Moving Events.
In this age of world-wide unrest it is, perhaps, not entirely unnatural that there should be news of violent and mysterious happenings at Blackpool, although, at first sight, these fantastic ebullitions have a most unnatural look about them. Dwellers in a house in the South Shore district have had to call in the police to take note of the unruly behaviour of household effects. As, for insntance, when the head of the family was eating his supper, a meal which any man who is conscious of something attempted, something done, may reasonably expect to enjoy in peace, a hairbrush with a steel top flew out of a box which was hanging on the wall and hit him on th ehead.
A needlework basket fell, a knife flew off the table, a barometer dropped from a wall, and a clock descended abruptly to the floor. A policeman called in and told of these phenomena was, it is stated, at first inclined to laugh, but when a brass stand in the fireplace turned upside down and a clothes brush flew off the stand he inquired, “Where did that come from?” As well he might, for it is not every policeman who is called upon to deal with crises of this kind an, presumably, members of the force are without training or instructions on the matter. Perhaps the best thing to do would have been to blow his whistle and try the effect of that.
At one time these disquieting episodes would have been attributed without hesitation to the mischief of a poltergeist, that is to say, a spook whose levity is expressed by playing tricks with the laws of gravity. Many stories of happenings of a similar nature are on record, most notably, it may be, those narrated as occurring at one time in the household of John Wesley. Some have remained inexplicable, others have been found capable of natural explanation. In this case, the householder believes electricity in the atmosphere has something to do with it, and his theory seems as good as any other. But if Blackpool Corporation are truly enterprising they will cultivate the poltergeist idea, for, as a popular attraction it would plainly be a set off to the Loch Ness monster.
Liverpool Echo, 10th August 1938.
Ghosts! Strange Happenings in Blackpool House.
Woman cut by flying knife.
Strange happenings in a house in South Shore, Blackpool, have baffled police officers, a doctor, and several professional men who have been investigating articles of furniture in the house turning upside down, and of a knife becoming animated like a bird, flying off the table and cutting a woman’s leg.
While the policeman was making his investigations he was favoured with about half a dozen demonstrations of eerie experiences, which so terrified occupants of the house that some fled in terror while others fainted before they were assisted out of the house.
The investigating doctor has not been so fortunate. He saw nothing.
The trouble, according to the tenant of the house, started at midnight on Sunday whilst he was in the kitchen having supper. He says that in an open bag hanging on the wall was a steel-backed hairbrush, which flew out of the bag and hit him on the back of the head. After he had picked up the brush and returned it to its proper place, a needlework basket, perched on the top of the kitchenette, fell to the floor. “By this time I was getting somewhat alarmed,” he went on. “Then a knife flew off the table and the woman lodger, who entered the room to see what the row was about, was struck by the knife on the leg, which was slightly cut. Meanwhile the noise of things falling aroused my wife and the elder girl who were upstairs. In terror they put on their things and came down. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, a barometer which was in the lobby fell off the wall and a clock dropped off a table in the kitchen. Neighbours, hearing the commotion, got out of bed and came to the house. A police officer was by no means convinced by my story. He began to take notes when a clothes brush, which was on the piano, flew to the floor. In a rather playful tone he asked: ‘Where did that come from?’ I told him and just as he was starting the story all over again, a stand made of brass and iron and bearing the words ‘Home Sweet Home’ suddenly began to move in the fireplace. The officer then stared in amazement, and especially when the thing turned upside down.”
Sleaford Gazette, 12th August 1938.
A House Where Things Fall. Blackpool family’s ‘mystery’ experiences. An electrical theory.
After articles in their home had mysteriously dropped from walls and tables at midnight, on Sunday, a Blackpool South Shore husband and wife, their two little girls, and a woman lodger, carrying her baby in her arms, fled into the streets and sought refuge in the houses of their neighbours. The man telephoned to the South Shore police station asking for a policeman to be sent to the house immediately to make investigations. When the officer began to take notes in a room where most of the things had fallen, nothing untoward happened, but a few minutes later, while the policeman was still in the room, one or two things began to move again. The husband said that he arrived home about midnight on Sunday, and went into the kitchen to have his supper. While he was sitting at the table a hairbrush with a steel top, which was in an open bag hanging on the wall, flew out of the bag and hit him on the back of the head. A needlework basket from the top of the kitchenette and a knife from the table, fell.
Started in a thunderstorm.
The woman lodger, who was entering the room at the time, was struck on the leg and cut, but not seriously. The man’s wife and two little girls were sleeping upstairs, but the noise of things falling awakened the wife and the elder girl, and they came downstairs, terrified. “My wife and the lodger fainted,” he said, “and my little girl, who had got up, was terribly nervous. Neighbours, who had heard them screaming, got out of bed and came to the house. I telephoned to the South Shore Police Station. An officer arrived and when we told him of our experience he laughed. While he was present the clothes-brush jumped off the piano and a brass ironstand in the fireplace turned upside down. Nothing happened again until Monday when the thunderstorm began and a hairbrush, a clock, a hammer and an electric iron fell on to the floor in the kitchen”
Neighbours are looking after the man’s wife, whose poor health, it is feared, might further be affected by the experience. Asked if he could account for such happenings, the husband replied that he and the woman lodger were “full of electricity.” He had worked for many years as a tram driver, and she had also worked on an electrical undertaking. “Both of us are charged with electricity,” he said, “and, in fact, together with the electricity in the atmosphere just now, has, I believe, caused things in the house to be disturbed. I said to the lodger afterwards: ‘We will make a test, and see if the electricity has anything to do with it,’ so we stood side by side, with our backs to the table, and in a second or two a hammer, which was behind us, rose and fell on the table.”
Halifax Evening Courier, 10th August 1938.
All Quiet At Blackpool “Haunted” House.
Tenant hopes incidents will be forgotten.
What has worried me so much about all this uncanny business is that my wife has been terribly upset and reduced almost to a state of collapse, and that the articles, such as the steel-backed hairbrush, always seem to have flown at me or fallen towards me as though to hit me. For the last two nights, however, everything has been quiet, and I am hoping that the whole matter will be forgotten and we shall be left in peace.
This statement was made to me to-day (writes a “Lancashire Daily Post” reporter) by the middle-aged Blackpool man, at whose home in South Shore, off St. Annes-road, various household articles are declared to have been seen to move or drop off the walls without any apparent reason, in the early hours of last Monday morning. To-day it was stated at the house that his wife was in bed suffering from an acute attack of nerves, but that now the disturbances seemed to have finished, she was remaining at home for the sake of her two children.
Outside Police Province
The policeman who, it is said, was present in the house when an iron stand moved and turned upside down, is understood to have made a report of the occurrence to the Chief Constable, but it is not expected that the police will take any steps unless another complaint is made.
“Did the policeman actually see the articles moving in the house without any reason,” I asked at a local police station. “He says he did,” was the answer, “and that is what I believe he has stated in his report. I do not know what the next move will be, as a thing like this is actually outside the province of the police. No injury has been caused and no offence committed.”
The husband who is a small, typically Lancashire man, was at work as usual when I spoke to him, and he described the extraordinary occurrences of the night. He arrived home, he said, about midnight, and was having supper in the back kitchen when the steel-topped brush flew out of an open bag and hit him on the back of the head. A needlework basket fell from the kitchenette near him, and when a woman lodger entered the room alarmed by the noise, a steel knife caught her on the leg and grazed the skin.
Women faint
“My wife and the two girls were awakened by the noise,” he said, “and came downstairs. When they saw the barometer fall in the lobby, and a clock drop off the dressing table, my wife and the lodger both fainted. A few neighbours who heard the bumps and the screams of the women came out to see what was the matter. I telephoned the police and the officer laughed at first. But while he was taking notes a clothes brush flew off the piano, and he asked where it had come from. Then in front of all of us a brass fire-iron stand in the fire-place turned upside down. After that we decided we had had enough, and the children were carried across the road to a neighbour’s house. I did not go to work next day because of the shock, but everything was quiet until the afternoon, and then when the thunder clouds hung low other articles, including a hammer and a clock moved and fell on the floor. As a woman neighbour from across the road came into the house she said that she had seen a brush move. My wife and the lodger would not remain in the house that night, but I called a man in from next door and he stayed with me. Nothing happened and nothing has happened since.”
Husband’s Theory
The husband believes that excessive electricity in his body may have something to do with the mystery. “I work among electricity,” he said, “and the lodger has also worked with electrical equipment, and on Monday there was a lot of thunder in the air.” Asked if he would consider calling in psychical help, he replied: “No, we are hoping the whole thing has finished. It is something we know nothing about, and we do not want to dabble in the unknown. We shall not leave the house or anything like that.” He added that after the occurrences he had regained his nerve by smoking his old pipe and sitting quietly.
The man who was called in on Tuesday night said: “I am not strong-hearted or anything like that, but I was very intrigued and went for the experience of seeing things flying through the air. Nothing happened, though.”
Lancashire Evening Post, 10th August 1938.
Blackpool Brush Jumping
No recurrence of strange events.
There has been no recurrence of the strange events in the Blackpool house where objects fell to the floor and were flung about the rooms without apparent cause. Last night the family returned to their home in South Shore and spent an undisturbed night. The incidents began on Sunday night when a hairbrush in an open bag hanging on the wall flew out of the bag. A knife jumped off a table and cut a woman lodger’s leg, while many other objects were disturbed.
A policeman was called in and he was present when other objects were displaced. The family and the woman lodger then left the house in terror. An electrician employed by the landlord examined the premises, but could discover nothing to account for the eerie phenomena.
On Monday night the tenants and a man friend slept in the house and nothing untoward happened. “We hope it is the last of these strange incidents,” said the tenant to the Echo to-night.
Liverpool Echo, 10th August 1938.