Heard strange knockings.
Some admissions of an extraordinary nature were made at the Pontypridd Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday by Charles Hardy, assistant timberman, Tyny-graig-road, Llanbradach. His liabilities included £43 due to eight grocers, and £17 due to nine drapers. Answering the Official Receiver (Mr Ellis Owen) Hardy frankly admitted having removed his furniture from the house to the stable, with a view of getting them back after bankruptcy proceedings were over. Debtor explained that some workmen told him to “hide his furniture for a bit.”
“And you believed it,” said the Official Receiver in astonishment.
“Yes I did, or I would not have done it,” replied the debtor.
“Didn’t you know you would be defrauding your creditors?”
“No.”
Debtor added that he had since sold the furniture for £5, and produced a receipt.
Asked why he left Senghenydd, Hardy gave a strange reason. “One of my sons died,” he said, “and my wife and myself heard strange knockings in the house, and although we removed to another home, the knocking continued.”
The examination was closed.
Pontypridd Observer, 21st March 1908.
Sengenydd was the scene of the much-publicised Craze case in 1906 so one can’t help feeling slightly sceptical…