Swanton Novers, Norfolk (1919)

Oil Spurts in a Rectory.
Curious happenings at a Norfolk House.

A Norwich correspondent sends to the “Times” the story of remarkable happenings at the residence of the Rev. Hugh Guy, rector of Swanton Novers, near Melton Constable, Norfolk, since August 8, when explosions and earth tremors were observed. The rector and his family have noticed peculiar smells, due to the presence on oil on the walls and ceilings. On returning from a fortnight’s holiday, the family found that their furniture had been ruined by spurts of oil, bursting out of the ceilings and floors. The spurts occurred every hour or so, especially if any movement took place in the house.

It was impossible for the family to take up residence, for the oils were of a very high grade and distinctly inflammable. For a time the well of the house was not contaminated, but now it is impossible to draw a supply of liquid to the top without its being largely oil. The oil, it is stated, can be heard coursing up the walls, and along the plaster, and from the top storey petrol splashed into the room below. The oil flares and burns without giving off smoke.

A singular thing is that from the second floor paraffin of a good quality is given forth, while other samples are benzoline and a liquid resembling methylated spirits. The house is in one of the highest parts of Norfolk.

On Monday the principal liquid forthcoming was water, which flooded the scullery. This was succeeded on Tuesday by petrol, on Wednesday by pure paraffin, on Thursday by a mixture of petrol and paraffin, while yesterday water again predominated. The petrol drips at the rate of about a quart [two pints] in five minutes, but it evaporates in about ten minutes.

The district is 30 or 40 miles east of the shale fields near King’s Lynn, where shafts are being sunk.

Yorkshire Evening Post, 30th August 1919.

Rectory Oil “Well.”
Phenomenon as sequel to earth tremors.
What the Rector says.
House evacuated owing to vapour dangers.

As announced in yesterday’s “Echo,” Swanton Novers Rectory, near Melton Constable, on Lord Hastings’ Norfolk estate, is providing a phenomenon which is puzzling the countryside, and has driven the rector, the Rev. Hugh Guy, and his family, to seek shelter elsewhere. For some time the rectory has smelt strongly of oil of various kinds, and recently spurts of the liquid from walls and ceilings have driven the occupants away. It was on August 8 that the rector first noticed anything peculiar, and then an oily smell pervaded the house. This was traced to the joints in the woodwork. Just previously there had been what are described as earth tremors in the neighbourhood.

Shortly after the smell was first noticed the rector and his family went away for a fortnight’s holiday. On their return they found the furniture had been practically ruined by spurts of oil which had burst out of the ceilings and walls. These spurts are stated to occur every hour or so, except during the quiet hours of the night. Resumption takes place when movement begins in the house. The rectory well was not contaminated until last Wednesday, but it is now possible to pump a supply of liquid consisting largely of oil.

The liquid, which spurts from the top storey into the room below is petrol of high grade, as it flares out and burns without emitting any smoke. Paraffin, also of a high grade, appears to be the peculiarity of the second floor, while there are also traces of benzoline and methylated spirits. Observation has proved that the liquid uses the walls and plaster as a channel, as the laths are dry. Petrol drops from the ceiling at the rate of about a quart in ten minutes, and constant watching is necessary. Listeners have declared that by putting one’s ear to the wall it is possible to hear the gurgling caused by the oil in its travel upwards.

On Monday the liquid which found its way into the house was mainly water, which flooded the scullery. On Tuesday petrol was the supply, on Wednesday it was pure paraffin, on Thursday a mixture of paraffin and petrol, and yesterday chiefly water again. A well some little distance away, belonging to Mr S Dewing, is now showing traces of oil. There is no explanation of the mystery.

The rector, in response to a request from the “London Daily Express” for the latest news, replied as follows:-
Swanton Novers Rectory:-
Expert engineer arriving Monday. Drippings ascribed to exudation on August 8 of petrol, methylated spirits, and paraffin. House evacuated; vapour dangerous; every room affected; downpour rather than dripping. – Guy.
Liverpool Echo, 30th August 1919.

Oil Mystery.
The Showers in a Norfolk Rectory.
Petrol from nowhere.
Visitor’s story of his investigations.

Mr Cloudesley Brereton, the educational expert, who is himself a Norfolk man, send to “The Times” the following account of visits which he has paid to Swanton Nover’s Rectory, the oil showers in which were referred to in the “Yorkshire Telegraph and Star” last week. The Norfolk “mystery house” bids fair to arouse a good deal of curiosity before its riddle is finally solved. It presents so many peculiar features that no one single hypothesis seems to account for all the facts. There are one or two data that the superstitious might be inclined to regard as supernatural, and the more incredulous would ascribe to human interference.

Briefly, the main facts are these. On the afternoon of the recent big explosion in France, some three or four weeks ago, the garden of Swanton Novers Rectory was redolent with the smell of sandal-wood oil. It was clearly noticed by more than one person. It has been perceived since in the scullery, the odour clinging faintly to certain portions of the wall. At the time of my first visit it was still distinctly observable to anyone who rubbed his finger on a particular spot and smelt it afterwards.

Shortly after the first appearance of this mysterious odour the main phenomena began. Petrol, paraffin, or water began to form in circular patches on the ceilings, mainly of the bedrooms, which are on the first floor. These bead-like patches suddenly seemed to condense, and a shower of petrol, paraffin, or water fell.

Once the shower had taken place, the circular patch, as often as not, quickly disappeared, except in the case of pure water, the only mark left being a slight unevenness in the plaster. In the case of one bedroom fears were entertained that the ceiling would fall, and the bed was moved into the bay window, which, being of more recent construction, seemed to be immune. It may be stated in parenthesis that the house itself is a well-built mansion, dating from about seventy years ago, and otherwise in a good state of repair.

At first it was thought that these precipitations were due to leakages in the petrol lighting plant, which has been installed for over ten years. But this has not been used for the past three weeks, and the manifestations meanwhile are more frequent than before. Moreover, it seems impossible to lay the blame on the apparatus for various reasons. First, because it is run entirely by petrol, and no paraffin is used. Secondly, had there been any leakage through some pipe or other, the presence of water in the pipe would at once have been detected by the flickering of the light, and nothing of the sort has occurred.

As these minor deluges increased, it seemed likely that some of the ceilings might come down, and the rector and his wife were compelled to leave the house and seek refuge in the village. They were also obliged to remove their carpets and furniture, which threatened to become seriously damaged. Again, as the manifestations became more frequent, the danger from fire grew, and in fact during the last few days there has been more than one small outbreak of fire, notably in the kitchen, where the highly inflammable vapour rising through the brick floor was apparently set alight by a small oilstove standing high above on an iron range. When this was discovered, the bricks were taken up and the small jet of flame traced to the ground below the flooring.

I myself have smelt the sandal-wood smell on the wall, which, however, was stronger at the time of my first visit. I have tasted and smelt the petrol and paraffin, and also witnessed a heavy fall in one of the upper rooms of absolutely pure water without the faintest taste of oil in it. Several of these precipitations have been caught. On the day of my last visit about a pint of liquid had been secured in a bowl. It must have been very fine petrol, for it speedily evaporated with the exception of a small residue. Several of these precipitations have been submitted to Messrs. Mann and Egerton, of Norwich, who declare that, in the case of the petrol, it is purer than even that supplied to aircraft; while one of these samples, which constitutes a further puzzle, was pronounced by these experts to consist of methylated spirits.

The water-supply, curiously enough, was until a day or two ago entirely unaffected, but the water since drawn from the pump contains a more less strong admixture of paraffin. On the occasion of my last visit I and others pumped up a certain amount of water, which, when tasted, had a strong flavour of oil, though, according to the rector’s wife, other samples she had taken were far more strongly impregnated, floating oil being readily observable on the surface.

In a couple of places in the scullery the rector’s son had taken up the brick-flooring, and in one of the holes below paraffin had been observed trickling down the side, and a finger placed on the spot next day revealed a strong flavour of oil.

Yet another astounding feature was the fact that in the case of paraffin or petrol, with or without an admixture of water, the oil mixture seemed in some mysterious way to be entirely on the surface of the ceiling. This was discovered by the plumber who has looked after the house for years. Immediately after a downfall he took up the floor of the room directly above the patch on the ceiling, and found the laths on which the plaster rested and the plaster itself absolutely dry. One might, perhaps, hazard the guess that these patches form by external condensation, but if that were possible in the case of the petrol, it seems very improbable in the case of the paraffin, and quite impossible in the case of the water.

Two hypotheses have been put forward. One that from the village shop, some 300 yards away, which has sold paraffin for 40 years, there has been a steady, if small leakage which, after long percolation through the earth, has come up again to the surface through some secret spring under the house. But as there is a slight depression between the shop and the rectory, which clearly indicates the headwaters of a stream, this seems a little improbable. Furthermore, a visit to the village shop showed that the paraffin has always been kept in a zinc tank, and that no petrol or methylated spirit had ever been sold there.

The other hypothesis is that Swanton, of which the known subsoils are clay and brick earth, contains perhaps oil-bearing clays, such as have already been discovered at East Winch and other parts of Norfolk, and that the rectory being built over this oil-bearing strata, the explosion mentioned above has liberated some of the oil below.  It is strange, however, that the well, which absolutely abuts the house, has only just been affected, though a curious feature is that on the wall of one part of the house which was once attacked by dry rot, a large damp patch has now occurred. But even if the above hypothesis were true, can it be said to account for the presence of methylated spirit, as vouched for by a firm of experts, and for the stronger odours of the sandal-wood oil? There was, indeed, a case years ago of a paraffin saturated house in Lincolnshire.

One would like to know whether on that occasion there was also precipitation of methylated spirit and of pure water coming apparently from nowhere. One has to go back to Gideon’s fleece to find a parallel to the latter phenomenon, for when water mounts by capillary attraction, it mounts in masses, and does not suddenly appear in patches in the midst of a dry ceiling.

There is also one other peculiar phenomenon. These visitations only occur in the daytime, roughly between 10a.m. and 8 p.m. The clergyman’s wife seemed to think they might be caused in part by vibrations – i.e. by people moving about the house. This appears to be a feasible theory, but, when all is said and done, there are several phenomena that to the lay mind at least seem quite inexplicable.
Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 1st September 1919.

The Riddle of a Norfolk House.
Fresh Shower of Oil.
Theories Examined.
(From our special correspondent)
Norwich, Sept. 1.

The riddle of the oil showers at Swanton Novers Rectory remains unsolved. The ordinary man is at a loss to say whether a scientist, a Sherlock Homes, or Mr Maskelyne should be called in to probe this Norfolk mystery. To-day the last articles of furniture were being removed from the house, and until the oil ceases from troubling or some definite explanation of the phenomena at the rectory is found, a pleasant country house will stay untenanted.

Swanton Novers is a pretty, and so far as I have discovered, quite guileless village rather more than two miles from the railway junction of Melton Constable. The square-spired church and the rectory a short distance away stand in one of the highest parts of the country. The “mystery” house is brick built, with white-painted bay windows, and a pillared doorway, and is about half a century old. One gable is creeper-covered, and around the other a pear tree, heavy with fruit, stretches its branches. Between the rectory and the road is a smooth green lawn, a flaming flower garden, and a sturdy oak tree. Nothing could be less suggestive of either the supernatural or human impudence. While the village of Swanton Novers is scented with the perfume of roses and stocks and other blooms that tarry with the last months of summer, this strange house reeks of petrol and paraffin, and for the present an English clergyman and his family have been compelled to desert their rooms, and seek a temporary home elsewhere.

From the rector, the Rev. Hugh Guy, I have obtained a full account of the phenomena so far as they have been recorded. On August 8, when there was a big explosion in France, earth tremors were felt at the village of Swanton Novers, and early in the afternoon five greasy blotches appeared on the scullery wall of the house. At the same time, an odour of sandalwood oil was noticed to be hanging about the garden. Although these manifestations aroused comment, no special signification was attached to them, and the following day the family left the village for a fortnight’s holiday. If anything occurred during the period when the house was closed it was not of a startling kind, but on August 23, when the rector returned home, water with a faint trace of paraffin began to drip from the scullery ceiling. This was regarded as a matter for the local plumber, who was duly called in, but failed to discover the leaking pipe. On the following day water fell from the ceiling of the maid’s bedroom. The girl was transferred to a bed placed in the bathroom, but immediately she got there a fresh shower of oil and water occurred.

The situation rapidly became worse during last week. First the dining room, then the drawing room and bed rooms were affected. Visitors who had come to stay with the rector had to leave. Mr Guy’s two young nieces were driven from their rooms by another shower of oil on their beds. On Wednesday oil and water spoiled the breakfast table cloth. “In the scullery,” the rector told me, “we were practically flooded out. The stuff came from the ceiling in gallons. We made a hole through the floor above it, to discover the source of the downpour, to find even the laths to be dry. More extraordinary than anything else is the fact that since this hole was made not a drop of water or paraffin has fallen through it, but there have been drippings from other parts of the ceiling. The further end of the week the house had become uninhabitable. Much of the oil we find is highly inflammable.”

About five this afternoon, while Mr Guy was showing me over the almost empty rectory, a furniture remover let us know that a fresh shower had taken place in the kitchen. I went to look at what was happening, and saw that the floor was splashed with water, and that a fresh discoloured patch about 18in. long had appeared on the ceiling. From this spot half a dozen oily globules were suspended, and occasionally one of these fell. There was a strong smell of paraffin about the room, but that was general throughout the house. The “manifestation” could have been caused by some person throwing up a cupful of oil and paraffin, but who would do this?

One matter which requires clearing up is that the appearances of the oil are limited to the daytime, and are almost exclusively confined to rooms where a little 15-year old girl servant chances to be. “The maid seems to act like a water diviner,” the rector said. I noticed the girl to-day, and should not suspect her of any inclination towards practical joking.

The distribution of the various liquids which have been collected in the house was given to me as follows:-
Dining room – paraffin and petrol.
Drawing room – some paraffin.
Kitchen – petrol, paraffin, water.
Scullery – sandalwood oil, petrol, methylated spirits, paraffin, water.
Bed rooms – water and paraffin.
Bath room – water and paraffin.
Hall – petrol, paraffin, water.
Well – paraffin.
There was another shower of the oil which is regarded as sandalwood this morning. This is only the second time this oil has been seen.

With regard to the hypothesis that Swanton Novers is built on oil-bearing clay, and that the recent explosion has liberated oil below the soil, it is noteworthy that no other house in the village has yet been disturbed by the outcrop of petrol or paraffin or even water showers. Another point is that the walls of the rectory are dry externally, and investigation has revealed no visible channel by which the oil mixtures could have reached the ceiling from which they dripped. The latest theory put forward to account for an uncanny state of affairs is that the petrol, paraffin, and water originated in a spring, not yet located, in which these substances have become combined. Should this theory be sound, it may become necessary to ask whether the large oil and petrol stores at Thursford Station, some two miles away, had any bearing on the riddle.

It has been stated in The Times that the well of the rectory became contaminated with paraffin last week. The rector, now frankly puzzled by the curious occurrences which have driven him from his home, made no attempt to describe them as curious until every possible solution had been unsuccessfully explored. He showed me in an outhouse a petrol gas plant, and here were three tins of petrol and a quantity of paraffin used for heating stoves. The door of this building, however, has been kept locked, and no oil has disappeared from the stores. The plant itself had not been used for three weeks, but the manifestations had gone on without interruption at least since August 23.

A Possible Clue.
Mr Cloudesley Brereton’s Suggestion.
Mr Cloudesley Brereton writes:- A conversation with a master plumber yesterday suggested that the hypothesis of a leakage from the petrol gas plant was not so untenable as at first appeared. This expert said he had known of several instances where beer-pipes not made of block tin had been perforated by the alcohol in the beer, microscopic pinholes being worn through the piping, through which minute but incessant dripping took place. Such dripping might very well take place when the plant was not used, as, indeed, it was not during the rector’s holiday. Further, he stated that leakages from pipes by no means always showed themselves at the exact spot where the leakage occurred, but if ceilings were watertight the water or oil might travel a long distance before it suddenly found a weak spot and revealed itself. If, as had been thought, gurglings of liquid moving up the wall had been heard, they were probably really those of descending liquid, as liquid never mounted in this fashion. He was, in fact, very incredulous about the idea of the house having been saturated from below.

After my conversation with this expert it struck me that here, after all, was a possible solution not only for the petrol, but also for the paraffin and the methylated spirit. It would have been quite possible fro the petrol purchased during the war to have been in a less pure state than usual, it might also have been mixed, in order to ensure combustion, with a certain amount of methylated spirit. The only thing then left to explain would be the odour of sandalwood. Could its introduction as a sort of final artistic touch have been due to human agency?

On Saturday the diocesan architect came over to inspect the mystery house at Swanton, and the fountains, possibly in his honour, decided to play. This time the kitchen was the scene of action, and the shower consisted of water and petrol or paraffin. The floor above the ceiling was immediately taken up over the exact spot from which the shower fell, but once more no sign of dampness was revealed; but this is at least partially explicable on the lines indicated below. The diocesan inspector left nonplussed, remarking, “There is something uncanny about it.”

The Times, September 1st, 1919.

Mysterious Rectory.
Ceilings which drip oil when maid is present.

The drippings of oil from the ceilings of Swanton Rectory, Norfolk, still continue, but the nuisance has now resolved itself into sudden and periodical downpours. Occasionally a hiss is heard and from a pint to a quart of water and paraffin mixed descends in a gush.

A reporter who visited the rectory on Saturday says that this occurred twice during his presence there in different rooms and in the space of half an hour. The downpours are over within a second. On Saturday the petrol and methylated spirits ceased to appear. A hole which was dug two feet deep in the kitchen floor produced paraffin in the bottom, but after a time this soaked back again. The earth removed from the hole smells strongly of paraffin. The walls show no outward traces of oil, but it is supposed that this creeps up the walllsand so into the lower side of the plaster. The samples of paraffin and petrol examined seem quite pure and as clear as crystal.

The rector says that the expert who should have come to-day (Monday) will not now arrive, as no definite steps can be taken without the permission of Lord Hastings, who is in Scotland.

A freakish feature of the affair is that the droppings only seem to occur when the maid Mabel Phillips is present.
Western Mail, 1st September 1919.

Norfolk Rectory Mystery.
Possible Solution.
Another remarkable addition to the varieties of oils which are exuding at Swanton Novers REctory, Norfolk, was made on Monday, when sandal wood oil was found soaking through the distemper of the kitchen wall. The problem of how the oil reached the ceilings may have been solved by an expert, who suggested that oil soaked through the ground, and, rising through the air of the room as vapour, liquefied on the ceiling and fell on the floor. At present the flow of paraffin in large quantities appears only explicable by the theory that it is conveyed by the many springs abounding in the district.

As to the source from which it is conveyed to the rectory, Mr Owen Goddard, agent for Lord Hasting’ Melton Constable estate, gave the following opinion: “The character of these intermittent showers of pure petrol, paraffin, and water,” he said, “seems to point to the work of a spring in which these elements have found combination. I wonder whether the large oil and petrol stores at Thursford Station, three thousand yards away, have any relation to the mystery. Possibly leakage from the tanks may have found its way to a spring which runs to the Swanton higher levels, where springs are notorious.

A timber merchant suggested that sandal wood oil may be ejected by an uprush of paraffin driven by the spring. “As the rectory shows signs of dry rot, and has been infested by ants, the walls may very well act as a sponge to soak up the paraffin flow, which will eject other oils in lesser quantities existing in wood, and possibly sandal wood was used in construction.”
Gloucestershire Echo, 2nd September 1919.

 Showers of Oil.
Amazing story of the “Mystery House”

No explanation has yet been made to account for the extraordinary occurrences at Swanton Novers Rectory, known as the “Norfolk Mystery House.” A great deal of interest has been aroused by stories of the amazing showers of oil which have fallen from the ceilings of the house. Mr Cloudesley Brereton gives the account of his own investigation in “The Times.” He says:-
On the afternoon of the recent big explosion in France, some three or four weeks ago, the garden of the Rectory was redolent with the small of sandal-wood oil. It has been perceived since in the scullery, the odour clinging faintly to certain portions of the wall. At the time of my first visit it was still distinctly observable to any one who rubbed his finger on a particular spot and smelt it afterwards.

Shortly after the first appearance of this mysterious odour, the main phenomena began. Petrol, paraffin, or water began to form in circular spots or patches on the ceilings, mainly of the bedrooms, which are on the first floor. These bead-like patches suddenly seemed to condense, and a shower of petrol, paraffin or water fell. Once the shower had taken place, the circular patch, as often as not, quickly disappeared, except in the case of pure water, the only mark left being a slight unevenness in the plaster.

As the manifestations became more frequent, the danger from fire grew, and in fact during the last few days there has been more than one small outbreak of fire, notably in the kitchen, where the highly inflammable vapour rising through the brick floor was apparently set alight by a small oilstove standing high above on an iron range.

I myself have smelt the sandal-wood smell on the wall, which, however, was stronger at the time of my first visit. I have tasted and smelt the petrol and paraffin, and also witnessed a heavy fall in one of the upper rooms of absolutely pure water without the faintest taste of oil in it. Several of these precipitations have been caught.

On the day of my last visit about a pint of liquid had been secured in a bowl. I t must have been very fine petrol, for it speedily evaporated with the exception of a very small residue. Several of these precipitations have been submitted to Messrs. Mann and Egerton, of Norwich, who declare that, in the case of the petrol, it is purer even than that supplied to aircraft; while one of these samples, which constitutes a further puzzle, was pronounced by these experts to consist of methylated spirits.

The water supply, curiously enough, was until a day or two ago entirely unaffected, but the water since drawn from the pump contains a more or less strong admixture of paraffin.

There is also one other peculiar phenomenon. These visitations only occur in the daytime, roughly, between 10 a.m., and 8 p.m. The clergyman’s wife seemed to think they might be caused in part by vibrations – i.e. by people moving about the house. This appears to be a feasible theory, but, when all is said and done, there are several phenomena that, to the lay mind at least, seem quite inexplicable.

Leeds Mercury, 2nd September 1919.

Rectory That Spouts Forth Oil
Where petrol and paraffin drop from the ceiling.
From our own correspondent.
Norwich, Monday.
The mystery of the oil springs at Swanton Rectory, Norfolk, is still unsolved. To-day I conducted a thorough investigation, aided by the Rector, the Rev. Hugh Guy, who eagerly awaits an explanation of the phenomenon which has turned his quiet parsonage into a miniature Baku. The rectory is a large mansion built 70 years ago. The expert, whose investigations have just been concluded, took samples of the oil, and went away without saying much, except that the oil falling from the ceilings had apparently formed from condensation. I examined those ceilings. Great gouts of oil were pendent, falling now and again to the floor or into vessels placed to receive them. One anointed me as I entered.

Today there was a new phenomenon. Bursting from the plaster of the kitchen wall was a viscid fluid, which emitted the sweetly pungent scent of sandalwood oil. The mystery had apparently grown darker. One could credit that paraffin or petrol might flow from the ground, but certainly not a vegetable oil drawn from a foreign tree. But this sandalwood oil may do much to solve the mystery. As it cannot come from the earth, it may have come from the house. May not the petrol also have so come?

There remains the question of the paraffin, and in the face of the fact that 50 gallons of paraffin have been gathered, it seems certain there is a flow from outside the house. I took some earth from a hole dug in the kitchen. It was wet, and smelt strongly of paraffin. I have spoken with a well-known geologist, who assures me that it is practically certain there are great coal deposits at Briston, three miles from Swanton, but these have been regarded as too deep to mine profitably. The theory therefore becomes tenable that, from coal seams which may well exist right under Swanton itself, streams of mineral oil have been set flowing by the recent earth tremors in the district. The flow of paraffin is so great as almost to prove the genuineness of the find, but this leaves the puzzle of the presence of petrol, methyl, and sandalwood oil.

The rector told me he had been using a petrol plant for driving an installation, and he burned residual oil in a stove. It is possible that parts of the place may have become impregnated with petrol, and the onrush of paraffin from the earth has made its presence evident. Sandalwood oil may be present in the timbers of the wall. The son of a man who built the house told me that foreign woods were used.

The expert’s hint and my own observations have removed one of the most puzzling aspects. A mineral spring soaking upwards appeared credible to many, but oil splashing from ceilings was inexplicable. The rector states that stories of oil running in the walls are inaccurate. What apparently happens is that oil soaks through the floor, rises to the ceiling as vapour, there liquefies and falls. I pulled down a patch of ceiling plaster, and found this corroborated by the fact that the outside surface was oily, while the inner surface and laths were quite dry.

I wonder whether the large oil and petrol stores at Thursford Station, 3000 yards away, bear any relation to the mystery. Possibly a leakage from the tanks may have found its way to a spring which runs to Swanton.
Daily Herald, 2nd September 1919.

Remarkable Oil Mystery.
Strange Secret of English Rectory Still Remains Unsolved.

The mystery of Swanton Rectory continues unsolved. Yesterday liquid fell thirteen times – three times petrol, eight times paraffin and water mixed, and twice water. Oily spots have appeared on the scullery wall, and there is a smell like sandal wood oil in the dining-room.
The petrol came from the papered ceiling, but the other side of the paper and plaster were found to be dry, so the conclusion has been arrived at that the fumes come from the ground and rise to the ceiling, where they condense like rain and fall when in contact with the cold surface of the ceiling.

The hole in the kitchen is now three feet deep, and is still saturated with paraffin. The water comes from the ceiling down the stairs into the kitchen. Since the liquids first began to make their appearance nine large zinc bathfuls have been collected, which make about 50 gallons. A woman from the village took home a sample of the paraffin yesterday, and filled her lamp with it and found it burned well. More experts are expected on the scene.
Dundee Courier, 2nd September 1919.

Mystery of the Rectory Oil Spurts.
Architect Baffled.
No explanation is forthcoming to account for the mysterious spurting of paraffin, petrol, and methylated spirit from the walls and ceilings of the Swanton Rovers’ Rectory near Norwich. Mr Lacey, diocesan architect, who went to investigate the matter is baffled. Mr Lacey and the rector were discussing the matter when a hissing sound came from the kitchen. They found a patch of water, mixed with paraffin and petrol, on the floor and on the ceiling a corresponding patch, with drops and bubbles. But when the floor above the ceiling was raised there was no sign of dampness, nor any indication of how the fluid reached the ceiling.

Mr Lacey pointed out that there is no point near the rectory from which water pressure can be got, and Mr Lacey said: “You cannot force water through brickwork without pressure, and, moreover, the walls of the rectory are dry externally and have no battening.” He expected to find a store of paraffin in the roof or the floor, but found nothing. “There does not seem to be any reasonable explanation,” he said; “in fact, there is something uncanny about it. What makes the mystery even more singular is that the oil falls during the daytime, but seldom or never during the night.”

Mr Goddard, agent of Lord Hastings’ Melton Constable estate, has suggested that the showers seem to point to the work of a spring, and wonders whether the large oil and petrol stores at Thursford Station, nearly two miles away, have any relation to the affair. But in any case it is not explained how the oil gets up the rectory wall and into the ceiling.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 2nd September 1919.

Mysterious Oil Analysed.
Probably comes from a leak, not a well.
From our own correspondent.
Norwich, Tuesday.
An important discovery, which may throw considerable light on the mystery of the oil springs at Swanton Novers Rectory, Norfolk, has been made by Mr Sutton, the county analyst. A sample of the oil was sent to Mr Sutton, who reported as follows:- “The liquid consists of two clearly defined layers. The upper layer, water-white, on analysis proved to be petrol, having a gravity of .7126. The lower layer, coloured with methyl violet, was found to be methylated spirit of a gravity of .845.”

This analysis apparently disposes of any possibility of the oil coming from any natural well. The liquid is thought to be a manufactured product, because, by a war-time regulation, methylated spirits had to be coloured (violet possibly) to prevent it being used as an intoxicant. This opinion seems rather to strengthen the theory that the methylated spirits and petrol were probably in the structure of the house or floors, and have been forced out by a rush of water-urged paraffin, caused, possibly, by a leakage from the oil works at Thursfold.
Daily Herald, 3rd September 1919.

A Poltergeist.
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir – These manifestations of unction at Swanton Rectory have all the characteristics of a case of Poltergeisterei. In such cases, as the records of the S.P.R. bear witness, there may almost invariably be found “a little 15-year-old girl” about the place, or sometimes an equally ostensibly innocent boy. It seems that such young creatures serve the Poltergeist, as a nidus or point d’appui for his (or her) diversions. It is therefore probable that if the “little girl” mentioned is removed from the Manse the energies of the mysterious agent of these exudations may languish and shortly cease.
Yours faithfull,
SYDNEY OLIVIER.
37, Brookfield, Highgate, N.6, Sept. 2.
The Times, September 3rd, 1919.

A Norfolk Riddle.
The riddle of the oil showers at a Norfolk rectory should provide an interesting topic for speculative minds. Thus far, the cause of the unpleasant downpour that has driven the unlucky clergyman and his family out of their home has baffled the investigators on the spot. Is there no Sherlock Holmes who, sitting in his arm-chair, can solve it for them? The charm of the problem is that there are so many tempting theories to choose from. Is the cause natural, supernatural, or just human? We are materialistic enough to begin by putting the supernatural out of court until every other theory is positively shattered to bits. Even then, we should be invincibly critical of the occult forces that took the trouble to pour petrol, paraffin, methylated spirits, sandalwood oil and water through a respectable clergyman’s ceiling. The mixture in itself is more suggestive of human limitations. Any spirit worthy of the name that can tap a gallon of petrol from an invisible reservoir would not have to eke out its supply with water and other mixtures. That is what a human fool playing a crude practical joke would have to do.

The suggestion that the cause is to be found in an oil spring is more serious, but there is not the slightest evidence to support it. The facts that the outer walls are dry and that the main discharges have come down through the ceiling make it extremely unlikely. Besides, no signs of any spring have been discovered. We should suggest to the investigators that closer attention should be paid to the possibility of active human agency. If we kept a store of petrol and paraffin in our outhouse, and petrol and paraffin began to ooze through our ceiling, we should examine the contents of the tins. We should not merely satisfy ourselves that they were there; we should look to see if they had been watered. And the additional use of methylated spirits would convince us that somebody had run short of petrol and could not get any more. After all, the simplest explanation of a shower of oil from a ceiling that has never been guilty of such pranks is that somebody has been busy above.

A notable feature of the case is that the young maid-servant should be singled out for special attention. The first manifestations were in her scullery, the second in her bedroom, and immediately her bed was removed to the bathroom the showers pursued her. It is also reported that the appearances of oil are almost exclusively confined to rooms where she happens to be. That may, of course, be a coincidence, but, if so, it is certainly a remarkable one. If ever the mystery is solved, we hope the explanation will be made as public as the riddle. Our natural curiosity demands it.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 3rd September 1919.

Oil From Rectory Ceiling.
Though in a somewhat mitigated degree, the annoyance caused at Swanton Novers Rectory by occasional oil showers still continues. There was a downpour yesterday morning in the kitchen, and another in the scullery, but in each case the liquid was mainly water. There have been so many callers at the rectory that a card inscribed “No admittance. By Order of the Surveyor” now appears upon the garden gate. The diocesan architect, who was called in to explore the premises, admits frankly that the cause of the visitation eludes him, and he can propound no likely theory.
Hull Daily Mail, 4th September 1919.

The House of Oil.
Is a Practical Joker at Work?
Nobody has yet been able to explain why the now empty rectory at Swanton Novers should be so generously favoured in the matter of an oil supply. The house is bare of furniture, and smells like a motor works. Every room in the house except the bath room has yielded its gallon or more of pure and adulterated oil. The ceilings are stained and dripping with oil, and the soil beneath the scullery floor, which has been dug up for experimental purposes, is saturated with it. “It remains,” said the vicar, the Rev. Hugh Gray, “a mystery that would have baffled Sherlock Holmes in his brightest moments.

“The first theory was that oil from a sunken well was soaking the foundations and percolating through the walls and along the ceiling, but, although the well may be there, the oil certainly has no passage through either. You can see for yourself that the walls, except for a few isolated patches, are quite dry. And this is the strangest part of it all!”

Mounting a chair, he pulled back a strip of the paper which was covering the drawing-room ceiling. Although perspiring freely on the outside, the inner side of the paper was as white and as dry as the plaster ceiling to which it had adhered.

First it was paraffin in the servants’s bedroom; then showers of petrol, paraffin, methylated spirits, water, and a mixture of them all over the place, and the scullery was half full of oily water. Now, as you can see and smell for yourself, patches of sandalwood oil have appeared on the scullery walls. And sandal-wood oil comes from foreign parts.

As the vicar says, “It is very trying.” The one theory is that there may be a practical joker in these secluded parts.
 Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 4th September 1919.

Rectory Oil Mystery
A Case for Sherlock Holmes?
From our own correspondent.
Norwich, Wednesday.
The Novers Rectory oil mystery remains unsolved. Some satirists have suggested that the problem is not one for the oil expert, but rather one for Sherlock Holmes. So, copying his methods of elimination, I have succeeded in ruling out many impossible theories. I have tonight interviewed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, who is as familiar with East Anglian earth strata as the average man with the features of the street in which he lives. The nearest oil-bearing shales is 18 miles distant and beneath impermeable chalk – at points 1,400 feet thick.

Is the solution to be found in the discovery that oil flows by capillary attraction from the great earth-embedded oil tanks at Thursford, which is 30ft. lower than the rectory? Or is it possible, as Sir Sidney Olivier suggests in a letter to the “Times,” that if some human agency is removed the energies of the mysterious exudations may languish and shortly cease?
Daily Herald, 4th September 1919.

Rectory Riddle Unsolved.
There was yesterday a lessening of the oil dripping from the ceiling at Swanton Novers Rectory, Norfolk but the mystery as to how it gets there is still unsolved. The rector and others who have investigated the matter are completely at a loss for an explanation. Water oozed from the ceilings of the kitchen and scullery, yesterday, but it contained a smaller quantity of oil than on previous days.
Lancashire Evening Post, 4th September 1919.

The Oil Rectory of Norfolk.
Like a Conjuror’s Trick.
A Simple Solution Awaited.
Haunted by methylated spirit and pursued by showers of petrol the Rev. Hugh Guy, rector of Swanton Rovers, Norfolk, has moved his family and his furniture to a friend’s house, and the rectory, reeking in oil and mystery, remains to impress the superstitious and baffle such scientists and surveryors as have visited it.

There is nothing mysterious about the house. It is a commodious modern red brick dwelling, built in its own grounds about 40 years ago. Except for symptoms of dry rot the rectory displayed no  abnormal tendencies since Mr Guy took possession early last year until a month ago, when, following a shock which was felt throughout the locality, all the ceilings began to drip oil and water. At first Mr Guy fought the nuisance with mops and buckets, but when gushing succeeded dripping and gallons of water and pints of petrol rained down he thought it was time to leave, especially as it was dangerous to strike a light for fear of an explosion.

When I entered the house the oil was in sole possession (writes a correspondent) and the rectory smelt like a petroleum store. Conducted by Mr Guy I visited all the rooms where the ceilings were shedding tears of petrol and methylated spirit.
“Funny, isn’t it?” he said, dipping his finger into a pool of paraffin. “If this thing goes on I can set up as an oil merchant. The dripping, of course, is caused by vaporisation, but where the oil comes from is a mystery. I have a small petrol engine in an outhouse, but we have not used it for a long time, and in any case it has no connection with the house. We have dug up the floors and found the earth saturated with oil – not oil from a natural well, but a manufactured product.”

A suggestion has been made that the oil may have found its way from the big Government petrol tanks at Thursford, three miles away, but even so this does not explain how the oil and water gets to the ceilings of the first and second floors of the rectory. There is no trace of it on the walls either inside or out, nor is there any pipework to carry it. The adjoining wall is impregnated, and a steady dripping, with occasional gushes, goes on daily. Like a conjurer who produces wine, beer, and milk from the same jug, Mr Guy extracts petrol, methylated spirit, and paraffin from the same ceiling.

Picking up a bottle he said, “That’s petrol, good petrol too. This other bottle contains methylated spirit of fairly good quality, and that large one has a sample of common or domestic paraffin. You never know what is coming. It was rather interesting until the dripping spoilt the furniture and the vapour caused an explosion in the kitchen; then we thought it high time to move. Besides, everything we ate tasted of oil. Here is a variation of the mystery,” he added, pointing to several smears on the kitchen wall. “Smell that. Sandalwood oil, undoubtedly. Now, where does that come from? It’s oozing out of the wall, but where does it come from?”

As we talked the oil continued to collect in heavy beads or blobs on the ceiling, whence it dripped in a weird blend of paraffin, methylated spirit, petrol and water. “I’m sorry you can’t see it gushing,” said Mr Guy, dodging the drops. “It is rather interesting when it gushes. And the queer part is that the ceiling, the paper, the laths, and the rafters are quite dry. If you put a match to the house it would burn like a tar barrel. I wish Lord Hastings (owner of the estate) were at home, then we could proceed with the investigations. As it is, the affair is a complete mystery. No doubt there is a simple solution, but it is beyond me.”

Standing on a chair, I reached up to the kitchen ceiling and sniffed at the glistening drops. “Paraffin,” I excalimed. “Probably,” replied the rector. “The next time you try it will be methylated spirit, or it may be just water. Gallons of water have come from that ceiling, but as you observe, it is quite dry.” I tore away a piece of paper, and found it as dry as tinder.

Entering a small petrol-scented chamber Mr Guy explained “This was the maid-servants’ bedroom, and it was here the phenomenon was first noticed. The girl had to move, but the oil pusued her to the kitchen and eventually exploded, setting fire to the flooring. Then we all moved. You can’t live in the same house with a mysterious assortment of explosive spirits, and a shower-bath ceiling has its disadvantages.”

Before Mr Guy took over the rectory it was occupied by the Rev. Maugham Etterick, who was also a doctor of medicine and had a laboratory in the upper part of the house.
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 5th September 1919.

Norfolk Mystery House.
“A genuine oil well.”
Government experts are confident, says a news agency, that there is a genuine oil well at Swanton Novers REctory, and they state that the house must be pulled down because if it were bored from outside the spring might be missed. It cannot be said how long the oil will last when struck. The theory that the liquid evaporated and condensed on the ceiling is stated to be correct.
The same agency says that Mr Maskelyne, the entertainer, of St George’s Hall, has gone down to Norfolk to investigate the phenomena.
The Times, September 5th, 1919.

The Oily Rectory.
A Task for the Village Policeman.
(From our reporter)
Norwich, Thursday.
The Rev. Hugh Guy, Vicar of Swanton Novers, in the diocese of Norwich, is a man deeply to be sympathised with. He has been driven out of house and home by a foe, invisible and relentless, who, up to the moment of writing, has declined to declare his identity, and not all the theories of wise and learned architects have been able to detect the hidden hand or agency responsible for the flow of oil from the ceilings and the walls and the floors of this erstwhile peaceful location. Rectories have occasionally provided the setting for romance, but never before has a rectory in this sleepy part of Old England offered anything in the nature of the supernatural.

The whole circumstances surrounding this mystery are unusual. The opening chapter of this extraordinary drama dates from August 8th, when earth tremors were felt at the village of Swanton Novers – earth tremors attributed to a big explosion which took place in France the same day. Early that afternoon the scullery wall of the house began to exude a greasy substance which gave off the odour of sandalwood oil. Now sandalwood oil is a product of the Indies, and the Rector had never stocked any of this odiferous liquid so that he confesses he was extremely mystified by the occurrence. His holidays were due, and he did not allow the strange phenomenon to worry him.

The Rector returned home on August 23rd. He noticed a small amount of paraffin dripping from the scullery ceiling. The following day the ceiling of the bedroom occupied by the maid began to leak, and water poured on to the bed. The maid retreated to the bathroom, where a bed was put up for her, but the oil seemed to have traced her whereabouts, and no sooner had she retired than there was a shower of water and oil of considerable volume.

Matters then developed apace. The dining room, the drawing room and the bedrooms were visited by the invisible hand and all rendered untenable in a very short time. The hospitable Mr Guy had a number of visitors staying with him. They were compelled to cut short their holiday, while his nieces stuck to the ship until they were literally swamped out. Most of us know the unpleasant state of a house when the painters are in. Swanton Novers Rectory smells as though the painters and plumbers and decorators had been in and gone away in the middle of their work. If half-a-dozen journeymen had dashed the implements and ingredients of their callings all over the house like futurist painters they could not have secured a more thorough result than the hidden hand of Swanton Novers.

Mr Guy has been inundated with inquiries. More especially has this been so since he removed his kith and kin and kit to a more sheltered billet. I got in at the tail end of the queue of mystery hunters, who were seeking clues regarding this real tragedy in domestic life. The Rector is bearing up well, though temporarily defeated. His moral, as they have it in the services, is sound. He confesses that he is puzzled, but he is not downhearted. I suggested to him that human agency was the only explanation. He would not express an opinion. I can understand his reticence. He has lost his sense of perspective. Unlike those who are watching the supernatural hide-and-seek he has suffered all the discomforts consequent on this oily visitation, and he cannot look upon the affair with the air of detachment necessary to solve the problem.

I have been out to see the Rectory. It must be the only house without an occupant in the whole country. It is a modern villa, red-bricked and double-fronted, and appraoched by a sloping, flower-[?] lawn. Outside it has all the appearances of a desirable county residence, and the last place where one would suspect to find startling revelations. But once inside and you clamour for fresh air. The mixture of odours arising from paraffin and petrol, sandalwood and methylated spirits, reminds one of an Indian bazaar.

It is not surprising that the Rector decided to quit. All the furniture has been removed. Here and there the walls and ceilings show signs of discolouration, though, curiously enough, the lathes behind the wallpaper are dry as bone. I am told I am not the first visitor these ten days who has not been greeted with a welcome shower. But that is the fact. Perhaps it is accounted for by the absence of the servant. Whenever the servant enters a room she seems to be the harbinger of further manifestations. She cleared out yesterday, and following her departure the oil ceased to flow. Up to now there has been no demonstration. I waited until the last moment possible, in the hope of seeing something, but in vain.

All sorts of theories are being offered locally to account for the visitation. The Norfolk County analyst has investigated the matter, and his analysis leaves no doubt in my mind as to the source of supply. The methylated spirits he finds to be .845 gravity, coloured with methyl violent. Now a war-time regulation provided that methylated spirits should be coloured violet. This effectually disposes of the theory that this oil has a natural source.

I regret not being able to encourage possible investors in British oil-fields by subscribing to the theory that the house stands on oil-bearing clay, and that the oil finds its way up the walls and into the house. Unfortunately for this theory the outsides of the walls bear no trace of oil, nor have any other houses in the district been similarly afflicted. When oil bursts forth from the soil it doesn’t, as a rule, trickle through, and it doesn’t confine its attention to a matter of fifty square yards. It usually requires a good deal of encouragement and assistance, and pours out with volcanic force. Refined petrol and paraffin also do not come straight out of the ground. Both require treatment, and so far as I am able to gather the oil at the Rectory has been a purified product mixed with water.

The latest suggestion, and one which is gaining credence locally, is the presence of a Poltergeist – an old friend of psychical researchers who is said to be a mischievous spirit. The Poltergeist is usually associated with credulous youth. Unhappily for the devotee of the occult, the Poltergeist in the past has often been traced to some cunning conjuring and mischievous person – a child or an irresponsible adult – and that seems the only rational explanation in this case.

No really systematic attempt appears to have been made to get at the bottom of the mystery, and the suggestion has been offered locally that an impartial investigation should be conducted, adn the house searched from roof to floor by a few representative people, including a practical builder. It is surprising this has not been done before. Until I hear something to the contrary I shall continue to regard the whole affair as a hoax. The best way would be to occupy the house for twenty-four hours, first carefully searching every nook and locking and sealing every accessible door or window. If, during this time, the manifestations persisted, then the public would at least know that its leg has not been pulled and the matter might be inquired into more deeply.

The practical joker, whoever he or she is, has raised a very thorough scare in the old village. The local surveyor has apparently taken the matter in hand, for there now appears on the garden gate a notice inscribed “No Admittance – by order of the surveyor,” and a large number of inquirers, sympathisers, and curiosity-mongers have been turned away by the forbidding notice. The diocesan architect has had a look round, but is no more able to solve the mystery than anybody else. There is some talk of calling to the village a consultant engineer.

The Rector scouts the idea that anybody in his household has been up to tricks, and he cannot conceive of anyone in the neighbourhood who would take trouble to arrange these oleaginous displays. Being a good rector he naturally suspects not his brethren. But nothing short of an interview with the Poltergeist will convince me that the hidden hand is not attached to a very substantial and material body.

The village policeman ought to be able to exorcise the mischievous spirit.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 5th September 1919.

Theories from Swanton.
Rectory which is Haunted by Methylated Spirits.
(By our own reporter)
There were some striking developments in the mystery at the Swanton Novers Rectory, Norfolk, yesterday.
A suggestion which the Rev. Hugh Guy, the Rector, made in the early stages of his domestic troubles, that the house was built on an oil spring has been seized on as the explanation of the oily displays. This might account for the oil-soddened state of the floor in the scullery, but it does not explain the presence of methylated spirits, coloured with methyl violet, nor of sandalwood oil, which is entirely a foreign product. These two oils have certainly had human attention, which could not be the case if they had come out of an oil spring beneath the house.

It is premature to say that the house will have to be pulled down. The diocesan architect has not yet suggested so drastic a remedy. It is quite possible that an oil spring exists in that area, but, even allowing that assumption, one cannot agree that the crude oil which would flow from such a spring would have the appearance or the odour of methylated spirits or sandalwood oil. The theory is that this oil has penetrated the foundations of the house and evaporated, and been reproduced by condensation. This theory would be a good deal more acceptable if the oil had confined itself to the ground floor, but as the bedrooms were swamped by it, and the supporting rafters and laths were bone dry, one must remain sceptical of the theory.

As a matter of fact, when the walls were stripped of paper, there was no sign of any oil substance beneath, though oil was actually trickling down the paper at the time. The outside walls, it should be noted, show no sign at all, and whatever damage has been done has originated inside. It may be possible that an oil spring exists beneath the house, and has found its way into the scullery, and that some mischievous person has utilised this unusual occurrence to add to the confusion by sprinkling a miscellaneous collection of oils throughout the rooms.

The Rector does not suspect his servant, even though the manifestations have always followed her occupancy of the rooms. It is certainly a curious fact that the girl has all the symptoms of an oil diviner. She is fortunate in having an employer who has profound faith in her integrity. Curiously enough, since the premises have been closed – “by order of the surveyor,” the display has practically ceased. It ought to be possible to get at the bottom of the trouble now.

When our reporter left Norwich yesterday morning, he was told that an investigating committee of builders, clergymen, architects and local journalists had been appointed to study the matter from the inside. There is some talk of a 24-hour vigil behind bolts and bars. The difficulty seems to be to persuade the leading local lights in the professions mentioned to undertake the task. It would be anything but pleasant, owing to the condition of the house, though one could conceive circumstances under which the committee might, with reasonable acceptance, pass the waiting hours. It might be possible to arrange relays for the event.

There are people in the neighbourhood who still persist in regarding the matter as pertaining to the occult, and one local clergyman, whom one would credit with normal intelligence, fortified by profound faith, has not been able to rid himself of the obsession that there is something supernatural controlling these manifestations. The next few days should see the end of the story. The diminution in the oil showers has continued almost to the point of non-existence, and providing this happy state of affairs is not interrupted, the place should be fit for occupation again in the course of a month.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 6th September 1919.

The Norfolk Mystery House.
Possibilities Ruled Out.
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir, – The suggestions made by Mr Cloudesley Brereton are very ingenious, but, we are afraid, impracticable. Shortly after the first “showers” occurred, we received a wire from Mr Guy to send over, as it was thought that the trouble might be due to the air-gas plant installed. On arrival we found the plant had been cut off from the house, and, further, had been entirely emptied of liquid. Also that the plant had not been working for some two weeks or more previously. It would in any case, however, be impossible for the effects described to have been caused by this air-gas plant, even had same been working, as the operation of the system is as follows:-

Liquid petrol is stored in a small tank, from which small quantities are conveyed in cups to a special vaporizer consisting of a circular vessel having an interior coil many feet in length. The petrol slowly travels down this coil by gravity and meets the current of air coming in the opposite dircetion. The air takes up the petrol as the latter vaporizes in the proportion of 98 parts of air to two parts of petrol vapour. This mixture is then conveyed up and through the coil, and passes to the pipes supplying the lights and other apparatus.

It is impossible for a larger proportion of petrol vapour than mentioned above to combine with the air, whilst the petrol vapour would only return to its liquid form under very special conditions, such as a violent change of temperature or under very high compression. Even under these conditions the total quantity of accumulated petrol would be exceedingly small. Further, if it is assumed that the pipes running under the floors leaked, and the air-gas in the pipes escaped, there is no possibility whatever of the vapour returning to the liquid form and passing through the ceilings as reported. The only result of a leaky pipe is that the combined air and petrol vapour will escape with no harmful effects and no fear of explosion whatever.

As owners of the patents and manufacturers of the “Willett” air-gas plant, we have no hesitation in saying that the air-gas system at the rectory could not in any possible way have been responsible for the accumulations of methylated spirit, petrol, paraffin, and water which have been descending from the various ceilings in the house.

Yours faithfully,
MANN, EGERTON, and Co. (Limited).
G. REDGMENT, Director and General Manager, Electrical Department.
21-23, King-street, Norwich, Sept. 4.

The Times, September 6th, 1919.
 

To The Editor Of The Times.
Sir, – The “mystery” house at Swanton Novers is my old home, which I well remember being built nearly 60 years ago. Similar phenomena occurred in this parish, but with this difference, that the showers were not of oil, but of stones, and they came not in the day but in the night. People came from a distance to witness these mysteries, attributed to supernatural forces, immense pieces of rock being hurled from one room to another, and all supposed to come from the ceiling. They ceased altogether, however, when an hysterical girl left the house for another, which was soon found to be on fire.
Your obedient servant,
H.P. BRYAN.
Askerswell Rectory, Dorchester, Sept. 3.

The Times, September 6th, 1919.

£1000 for a Haunted House.
Huge demand for property where things are seen.
A chance for the oily rectory.

If you have a house where the stillness of the night is disturbed by the pad, pad, pad, of soft, mysterious footfalls, horrifying howls, clanking chains, hollow groans, and awful shrieks, it may be worth £1000.
Why anyone wants to burden himself with a cheerful house like that is a matter for conjecture, but an advertiser, describing himself as “Overseas officer,” has been on the look-out for one for weeks. The more piercing the shrieks and deeper the groans the better, and the value of the house is enhanced if the padding feet have not, like some miners, made up their minds to do as little work as possible.

So a “Globe” representative started out to help the ghost-hunter in his quest. “Good afternoon,” said the Pressman, entering a house agent’s office not a hundred miles from the Strand; “I want —“
“No flats,” barked the agent, without looking up, “but there’s one house on the books; nice bed, good sitting-room, but no bath, kitchen, or scullery; do own repairs; rent £400 exclusive; premium £500; no children. Take it or leave it!”
“I don’t want that; I –“
“Or you can have two rooms over a shop in Bow-road; £3 a week; unfurnished; paper rooms yourself; no kitchen, scullery, stove, or lighting; you’ll have to buy the furniture though – very cheap, £350.”
The agent having stopped to get his second wind, the Pressman seized his opportunity.
“I want a haunted house.”
“Eh?”
“I say I want a haunted house – shrieks, howls, groans, ghosts, and funny noises, and things like that – you know.”

The agent picked up a paperweight, and the Pressman picked up his hat (his own, not the agent’s).
But “The Globe” representative was a little more fortunate elsewhere.
“You want a haunted house, do you?” said another agent, rubbing his chin (most house agents do that). “Let me see,” he went on reflectively. “There’s been somewhat of a rush on them lately. Demobbed officers,  you know… Can’t sleep… nights too quiet to be enjoyable… Want waking up every half-hour… miss the jolly old thrills… like to hear shrieks without having to duck… Seeing things in the dark is like old times to them… Oh, yes! big rush on haunted houses lately… long waiting list.
“What price did you say? About £1000? Can’t expect much for that. Why, an old chap with grey whiskers seen at midnight in his pyjamas is worth more than £1500.
“We sold a good one last week. About £5000… a soldier walking up and down the passage. He carries something in his hand too… A knife? Oh dear, no! Tin of plum and apple.
“But, of course,” went on the agent, “if you like to wait a few weeks we might fix you up with a ghost of a girl in a dressing-gown, and with her hair hanging down her back. Has her head under her arm, they tell me… about £4,400, I should say.
“Skeletons? No, we don’t go in for that line. Still, if it happened to be something out of the ordinary we might take it on, but it would have to knock its knees about and wobble its head  bit.
“Screams for ‘Hel’p’ have gone out of fashion. There’s no demand, either, for ghosts that walk off with things. It gets expensive… Yes, knockings on the wall – particularly if they take the form of three distinct raps – is a better seller. Still, you can’t beat the mournful maiden floating in through the keyhole and out under the door… They are always snapped up quick.”

“And how about the Rectory where the oil is coming through the roof and mushrooms grow in a night?” asked the Pressman.
“A good thing! A good thing!” said the agent. “If they can only prove that the place was once occupied by a man who robbed his dying father of his oil shares in order to indulge in a weakness for mushrooms, the Rectory will be worth something. If the thief went mad and died a raaving lunatic, believing he was being boiled in oil and suffocated with mushrooms, it certainly puts another £500 on it.”
The Globe, 6th September 1919.

The Mystery of the Rectory Oil Showers.
Divergent Theories.
The experts are not in agreement in explaining the mystery of the oil showers in the rectory of Swanton Novers, near Norwich. The discovery that the oil was in some cases pure, and therefore manufactured, led to the suggestion of a hoax. Mr Maskelyne, the famous conjuror, discredits this theory, and advances another. He believes the rectory is standing on a natural oil well. The reason why, after a shower of oil from the ceilings, no trace can be found in the way of dampness, he explains by suggesting that the oil rises from the well as a vapour, and in the changed atmosphere of the house condenses and falls as fluid.
Mr Sutton, the Norfolk county analyst, who has previously analysed the oil, admits that there may be something in this view – “if there is a natural well.” This, he declares, is “a very remote possibility.”
The result of Mr Sutton’s own analysis of the oil was that, in his opinion, it is a manufactured product, one part being methylated spirits which was coloured violet in accordance with one of the war-time regulations.

“”The geology of Norfolk,” said Mr Sutton, “does not give any prospect of any natural oil wells. The conditions are against anything of the kind. The fact that we have oil-bearing shales is a very different thing to there being natural reservoirs under the surface. No such thing has ever been known. My analysis showed in one case pure petrol and in the other a manufactured article, which knocks out the theory of a natural well.”

Mr Sutton attributes the cause to a leakage in the store of petrol, methylated spirits, and other fluids known to exist in the rectory used for the purpose of the petrol vapour and air illuminating gas apparatus. “There must have been either a leakage in the past which has accumulated or a leakage now. That seems to be the obvious explanation.”
Yorkshire Evening Post, 6th September 1919.

The Mystery Rectory.
Oil Well Theory.
Mr Cloudesley Brereton writes:-
The oil mystery thickens. On Thursday, Mr Maskelyne, the expert on hoaxes and sham spiritualistic manifestations, visited the Rectory, Swanton Novers, Norfolk. An expert of a large oil company also looked over the house. Both agreed that the manifestations were analagous to those that might be caused by a concealed oil well. A local builder, who is also interested in the question, thinks that only the pulling down of the house can reveal the real reason, and this is also the opinion of Mr Maskelyne.

There were more heavy falls on Thursday, and in one case, where liquid was found in a pan, there was no sign of moisture on the ceiling. Yesterday there was no one in the house, which has thus been unoccupied for over 12 hours, and a visit showed that there had been probably no fall since yesterday. One or two insignificant patches of damp still appeared on the floor and that was all.
The Times, September 6th, 1919.

… It has been stated that the well of the rectory became contaminated with paraffin last week. The Rector, now frankly puzzled by the curious occurrences which have driven him from his home, made no attempt to describe them as curious until every possible solution had been unsuccessfully explored. He has in an outhouse a petrol gas plant, and here are three tins of petrol and a quantity of paraffin used for heating stoves. The door of this building, however, has been kept locked, and no oil has disappeared from the stores. The plant itself had not been used for three weeks, but the manifestations had gone on without interruption at least since Aug. 23rd.

… Mr Cloudesley Brereton in “The Times” yesterday wrote:-
“The master plumber’s suggestion put forward in “The Times” of Tuesday that the pipes in the Norfolk Mystery House had been perforated by the action of alcohol must be dismissed. A conversation with a professor of chemistry shows that the perforation that occasionally takes place in the beer pipes of public-houses is due not to the action of alcohol, but to that of the acetic acid the beer contains. It is not, of course, impossible that there have been leakages in the pipes of the gas plant, which are due to other causes, and the time seems to have arrived when the pipes should be subjected to one of the ordinary tests to see if they are really defective or not.

 “There has again been, as stated in “The Times” another shower of sandalwood oil. Such a shower being explicable alone on the lines of human interference, certainly suggests the hypothesis that the vicar is being made the victim by some person or other of what the French call a ‘mystification,’ as far as the sandalwood oil and the blue methylated spirit is concerned, especially as blue methylated spirit has only been on sale since the beginning of the year. Even some of the the showers of oil and water would appear to be explicable on similar grounds. It has been stated that they are accompanied by a sort of hissing sound that is not incompatible with the use of a well-known garden instrument.

“This idea of the external application of liquid to the walls is also in keeping with the fact that the interior of the plaster from whose surface the shower has fallen has always turned out to be dry when investigated. There has indeed been one significant exception. A friend of mine, on visiting the house on Tuesday, just after one of these sudden precipitations from the ceiling of the scullery, noticed that the plaster on one side of the hole broken in the middle of the ceiling to investigate the previous downfall was wet, as if splashed from a spray directed from the floor below.

“Various points readily suggest themselves for starting the inquiry. I will put forward only one here. Sandalwood oil is not in very common use. It is employed, I am told, as a sort of basis for scent, and cream. But its medicinal uses are few and therefore its sale is a very restricted one, at least in the  country. Surely it would be worth while inquiring of local chemists if they have sold sandalwood oil to anyone living in or near Swanton during the last three months.”

The annoyance caused at the Rectory by occasional oil showers still continues, but in a somewhat mitigated degree. There was a downpour yesterday morning in the kitchen, and another in the scullery, but in each case the liquid was mainly water, the infusion of paraffin or petrol being very slight.
Bury Free Press, 6th September 1919.

The Rectory Riddle.
Medical literature teems with cases like the Swanton Rectory oil and spirit droppings, writes a medical correspondent to a contemporary. It is only necessary to look for the human instrument in these matters. Some one with a twisted mind – commonly called hysteria, though the mind may belong to a male or female – is “getting even” with someone else. Shut the place up and keep a strict watch and the mysterious phenomena will cease. Thereafter the mystery will clear itself up, and the culprit may be brought to confess. Meanwhile examine the garden syringe for traces of petrol, paraffin, or spirit.

Mr Lincone Sutton, the County Analyst, has analysed samples of the oil, showing in one case it was pure petrol and in another methyl violet, a manufactured article [?!]. That discounts the theory of a well of natural oil under the rectory. “There are no oil wells in Norfolk,” said Mr Sutton, “we have never heard of such a thing. The geology of Norfolk does not give any prospect of such a thing happening. Our latest enterprise is boring for oil-bearing shale. That is a very different thing from natural reservoirs under the surface.”
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 8th September 1919.

Oil Mystery Not Solved.
County Analyst’s Explanation
The Norfolk rectory oil mystery remains unsolved to the satisfaction of experts, whose theories differ. Mr W Lincolne Sutton, the county analyst, is sceptical as to the possibility of the presence of a well of natural oil beneath Swanton Novers rectory. At the same time, he says, there may be something in Mr Maskelyne’s theory about the oil vaporising and afterwards becoming condensed in the rectory and dropping from the ceilings.
“It is stated,” Mr Sutton points out, “that there has been in the rectory a store of such liquids as petrol, distilled paraffin, and methylated spirit, used in connection with the petrol vapour and air illuminating gas apparatus, and to the ordinary sane man that seems an explanation.
Daily Herald, 8th September 1919.

 Mystery of a Rectory Solved.
A Servant Girl’s Hoax.

The Swanton Novers oil mystery (says a Norwich telegram) has at last been solved. It was a hoax practised by a young servant girl, aged fifteen, employed by the rector, the Rev Harry Guy, and his wife. Mr Oswald Williams, the well-known illusionist, who is holidaying at Cromer, offered his services to Mr Guy, and at his suggestion the house was shut up for three days and the girl sent away. During this period no liquid fell. The water supply was meantime cut off, and all liquids removed, save that several pails, containing water, salted with common salt, were left about promiscuously.

When the girl returned on Monday she reported further falls of liquid. This was tested and found to be salted. Later Mr and Mrs Williams and Mrs Guy arrived, and Mrs Williams went secretly to the room above the kitchen, the ceiling of which had been torn away in search for the origin of the mystery. Peering carefully through a hole in the floor, Mrs Williams eventually saw the girl take a glass and throw some of the salted water up to the ceiling. She was then confronted and accused, and after first denying it subsequently made a complete confession of the matter in the presence of the whole party.

The hoax, although perpetrated by a fifteen-year-old servant girl, deceived many wise people, such as analysts and Government inspectors. It was curious, of course, that the drippings from the rectory ceiling should – according to the earlier descriptions of the strange occurrences – have appeared only when the girl was about the place, but that fact, and the further one that the drippings were sometimes of the character of paraffin, sometimes like petrol, and at other times resembled methylated spirits, and were also once described as smelling like sandal-wood oil, did not seem to cause suspicion or give the experts any clue as to their real origin. One analyst is reported to have certified the drippings as being 50 per cent. petroleum, and Government experts proposed the closing and demolition of the rectory in order that the “oil spring” underneath the house might be efficiently worked!
Western Mail, 9th September 1919.

 

The Poltergeist.
Little children, we used to be told when we were young, should be seen, and not heard. The Poltergeist, or “spirit that throws things about,” is the very reverse of what little children ought to be: it is heard, but not seen. Speculation as to the existence of such a supernatural agency has received a fillip from the recent happenings in a rector’s house, where oil and water have for some time past dripped mysteriously from the roof and rendered the place uninhabitable; but believers in the spirit – if any there be – have been doomed to disappointment.

As was shrewdly suspected by a good many people from the first, the droppings from the roof were not due to a spirit agency at all, but were due to the mischievous pranks of a servant girl. Indeed, it is pretty safe to say of the Poltergeist what Betsy Prig in a candid moment said of Mrs Harris – there is no such person. No doubt there are many of these so-called Poltergeist manifestations which have never been explained; but the evidence available all points to the conclusion that, if they had lasted long enough for a careful investigation to be made, and it had been deemed worth while to carry such an investigation out, it would have been discovered that the only spirit involved in them was the spirit of mischief.

The transactions of the Society for Psychical Research are fairly conclusive in regard to that. The Society had its attention called to a number of cases where the Poltergeist was alleged to be at work. The places were visited by members of the Society, who made inquiries and kept a careful watch. In every case it was found that the noises, the displaced furniture, the broken crockery, or whatever other form the activities of the Poltergeist happened to take, were due to human agency – generally, as in the Norfolk case, that of a young girl.

It does not seem particularly creditable, either to our enlightenment or to our intelligence, that in the twentieth century it should have taken so long a time to find that out at Swanton Novers, and that we have to fall back on a professional illusionist to make the discovery.

Yorkshire Evening Post, 9th September 1919.

The mysterious droppings at a Norfolk rectory have been traced to the legerdemain of a mischievous little servant girl. That it should have required the intervention of an illusionist to establish the connection will probably surprise some readers.
Shields Daily News, 9th September 1919.

Human Credulity.
The servant girl at the “oily rectory” is to be congratulated on having found a substitute for the big gooseberry in the “silly season” and to have plumbed the depth of human credulity by making fools of intelligent people. Even men of science have discussed seriously the mystery of the oil water which one day was paraffin, another day petrol, and something else the next. It was even suggested that it had reached the ceilings from some non-existent oil well. The practical joke was not suspected even when early in the story it was announced that these unsolvable mysteries appeared only in rooms in which a servant girl had been. Yet weeks elapsed before the truth was discovered by an illusionist. The mystic always seems to appeal more strongly to human nature than realities. Once an absurd fiction gets abroad, few will take the trouble to reason it out. That is why it is so easy to humbug the public.
Western Morning News, 10th September 1919.

Our London Letter.
Mystified by Childish Device.
London, Tuesday.
It seems extraordinary that the rectory oil mystery should be capable of so simple an explanation in view of the number of specialists in the amateur detective business who have been concentrating their mental energies upon the problem. How the childish device of this little country servant girl should have eluded the vigilance of the great Mr Maskelyne, for instance, passes my comprehension, and I trust for the sake of these gentlemen’s reputation that we have not heard the last of the story. After all, the presence of the oil has yet to be fully explained.
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 9th September 1919.

 The Rectory Oil Mystery.
Girl Still Protests Her Innocence.
Summons taken out against Mrs Oswald Williams.

The oil mystery at Swanton Novers Rectory is not yet cleared up. The rector and Mrs Guy are confident that the young servant girl, Mabel Phillips, is guilty of the hoax, but she emphatically denies that she has been the cause of the trouble or that she ever made a confession. The feeling locally is undoubtedly with the girl. It is pointed out that over 50 gallons of water have been thrown away, and it is considered impossible for the girl to have obtained this and thrown it to the ceiling without being caught.

Another significant fact is that oil and water have fallen from the ceiling when the girl has been present with other people. The girl has been closely questioned, but no one has yet been able to trip her over her statements.

It was stated yesterday that a summons had been taken out against Mrs Oswald Williams, wife of the illusionist, for an alleged assault on Phillips on Monday by smacking her face.
Dundee Courier, 11th September 1919.

More Mystery At The Oily Rectory.
Swanton Novers Rectory, Norfolk, where the mystery of the oil dripping from the ceilings has become more complicated than ever by the denial of a servant girl that she was caught splashing one of the ceilings, and that she then made a confession in the presence of the Rector and his wife and of Mr Oswald Williams, who had set a trap for her.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 11th September 1919.

Photograph shows the servant girl Mabel Louisa Phillips, aged 15, who denies that she splashed the ceilings of Swanton Novers Rectory.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 11th September 1919.

The young servant girl, Mabel Phillips, still denies that she had anything to do with the rectory oil mystery at Swanton Novers, Norfolk, or that she ever made a confession. Local feeling is with the girl, and it is pointed out that oil and water have poured from the ceilings when she has been closely watched by other people.
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 11th September 1919.

Norfolk Oil Mystery.
Servant Girl’s Denial of Confession.
The latest development of the oil mystery at Swanton Novers (Norfolk) rectory is that the little servant persistently denies that she ever made any confession. The rector and his wife are, on the other hand, fully satisfied that the solution of the mystery has been found.
Mabel Louisa Phillipps, which is the name of the little maid, is 14 years and 7  months of age. “My daughter is innocent of this accusation,” said her father, George Phillipps, in an interview yesterday, “and I will get to the bottom of things if I spend every penny I have. The National Union of Railwaymen is going to take up my case.” Phillipps is a machinist in the railway works at Melton Constable.

According to the girl’s story, she was not once out of the presence of Mr and Mrs Oswald Williams on Monday, and was not at any time alone in the kitchen. She says she was the victim of a trick, and that great pressure was put upon her to admit she threw salted water to the ceiling. “I was told,” she said, “that I would be given one minute to decide and say I did it or go to prison. I replied that I did not do it.”

Mrs Guy, the rector’s wife, in an interview, said – “I tried to tell her how silly she was, but even now she will not honestly admit having done wrong. She only says, “I own up, I never did it.'”
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 12th September 1919.

… The rector has addressed a note to Mr Williams thanking him for his timely aid, and making public acknowledgment of his gratitude for the sympathy and interest manifested towards him in a time of great difficulty.
Bury Free Press, 13th September 1919.

 Servant Girl’s Denial.
The Norwich correspondent of the Daily News says: There is some doubt as to whether the mystery of the dripping oil at Swanton Novers Rectory is even yet solved. The Rector and his wife are thoroughly satisfied that the true solution has been found, but the little servant girl – Mabel Louisa Phillips – consistently denies that she ever did anything wrong at the Rectory or that she ever made the confession with which she has been credited. Her parents are very angry, and have consulted a solicitor on the matter. According to the little girl’s statement, she was not once out of the presence of Mr and Mrs Oswald Williams, and was at no time alone in the kitchen. She insists that she is the victim of a trick, and that great pressure was put upon her to admit she had been throwing salted water up to the ceiling. “I was told,” she said, “that I would be given one minute to say I had done it or go to prison. I said I didn’t do it.”
Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette, 13th September 1919.

Swanton Novers Rectory.
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir, – Mr Maskelyne states in the Daily Mail for September 10 that the whole house “was saturated with oil.” This is not so. It would only take a small quantity to create the mess that was caused. This was demonstrated Friday last by Mr Oswald Williams. Previously to this I never at all suspected the girl. Mr Maskelyne also in the Daily Mail states that the drippings continued whilst the house was locked up and empty. This is absolutely untrue, as my diary shows (to which ample access has been repeatedly given to any reporter). For in view of an “oil” theory being workable, and in no way suspecting the maid, I kept a strict diary every day from August 8 up to date. On each day from August 23 there were registered drippings, except on the four days when the rectory was closed – viz., August 31, September 5, September 6 and September 7. The dates state nil in each case; and the drippings have never happened except when the maid was in the house and she in most cases drew our attention to it with evident satisfaction.

Mr Maskelyne made only a very cursory inspection of the place – not even going upstairs – being really on the premises but a few minutes, whilst Mr Oswald Williams has given his entire time and consideration to the matter, coming over here every day for the purpose. I might mention that directly the house was reopened last Monday morning, and before Mr Williams arrived, three splashes had occurred about 11.30 a.m., to which Mrs Guy (alone at the time) had her attention drawn by the maid, who stated that the atmosphere had caused it. Mrs Guy heard the bowl of water being moved from the sink, the water splash, and the bowl replaced with noise in the sink. She secretly tasted it, and found it was salted. According to plan, she did not there and then accuse the girl, but waited the arrival of Mr Williams and his party. I might add that on coming to the rectory at 12.30 by the kitchen I tasted the spilt water myself, and corroborated the facts.

After the girl was caught I fetched both her parents, who were very upset at first, and refused to believe that the girl was guilty; but in face of the evidence, and in spite of the girl’s denials, they agreed with our views – expressing great regret, and offering to do all in their power to make good the damage. Mrs Phillips – the mother – spontaneously offered to come and clean the house, and Mr Phillips stated he would move back all our things himself.

Since then their feelings have been completely reversed, doubtless owing to some outside influences.

Lastly, I am glad to have the opportunity of recording these facts, as it may be of use to others placed in similarly strange circumstances, and save them from much trouble, worry, and inconvenience, not to mention the expense.
Yours faithfully,
HUGH GUY.
Swanton Novers Rectory, Sept. 11.

P.S. – I have just discovered that the packing of the pump was saturated with paraffin. This would account for the oil getting into the well.

The Times, September 13th, 1919.

 

 On Spooks.

The discovery of the cause of the mysterious manifestations which put the rector of Swanton Novers, Norfolk, and his family first to inconvenience and finally to flight, afford an additional example of the naturalisation of the supernatural which would have delighted the heart of the late Mr Frank Podmore. The disturbances usually produced by what the Germans call a Poltergeist, or noisy sprite, take a form of loud raps, ringing of bells, or more frequently still, of throwing about crockery, books, and fire irons. In this particular case there was the piquant novelty of various kinds of oil apparently distilling from the ceilings of the Rectory.

All sorts of semi-scientific explanations were offered in the daily Press, such as that the oils were the result of the condensation of vapours emanating from a Government factory situated at some distance from the house, or the Rectory was built over the source of a natural oil well. These theories were negatived once and for all by the nature and variety of oils that dripped from the ceilings, and what really gave the whole affair the final and most baffling touch of mystery was the fact that leakage of any kind was out of the question. When the paper was stripped from the ceiling a perfectly dry surface was revealed.

Now in the Middle Ages, no one would have worried in the slightest degree over long-winded explanations. In those days it was the inexplicable that explained itself, and the mysterious occurrences would have been set down forthwith to diabolical agences. The bishop of the diocese would have ordered the local clergy, with the assistance of a professional exorcist, to perform certain prescribed rituals in the haunted precincts, and there would have been an end of the whole matter. 

In these more sceptical times, when the aid of the local police force has been invoked in vain, it is customary to seek the assistance of the Society for Psychical Research; and, as a rule, the phenomena are found to have some close connection with one particular person, a boy or girl or servantmaid, as in the present instance. 

At times it is not possible to get any nearer to the truth, but occasionally the person is either detected in the act or confesses to the fraud. The nerves of the public are so much a-jump nowadays, owing to the allegiance given to the occult by several prominent savants, that many were almost as ready as the folk of the Middle Ages to attribute the manifestations to the work of spirits. Otherwise it would seem strange that it should not have dawned on the minds of more than a few that sandalwood oil, petroleum sufficiently refined to be used in a lamp, petrol, and methylated spirits, are not only too artifical to be natural products of the soil, but that even if they were, it would not be their habit to find their way to the surface of a ceiling without human assistance.

Before the fraud was detected it was noticed that in parallel cases recorded by the Society for Psychical Research the manifestations were preceded by a hissing sound – such, in fact, as is made by a garden syringe. In the interests of research it is exceedingly fortunate that Mrs Guy caught her youthful maid in the very act of throwing liquid on the ceiling: for even her subsequent confession of the whole matter in the presence of witnesses would have gone for nothing, and have been ascribed to fright or fear of force majeure by those who cling tenaciously to the spiritualistic hypothesis.

Equally, of course, in sceptical circles the revelation will be welcomed as a further proof that all psychic phenomena are alike produced by fraudulent means, which is the other extreme. That such occurrences should take place in an English vicarage naturally calls up the happenings of the Epworth Parsonage, the birthplace of John Wesley, and the curious manifestations that plagued the Presbytery of Cideville in 1850.

Why hysteria should show itself in this particular way, or why young girls should take a delight in mystifying their elders, affords a still further problem for elucidation; but it proves that the Pope was right when he said that “the proper study of mankind is man.” In other words, the field of psychology still contains much virgin soil, and learned scientists who devote themselves to the study of the occult and the to investigation of matters beyond the veil, may be making a huge mistake neglecting to learn something of the mentality of the human boy, not to speak of the youthful servant-maid.

Belfast Telegraph, 17th September 1919.

Sequel to Spree.
Hasland man given benefit of the doubt.
Harold Goodwin, Kent street, Hasland, was charged on remand at Bakewell, last Friday, with stealing a bridle, value £4 10s., at Bakewell on 7 September, the property of Thomas Mycock, of Monyash.
… The Chairman: How do you account for this bridle being in the corn bag?
Prisoner: I do not know how it got in at all. I should only like to know.
The Chairman: It’s like the oil at the Rectory.
…
Derbyshire Courier, 20th September 1919.
 

 

The Rectory Oil “Mystery.”
The case of assault rising out of the oil mystery at Swanton Novers Rectory, Norfolk, brought by the parents of the servant girl Phillips, against Mrs Oswald Williams, the wife of the illusionist, was heard before the local magistrate at Holt, on Monday. The girl stated that Mrs Williams accused her of throwing salted water to the rectory ceiling, called her a “little devil,” slapped her three times in the face, and tried by threats to force her to confess that she was the cause of the whole mystery. The Rev Mr Guy and his wife were called, and they admitted that Mrs Williams caught the girl by the wrist and accused her, but denied that she struck the girl at all. After a hearing lasting three hours, the case was dismissed.
Hull Daily Mail, 4th November 1919.

 Former Servant Summons A Woman.
There was a sequel to the Norfolk Rectory oil mystery at Holt Police Court, yesterday, when Mrs Rae Williams, wife of Oswald Williams, was charged with assaulting Kate Mabel Phillips, lately servant at Swanton Novers Rectory. The girl said Mrs Williams slapped her face, saying “You little devil, you little beggar.” She further alleged that Mrs Williams said she ought to be thrown down the stairs, and that nothing was too bad for her. In cross-examination, the girl denied throwing petrol about. She said she had not heard there was no oil dripping at the rectory when she was away. The rector, Mr Guy, said there had been no further oil dripping since the girl left. The Bench dismissed the case.
Lancashire Evening Post, 4th November 1919.

Servant Girl’s Summons Dismissed.
The oil mystery at the rectory at Swanton Novers had a sequel at Holt Petty Sessions on Monday, when Mrs Oswald Williams, wife of the professional illusionist of that name, was summoned for assaulting Mabel Louisa Phillips, aged fourteen. At the time of the mystery, Phillips was servant to the Rev. Hugh Guy and Mrs Guy at the rectory, and the girl in her evidence alleged that Mrs Williams, having accused her of throwing liquid at the ceiling, seized her by the wrist, slapped her face three times, and said to her: “You little devil, you little beggar.” Cross-examined, the girl denied throwing petrol about.
Mr and Mrs Guy, for the defence, positively denied that the girl was struck, although Mrs Williams did take her by the wrist. Mr Guy said the oil dripping had cost him £30, and since the girl had left there had been no further drippings.
The Bench dismissed the summons, the Chairman remarking that it was a trivial case, and should never have been brought.
Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette, 8th November 1919.

And from Charles Fort himself, in Lo! (1931).
Aug 30, 1919 – Swanton Novers Rectory, near Melton Constable, Norfolk, England – oil “spurting” from walls and ceilings. It was thought that the house was over an oil well, the liquid percolating and precipitating, but it was not crude oil that was falling: the liquids were paraffin and petrol. Then came showers of water. Oil was falling from one of the appearing points at a rate of a quart in ten minutes. Methylated spirits and sandalwood oil were falling. In an account, dated September 2nd, it is said that receptacles had been placed under appearing -points, and that about 50 gallons of oil had been caught. Of thirteen showers, upon September 1st, two were of water.

The circumstance that is of most importance in this story is that such quantities of oils and water appeared here that the Rector, the Rev. Hugh Guy, had been driven out, and had moved his furniture to another house.

London Times, September 9 – “Norfolk Mystery Solved.” We are told that Mr Oswald Williams, the “illusionist,” or the stage magician, and his wife, who were investigating, had seen the housemaid, aged 15, enter the house, which for several days had been unoccupied, and throw a glass of water, which they had salted, to a ceiling, then crying that another shower had occurred. They had shut off the water supply, in the house, and had placed around glasses and pails of water, salted so that it could be identified.

As Mr and Mrs Williams told it, they, in hiding, saw the girl throw the salted water, and rushed out of their hiding place and accused her. Conceivably all for the sake of science, and conceivably with not a thought of publicity-values, Mr Williams told newspaper reporters of his successful strategem, and put completeness into his triumph, by telling that the girl had confessed. “She admitted that she had done it, and finally she broke down and made a clean breast of it.”

Times, September 12 – girl interviewed by a representative of a Norwich newspaper – denied that she had confessed – denied that she had played tricks of any kind – denied that the Williamses had been in hiding – told that she had gone to the house, with Mr and Mrs Williams, and that a wet spot had appeared upon a ceiling, and that she had been wrongfully accused of having thrown water. “According to the little girl’s statement, she was at no time alone in the kitchen” (London Daily News, September 10). “She insists she was the victim of a trick, and that great pressure was put upon her to admit that she had thrown salted water to the ceiling. ‘I was told,’ she said, ‘that I would be given one minute to say I had done it, or go to prison. I said that I didn’t do it.'”

Having an interest in ways in which data are suppressed, I have picked up some information upon how little girls are “pressed.” No details of the “pressure” were published in the London newspapers. Norfolk News, November 8 – that, in the Holt Petty Sessions had come up the case of the girl, Mabel Louisa Philippo – spelled Phillips, in the other accounts – complainant against Mrs Oswald Williams, who was charged with having assaulted her. The girl said that Mrs Williams had time after time struck her in the face, and had called attention to her face, reddened by blows, as evidence of her guilt. Mrs Philippo testified that, when she arrived at the Rectory, her daughter’s first words were that she had been beaten. The Rev. Hugh Guy testified, but he did not testify that he was in the house, at the time. According to details picked up from other accounts, he was not in the house at the time.

It is said that legal procedure in Great Britain is superior to whatever goes under that name in the United States. I can’t accept that legal procedure anywhere is superior to anything. Mr Guy, who had not been present, testified that he had not seen the girl struck, and I found no record of any objection by the girl’s attorney to such testimony. The case was dismissed.

And then a document closed investigation. It was a letter from Mr Guy, published in the Times, September 13. Mr Guy wrote that he had tasted the water, upon the ceiling, and had tasted salt in it; so he gave his opinion that the girl had thrown the water. Most likely there is considerable salt, reminders of long successions of hams and bacons, on every kitchen ceiling.

According to Mr and Mrs Williams, the girl had confessed. But see Mr Guy’s letter to the Times – that the girl had not confessed.

So, because of Mr Guy’s letter, the Williamses cannot be depended upon. But we’re going to find that Mr Guy cannot be depended upon. To be sure, I am going to end up with something about photographs, but photographs cannot be depended upon. I can’t see that out of our own reasoning, we can get anywhere, if there isn’t anything phenomenal that can be depended upon. It is my expression that, if we are entering upon an era of a revised view of many formerly despised and ridiculed data, there will be a simultaneous variation of many minds, more favourably to them, and that what is called reasoning in those minds will be only supplementary to a general mental tropism.

The investigation was stopped by Mr Guy. The inquiry-shearer, or the mystery-bobber, was this statement, in his letter – “It would have taken only a small quantity to create the mess.”

The meaning of this statement is that, whereas gallons, or barrels, of oils, at a cost of hundreds of dollars, could not be attributed to a mischievous girl, “only a small quantity” could be.

Flows of frogs – flows of worms – flows of lies – read this: London Daily Express, August 30 – “The Rector, in response to a request from the Daily Express, for the latest news, reported as follows:
“‘To the Editor of the Daily Express:
“‘Expert engineer arriving Monday. Drippings ascribed to exudations, on August 8, of petrol, methylated spirits, and paraffin. House evacuated; vapor dangerous; every room affected; downpour rather than dripping – Guy.’“
In the Daily Express, September 2, is published Mr Guy’s statement that he had been compelled to move his furniture from the house.

According to other accounts, the quantities were great. In the London Daily News were published reports by an architect, a geologist, and a chemist, telling of observations upon profuse flows. In the Norwich newspapers, the accounts are similar. For instance, the foreman of an oil company, having been asked to give an opinion, had visited the house, and had caught in a tub, two gallons of oil, which had dripped, in four hours, from one of the appearing-points. Just how, as a matter of tricks, a girl could have been concerned in these occurrences is not picturable to me. The house was crowded, while the oil-expert, for instance, was investigating.

But it does seem that unconsciously she was concerned. The first of the showers occurred in her room. Ceilings were bored and ripped off, but nothing by which to explain was found. Then another stage magician, Mr N Maskelyne, went to Swanton Novers, with the idea of exposing trickery. Possibly this competition made the Williamses hasty. But Mr Maskelyne could find nothing by which to explain the mystery. According to him (Daily Mail, September 10) “barrels of it” had appeared, during the time of his observations.

Just how effective, as an inquiry-stopper, was the story of the girl and the “small quantity,” is shown by the way the Society for Psychical Research was influenced by it. See the Journal S.P.R. October 1919. Mr Guy’s letter to the Times is taken as final. No knowledge of conflicting statements by him is shown. The Society did not investigate. “A small quantity” can be explained, as it should be explained, but “barrels of it” must be forgotten. Case dismissed.

If the Rev. Hugh Guy described at one time a “downpour,” which had driven out him and his tables, chairs, beds, rugs, and all those things that I think of seriously, because I have recently done some moving, myself, and then told of “a small quantity,” why have I not an explanation of this contradiction?

I wrote to Mr Guy, asking him to explain, having the letter registered for the sake of a record. I have received no answer.

In the London Daily Mail, Sept. 3, 1919, are reproduced two photographs of oil drippings from different ceilings. Large drops of oil are clearly visible.
Pp. 39-43 in Lo! by Charles Fort (1931).

From JSPR Volume 19 (1919-1920), p99-100.
October 1919, Case 99.
[The ‘Solved’ article in the Times is quoted, then the letter from the rector].

In view of the statements given above there can be little doubt, in spite of the girl’s subsequent denials, that the phenomena were due to her direct agency and no further explanation need be sought. We print this report of the case as furnishing a good example of the kind of deceit against which investigators of such phenomena must be on their guard.