who was also present has told the Weekly News that he saw nothing.
An electricity board motor driver, Mr. Grundy, who admits going to Byron Street to satisfy his curiosity told the Weekly News “I positively saw three small glows in the darkness.” He was in a bedroom of the house where the unexplained phenomena are said to have been observed. With him were Mrs. Nora Glynn, daughter of the occupier of the house, Mr. Sam Jones, and the Rev. W. H. Stevens, Superintendent Methodist Minister in Widnes. Mr. Grundy is well-known as secretary of Runcorn Darts League.
Mr. Stevens told the Weekly News that he saw nothing and when asked about other alleged manifestations which have been reported lately, said “It is unfortunate that there were no independent witnesses present.” He admits having experienced unexplained occurrences in the house and has gone on record as having seen a jigsaw puzzle fly through the air, apparently without aid, and as having been hit on the head by a flying dictionary. He is keeping an eye on happenings for the Psychical Research Society, London. Mr. Stevens said that on Friday night Mrs. Glynn was the first to report seeing the glow. Mr. Grundy then claimed that he could see it too but Mr. Stevens says he could still see nothing.
John Berry and another young man, not John Glynn, whom it has been suggested is responsible for raising the poltergeist, were lying on a double bed and Tom Palin, of 46 Byron Street who has slept in the house every night during the last fortnight, was living on a single bed in the room, according to Mr. Grundy.
He said: “The room had been in darkness for only about five minutes when I had the curious feeling that something peculiar was in the room. It seemed to go much colder, specially round the lower part of the legs and I noted that the temperature was 48 degrees but when I looked again later it had risen to 51 degrees. Nothing happened at all until a small glow appeared in the corner of the room where the dressing table used to stand. The glow which seemed to be about the size of a human eye, was never brilliant, but it did reach a certain brightness and then faded away again. It next appeared at a different height and again faded away. In its third appearance the glow was at still a different level but this time it travelled slowly across the room and after momentarily remaining stationary over Tom Palin’s bed, faded out as before.” He said that no furniture moved while he was there.
John Glynn told the Weekly News that he went to bed in the room later but that nothing happened. On Saturday night he slept there again and on that night says there were several occurrences. He was in the double bed with John Berry and Tom Palin was in the single bed when he heard a noise by a washstand. “It was a sort of scratching noise and I said ‘Get out of it you pig,’ but nothing happened immediately” said John. Sometime later he again heard the scratching and again called “it” a pig. Next thing was that the mattress “sort of stiffened and it seemed as if the whole bed was lifted several feet into the air,” said John. The mattress was then overturned and both he and John Berry landed heavily on the floor. He timed this occurrence as about 1-15 a.m.
Tom Palin, referring to this occurrence, said “I was in the single bed and John Glynn and John Berry were in the double bed. I went off to sleep and somewhere about 3 o’clock in the morning was awakened by a noise. I at once got out of bed and using my flashlight, found the two young men lying on the floor. I could understand how they had been thrown out because on several occasions I have had the same experience. On one occasion I got a severe knock on my left side.”
Earlier the same night, said Tom Palin, two books were thrown. They caught him on the head and knocked him down and then carried on and struck Ron Brown – one of John Glynn’s colleagues at Puritan Tannery.
On Sunday night he said that he and Sam Jones slept in the room with a light on all night. Nothing happened.
Last Monday night two men from Manchester who are working at the telephone exchange at Warrington, were in the house when he arrived about 11-30 p.m. They told him that while they were in the bedroom an electric light bulb had been smashed. During that night Tom Palin said he was lifted up on the bed. “Tuesday night was another quiet night,” he concluded, and then recalled an incident last week when he was in the bedroom at the same time as Mr. Ernie Foster of Byron Street. On that occasion a pillow was thrown at Foster and the old linen chest in the corner of the bedroom was turned completely over.
The eagerly awaited broadcast of the Runcorn poltergeist took place on Wednesday night at the appropriately late hour of 10-30 p.m. BBC man Dennis Mitchell treated the subject as lightly as he could, merely connecting with non-committal comment, the series of recordings taken of interviews with John Glynn, Mr. H.W. Jones (Chairman of Nantwich U.D. C.), Mrs Jones, Mr P Francis, the Rev J L Stafford, the Rev. W H Stevens, Mr George Morris, Mr Jack Clark and Mr J C Davies.
A recording of the introduction of the microphone into the “haunted room” sounded extremely promising to begin with, until the commentator explained away the strange noises as being “the creaking of someone’s shoes.” As Dennis Mitchell regretfully reported, “nothing happened.” He wound up the broadcast on the anticipated mysterious note, mentioning in passing the possibility of “mass hallucination” and fading out with “It is certainly a very odd business.”
Runcorn Weekly News, 21st November 1952.
The “Ghost” Follows John Glynn to Stenhills.
Council house occupants say they hear “strange things.”
The almost-human scream of a cat heralded the Runcorn “ghost” in a council house at Stenhills Crescent about 7 p.m. last Thursday according to the occupants of the house, Mrs Nora Glynn, her son John and daughters Winnie, Audrey and Sheila. Mrs Glynn is the daughter of Mr Sam Jones, of No. 1 Byron Street, where, since August 17th, an unexplained force, now widely accepted as a ghost, is held responsible for smashing furniture, and for other mischief in a bedroom formerly occupied by Mrs Glynn’s son John when he was living with his grandfather.
John shifted to his mother’s home a month ago but it was not till the end of his third week there that the family noticed anything unusual. Meantime the unexplained activities at Byron Street have continued and are still continuing according to reports from the family and a neighbour, Mr Tom Palin, who has been sleeping there.
If the cause of the activity is a ghost, this could mean either that it is working in two places or that it has a brother who is “Officer Commanding” haunting at Stenhills Crescent, while it carries on at the Byron Street headquarters.
According to the Glynns and a friend, Miss Margaret Smallshaw, who is staying with them, the first major evidence of “ghostly” activity at Stenhills Crescent, was the scream of the family cat on Thursday of last week, though Miss Smallshaw claims to have seen the ghostly figure of a dark man, about 40, trying to clamber through her bedroom window as long ago as August 17th, when the trouble first started at Byron Street.
John Glynn’s story of the “haunting” at Stenhills Crescent is that after hearing a strange noise on the upstairs landing of the house the family heard their young cat scream as if terrified. He described the scream as “almost human.” When he went out of the kitchen where they were sitting, he saw the cat tearing downstairs as if “something” was after it. Throughout the evening the cat, and a young pup, were unusually restive.
Continuing, John said there was nothing particularly unusual after that till he went to bed about midnight. He says he was removing his shoes in his upstairs bedroom when he heard a noise downstairs. He described it as a combination of scratching and tapping. He investigated but there was no one downstairs or in the back garden. The same thing occurred three times and after the third occasion the family decided to wait downstairs. While sitting in the kitchen they heard steps outside the back window but there was nothing there when they investigated and John says a practical joker would not have had time to get away before he was outside.
Next they heard footsteps which appeared to walk round inside the kitchen while they were sitting there with the light on. Next the footsteps were heard on the stairs by John, his mother and his sister Winnie, aged 15, who were in the kitchen and also by his two younger sisters Audrey and Sheila, aged 11 and seven, who were in bed upstairs.
John says they decided that the footsteps might be a sign that something had happened in his grandfather’s house at Byron Street, so he went upstairs to his room to don a tie while his mother and Winnie went across to a neighbour’s house. When he came downstairs, this time with his sister, Audrey, he saw the kitchen door, which had been ajar, swing wide open. There was no draught and both animals were upstairs at the time. They entered the kitchen and a sideboard in the corner began to squeak.
John says that when he got to Byron Street about 2 a.m. he found there was no more trouble till about 4-30 a.m. when his two sisters, Winnie and Audrey, claimed they could hear scratching in the corner of their room and that their bed had trembled.
On Friday night John got his friend, John Berry, and another friend, Tommy Hughes, on leave from the Army, to come and keep watch with him. During the evening two Americans from Burtonwood Air Base called to see John but there was nothing during the early part of the night except slight noises.
The three youths were reclining on the single bed in John’s room at a late hour when they heard the footsteps outside the bedroom door and then in the room. “Then,” said John, “the bed rocketed out from the wall about two feet in spite of the fact that there were three of us on it. The Americans, who were about to leave, heard the noise and came up to investigate. This was about 1-20 a.m.”
John Berry left about 2 a.m. but after that the footsteps continued and the bed trembled. John said he heard a noise like scuffling newspaper downstairs and when he went down to investigate again heard the sideboard creaking. The kitcen door and a door to the larder, which had been closed when the family went to bed, were wide open. John said the scuffling noise was caused by the larder door swinging to and fro across a projecting piece of oilcloth on the floor. After that he went to bed and slept but his friend Tommy Hughes, who stayed awake, had said the footsteps continued all night.
Mrs Glynn said that while sitting int he kitchen on Friday night with a neighbour, they had seen lights in a corner of the room similar to lights which she claimed to have seen at Byron Street. She said there had also been a distinct tapping on the kitchen table. She said a radio set on the sideboard turned halfway round and that a hat on top of it was moved, though she did not see the movements as they were sitting by the fire in darkness at the time.
John said that on Sunday night they again heard footsteps on the front path which were followed by the banging of the door knocker. This occurred twice and though he dashed outside immediately there was not a soul in sight. Also on Sunday night theyheard knocking from a spare bedstead, leaning against the wall in John’s bedroom.
On Monday night the whole family slept in the kitchen because they were frightened. John said they heard a rustling noise. The youngest daughter stayed at the home of a neighbour overnight. Both John and his mother refuse to sleep without a night light.
Since Monday, John Glynn reports things have been quiet at Stenhills.
Meanwhile at Byron Street a certain amount of activity continues. Mrs Lucy Jones, who still refuses to sleep in the house, told a Weekly News representative yesterday (Thursday) that Mr Thomas Palin reported that during Wednesday night a carpet in the bedroom became mysteriously rolled up. Earlier in the week Mr Palin had said that he had been struck about the head by a book which “floated” towards him.
Runcorn Weekly News, 28th November 1952.
To the Editor, Sir – For the last few weeks, thanks to a relative of mine who has forwarded the “News” to me, I have been following with great interest the story of the Runcorn Poltergeist. I would like to put forward a few suggestions regarding this strange visitation. In the first place I think that the “Visitor” is a genuine spirit, and not a subconscious reaction from the young man.
Secondly, it is very obviously drawing attention to itself by being “naughty”, because no doubt something is troubling it, and it wishes to communicate its troubles in order to solicit the help of humans, in order to help it remove those troubles.
Thirdly, it could well be the spirit of a past resident of the house, who during their lifetime, either knew of or perpetrated some great evil, with the consequence that spiritual rest was not allowed to them, and they have become “earthbound.”
You may, of course argue, “Why has this spirit not come before?” The answer is, that it is not at all easy for a disembodied spirit to “find” its way back to earthly surroundings, in which it once dwelt as a living person. It can well become “Earthbound,” but that does not necessariy mean it will visit the scenes of its earthly life immediately. To do so, as I said before takes time, due in one instance, to the difference in the vibrations of spirit, as opposed to human beings. I am not a Spiritualist myself. These are just plain facts.
Again I cannot understand why the good people of the house have not requested the help of the Roman Catholic Church, to exorcise this spirit. I feel sure if requested, the Roman Catholic priests would very willingly take the Service of Exorcism of Spirits, and this may well be the answer to stilling the visitation at this particular house. These are just a few suggestions, put forward, in good faith, perhaps they will be of some use and help, to these poor people, who have suffered so much lately, through this restless spirit.
I listened to the broadcast from this house, and it seems that always the main manifestations occur in the corner by the dressing table. Could it be that something is concealed in that corner, perhaps in the wall or ceilings, that this spirit wishes to be made known, or perhaps in some place in the room? It could well be.
(Mrs) W. Short. Woodcote, Hooton, Cheshire.
Runcorn Weekly News, 28th November 1952.
The Ghost
Book-thrower said to have been caught in the act.
The first suggestion that all is not as un-explainable as it may seem at the “ghost” house, No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, is credited to a publican who spent some time in the bedroom where most of the “unexplained” happenings are said to have occurred. The publican is reported to have said that he saw one of the occupants of the house throw a book from the bed where he was lying, after banging it against the wall.
The Rev. W.H. Stevens, Superintendent Methodist Minister in Widnes, who has been keeping an eye on happenings at Byron Street for the Psychical Research Society (London), said he was in an adjoining room at the time and heard the book fall but could not vouch for the truth of the publican’s statement that he had seen it thrown.Mr Stevens said there were three persons in bed in the room at the time and that the publican and a visiting journalist were keeping watch. He said they both claimed to have seen one of the persons in bed throw the book after banging it against the wall. The publican’s story was that he had seen the book thrown in the light of a torch which he switched on at the time. Mr Stevens said the story may be true, but that did not necessarily mean that the person who threw the book was perpetrating a hoax, as sometimes the occupants of the house tried to encourage manifestations.
He said he was not satisfied that all the reported happenings of “ghostly activities” were correct, as he had still not found conditions at Byron Street good enough for exhaustive tests of the authenticity of the reports. At the same time he had to have regard for the happenings he had witnessed when activity in the house was at its height.
He had no doubt that the occupants of the house were genuinely disturbed by the occurrences. This, together with the fact that no attempt had been made to stage “manifestations” when a B.B.C. recording team was present, and when it would have been easy to perpetrate a hoax in the darkened bedroom, strengthened his belief that some of the happenings, at least, were genuinely unexplainable.
The twin ghost operations at Byron Street and Stenhills Crescent, Runcorn, have been very subdued during th elast week, according to latest reports.
John Glynn, who lives at Stenhills Crescent, reported that there had been little doing except for the peculiar behaviour of a coal-filled perambulator last Friday night, and one or two inexplicable noises since then. He said the perambulator, an old one used as a coal bin, could be heard vibrating and banging in the back kitchen late on Friday night, while the family was seated round the fire in the main kitchen. His 11-years-old sister, Audrey, went to see what was happening, and claimed to have seen the hood on the old pram move.
Reports from Byron Street, where John’s grandfather lives, indicate there has been nothing there except some slight artillery activity with a book last Thursday night.
Runcorn Weekly News, 5th December 1952.
The Byron Street “ghost,” which had intrigued Runcornians for some weeks, received a nation-wide broadcast on November 19th, when the story was told by the B.B.C. Our photograph, which shows the actual recording, shows on the left Mr Sam Jones, with Mr John Glynn reclining on the bed answering questions by the B.B.C. commentator.
Runcorn Weekly News, 2nd January 1953.
Injured man tells of woman’s death fall on Runcorn Hill.
At Runcorn Police Buildings on Wednesday morning, a 72-years-old Runcorn man, clutching a walking stick in his left hand and assisted by a police officer, came forward to tell the tragic story of what happened on a night in October last when Miss Ellen Whittle, of 1 Byron Street, pitched to her death from the top of Runcorn Hill. The man was Mr James Sutton, of 9 Salisbury Street, Runcorn, and he was giving evidence at the adjourned inquest on Miss Whittle. The Mid-Cheshire Coroner, Mr R.A. Daniel, sat with a jury of seven. Mr Sutton, who with Miss Whittle fell 25 feet into a disused quarry, after they had been walking together on the hill, told the Coroner: “I was standing three or four yards away. You see, we had decided to take different routes home. I saw her stumble. I tried to grab her but both of us fell into the quarry.”
After hearing the evidence, the jury returned a verdict of “accidental death,” and urged that all dangerous areas on the hill should be adequately protected. In this direction, Mr George Morris, the foreman, said the jury were of the opinion that the quarry should be filled in. To this Mr T.J. Lewis (Clerk to the Runcorn Urban Council) replied, “It is completely impossible to fill it in.”
The accident occurred on the night of October 16th last year at a time when the house where Miss Whittle had lodged for several years, was the centre of ghostly activity. The visitation, said to be a poltergeist, was giving the residents of the house little rest. Miss Whittle, who was 59 years of age, and Mr Sutton, who had been for a walk over the hill, were found lying near each other at the bottom of the quarry. Miss Whittle was taken to the Runcorn Victoria Memorial Hospital, where she died the following day. Mr Sutton was taken to the Chester Royal Infirmary, where it was found that he had a compound fracture of the right leg, a dislocated right shoulder, bruises and shock. The inquest was adjourned until Mr Sutton was well enough to give evidence.
When the inquest was opened, Mr James Whittle, of 64 Mather Avenue, Weston Point, brother of the deceased, said Miss Whittle had not been concerned about the so-called poltergeist. “It did not trouble her. She made very light of it. The newspapers are trying to make a lot of it,” he told the Coroner.
The first to give evidence when the inquiry was continued on Wednesday morning, was Miss Doris Stretch, matron of the Runcorn Victoria Memorial Hospital. Miss Stretch said Miss Whittle died at 10-45 a.m. on October 17th, after being admitted to the hospital at 10 p.m the previous day.
Mr Charles Henry Naylor, a builder, of 5 Lynden Grove, Runcorn, said on the night in question he went to catch a bus at about 8-25 p.m. He missed it and so decided to walk over Runcorn Hill. It was very dark at the time and he had quite a lot of difficulty in seeing. In fact had he known it was so dark on the hill he would not have gone that way. Continuing, Mr Naylor said he heard cries for help. Knowing the cries were coming from a quarry, he made his way to Weston Road and telephoned for the police. He returned to the scene of the accident and found Mr Sutton and Miss Whittle. He could see Mr Sutton was injured, but could not tell what was Miss Whittle’s condition.
In reply to a question from the Coroner, Mr Naylor said the man and woman were lying within three yards of each other. The Coroner: You asked Mr Sutton what had happened? – Yes. He told me they had fallen from the top. He made a grab to save her but fell himself. The Coroner: Did you ask him how long he had been there? – Yes. He said about 20 minutes. C: Did the deceased say anything? – Nothing, sir. C: Did you wait until the police arrived? – I was a little anxious as to whether I had given them a correct description of the place, and so I went to Weston Road and waited for the ambulance. C: Then you directed it to the scene? – Yes, sir. C: Was it a fine night? – Yes.
Mr Sutton, who told the Coroner he was a retired chemical worker, said that on the night of October 18th he went for a walk in Weston Road. He met Miss Whittle, and the two of them decided to go for a walk over the hill. The Coroner: Had you been with her before? – Once. The Coroner: Did you find it very dark? – Fairly dark, sir. C: Did you go to a spot where there were some bushes? – Yes. C: And you were there some time were you? – A little while. C: Was that somewhere near the quarry? – Yes. C: Afterwards did you attempt to make your way along the footpath? – Miss Whittle wanted to go in another direction, towards Mr Hill’s house. She said she knew that way better. C: Did you give way to her? – No. I told her I was going to go straight up and over Runcorn Hill and come out by the bowling green but she would not come that way. C: Did you give way to her? – No, she started off the other way and she had not gone many yards before I saw her stumble. I dashed towards her but she had gone down. I wanted to see if I could rescue her but I fell down as well. C: You tried to grab her? – My intention was to try and get her up but I fell down the hole as well. C: She fell into the quarry? – Yes. C: You fell after her? – Yes. C: Did she say anything while you were lying there? – Yes. She asked me could I get her up as she wanted to get home. I told her I couldn’t move. I had broken my leg. C: Did you keep calling out for help? – Yes. As soon as I could pull myself together I did. C: Eventually Mr Naylor heard your cries? – Yes.
In reply to a question from Mr Lewis, Clerk to the Council, Mr Sutton said he had lived in Runcorn all his life. Mr Lewis: You knew Runcorn Hill very well. – I was practically born on it. I lived in the cottage opposite the hill. L: So you know Runcorn Hill like the back of your hand? – Yes. That is so. L: No doubt you would be quite happy roaming about this quarry and the footpaths? – Yes, I would be quite happy. L: You made your way to some gorse bushes; knew exactly where you were making for; were perfectly happy to be there that night and you didn’t consider you were in any kind of danger? – No, I didn’t. L: Miss Whittle was weak on her legs and could quite easily stumble? – Yes. L: Anyone in good health would not have stumbled? – I am not going to say that. L: It was probably in panic that you tried to rescue her? – I didn’t stop to think. L: Are you feeling better, Mr Sutton? – Yes. I am doing very nicely thank you.
The Coroner (pointing to a spot on one of the photographs taken at the scene of the accident) further questioned Mr Sutton. – There is some distance between these posts and the edge of the quarry? – Yes. C: If you were walking on the footpath and the deceased had fallen into the quarry? [sic] – The footpath is further away from the quarry hole. C: If the deceased had stumbled on the footpath she could not have possibly fallen into the quarry? – She was on the quarry side of the posts. C: Can you tell me what made her stumble? – I couldn’t say. I wouldn’t like to say.
Police Constable H.K. Russell said he made an examination of the scene of the accident the following day after it happened. There was no wire running through the stumps and the quarry was quite open. The distance between the posts and the quarry is about 12 feet and there is a drop of about 25 feet. In reply to a question from the Coroner Constable Russell said he could not find anything that the deceased might have stumbled over.
Summing up, Mr R.A. Daniel said it seemed to him that the deceased had lost her direction to have got to the edge of the quarry. Had she been making her way along the footpath she would have been perfectly safe. Possibly, he added, that accounted for her drop into the quarry. From the evidence, said the Coroner, it appeared that the deceased had suddenly decided to make her way home a different way but how she came to stumble they did not know.
Runcorn Weekly News, 13th March 1953.
That ghost again!
Runcorn’s ghost which made so much disturbance in Byron Street, seems to be dead, but memories of his activities are resurrected in some unexpected places. The latest, so far as I know, is in the American newspaper which Mr Holt has sent along. The article, about a ghost hunter, brings in the name of the late Professor Joad, and adds “In Runcorn, Cheshire, England, a poltergeist kept throwing a boy out of bed at night. The dressing table in his bedroom suddenly fell to pieces for no reason. A chest flew into the air with two journalists sitting on it!” So is the mysterious made still more mysterious.
Runcorn Weekly News, 29th May 1953.
When the ghost walked in Runcorn.
About a year ago Runcorn was intrigued over the story that peace in the home of Mr Sam Jones in Byron Street was being disturbed by a poltergeist. Among those who witnessed the happenings in that bedroom, which became a shambles, was Mr Jones’ farmer employer. It will be recalled that it was he who, in the dark, discarded his overcoat and then, speaking to the “entity” said, “If you don’t want that, you can let me have it back again!” It was no sooner said than done. The farmer experienced the coat thrown over his head!
Subsequently, peculiar happenings began to stir at the farm. A dark cloud which could not normally be accounted for, began to float about the farm yard. But more serious still came the mysterious death of a number of pigs.
The story has been revived this week, but fortunately not because there have been any fresh outbreaks of things mysterious.
Runcorn Weekly News, 31st December 1953.
An August postscript to a story that began in the August of two years ago.
The Runcorn Mystery.
You may not believe in ghosts or things that go bump in the night, but here is a story that remains unsolved. We offer no theory: we merely report the facts as told to:- Richard Whittington-Egan.
Suddenly and alarmingly, on Sunday, August 10, 1952, something seemed to enter No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn. At any rate, from that time the peaceful lives of the inhabitants of that quiet little household were shattered. Here is the story of events as told to me:-
That night 68-years-old Mr Sam Jones and his 18-years-old grandson, Johnn Glynn, retired as usual to the bedroom which they shared. Scarcely had the light been put out, when they were disturbed by a scratching sound in a drawer of the dressing-table. Thinking at first that it must be a mouse, they got up to investigate, but could find nothing to account for the noise. No sooner were they back in bed, however, than the scratching began again.
On succeeding nights there were other and far more violent occurrences. A ponderous dressing table began to rock giddily. Loud knockings hammered the stillness. A clock shattered itself against the wall. Invisible hands hurled books across the room. A stout blanket-chest, weighing at least half a hundred-weight, reared itself into the air and a water-jug and basin shivered into fragments. Naturally, such happenings could not be hushed-up. Gradually the news spread. Who or what was the agent of this mysterious havoc? That was the question on everyone’s lips and it was not long before the word “Poltergeist” was being whispered uneasily from ear to ear.
Soon, all Runcorn was divided into hotly arguing factions of sceptics and believers. Everywhere the Byron Street hauntings became number one talking-point. At quiet firesides, in countless little kitchens and in loud-humming bars, puzzled locals discussed the amazing manifestations which were focusing nation-wide attention on that little street. And all the while the strange things went on happening. Police, clergymen and interested neighbours were invited to investigate. They came, they saw, and unanimously they pronounced: “The occurrences are very weird and unusual. We do not think it is a hoax.”
Local police set traps to catch a joker. They failed.
Spiritualist Phil France held a three-hour seance in the room. “It’s definitely a poltergeist,” he announced when he emerged.
Then, Widnes Methodist minister, the Reverend W. H. Stevens, a member of the Society for Psychical Research, came on the scene. Armed with a notebook and various articles of scientific impediments, he kept vigil in the house. After experiencing a number of unaccountable phenomena and being hit on the head by a flying dictionary, he said: “Things are beyond a joke. There is no question of this being a hoax.”
Such was the state of affairs when, seven weeks after their commencement, I drove over to Runcorn to assess the situation for myself. By that time the family had grown rather tired of all the publicity, but eventually they agreed to let me spend the night in the haunted room. The scene of the alleged manifestation was a small, bare bedroom on the first floor and the trouble was said to begin as soon as John Glynn and his friend, John Berry, who was staying with him for company, retired to bed. That night everything went according to schedule. Shortly after 11 o’clock I went upstairs and carefully examined the room. I found no evidence of trickery – no wires or anything of that kind. The boys clambered into the big double bed which they shared and the solitary naked bulb lighting the room was snapped out. About two minutes later there came a terrific crash from the dressing-table. “There it is.” said John Glynn. The words were barely out of his mouth when a small alarm clock was thrown violently across the room.
I remained for several hours witnessing all manner of events. The poltergeist, I was told, performed only in total darkness and it became very temperamental when I started to wander about with my torch at the ready. I found that of all the alleged phenomena which took place that night NOT ONE was of such a nature that it could not have been perpetrated by human agency. There was also a complete lack of atmosphere of fear which I am assured is the inevitable accompaniment of all well-attested instances of psychic phenomena.
Ghost or hoax? That was, and still is, the question. In the circumstances I felt conditions were far from fool-proof for a conclusive answer. I must say, however, that measured against the yardstick of accumulated data from hundreds of previously observed instances of poltergeist infestation, the Runcorn case presented many typical features. The pattern of events in all these visitations is astonishingly constant.
As I left the little house in Byron Street in the small hours it was still raining and small groups of sightseers were scattered in shivering tufts upon the shining pavement just standing quietly in the dark looking up at John Glynn’s window while a couple of weary-eyed policemen vainly urged them to move along bedwards.
Now, two years later, I have been back to Runcorn and I have learned the end of the story. By October, 1952, I was told the disturbances had become so frequent and violent that the family were obliged to sleep out at various friends’ houses. On October 17th an element of tragedy was introduced, for Miss Nellie Whittle, an elderly spinster who lodged in that unquiet house, plunged to her death on Runcorn Hill. I do not suggest that this was necessarily connected with the hauntings, for, although poltergeists seem to have a morbid liking for homes where people are very ill or dying, it is not often that their presence is related to murder, suicide or death of any sort.
Then there was the business of the pigs. Here is the story as told to me: – Mr. Sam Jones was helping Mr. Crowther at Pool Farm, Runcorn. One day in the middle of August, for no apparent reason, three of Mr. Crowther’s pedigree pigs died. At the end of a fortnight every one of his 53 pigs were dead. Five veterinary surgeons examined the bodies and were totally unable to account for these mysterious deaths. Two days after the loss of the last pig, Mr. Crowther was astonished to see what he described as “a large black cloud about seven feet in height, shapeless except for two prongs sticking out at the back,” coming straight down his yard. He mentioned this curious experience to no one but, three days later, his wife told him that she had seen something which corresponded precisely with his own vision, floating about the yard.
One evening some weeks afterwards, Mr. Crowther actually discovered the cloud-like apparition in his kitchen. He brushed past it as he made for the light switch and, as he did so, the two prongs, which felt “solid, like blunt sticks,” went for his throat. As soon as he switched on the light, the cloud disappeared. It was about this time that Mr. Crowther, at Sam Jones’s urgent request, went to the house in Byron Street and there, hovering above John Glyn’s bed, saw the same forked cloud. It was on December 13, 1952, that Mr. Crowther says he encountered the cloud for the last time. He had just let his two dogs out of a shed. They rushed forth, barking frenziedly, and turning, he saw beside him the cloud which appeared lighter in colour and considerably smaller than previously. It moved rapidly along the ground, the dogs barking and jumping at it, and then rose high in to the air and disintegrated.
By a strange coincidence, it was in fact about this time that the Byron Street hauntings suddenly ceased. Appropriately enough, the poltergeist’s very last effort was to fold up the carpet!
John Glynn went into the Army in the following January, but he had a nervous breakdown, which was attributed to the strain of the experiences he had undergone during the four months of poltergeistic persecution, and Army psychiatrists recommended his discharge.
To-day, peace is restored to the little house in Byron Street. The whole unhappy business has passed into local legend, something to be talked about in hushed voices round winter hearths; something which remains only as a record in the yellowing pages of newspaper files.
Liverpool Echo, 28th August 1954.
Ghost of Byron St. is discussed.
The “Byron Street ghost,” – a story which astounded Runcorn six years ago, has again found its way into print. This time it figures in a new book “Four modern ghosts,” published by two investigators, Eric J Dingwall and Trevor H Hall.
No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, which was invaded by the poltergeist – if poltergeist it was – has figured in two other books in recent years. There is a fair amount of space devoted to it in “Haunted houses,” by Joseph Braddock, and a chapter under the heading “Poltergeist over Runcorn,” is included in Richard Whittington-Egan’s “Liverpool Colonnade.”
None of these books appears to solve the mystery nor plump for or against the poltergeist theory. The “thing” went as abruptly as it came, undoubtedly it will be talked of for years to come.
Runcorn Weekly News, 12th June 1958.
Report on the Strange Happenings at No. 1 Byron Street.
I sat on a 100-years-old wooden chest in a back garden in Runcorn and waited for a ghost. True, I was six years late, and the chest is no longer where it was when it became the centre of the most inexplicable happenings. Even so, there seemed to be a chill in the sunshine. As I sat there on the chest and heard 74-years-old Sam Jones say: “All I can say is that anyone who doubts the story of the way my home was haunted should have just for one week the sort of experience that I lived through.”
It is six years since the incidents at No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, but the memory of six weird months is as vivid to Sam Jones to-day as if it all happened only a week ago. The tale is re-told in a new book (Four Modern Ghosts by Eric J. Dingwall and Trevor H. Hall, Gerald Duckworth Ltd., 15s), just published by two experienced ghost-hunters who conducted part of their investigations with the help of a grant from a bequest to Trinity College, Cambridge.
The incidents began at Byron Street, on August 17, 1952, when Sam Jones lived in the house with his daughter-in-law, his 17-years-old grandson, John Glynn, a granddaughter who was aged eight, and a lodger named Miss Ellen Whittle. Only one room in the house was affected. It was a sparsely-furnished bedroom containing a double bed, a single bed, a stout Victorian dressing table, a washstand, and the same wooden chest which I saw in the garden of the Runcorn Council house in Stanhills Crescent where Sam Jones went to live three weeks ago. Sam and his grandson, and sometimes his grandson’s friend, slept in the room.
There were three doors in the bedroom; one connected with the staircase, one led to a small, empty clothes closet, and the third stood at the top of three steps which led to Miss Whittle’s bedroom. The trouble at Byron Street was allegedly due to a poltergeist – which my dictionary defines as “a noisy mischievous spirit.” There may be doubt about who or what was responsible for the happenings in the house, but there is no doubt about what did actually happen. Heavy objects were flung about the bedroom with such force that the plaster on the walls was dented; feather pillows were burst open and their contents scattered; the carpet was torn up so often that in the end the family took it away; a clock repeatedly upended itself on the mantelpiece; the stout chest danced in a corner although it was so heavy it needed a strong man to lift it.
And perhaps the most astonishing occurence of all; the heavy dressing table, constructed of timber five-eighths of an inch thick and firmly dowelled together, was torn apart and invisible hands bombarded Sam Jones and his family with the pieces. There were many witnesses and investigators to report what happened. Said Sam Jones: “We had Roman Catholic priests and Methodist ministers and spiritualists all spending nights in the house. And right at the beginning we sent for the police.”
The comments of some of the investigators are reported in the book:-
The Rev. W. H. Stevens, who was Superintendent Methodist Minister in Widnes provided for the authors a detailed account of the haunting. “I went over to investigate in a sceptical frame of mind,” he wrote. “For about 30 years I have been a member of the London Society for Psychical Research. I have read scores of books on the subject, attended sceances, had sittings with mediums – all in my search for truth. Consequently I knew what to expect on the general behaviour of poltergeists. Gradually I came to the conclusion that this was a genuine case.”
The Rev. W. Kinsley Lester, Minister of Hartland Methodist Church, Runcorn, is reported as saying:-
“I admit being most sceptical and I resolved to find out whether it was genuine or false. I had every opportunity of seeing what happened. It was obvious that the furnishings in the bedroom had been knocked about and severely damaged. Whilst I was there waiting and listening in the dark, articles such as books and ornaments were flung about the room. I switched on the light during one particularly noisy period and actually saw the dressing-table which we had placed in a certain position in one corner of the room shaking vigorously. That these occurrences were not caused by human agency I was firmly convinced, and I was left puzzled but fairly convinced that it was a genuine case of poltergeist phenomena.”
The Rev. J. L. Stafford, Minister of Camden Methodist Church, Runcorn, wrote of “the unforgettable things” he saw and described a suggestion that Sam Jones’s grandson might have caused the dressing table and the chest to move as “a very desperate hypothesis.”
In their book the authors examine the case of No. 1 Byron Street in detail, but they have one serious handicap. Their account was prepared after the haunting on the testimony of other people: they saw none of it at the time for themselves. One theory they examine is that the strange noises and the moving furniture and objects might have been due to the shifting of subterranean water affected by the Mersey tides. But Byron Street is three-quarters of a mile from the river and it is 149 feet above the water level so the authors dismiss the underground water theory. They also examine the possibility of deception – which must always be considered in any reports of poltergeist activity. One strange feature is that Ellen Whittle, the lodger, who had to walk through the haunted room to reach her own bedroom, claimed never to have seen or heard anything that was strange or unusual.
In view of the strong evidence of other witnesses, could it be that Ellen Whittle bore some responsibility for the things that occurred? But as she was rarely in the bedroom when the manifestations were occurring it seems that this theory must also be discounted. And because Ellen Whittle died by accident in a fall on Runcorn Hill she cannot now give her own testimony.
The authors further suggest that practically all that occurred at No. 1 Byron Street occurred in the dark. “If it were true, as was stated, that light caused an almost instant cessation of the phenomena, what was the reason for any disturbed nights when a simple night-light was sufficient to insure undisturbed repose.” Sam himself ridiculed the idea that incidents only occurred in the dark, and one of the neighbours who runs a fish shop across the way from Byron Street told me: “It was about 7 o’clock one morning when I was sweeping the pavement in front of the shop. Sam came across and said, ‘For God’s sake come and see what’s happening.’ I went over to his house, with my husband following. As soon as I got in I could hear a noise as if a lot of people were upstairs. It reminded me of what you hear in a dance hall when the band stops playing and you can hear the mutter of a lot of people talking. I went upstairs expecting to find the bedroom full of people. There was no one there, but right in front of my eyes, and there was plenty of light in the room, that old chest of Sam’s was lifting and shaking about. “I was terrified. I remember so clearly going up the stairs and standing in the doorway, but to this day I don’t remember how I got downstairs again.”
If there was any person at No. 1 Byron Street responsible for the happenings I am certain that Sam Jones was not a culprit. I think that Ellen Wilkinson can also be ruled out. Whom does that leave? Seventeen-year-old John Glynn – he is now married and living happily in Runcorn – and possibly his friend, Johnny Berry, who was then 18. It is common and well recognised that what appear to be ghostly hauntings may turn out to be pranks of adolescents – who may not be conscious of what they are doing. The presence in the house at No. 1 Byron Street certainly of one adolescent, and at times of two, must, therefore, be borne in mind. Yet it is difficult to justify this adolescent theory in view of the number of people – ministers of religion, newspaper reporters, police officers, public officials and neighbours – who were in the house during many of the ghostly happenings.
For instance, in the early part of the haunting Sam Jones asked Runcorn police to investigate. For several nights the door of the house was left open and a policeman outside had orders to enter immediately if there was any sound from inside. Commenting on the investigation, a Runcorn police sergeant described how John Glynn was in a state of nervous collapse when the haunting started, and added: “I have tried every method known to me, and, believe me, these boys are not doing it. Why, ?I am not strong enough to make that dressing-table dance about as it has done and I am sure those boys can’t do it.”
But if there were no pranks and no trickery, if Sam Jones was not to blame in any way for the haunting, if his grandson and his grandson’s friend, who slept in the haunted room, and if the lodger, Ellen Whittle, who passed through it every time she went to her own room, were all innocent of complicity, who or what was to blame for the haunting of No. 1 Byron Street? If poltergeist activity is not centred around a human being it can be centred around a thing. The wooden chest was the piece of furniture that seemed most concerned in the haunting. It was, Sam Jones thinks, made or bought by his father to carry his personal possessions when he was in service nearly a century ago. But if the chest has some inhuman power why was it exercised for only a few months in all its 100 years of life?
When the trouble began, Sam Jones weighed a sturdy 15 stones. To-day, he is down to nine stones. Neighbours told me: “Sam had to leave that house. It was killing him.” According to the account in the book the haunting began on the night of Sunday, August 17, and it ended some ten weeks later at the end of October. “That’s what the book says,” Sam Jones told me. “But the thing was there for longer than that. It was in the house for five or six months. It came from nowhere and it went away to nowhere. But whatever it was, it said good-bye to me.” And when I pressed him, Sam Jones told me how on one of the last nights of October a soft ghostly hand patted his head and stroked his hair almost as if in affection. Then the weird presence vanished and peace came to No. 1 Byron Street.
Liverpool Echo, 6th June 1958.
Last week, George Eglin, discussed a new book in which two experienced ghost hunters told of the strange incidents at No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, some six years ago when for a period of months furniture and other articles were thrown about and strange noises were heard. He also reported the reactions of some of the people who were witnesses to the occurrences. Now comes a sequel to his article…
Take a close look at the photograph above. The man who took it says it shows a ghost at work. And others who were present when the photograph was taken at night by flashlight are prepared to back up the photographer’s belief with their own sworn testimony. The photograph is an odd sequel to the story I wrote in the Echo about the haunting of No. 1 Byron Street, Runcorn. It was brought to me by Mr. K. R. Loughlin, a printer and bookbinder in business in Anfield, who lives at 17 Boundary Drive, Hunt’s Cross, Liverpool. Said Mr. Loughlin: “The photograph was taken by my friend Allen Bell, who lived in Liverpool at the time of the Runcorn poltergeist manifestations and joined me in the closest investigation into the whole business that anyone carried out. “We spent many nights in the haunted bedroom, with the permission and approval of Sam Jones, wh olived there and his family. We made three and a half hours of tape recordings of the amazing noises made by the ghost, and on the night we took the picture we had previously rigged up the camera and our flashlight apparatus ready to snap the shutter whenever anything happened that justified it. It was in the early hours of the morning, when John Berry, a friend of Johnny Glynn, who was Sam Jones’s grandson, was lying in the single bed in the room where the poltergeist was active that we heard the noise of breaking furniture.
“Allen let the flash and the camera shutter go, and in the photograph, which has not been re-touched in any way at all, you see the result. The heavy dressing table which stood in a corner of the room and was constructed, as you said in your article, of timber five-eighths of an inch thick, had been torn to pieces by invisible hands, and a large piece of it was caught by the camera actually flying through the air and then dropping quite gently on John Berry’s body as he lay in bed. There were at least four of us in the room at the time. You see that the man in the dark suit in the picture has his hands up to protect his head and face. We had become so accustomed to objects flying about the room that none of us ever moved in the darkness without putting our hands up to protect our heads.
“To my knowledge, this is the only photograph that was ever taken of the ghostly manifestations actually taking place.” Mr. Loughlin told me more extraordinary details of the haunting and backed them up with his tape recordings and notes taken at the time. “I don’t ask you to accept the recordings as proof,” he said. “After all, yo may correctly say that the noises we recorded could have been made in quite natural ways. But I do say that what I saw and heard during those weeks when we investigated the haunting convinced me beyond doubt that something supernatural took place at No. 1 Byron Street.”
Mr Loughlin told me details that were not available to the two investigators who have just published a book describing the haunting. “They did not know that on several occasions we actually made contact with the spirit or whatever it was, and that we identified it. By laboriously tapping out all the letters of the alphabet in turn and asking the poltergeist to acknowledge by sounds which was correct we established his name as ‘Jooker’. The Reverend W. H. Stevens was present on these occasions when ‘Jooker’ insisted that he was a manifestation of an African native of the Ampi tribe in Zulu-land who had been murdered with his wife and six children by other members of the tribe. We later established that there really was a tribe of this name, although we had never previously heard of it.”
Mr. Loughlin insists that there are reports of strange happenings at No. 1 Byron Street well outside the period when “Jooker” was alleged to be running wild. “We were told that 25 years ago it was common knowledge that doors in the house could not be closed without strange knockings being heard and the doors opening of their own accord, and we also heard that 50 years ago, when the house was comparatively new, local people avoided it,” he said. He also insists that “Jooker” became friendly and co-operative. “We could get him to tell us whether he was going to be active on a particular night or not. One of his favourite playthings was a box containing playthings was a box containing wooden jigsaw pieces, and we became used to this floating about the air without anyone being within yards of it,” he said.
Mr. Loughlin ridicules allegations that there might have been trickery. “I always thought that there might have been more investigation into any part that the lodger, Miss Ellen Whittle, might have subconsciously placed. She always insisted that she never heard or saw anything although her own room led off the haunted bedroom. I believe that consciously she was telling the truth, but it is strange and unaccountable that about the time that Miss Whittle died after accidentally falling on rocks called the Frog’s Mouth on Runcorn Hill, the haunting ceased.”
And of course, there was another haunting linked with the incidents at No. 1 Byron Street. A few months before the incidents began Sam Jones took a part-time job with farmer Harold Crowther at Pool Farm, Runcorn. in the same week when the first manifestations were reported in Byron Street a herd of 53 pedigree pigs died on the farm. There is nothing extraordinary about that of course, except that five veterinary surgeons failed to establish any cause of death – and two days after the last pig died Mr. Crowther reported that he saw “a large black cloud about 7ft. in height, shapeless except for two prongs sticking out of it” floating about the farm. Mr. Crowther told no one of the experience – until his wife reported seeing the same cloud. Then, odd scratching and noises were also heard in the farmhouse and the cloud made further appearances in doors.
There are other inexplicable reports – Mr. Crowther went with Sam Jones to Byron Street and there he saw the cloud again, hovering above the bed where Johnny Glynn lay asleep, and finally, on December 13, 1952, after the manifestations at Byron Street had ceased farmer Crowther saw the strange cloud once more and for the last time. It frightened the dogs, floated rapidly across the farmyard and disintegrated in the air. And that is the last reported incident connected with the haunting of No. 1 Byron Street.
Ridicule the story if you will, the fact remains that some of Britain’s most experienced ghost investigators and psychical research experts simply cannot produce any theory which fits in with all the known facts.
Liverpool Echo, 14th June 1958.
The Runcorn Ghost – six years after!
“Our own view, after a patient examination of the facts, leads us to an attitude of suspended judgement, although, as we have said, a great deal more evidence would have to be adduced before this attitude would tend towards a favourable view of the theory of the paranormal.” This is the summing up of two investigators, Eric J Dingwall and Trevor H Hall, of the strange case of the Runcorn poltergeist. Their book, “Four Modern Ghosts,” just published by Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd., deals with the Yorkshire Museum ghost, Harry Price and ‘Rosalie,’ the Runcorn Poltergeist and the Ousedale Haunt.
Naturally local readers will be intrigued by the authors’ attempts to review the disturbances at the house of Mr Sam Jones, 1 Byron Street, Runcorn, reported (as fully as this newspaper’s investigators were allowed) in the Weekly News during August and September, and thereafter, in 1952. In fact, a careful study of their review indicates that in the face of all the difficulties placed in the way of Weekly News representatives at that time, their collection of data and statements was remarkably comprehensive.
It suggests, too, in spite of the author’s antipathy towards truth-seeking (and news-hungry) reporters, the Runcorn manifestations might have been more satisfactorily probed, tested and recorded had the principals in the drama been more willing to bring their poltergeist out into the light of day – always assuming this type of “evil spirit” activity will stand the light of day. That observation is no disparagement of the efforts of the Rev. W. H. Stevens (at that time the Superintendent Methodist Minister of Widnes) and his colleague the Rev. W. Kinsley Lester.
It should be recorded at once that Mr Stevens is quoted as saying: “Gradually I came to the conclusion that this was a genuine case,” and that Mr Kinsley Lester, in a signed statement, said: “That these occurrences were not caused by human agency I was firmly convinced, and I was left puzzled but fairly convinced that it was a genuine case of poltergeist phenomena. The Rev. J.L. Stafford (Camden Methodist Church), too, in a letter to Mr Stevens, expressed the opinion that the manifestations were supernormal in character.
This new book does little more than to collate the statements made at the time, and since, by the three clergymen mentioned and such local people as Mr J.C. Davies and Mr Harold Crowther, with fairly regular references to accounts published in the Weekly News… possibly the most pleasing of these is the statement: “Efforts were made to prevent the affair obtaining publicity, and the first account to appear in the Press was the article ‘Police Investigate Evil Spirit Manifestations’ in the Widnes Weekly News of August 29th, 1952.”
There is one significant passage in Mr Stevens’ written account. It reads: “The publican and a reporter stole quietly to the door of the room. The publican declared that in the light of a torch he saw Sam Jones bang a book three times on the wall and throw it across the room. The reporter, who was behind him, testified to the throwing of the book. They would not question Sam Jones on the matter as the pressmen wished to retain an amicable relationship in the interests of their business.
It need scarcely be stressed that the pressmen concerned did not include representatives of the Weekly News. One would have thought that in the interests of truth this was an incident requiring the closest examination. The phrase ‘in the interests of their business’ leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
Whether Mr Sam Jones did in fact throw the book with an ulterior motive or not, Messrs. Dingwall and Hall have here thrown a book which, if not entirely convincing one way or the other, will make fascinating reading for local folk who at the time (and on many subsequent occasions) discussed the affair with close interest.
The efforts made by Mr G.W. Lambers, President of the Society for Psychical Research, to apply physical theory to the Runcorn poltergeist, are referred to. That Messrs. Dingwall and Hall think little of the attempt is quite evident… and, if we may say so, quite understandable. The ingenious theory that the tidal movement of underground water was responsible for the manifestations reported at Byron Street seem little short of ludicrous – or perhaps the Society’s President has discovered from experience that a poltergeist investigation can be conducted as adequately from a distance (and with appropriate dips into Whitaker’s Almanac, tide tables, weather reports, The Times, and a report from the Chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal Company) as from the “haunted room” itself.
Strangely enough there is one person who will not be interested in this account and he is none other than John Glynn, the boy round whom the manifestations centred. He was 17 at the time. Now, married with an eight-week-old boy, John lives in the Stenhills and one of his ambitions is to forget all about that strange period in 1952.
Runcorn Weekly News, 19th June 1958.
The Runcorn Ghost.
An interesting article in the Echo recently recalled the strange happenings at Byron Street, Runcorn, six years ago. As I was an investigator of that case I would like, through the Echo, to thank Mr Sam Jones for his kindness and courtesy in allowing me – not to mention many others – to invade the privacy of his home during that troubled period. He had nothing to hide and encouraged inspection. I fear he was unjustly ridiculed by some when he needed sympathy. It was a troubled and frightened family.
The recent book dealing with the case, mentioned in your paper, leaves the matter an open question. The authors are too well informed to deny the possibility of poltergeist phenomena.
Several errors have crept into the book which can be well understood by writers who did not witness the occurrences. It is assumed that no light was shone when nothing happened. The fact is lights shone frequently.
It assumes that I was some distance from the jig-saw puzzle when it started its flight across the room. Actually, I was close against it, a matter of inches.
It is suggested that someone might have given the dressing-table a sharp push to make it rock at my request. The fact is no-one was near it and light was shone at the beginning of the third shake. A trickster would have been caught in the act. The table did not rock in the normal way. It shook, rattled and seemed to dance. When I tried to start it going, to my surprise I found it firmly planted on the floor.
I hope Mr Sam Jones in his new home will find peace from poltergeists and things that go bump in the night.
The Rev. W. H. Stevens, 12 Regent Square, Northampton.
Liverpool Echo, 24th June 1958.
Dealing with ghosts.
To the Editor, Sir – I was interested to read that references to the Byron Street poltergeist have appeared in recently published books. The “Punch” Winter Almanac for 1936 had a very humorous cartoon showing two rather elderly gents hurrying along at a late hour past a churchyard, where some lads had rigged up a “ghost.” “But surely, professor,” one whispered tremulously to the other, “there must be som purely physical explanation for such psychic phenomena.” I don’t know whether there’s any truth in that remark or not. Personally, I don’t think there’s any doubt that ghosts, apparitions and poltergeists do exist, but I believe they’re of Satanic origin. People should be careful not to dabble in such things, unless their purpose is to get rid of them and bring deliverance to the people affected. This cannot be done by spiritists [sic], as it is probable that they themselves are under Satanic influences, but it can be done by those who exercise the authority of Christ by faith. We have the binding spirit.
The church has displayed a culpable ignorance of this important ministry. It is therefore interesting to note that the Archbishop’s commission on the Church’s ministry of healing has put forward the suggestion that the Church and the medical profession should form a panel to investigate demonology and exorcism. T.G. Franklin, 59 Lugsmore Lane, Thatto Heath, St. Helens.
Runcorn Weekly News, 26th June 1958.
Ghost house is without buyer.
Yet 1,000 people seek homes.
How would you like to live in a ghost house? Or does the thought that the house may still be haunted put you off? More than 1,000 Runcorn people are looking for a house. About 700 of them are on the Council’s housing register. Yet, for all this, the house, No. 1 Byron Street, still remains unsold – and it has been empty for at least nine months. Nearly seven years have passed since the house acquired world-wide fame as the house that possessed a ghost. Nothing has been heard of this since, and it could perhaps be said that the ghost has been well and truly laid. But several people who have shown an interest in buying the house have been “put off” after hearing the ghostly stories.
Owners are the Trustees of the Kirkham Estates, and if they can’t sell, they may consider letting the premises. Mr Rawlinson (of Messrs W.E. Hough, solicitors), the representative for the Trustees, readily admits that several people have lost interest in the house because of the ghost. But it is his opinion that, in the main, other people who really are interested in buying the house have not sufficient money to put down. He did say that the figure being quoted was not extortionate, and that it was in keeping with the cost of any houses in that area.
“The ghost walks again” were headlines in the Weekly News in late 1962, and for nearly four months the entire town was intrigued by the “unusual happenings.” There was a variety of occurrences. A man was lifted out of bed and deposited on the bedroom floor; a flying book struck the Widnes Superintendent Methodist minister in the face. But they were generally repetitions of previous “visitations,” such as the movement of furniture and the throwing of small articles.
And there were many witnesses of the occurrences. Strangers knocked at the door asking if the stories were true, adn remained to investigate happenings which convinced them that an “unearthly force” was at work.
Number 1 Byron Street, was at that time the home of Mr Samuel Jones, yet everything seemed to centre round Mr John Glynn, a young man who lived at the house. (Mr Glynn is now married, and living in Stenhills Crescent). In October, 1952, a party of Runcorn spiritualists held a seance at which Mr Glynn and also the Rev. J.L. Stafford, minister at Camden and Greenway Road, were present. Other visitors included member of the Society for Psychic Research, London, and a Weekly News reporter who “stayed the night.”
The strange and uncanny happenings attracted world-wide interest, and representatives called from the American magazines “Time” and “Life”; from Sunday newspapers, and in the same week a BBC recording team headed by Dennis Mitchell.
Runcorn Weekly News, 19th March 1959.
Dublin family move into ghost house.
Priest gives his blessing for their future happiness.
No. 1 Byron Street – the “ghost” house which retained its eerie atmosphere even after the departure of the occupants who figured in the sensational and dramatic events of late 1952 – is occupied again. The doors have opened once more just when it seemed that they had closed forever. Bare and empty rooms and a stony silence, which were all that remained in a locked house of unhappy memories, have been replaced by the joy and happiness which comes to a family moving into a home of their own.
The house at No. 1 attained a reputation and notoriety which lingered on like a dark and ever threatening shadow. It could not be sold. But it has been let. The family that are not afraid of ghosts are 50-years-old Mr Daniel Kenny, an £8-a-week farm labourer, his 39-years old wife, Mrs Kathleen Kenny, and their two children, Elizabeth aged 11, and Margaret, 8. Dublin-born Mrs Kenny asked a priest at St. Edward’s R.C. Church, Runcorn, to give his blessing to the house, and this solemn little ceremony was performed on Monday – six days after the family moved in.
Mrs Kenny came to Runcorn with her sister, Mrs Mary Connolly, and during the past few days they have spent much of their time on extensive cleaning work – necessitated by an accumulation of dust and dirt over a lengthy period of time. Mrs Connolly was due to return to Dublin yesterday (Wednesday) after seeing her sister safely settled in. Mr Kenny, who had obtained employment in Runcorn, wrote to his wife in Dublin telling her that he thought he had found a house which was suitable for them to live in. “I was only too pleased to come over here and join my husband,” she told a Weekly News reporter. “In his letter he explained part of the history of the house, but it did not worry me. In fact, it does not worry any of us. We are paying £1 15s a week rent, and we intend to settle down in this house,” added Mrs Kenny.
Does the nearby railway, with the night trains or other noises, worry the Kennys? Not at all. As Mrs Kenny said: “We have had no sleepless nights, and are not unduly disturbed.”
In a prominent place on the Kennys’ fireside mantlepiece stands a large ornament in the shape of a lucky black cat. Quipped Mrs Kenny: “Everywhere I move it goes with me!”
Runcorn Weekly News, 13th August 1959.
Minister’s Part in Poltergeist Inquiry.
Death of Rev. W.H. Stevens.
The Rev. William Henry Stevens, former superintendent Methodist minister of the Widnes Circuit, who took part in the poltergeist investigations at Runcorn ten years ago, collapsed and died last Thursday. Aged 71, Mr Stevens had retired from the ministry and resided at Cliff Place, Blackpool. For more than 30 years he was a member of the Society for Psychical Research and it was his keen interest in the work of the society which led him to join other ministers in investigating the poltergeist stories emanating from No. 1 Byron Street.
Mr Stevens spent 11 nights in the house and a full account of his report on the case was contained in the book “Four Modern Ghosts,” by Eric Dingwall and Trevor Hall, two experienced investigators. At the time, Mr Stevens wrote: “One doubts the evidence of one’s senses in these matters.”
His introduction to the case arose from the fact that, being a Methodist minister, he was stationed in Widnes. “Reading about it in the Press,” he said, “I went over to investigate in a sceptical frame of mind. For about 30 years I have been a member of the London S.P.R., have read scores of books on the subject, attended various seances, had sittings with mediums – all in my search for truth. Consequently I know what to expect on the general behaviour of poltergeist. Gradually, I came to the conclusion that this was a genuine case.”
[…]
Runcorn Weekly News, 24th May 1962.
A Poltergeist’s Reign of Terror. By Derek Whale.
A little terraced corner house in Byron Street, Runcorn, is a happy family home. But this same house, a stone’s throw from Runcorn Cemetery, was the scene of terror in the late summer of 1952. For months its residents were subjected to supernatural incidents in which furniture was hurled about and smashed in a haunted bedroom. Police, priests, ministers, spiritualists, scientists, reporters and even family friends failed to halt what appeared to be a poltergeist.
Neighbours still recall the scores of curious sightseers who walked their streets to see the house that hit the headlines. “It was as though they were all coming to a cinema show,” Mrs. Edith Hughes, of 3 Picow Street, next-door-but-one, told me when I revisited the scene. “Thankfully, I heard nothing strange going on in my house, ” she said.
Occupants of No. 1 Byron Street at the time of the hauntings included a Mr. Sam Jones, then aged 68, his sister-in-law, Mrs Lucy Jones, and two grand-children. One of those struck by the poltergeist’s brickbats was Mr. Cyril Berry. Now a 74-years-old pensioner, he lives with his wife at 4 Picow Street, a few yards from the corner house. Cyril was friendly with Mr. Jones and he told me how he spent several nights in the haunted bedroom.
“One night, I was in this particular back bedroom with two policemen and other people,” he said. “As soon as the light was switched off a chest of drawers started vibrating and shifting about. It banged against the bed and a wall. An alarm clock, usually on top of the chest, flew across the room into a corner. This sort of thing went on at intervals for two or three hours. At one stage I was struck on the head by a drawer, and a policeman confirmed that I had a large bump to prove it. A local parson also spent some time in the room and I remember once his saying: “Hello Rufus (the name we gave to the spirit) are you coming again to-night?” There was a loud thump in reply.”
Here is how an investigator weighs up the reign of “Rufus the Terror.” Mr. Alan Bell, of Formby, is a pharmaceutical chemist. But he has adopted a completely new science for his hobby. He investigates paranormal and supernatural incidents. In short, he is a “Ghost Hunter.” Mr Bell reckons that many of the happenings which he has investigated have proved to be sham, although reported in good faith.
“I have taped alleged ghostly noises many times. Most of these can be identified as being caused by such things as water pipes, traffic vibration, creaking gates or furniture, and even electric light bulbs clicking as they contract after switching off.” The hauntings of No. 1 Byron Street, however, said Alan, in his opinion, were genuine. He has good reason to say this. The poltergeist tried to suffocate him with a pillow.
“I was invited to spend some time in the haunted bedroom,” he says. “The room was in darkness when a pillow floated through the air and pressed against my face. I passed my hands all round it. Nobody was holding it and, eventually, I had to push it away. Had the pillow merely been thrown at me it would, of course, fallen to the floor. It was a very disturbing experience and so real.”
The poltergeist refused to be recorded. Whenever Mr Bell switched on his tape the noises ceased immediately. “I even had leads taken from the bedroom and the recorder was switched on downstairs, but the effect was just the same,” he said. He cited the “possessed” dressing table, which so many witnesses had heard being thumped about, with its drawers opening and closing. “The shaking of this table was like nothing I had ever experienced,” said Mr. Bell. “Every part of it vibrated. It was like a miniature earthquake. Pieces of it would break off and fly across the room, striking the walls or anyone in the way.” The alarm clock too, so often hurled by ghostly hands, made a loud noise as it struck. Yet it still bore few signs of damage. “This led me to believe that the noises produced were psychic phenomena,” he said. The flying clock incidents went on for weeks, but eventually the noisy spirit had the satisfaction of seeing the clock smashed.
No. 1 remained empty for some time after the family had left. Then the Kennys sailed across the sea from Eire and occupied it. A native of the village of Rathdrum, County Wicklow, raven-haired Mrs. Kathleen Kenny, and her husband Daniel, who now works on a farm at Frodsham, transformed the house. “It was dark and gloomy when we came here 13 years ago,” Mrs. Kenny told me. “We called in a local priest who blessed the house and then we redecorated it throughout.” Certainly, No. 1 is now very bright and gay and rings with the laughter of the Kennys’ teenage daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth.
I asked Kathleen Kenny how she reacted to taking over a haunted house. “My husband was working nights and I had two young children in the house. I would deliberately stand in that dark room just to defy whatever there was or had been there. But we have neither seen nor heard anything since we have lived here.”
The hauntings began on Sunday, August 17, and ended ten weeks later. Mr. Jones, who died some years ago, said at the time of leaving the house how, on one of the last nights, his head was patted affectionately by a soft, ghostly hand. Perhaps the mischievous spirit was filled with remorse for the havoc and upset it had created, for a couple of days later it vanished and peace returned.
iverpool Echo, 6th December 1971.