The tale of the haunted house at Selby calls to mind a similar manifestation reported to have occurred at Swinefleet some years ago. The place at which the supposed supernatural agency was at work was a farm house in High-street owned by Col. Thompson, and the most outrageous and unimaginable happenings were attributed to the ghost, which was never seen, but which was said to haunt the house.
How the tale of the extraordinary doings originated was not known, and curiously enough there was no one, so far as could be ascertained, who had witnessed any of the vagaries of the invisible visitor. All that it did, or was said to have done, was to play pranks. People told of mysterious knockings which some one had told of some one else having heard. This, of course, lost none of its colour, and by the time it went round the village a most exaggerated story was in circulation.
Some said it was the work of an old woman who resided in the immediate vicinity of the place, while others attributed it to one of the farm servants, who was known to “have a book on witchcraft.” Every night for a time a crowd assembled outside the house, but no one ever saw the ghost or any of its work. Probably it was only rats, so Selby need not alarm itself.
Hull Daily Mail, 25th June 1906.