Weird Happenings in a Cottage.
Family afraid to stay there at night.
Mysterious happenings at an old cottage, known as The Mount, occupied by a smallholder, Mr Anthony Kynaston, aged 76, and his two daughters, have alarmed the village of Threapwood, on the Cheshire borders.
The three occupants have been disturbed for the last three months by tappings on the walls and in the chimney of the dwelling, and the table and other furniture is frequently marked with curious figures and hieroglyphics. These appear in the daytime if the room is left unoccupied even for a few minutes. The whole affair has so preyed on the minds of the family that they dare not sleep in the cottage. They leave it at night-time for the shelter of neighbouring homes.
Mr Ackerley, a neighbour, was present in the cottage on one occasion when he felt some invisible object pass down his arm, to the accompaniment of a noise like rustling of silk.
So far nothing whatever has been seen to account for the trouble, and Mr Kynaston says he is quite unaware of anything sinister in the history of the cottage. It is a small house, lying some distance off the road, and quite undistinguished save for these mysterious happenings, which have set the whole countryside talking.
Nottingham Evening Post, 14th May 1927
Weird noises in old cottage.
Family driven to sleep elsewhere.
Mysterious markings on furniture.
The inhabitants of the countryside in the neighbourhood of Threapwood, three miles from Malpas, are much concerned over a series of mysterious happenings. The centre of interest is an old cottage known as “The Mount,” occupied by a smallholder, named Anthony Kynaston, aged about 70, and his two daughters (says the “Liverpool Post”) The three occupants have been troubled since shortly before Christmas by curious noises of mysterious origin and other occurrences, which have had such effect upon them that each now sleep away from home with various friends in the neighbourhood.
At first there were tapping noises, and these Mr Kynaston and his daughters heard repeatedly, and usually at night time. The strange knockings went on intermittently when neighbours came on the scene, some of them attracted by curiosity and others brought to the cottage for company. The table and other objects are said very frequently to have had a series of weird markings on them; curious figures and heiroglyphics attributable to no known source. These markings or drawings are said to have continued when flour was strewn on the table by the household. Mr Kynaston and one of his daughters aver that these markings or drawings often appear in the day time, freshly executed in a room left unoccupied for a few minutes at a time.
So far nothing whatever has been seen to account for mystery and Mr Kynaston says he is unaware of anything in the history of the cottage in the nature of a “story.” It is a small house lying some distance off the road.
Halifax Evening Courier, 14th May 1927.
The Mysterious Happenings at Threapwood.
From our Whitchurch Correspondent.
Chatting among the villagers here and there I find quite a number of Threapwood people who have been sitting up in the cottage at nights in the hope of witnessing some “manifestation.” There is a youth named Wilfred Jones, for example, who has spent the greater part of the night several times in the house, and has neither seen nor heard anything, but on one occasion a fellow-watcher left in the sitting-room between one and two in the morning said on Mr Jones’s returne: “I’ve seen it; it’s a woman.”
A Mrs Griffiths, who lives within a hundred yards of the cottage, says she also has sat u pand while disclaiming any belief in any supernatural causes for the trouble admits that the most peculiar noises have been heard by her. She said: “I was sitting up in the early hours and distinctly heard a peculiar tapping behind a mirror. the tapping made the mirror ring like a bell.” On another occasion she heard a sharp hiss quite clearly; and she added “I nearly jumped out of my skin.” Another person alleges that he heard noises like a man walking about the place in rubber shoes.
Mr Leadsom, the landlord, lives at Tallern Green. He says he knows nothing about it, and has no explanation to offer. He knew the three previous tenants of the cottage, who between them carry the history of the place back for the greater part of a century.
Crewe Chronicle, 21st May 1927.
Local Notes.
Widespread interest has been aroused by a story suggestive of the supernatural which comes from a remote Cheshire village, where the occupants of an old cottage have been troubled by curious noises and weird hieroglyphic markings on a table and other objects, attributable to no known source. So alarmed are the residents by the happenings that they now sleep away from home with friends in the neighbourhood.
Since the strange occurrence became known through the Press the owner of the cottage has been approached by several people who are anxious to secure the house if it should be abandoned by the present occupiers. One man came a hundred miles for the purpose. “But,” said the owner, “they’ve got the devil there.” “That’s all right,” said the applicant, “if I can have the house I’m not afraid of the devil.”
Cheshire Observer, 21st May 1927.
Mystery House
Residents’ Uncanny Experiences.
Threapwood, a village on the Cheshire borders midway between Wrexham and Whitchurch, is much concerned over a series of mysterious incidents, says theMorning Post. The centre of interest is an old cottage known as the Mount, occupied by a smallholder named Anthony Kynaston, aged about 70, and his two daughters. They have been troubled since Christmas by curious noises of mysterious origin, and other occurrences which have had such an effect on them that they now sleep away from home, with friends.
At first there were tapping noises. Mr Kynaston and his daughters heard them repeatedly – in the wall dividing the kitchen from the sitting-room, in the chimney, and in other parts of the house. These were usually, though by no means exclusively, in the night time. The strange knockings went on intermittently.
Mr Ackerley, one of their neighbours, is said to have been present on one occasion when an invisible object passed down his arm, to the accompaniment of a noise of rustling silk, and an instant later there was a sound as of a cat jumping into the cheese-vat.
The table and other objects, it is said, frequently bear a series of weird markings; curious figures and heiroglyphics attributable to no known source. These markings, it is added, have continued when flour was strewn on the table by the household; and I am assured by Mr Kynaston and one of his daughters that these often appear in the daytime, freshly executed, in a room left unoccupied for a few minutes at a time.
So far, nothing has been seen to account for the incidents. The house is a small one, lying some distance off the road. The curious occurrences which have been reported have formed the subject of much discussion in the countryside.
Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), 12th June 1927.
Threapwood, Cheshire. An old farmhouse.
In this case the phenomena reported consisted of rappings on an interior wall, hissing noises heard at night, an apparition coming down the stairs (this was not recognised, it was simply described as a white figure), small objects were said to have been moved from one place to another when no one was near them and marks, which the occupants took to be bloodstains, appeared on furniture and woodwork in various rooms.
The investigators spent two nights in the house, but nothing of a supernormal nature occurred while they were there. On one occasion they thought they heard the alleged “hissing noise,” but it was discovered to be the laboured breathing of a cat which was suffering from asthma. Whether this was the “hissing noise” heard by the occupants it is impossible to say, but it might have been.
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, June 1928 (p 285)