Sunderland Ghost “Interviewed” By A Spiritualist.
Search for someone called “Annie”
Tenants’ amazing story of mysterious noises near midnight.
Like man with wooden leg.
A ghost was interviewed by a spiritualist last night at No. 53 Northumberland Street, Sunderland, according to an amazing story told by neighbours to-day to a “Sunderland Echo” representative. It gave the name of “John Henry Turner,” and said he was wrongfully accused of some crime, committed suicide, was earthbound, and was looking for someone named “Annie” so that he could have his good name cleared and be able to rest in peace.
Almost every night between half-past eleven and midnight neighbours have heard mysterious noises on the stairs and knockings on the wall on the stair landing. One man described it as like the noise of a man with a wooden leg stumping up and down the stairs. The noises have become so serious lately that a friend of one of the tenants informed a spiritualist, who visited the house last night and held conversation with the ghost.
Mrs Clinton, wife of Mr Joseph Clinton, who lives in the house, said: “I have heard the noises for a long time now. It is like somebody walking up the stairs with one boot on and one off. It seems to walk up the stairs, knock on the wall, and then walk down again. We have asked the neighbours whether they dust carpets at night, but they don’t and there seems to be no natural reason why the noises should occur. For a long time we tried to take no notice and thought it might be cats, but one night when I was out in the yard getting water I saw the ghost in the yard. It was a man, dressed, and wearing an overcoat. Of course I dropped the water I was carrying and ran inside; wouldn’t you?
“We are Catholics of course, and don’t believe in such things, but the matter has got so bad lately that you are forced to think there is something in it. We cannot rest for it. My husband cannot get to sleep for the noise. The other night the walls were [?]ing with the rapping that went on. We are going up to my husband’s people to sleep to-night. We cannot get to sleep in the house.”
John Roper, an unemployed man, who lives upstairs, said he had heard the noises nearly every night. “We took no notice for a long time, but they have been getting worse lately,” he said. “A couple of weeks ago I was sitting up waiting for my wife coming back from the hospital where she had been visiting our sick child, and I heard footsteps coming upstairs quite plainly. Thinking it was my wife, I went to the door and opened it, but there was nobody there. Sometimes the noises are softer than at other times and sometimes it seems to be like that caused by a man with a wooden leg – a heavy noise with one foot or stump and a softer noise with the other foot.
“I have not seen the so-called ghost, but we had a Spiritualist at the house last night. I don’t know who he was, but he came and held a conversation with the spirit. We could hear him talking to it. He said he saw it on the stairhead. The Spiritualist seemed serious about it and told us that if we heard the knockings again we were to send for him and he would come back with others of his faith and they would hold another sitting and try to put an end to the business.”
Another tenant in the house said he had lived there for 12 months and had tried to make light of the matter at first, but he could find no natural explanation of the noises. “The other night,” he said, “the rapping on the wall was enough to shake it down. Then it seemed as if somebody got hold of the door and shook it violently before it went stumbling away down the stairs again. I have been all through the War and served in a submarine, but I could not for my life have opened the door that night and gone on to the landing.”
A woman living a few doors away said that during the War she lived in the house number 53 and frequently heard the noise of heavy footsteps on the stairs when it was clear nobody was about. “We had to get used to the noise,” she said, “but all the same it got on your nerves when you heard it so regularly at night time.”
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 16th February 1932. (front page)
Wearsiders Haunt “Ghost” Street.
Since the report in “The Sunderland Echo” on Monday that a ghost haunting a house in Northumberland Street, Sunderland, and had been interviewed by a spiritualist, crowds of people have visited the street nightly and remained in the vicinity of the house until the early hours of the morning hoping to get a glimpse of the nocturnal visitor from the other world. The spiritualist medium declared that the spirit wished to get into touch with someone named “Annie”.
It has resulted in a Grangetown [man?] visiting the house and stating that he thinks he can help to solve the mystery. He says that he brought up an orphan named Annie, who died many years ago at the age of 17, in another house in Northumberland Street. He has a photograph of this girl and promises to lend it to the spiritualist to help him unravel the mystery until another seance can be arranged. Meanwhile, the tenants in the house say that the strange noises continue on the stairs, and that the attic hatch has been lifted and banged in a [?] manner.
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 18th February 1932.
Giving up the Ghost
Although crowds gather in Northumberland Street, Sunderland, each night the “ghost” of No. 53 has not yet been seen. The mysterious noises are still heard and the tenants have got no nearer the solution of the sounds. One theory was that a one-legged man in an adjoining house was responsible, but it was stated that he is always in bed shortly after 10.30 p.m. and being a sound sleeper, does not rise again until morning. A spiritualist who was going to investigate the matter has now declined to have anything to do with it because of the curiosity displayed by the crowds.
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 19th February 1932.