Three Raps
Mysterious Noises at a Staveley Inn.
Certain noises which have been recently heard at a Staveley Inn have given rise to alarm on the part of the occupants of the house – a landlady and a servant – and curiosity on the part of the local people.
A curious thing is that the noise is not confined to one particular part of the house, but moves from room to room, and it is likened to an individual knocking with a pint pot on a table. It also sounds as if it were behind a closed door and in an empty room.
On different days when the rappings have occurred different people have made a dash to the spot where the noise happened, and also to the doors, to ascertain if anyone was playing a prank. But on each occasion no one has been detected nor the mystery elucidated.
Several local residents who visited the inn believing the whole thing to be a joke have declared themselves amazed at the “three knocks,” which, however, does not resemble any uncanny sound. Various suggestions have been made. One is that the recent gale has loosened something. Others are trains passing on the cutting close to the inn, and vibration from new machinery at the Devonshire Works. But those who have heard it – and everyone who goes into the inn appears to – are not satisfied with such explanations.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 14th March 1914.
Weird Noises at a Staveley Inn.
Stories of ghosts or haunted rooms are frequently associated with ancient mansions, but seldom are such tales connected with a village inn of a comparatively modern type.
However, certain incidents or noises that have occurred at the Nag’s Head, Staveley, during the past week have given rise to a state of some alarm amongst the occupants of the hostelry, the landlady and her servant, and incidentally created a good deal of curiosity amongst the general public.
It is related that one day early in the week certain loud knocks, apparently like an individual with a pint-pot hitting on a tale in an empty apartment, were heard by the inmates, but no trace of any person’s presence was found on investigation. These weird noises have been repeated at different intervals during the day and night, and the fact that they have recurred so often, and on more than one day, has led to the belief among the superstitiously inclined that the place is haunted.
A curious feature in regard to the story is that according to those who say they have heard the noises is that they do not occur in the same place or room each time, which the spiritualist would contend was evidence of the presence of “an intelligence.
One day, so the story goes, it is stated that a man who often does some waiting there was the only person in the house, and he having heard the common talk that the house was haunted, answered the knock, but on going to the place found no one at all there.
On Wednesday evening three men who were in the inn listening for the “rappings” made a dash for different doors when the noise occurred, to see if anyone were playing a joke by hitting the door with a bottle, but there was no sign of anyone.
On Thursday several people who regarded the story as farcical, visited the place in the afternoon, and as a result they now confirm the statement that the rappings are there, and liken them to anyone hitting a table behind a closed door with a pint-pot. One individual who was present in the afternoon declared he heard six knocks of three knocks a time, and said the funny thing was that it never sounded where anyone was standing. If one went to the room where he first heard it, it would be in a different place next time.
It is difficult to say off-hand when the inn was built, but it is situated near the G.C. railway bridge on the Chesterfield road. The fact that there is a deep cutting in the railway at the place it has been suggested by those who have not heard the rappings, that it may possibly be a passing train that causes something to move or shake.
The occurrence is causing considerable talk in Staveley and district.
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 14th March 1914.
Strange rappings at an inn.
A Chesterfield message in the “Daily Mirror” says – Mysterious rappings which have been heard at the Nag’s Head Inn, Staveley, near here, have given rise to the supposition that the place is haunted.
The noise, which is three distinct knocks, is like a person striking a table. The rappings are not confined to one part of the house, but wherever one stands they are heard coming from another direction.
Various means have been tried to ascertain if anyone is playing a prank, but all efforts have failed to elucidate the mystery.
Belfast Telegraph, 19th March 1914.
Now a house, 24 Chesterfield Road Staveley.
