Ghostly goings-on of the grey monk.
Mystery visits at a school.
By Andrew Norfolk.
A mysterious monk is being blamed for a series of strange happenings at a Scarborough primary school. Headmaster Mr John Oldfield said that objects have been moving around in two rooms at Friarage County Primary School, and he believes it is the work of a ghostly grey monk. He said the ghost goes into action in his study and in the school kitchen, both of which are in the centre of the school.
The school stands on the site of a former Franciscan friarage. Mr Oldfield said that chairs have been moved around the study, and that he often goes into work to discover that his wall clock has been put under his desk. He said that on one occasion he caught a glimpse of the apparition. “It was a rather indistinct shape, but it definitely appeared to be wearing the grey habit of a Franciscan monk,” he said. “When I came here eight years ago I was certain there were no such things as ghosts, but since then I have been forced to change my mind. At first I thought it was simply a case of human mischief, but whoever moves the clock and the chairs would have to get through three locked doors, and there have been occasions when I know I was the only person with a key.”
When the school was built in 1896 work on the foundations uncovered the bodies of monks who had been buried in the friarage graveyard. The remains were taken to Hull for reinternment, but Mr Oldfield thinks one of the monks must have been left behind. “He’s not in the least threatening, but he does seem to consider it his right to choose the position of objects in the two rooms,” he said. “The monk seems particularly annoyed when the school holds events on a Sunday, and it’s a fair bet that I’ll come in the next day to discover that something has been moved.”
The monk also enjoys switching on lights during the night. On several occasions Mr Oldfield has been called by the police in the middle of the night after mysterious lights were seen in the school. No satisfactory explanation for them has ever been found.
In the school kitchen, staff have resigned themselves to leaving objects in the ghost’s approved places, but Mr Oldfield has not yet given up the fight to keep his clock on the wall. “He can keep moving it around the room but I’m going to keep putting it back on the wall,” he said. “He’s not going to have things all his own way!”
Scarborough Evening News, 15th December 1989.