A remarkable ghost story.
During the past few weeks there has been commotion in Skelmersdale, occasioned not by the demands of the colliers for increased wages, but by a strange apparition and other remarkable phenomena, which were only too readily attributed to supernatural influences. On the death of an old lady some time ago, her granddaughter, a little girl, was placed with some relatives in Liverpool-road. The child was put to sleep with two older girls, but she had no sooner got to bed than there were strange manifestations, including the appearance of a ghostly hand on the bed covering, speaking in an unknown tongue, tapping on the floor, and singing.
This occurred night after night, until the residents of the house became thoroughly alarmed. The child was removed to another room, it being supposed by some that the spirit of her grandmother was by this means expressing displeasure at the postion in which the girl had been placed. This proved effectual so far as the child was concerned, but the “manifestations” continued in the other room, which was occupied by the two older girls.
Night after night parties sat up to discover the cause, but as they were chiefly of the credulous sex they did not succed in “laying the ghost.” Their experiences indeed were very remarkable. One watcher, a musician, was pushed from his seat by the ghost and rolled on the floor, and he left the house a firm believer in the supernatural.
Alarm spread through the neighbourhood, and the premises obtained the unenviable reputation of being haunted. Finally the mystery was solved by the careful observations of two gentlemen, and it turns out that the “manifestations” were ingeniously brought about by the younger of the two girls. The “ghost” has since left the village.
Preston Herald, 2nd December 1882.