Have those nuns moved into a flat?
Ghostly noises, mystery lights alarm couple.
Have the ghosts of Coventry Hall nipped smartly through the Streatham High Road traffic to find new haunting grounds? For there have been strange happenings in an old house opposite the 163-year-old former home of the Earl of Coventry. Knocks on the door of a flat at 2a.m., the door of a refridgerator opening on its own… and lights being switched on apparently unaided…
The house, now fronted by shops, is of a similar architectural design to that of Coventry Hall which, for 70 years, was used by nuns of the St Andrew Order who ran a convent school, but which now contains Wandsworth Council tenants. The nuns were evacuated at the outbreak of war and never returned… or did they? In the autumn of 1955 uneasy tenants told of seeing the ghosts of nuns walking the corridors. Some of the nuns even spoke to them, they claimed.
But no more was heard of the talking spirits until this week when driving instructor Mr Eric South, who lives in a first-floor flat of the old house opposite Coventry Hall – he had known nothing of the earlier reports of ghosts – said: “My wife June was terrified at the mysterious things happening here. She said she heard someone knock on the door, but no one was there. So I would sit up until 2 o’clock in the morning. When I heard the knock I dashed to the door – the landing was clear. I even fixed the knocker so that it couldn’t make a noise, but still it happened. And the fridge door, which I know had been securely closed on its strong spring, clicked open. And lights have gone on in the basement of the house, although no one could be seen.
“I have never believed in ghosts and I told June all these things could have logical explanations – but how could I explain what made a hairbrush move several yards? We had been on a fortnight’s holiday, and had left a hairbrush on a table in the passage-way. When we returned there was, of course, a thin layer of dust over the furniture. The hairbrush had disappeared, but there was an outline in the dust where it had been. We found the brush on a dressing-table in the bedroom. There is absolutely no question of anyone having got into the flat. It needs two keys and there was no sign of entry. Since all these things happened, I have learnt about the nuns across the road. Could there be a tie-up?”
The house in which Mr and Mrs South live was, 70 years ago, a private school run by a Miss Withiel. It later became St Helen’s School. A pupil there in Miss Withiel’s day was local historian Mrs Ethel Bromhead. She said this week: “It was a happy school and, as far as I know, no child ever met an accidental death, so that discounts the possibility that the ghost of a pupil is walking around. But, the Coventry Hall ghosts are a different matter – there are so many things we do not understand. I would say that the hall and the house in the High Road may be about the same age. I wonder if there is any connection?”
Last word from Mr South: “When we first noticed the goings-on, my wife wanted to move from here. Now she is taking quite an interest and wouldn’t leave for a fortune! She realises that there is no record of anyone ever having been harmed by a poltergeist, so she’s no longer worried… but we would like to solve the mystery…”
Streatham News, 14th September 1962.