A Ghostly Vigil.
Listening for strange noises in bungalow.
Occupants who heard mysterious knocks.
Inhabitants of the small Berkshire village of Little Sandhurst, clustering round the walls of Wellington College, are puzzled by strange noises coming from a little wooden bungalow in the village. Mysterious knocks and bangings are said to have been heard at dead of night, and a cup on the sideboard, they say, swings about in an uncanny fashion. There are whispers of treasure buried under the floor.
A London “Star” reporter has just spent half the night in the “haunted” house, and he says there certainly were some strange noises. “I sat up and waited for developments with Mrs Nash and her sister, Miss Margaret Ives, who, until a few days ago, lived in the cottage,” he writes. “Our little ‘ghost’ party was completed by Mr Arthur Ives, their brother, and Mr Sydney Grainger, who is the golf professional at Wellington College. While we were waiting for things to happen they told me the story.
‘The noises started about six weeks ago,’ Mrs Nash said. ‘It seemed as if someone was banging under the floor. We were terrified and spent the rest of the night with the gas on. Sometimes nothing would happen for a night or two, and then just as we were settling off to sleep it would start again. After a week or two a new kind of noise started. It was as if someone was hitting the wall with a hammer. The whole sideboard rattled, and there was one cup which my granny always used which would swing while all the others kept still.’
Her story was told in broken whispers, and at intervals we all stopped talking and listened. Once there came a dull thud, thud sound from deep down under the foundations and we waited with bated breaths. ‘That is how it always begins,’ whispered Miss Ives.
Then Mr Grainger took up the tale, ‘Last Thursday night,’ he said, ‘several of waited up to try and get to the bottom of the mystery. Nothing happened until 4 o’clock in the morning, and then it started. It was terrible. First of all the chair I was sitting on began vibrating, and it felt just as if someone was digging underneath the floor. Then the walls began to rattle. Old Mrs Sumster (Mrs Nash’s grandmother) was supposed to have buried a lot of money under the floor, and some of the people in the village say that the knocking is to guide us to where it lies. Others say someone is tunnelling under the house to try and find it. We have had some of the floor-boards up, but we did not find anything.’
Mrs Nash told me that she had heard the sounds in the daytime as well as at night. About midnight we ended our vigil and went out into the fresh air again. Before leaving we turned the gas right out to see if that would encourage the noise, but the only sound was the whistle of a railway engine in the far distance.”
Lancashire Evening Post, 5th September 1929.