Strange Manifestations.
Crowds waiting for the “ghost.”
The usually quiet district of Upholland has been all agog with excitement for some days and nights past in consequence of some mysterious noises and unseen agencies which have been operating in the centre of the village. Indeed so mysterious are these agencies that the house in which they have manifested themselves has attained the reputation of being haunted.
This house, which is occupied by Mrs Winstanley, who is a widow, and her family of four sons and three daughters, overlooks the churchyard, and is almost opposite the grave of George Lyon, the notorious Upholland highwayman, who was hanged at the beginning of the last century at Lancaster, and afterwards brought home for burial. The “haunted” house is next to the “White Lion,” and is a most ancient stone structure, probably centuries old. The walls are feet thick, and the windows have deep recesses of the thickness of the walls. All the day through the doings of the mysterious agency are the talk of the township, and as nightfall comes around the approaches to the house are thronged with people, who wait patiently for the supposed spiritual manifestations.
The noises were first heard on Sunday night. In one of the upstairs bedrooms knockings and rumblings in the walls were heard, and these noises seemed to travel in the direction of a walled-in window, that the exigencies of the window tax of the past probably caused to be built up. This window recess is now used as a sort of cupboard, two great books and other things resting therein. When the noises were heard the occupants of the bed, three youths, so it is said, were awakened, but inquiries, as to who was there elicited no reponse. A fear seized upon them and this was not at all abated when the hanging was taken from the window space and placed over their heads like a pall, and the paper was torn from the walls, and with patches of hard mortar scattered about the room. Then the stones under the window board at the bottom of the cupboard were loosened and flung on to the floor.
Matters seemed to be getting serious now, and the rumours of the doings in the haunted house got abroad. Then large crowds began to gather to await this fiery of manifestation which seemed to be a nightly occurrence. It is only in the darkness and in the presence of one of the lads, so it is said, that the agency operates. a local councillor, in the person of Mr Baxter, has been in the room on most of the occasions when the noises were heard, and he is greatly puzzled as to the cause. He has searched inside and outside, and has had a bricksetter to examine the walls. When the stones have fallen once they have been put back and wedged tightly, so that they could not be pulled out by hand, and as soon as the light has been turned down the noises have begun again, and the stones have been tumbled to the floor. Indeed so great is the thumping of the stones on the boarded floor that people gathered sixty yards away can hear it.
Great excitement prevails throughout the district, and people are coming from far and near to see the place. So far the strange manifestations are wrapped in a mystery. The crowd gathered round the haunted house grows larger every evening as the dusk comes on, and people lean on the churchyard wall waiting for the “ghost” to begin its nightly performance. The mysterious visitor has as yet refused to be materialised, and is entertaining the whole district of Upholland, and large crowds congregate nightly to witness the “ghostly” performance. The noises of the agency are heard only too plainly both inside and outside, but nothing is to be seen. Indeed, so aggressive has the unseen visitant become that the occupants of the haunted chamber have refused to sleep there any longer. One of the youths states that one of the patches of mortar torn from the wall was flung with some force at his ribs.
Another night the lad was in an adjoining room with a local councillor, when mortar was thrown through the doorway, and this struck him, and those most interested in the cas say this could not be done by any person who might wish to fool the whole community. As soon as a light is flashed on the sounds cease and the missiles are quiescent. When the light is turned off again, the noise begins afresh and the stones, which have been wedged tightly into the wall, until it is impossible to stir them, are soon banging upon the floor again. These noises are listened to outside by excited crowds.
The two books that the supposed ghost has thrown across the room from the window seat to the bed are massive tomes, and, on examination, they prove to be most interesting works, rich in local association. Thus one is a bulky document as large as a family bible, being a History of England, and on the inside cover there is this inscription: “The gift of Mrs Roby to the use of Holland School, 1763.” The Roby family is a very ancient family hereabouts, and Roby Mill probably takes its name from some ancestral miller and his mill who bore this local family name. The other book, which is equally massive, is an ancient edition of the works of Titus Livius, the Roman historian, and it is just possible that this old volume may be a relic of the ancient abbey library, and a survival of the spoliation of the monasteries. The priory of Upholland shared the fate of the other religious houses at the suppression of the religious orders in the reign of Henry VIII. There were then in this ancient religious house at Upholland five ecclesiastes and twenty six servants, and the valuation of the property, according to Dugdale, was £61 3s 4d. per annum, which was a large sum in those days.
Councillor Baxter, of Upholland, who has investigated the curious phenomena, and has taken the greatest interest in the case is puzzled and perplexed as to the cause of it. He has been in the darkened room and heard the stones bumping on the floor, and witnessed the tearing of paper from the walls and the flinging of mortar, and yet he frankly confesses that up to the present time the mystery is unsolved.
“It has been suggested that some lunatic has got secreted in the chimney,” says Mr Baxter, “while some people have mentioned that rats may have got into the walls. Others again have said it may be due to the passing traction engine.” But as Mr Baxter points out the manifestations are of nightly occurrence, when the traction engine is neither passing nor in the district. Examination, too, has been made of the walls, so that those most likely to know about the idea of the knockings to say nothing of the stone throwing, being due to the gambolling of house rats. “If anyone has any doubts as to what has taken place,” says Mr Baxter, “he may come and hear it tonight.”
When the mysterious knockings first began, and the other manifestations followed, Mr Baxter thought he might be able to lay the “ghost” by a little display of the detective instinct, and, although, he has not yet succeeded in discovering the cause of it all, his experiences are quite entertaining. Mr Baxter went up to the supposed haunted chamber with a companion. Two of the three lads who have been accustomed to sleep in the room were then in bed. the lad on the side of the walled in window, from the foundations of which the stones are thrown, was so terrified, Mr Baxter says, that the other bed companion had to hold him while the manifestations were taking place. Mr Baxter was standing close to the bed, and his companion was near him. The lights were darkened, and the game commenced.
The hat of Mr Baxter’s companion began to rise, and as soon as he could get away he took his way downstairs, declaring he wasn’t going to stay there any longer. After that a local policeman came uopn the scene with his lantern darkened, but ready to flash on the light as soon as the noises began again. The constable and Mr Baxter put their shoulders to the door of the haunted room so that no one should enter or go out. No sooner were the lights out and the room in darkness than the knocking commenced afresh. The constable flashed on his light, and, on the instant, the knocking ceased.
Mr Baxter says that the woman next door could hear the noises in the haunted room, and she opened the window and shouted to the police that there was somebody on the house, as she could hear footsteps. She was terrified about it. But although search was made no one was found, and it is thought that what the woman fancied were footsteps on the roof were really the stones bumping on the boarded floor of the bedroom next door.
Another night Mr Baxter was in the darkened room with a companion when the knocking commenced, and the stones began to fall on the floor with a tremendous thunge [sic]. “My word,” said Mr Baxter’s companion, whose hair had begun to bristle, “there’s somethin’ quare here.” “Yes,” returned Mr Baxter, “there’s something quare, too.” the knocking of the stones could be heaerd distinctly by the crowd outside. The light was again put on, but nothing could be seen.
Mr Baxter, in speaking of his experiences in the room with the policeman, says that the constable kept his eye on the lads in bed, to see that there was no dodging. The lads, says Mr Baxter, had their arms round each other. One lad shouted, “Pee, ah thinks thou’st doing summat.” But Pee answered, “Nay, ah’m too frickened.” The other lad then got hold of “Pee,” saying “I’ll stick to thee.”
After the room has been darkened the occupants wait for the supposed ghostly manifestations, everything being still and quiet. All at once, Mr Baxter says, there is a sound as of trickling water, and this is followed by the mysterious knocking which seems to travel from one side of the room to the other, round the walls. When the knocking has reached the window recess the stones are pulled out and thrown with a resounding bump on to the floor. There is a tremendous bang when the stones reach the boards. The stones are from eight to twelve inches long and nearly two inches thick, and, as Mr Baxter explains, the stones are not very large to produce such noises as the falling of them makes on the floor. There is no way in which the lads could do that, says Mr Baxter. But Mr Baxter and his companion, however, were so anxious to catch the “thing,” as he puts it, that they stayed on after hearing the knockings silenced by the flash of the light.
“They told me,” he says, “that if we stayed in the room all the stones would come out of the walls altogether. If a lad tried to reach out of bed to touch the stones we could see him. There was something like a crack in the wall, and then a piece of something was sent right across the room, and this was followed by paper from the walls being thrown under the bed, and bits of plaster being sprinkled up and down the room. We swept the room floor so that we could see if anything else was thrown upon it. At last the lad in bed jumped up and said, ‘I’m goin’ to stop no longer, I’m gettin’ frickened.’ The lad went downstairs, and we couldn’t get him to stay any longer.”
Mr Baxter says that they thought of staying in the room after the lad had rushed downstairs, but there were so many people got into the house and came to the room door that they were hindered from carrying this project out.
The old chimney has been mentioned as a likely place for any person disposed to play the part of the haunting ghost to secrete himself, but, as Mr Baxter points out, this old chimney is built up on the inside, and no one can get up it, while, to be more emphatic on this point, he says the knocking does not start from the chimney corner at all, but from the other corner of the room.
The “haunted” chamber presents a weird appeatance after the unseen agency has manifested itself so actively for so many nights. Now and then people from the outside will be let in by twos and threes, and they will climb the rickety rambling staircase with bated breath. Once in the room they look round upon the havoc that the alleged “ghost” has played. By the light of the lamp the skin of the face shows ashen white against the standing hair. Some of them evidently come to laugh, but they return without having indulged the risible faculty. The scene is sufficient to freeze the laughter on the lips.
There in the corner is the walled-up window looking the very picture of wreck. The paper on the walls is tattered and torn, and the plaster is chipped to the stone, as though a fury had been at some vindictive play. The stones in the wall below the window seat are wrenched out of their original setting, and are all loose jointed, the mortar that cemented them, as well as the coating of plaster on the wall having been used up by the mysterious agency in a fusillade of scraps.
The two books, which have been flung across the room, too, are resting on the bed, where they alighted. It is certainly an eerie spectacle and a “ghostly” scene, whether the chief actor in the play turns out to be a practical joker, or it all ends, as it has begun, in mystery. The alleged haunted chamber is oak-raftered and low ceilinged; the walls are thick and uneven; and the door hangs crooked on the hinges and shuts a long way from the right angle. It reminds one of the haunted room of the story books.
So far it all remains a mystery. Whether this mystery will be solved or not remains to be seen. It may turn out, of course, that those manifestations are the pranks of men alive and are much further removed from the dead than the house is from the churchyard. This remains to be seen. When one has seen the chamber and the havoc wrought there, as well as the excited crowds outside, however sceptical he might be inclined to be, he does not like to scoff in print. Perhaps the “ghost” may yet be found in the flesh and be subjected to all the deserving pains and penalties. Perhaps, too, the “ghost” may refuse to materialise. But, there, that is another story, as Kipling would say. And at any rate, we shall see.
It must be admitted, however, that the people most concerned have done all they can so far to solve the mystery. The walls have been sounded from the walled-in window recess to the old chimney in the corner of the room, the fireplace of which has been papered over for years. The old hearthstones has been lifted, and nothing but a collar of antique pattern has been found underneath. The wooden skirting boards round the stone walls, too, have been examined carefully, but with no result.
A watch has been nightly set, and a bricksetter has been called in, and he has pulled down the walls during the day in several places, from whence the sounds seemed to eminate, but nothing has come to light that will explain the strange case. Moreover, the bricksetter has sealed the chimney inside, but the mystery as yet remains unsolved.
The illustrations which we present herewith are sketched from photographs which have been taken by Mr H Parkes, photographer, Dean Studio, Orrell Post. The first illustration shows the “haunted” house, the window of the “haunted” room being opposite the lamp post. The other illustration shows the walled-in window recess with bedstead in the “haunted chamber.”
Wigan Observer and District Advertiser, 13th August 1904.
The Upholland “Ghost”.
(From the “Manchester Evening News.”)
A correspondent writes:-
“Where do you keep your ghost?” I inquired of the Upholland station-master. Upholland is three stations past Wigan, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and some twenty miles or so from Manchester. The stationmaster smiled. It was a non-committal smile, with just a trifling flavour of agnosticism thrown in. “But you have a spectral visitant here, have you not,” I continued, challenging the smile. “Oh yes,” admitted the stationmaster. “There’s one in the village. He commences business – after eleven!” I seemed to detect something sardonic in that reply. After eleven o’clock! Why, that was the watching [sic] hour when public-houses gaped and hostelries gave up their customers, the time when the most potent spirits – in human decanters – walked more or less unsteadily, in a portion of the night. Obviously, the stationmaster had no vocation for psychical research. I left him, still smiling cynically, and caught up with an aged and bent Uphollander walking in the direction of the village.
Ay, the bent and aged Uphollander “hed yeerd o’ abeaut it.” He had not investigated the mystery for himself but his son had “yeard nises,” and had seen “a Boible twenty-fower peaund weight chucked across t’ rooad.” Manifestly, a muscular and irreverent spook. Our paths diverging, the bent and aged one bade me good-day after directing me to the haunted house, the whereabouts of which he impressed upon me by stating that it “wur atween t’ Woide Loion an’ t’ Legs,” and approached by “t’ Ter ‘Ill.” Twenty minutes’ walk over a rough country road first up and then down hill, and I was in the haunted village, and close to the haunted house.
Whatever may be the opinion of the cynics, there can be no doubt that the Upholland ghost has caused a great local stir. The haunted house is quite a Mecca for psychical investigators for miles round. They come in hundreds in waggonettes from Pemberton and Orrell and Wigan and St. Helens. So dense has become the number of these amateur psychologists, and so warm their interest, that eight constables have been called in to reinforce the local “posse,” consisting of one sergeant. The police have tactfully managed to abate the fury of the researchers, whose investigations, by the way, have taken the form of bombarding the haunted house with bottles, and other actions not far removed from rioting. The Wigan and district psychologists, indeed, remind one of the scientific friends of Truthful James and the Society upon the Stanislaws.
As to the alleged ghost, the situation is something like this: Some two or three weeks ago a family of the name of Winstanley who live in a house in Upholland, overlooking the Cemetery, were disturbed by the operations of some mysterious agency. In one of the bedrooms occupied by two of the sons noises were heard as of trickling water and knockings. These uncanny, nocturnal sounds were followed by stones out of the window-seat being hurled across the room. Walls have been stripped, too, and mortar scattered over the bed and room almost nightly. People gathered sixty yards away have heard the racket.
On reaching the village I proceeded to the haunted house, and gained admittance to the ghost chamber. The house is an ancient one – over a hundred years old – and is built of stone. The ghost chamber, a room about four yards by three and a half, with a ceiling strengthened by massive white-washed beams, overlooks the ancient churchyard. There could be no mistaking the fury of the ghostly manifestations. A recess in the wall had been most vilely used by the spirit. A couple of square yards of wall-paper had been torn, and the bare wall, composed of flat stones, averaging in weight from two to five or six pounds, was revealed in repellent nakedness. An old coloured print of “A Dear Servant” hung askew on the wall over the chimney. The glass was cracked.
One of the sons, an occupant of the room, showed me round. He had quite a “skeared” look in his eyes, and apparently honestly believed in the mysterious phenomena. “Nobody could do it i t’ flesh,” he remarked to me. “I lies here” – indicating his place in the bed – “and sees nothing. Aw wur freetened at fust, but aw’m gettin’ use to it. ‘T’other neet mi brother wur gettin’ oaut o’ bed to see what ‘t’nise wur – ‘aw weyn’t be bested, he sez – he’d one foot i’ bed and one on t’ floor – when abeaut three peaund o’ mortar hit him i’t’ ribs.” The ghost, like Mr. Dooley, is evidently a good “amachoor shot.”
A bandbox placed on a ledge in the recess and weighted down with stones, he assured me, had been hurled across the room. His crippled brother, bringing in a light, had been pelted with mortar, and mortar had been thrown round the corner into another room. The latter item of information impressed me greatly. Here was a ghost, possessing a “swerve” which would make Hirst, the Yorkshire cricketer, go green with envy, wasting his accomplishment in such a hole and corner place as Upholland.
Young Winstanley placed in my hand the book which the ghost had hurled “across t’ rooad.” It was not a bible. The volume – a massive one – was “An Impartial History of England selected and compiled from Hume, Smollet, Goldsmith, Robertson, and other Approved Historians, from the earliest authentic Records and most Genuine Historical Evidences to the Middle of the Year, 1799.” An ignorant Vandal of a ghost thus to so misuse good solid English literature!
Young Winstanley also told me that the ghost “gets agate” any time between 10.30 and 12.30 p.m. – it all depends on whether there is quiet or not – and does not give matinees. The manifestations are confined to the one room.
Everything points to the invisible spectre being one George Lyon, highwayman, who involuntarily retired from a business in which he was much respected and looked up to just one hundred years ago. The late Mr. Lyon was as the phrase goes, “turned off Lord Temple’s trap” at Lancaster in 1804 along with two accomplices, and his body was brought to Upholland per carrier’s cart. The remains of the highwayman lie in the churchyard immediately under the ghost chamber, and if his spirit has, as is alleged, taken up haunting as a profession, one can only felicitate him on his choice of business premises. Everything is “in the picture.” The old house, the ancient churchward, the abbey ruins not far away! What could a ghost with an eye to the picturesque and theatrical effect wish for more? It is as creepy and hair-raising a spot as one could desire.
From the haunted house I went out into the village and sought one, Master Baxter, an urban councillor. Upholland, by the way, is a place of no small importance. It possesses a council chamber, a workingman’s institute, a fine collection of licensed premises, and everything handsome about it. Good Master Baxter was kind enough to spare me ten minutes of his time, and related his own experiences concerning the mysterious happenings at the house of the Winstanleys. On Thursday last, Mr. Baxter stated, a member of the Local Board – an unbeliever – went up the stairs of the haunted house to invest the phenomena for himself. He sat in a room adjoining the ghost chamber while the boys were in bed there, and heard pieces of plaster falling. He remained silent, and then a bandbox, loaded on the top with heavy stones, “flew across the room over the bed.” The member of the Local Board could contain himself no longer. Jumping into the middle of the ghost chamber, he clasped his hands together as though at his orisons, and in the commanding voice of a public man cried, “In the name of the Lord, speak.”
But like the ghost of Hamlet’s father when challenged by Bernardo and Marcellus, the mysterious trundler of “swerves” answered not. A discourteous and ill-bred sprite! All this the member of the Local Board asserts on the sensible and true avouch of his own senses. Mr Baxter went on to say that a theory had been advanced that the ghost was an escaped lunatic, who had managed to get in the chimney, but a complete search had shown the absurdity of the idea. The lads have also been watched to see if one of them is working the ghost trick as an outlet for his overflowing youthful humour. But I find this contention disposed of in the following paragraph from a local paper.
Watching the Lads.
Mr. Baxter, in speaking of his experiences in the room with the policeman, says that the constable kept his eye on the lads in bed, to see that there was no dodging. The lads, says Mr. Baxter, had their arms round each other. One lad shouted, “Pee, ah thinks thou’st doing summat.” But Pee asnwered, “Nay, ah’m too frickened.” The other lad then got hold of “Pee,” saying, “I’ll stick to thee.”
Some have suggested rats, others traction engines. But a rat has not the strength to shy heavy histories into the roadway, and one questions if a traction engine is possessed of sufficient guile to haunt a small room without being detected. Speaking as a mere amateur investigator I should never have thought of diagnosing traction engine. A traction engine is too corporeal and unromantic to haunt any place but a high road, and moreover, I am of the opinion that a traction engine commanded to “spake” by a member of the Local Board would have manners enough to answer.
Thus, though a strict and observant watch has been kept, the Upholland mystery up to the present remains unsolved. It may be a ghost and then it mayn’t. As I remarked to the cynical station master when I was catching the train home: “There are more things in heaven and earth, station-master, than are dreamt of in the philosophy of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway!” To which the station-master replied, “Very likely; but I’ve never seen ’em!”
Wigan Observer and District Advertiser, 17th August 1904.
The Upholland “Ghost.”
Councillors as investigators.
People are beginning to ask when the Upholland ghost mystery is going to be cleared up. The mysterious stone-throwing agency is still entertaining the whole countryside and people are coming from far and near, afoot, in cab, and by wagonette, to get a glimpse of the old world abbey town of Upholland its now notorious haunted house.
Three local councillors have stayed in the haunted chamber until three o’clock in the morning with the intention of fathoming the mystery, but this they confess they have as yet not been able to do. Their experiences in the way of stone-throwing, mortar-flinging, and paper-tearing were weird in the extreme. One of the councillors carried several small stones that hit him in an adjoining room home to keep as relics of the ghostly visitant. These stones were thrown from the haunted chamber into another that adjoins it, and to reach the councillor, who was waiting with a flashlight, with the intention of catching the ghost if it could be materialised, these stones had been thrown so as to describe an oblique angle. This, the councillor maintains, it would be almost impossible for human agency to accomplish.
Some people have suggested (says a Manchester contemporary) that it is an army of rats and no ghost that haunts the haunted house at Upholland, and those who have had any experience of living in old houses with cavity walls infested with rats can bear testimony to the weird noises that rats are capable of making in the dead of night. All sorts of noises are heard. When the rats are in the blind attic, between the ceiling and the roof rafters, there is great sport. In the night time the sleeper will frequently be awakened by the noise of the ghostly thundering legion above. The rats seem to be organising races, with handicaps, in the roof, and the ceiling, which is the racecourse, echoes with the scuffling and bustling and jostling of the sport. It is worse than the beating of drums. This is the time when the sleeper wakes. Is it possible that the noises at the haunted house may be traced to the gambolling of an army of rats in the creviced walls? If you speak to the police and ask the cause of it, they feel inclined to exclaim, “Rats!”.
Southport Visiter, 18th August 1904.
The Upholland “Ghost.”
Despite strenuous efforts to bolster up the Upholland mystery, there is a growing belief that a hoax has been played, and the question is now asked why the police do not step in and put an end to “the hankey-pankey ghost show.” The interest in the affair has waned, but it has served the purpose of providing a harvest for publicans in the township.
Manchester Evening News, 19th August 1904.
Doings in a “haunted” house.
Wigan has been startled by the strange doings of certain “ghosts.” In a house at the township of Upholland the paper is stated to have been torn off the walls by some unseen agency, strange knockings have been heard during the night, and in a bedroom a Bible was hurled across the room. Outside this “haunted” house, which is tenanted by a widow who but recently lost her husband, crowds gather nightly, but the ghost has not yet materialised.
Swindon Advertiser and North Wilts Chronicle, 19th August 1904.
The “Haunted” House at Upholland.
The “Ghost” not discovered.
Performances Suspended. A councillor interviewed. The village invaded.
The village of Upholland was invaded on Sunday by thousands of persons, many of whom had journeyed long distances, with the object of viewing the house which is supposed to be haunted. The interest aroused in the mystery is evidenced by the fact that on Sunday morning several hundred people remained until a late hour in the vicinity of the house, notwithstanding the drenching rain. The unseen agency had put in a good week’s work, inasmuch as almost every night the strange knockings, the tearing of paper from the walls, the displacement of plaster and large stones had proceeded merrily.
Amongst the visitors to the house during the week-end were a number of spiritualists, who failed to get into touch with the other world. Some of the inhabitants of the little village may be badly scared at the reported nightly visitation, but from all indications the publicans have had no reason to complain, since large numbers of bona-fide travellers swarmed into the district on Sunday, when a roaring business was done. The provision shops in the district, as well as the public houses, were kept busy with the business of eating and drinking. The crowds seemed never tired of waiting, even when nothing turned up. When one looked in at the open door of a shop there were to be seen a crowd waiting turns to be served. When the cakes were all sold bread and cheese was requisitioned. Multitudes of people were wending their way from all parts of the surrounding country to the “haunted” house at Upholland. Waggonettes bring into the township the curious from Skelmersdale Garswood, Ashton, and even from so far as Bolton. The more richly endowed come in cabs, others tramp long distances on shanks-galloway, and retail ghost stories by the way, to while away the tedium of the journey.
On Sunday the usually quiet village was invaded by a cosmopolitan multitude the units of which came from far and near, the churchyard even being packed with the living waiting congregation who had come together not to hear a preacher, but to witness the “ghost” of the haunted chamber to perform. And perform it did, and the entertainment was great. Stones were rattled and bumped on the floor, plaster was scattered broadcast, and the people on the watch inside had to keep at safe distance, so they state.
No less than three local councillors have taken the investigation up, with no result as yet. They stayed in the haunted chamber for purposes of investigation until three o’clock in the morning, with a flash light. The knocking is described by one of these councillors as more like the tick-ticking of the telegraphist’s office than anything else. He is convinced that has not any connection with the human hand.
After the knocking there is a sort of fluzzing sound [sic], something after the fashion of a spent fuse[?], and then the stones are thrown to right and left, over the bed and all about the room. Small stones have even been thrown from the haunted chamber into a communicating room, where they have struck one of the investigating watchers in hiding. The stones so thrown he has taken home as ghostly relics of the prowess of the mysterious agency. He declares that these stones have been thrown from a far corner of the haunted room, and, to reach him, they have had to describe almost a right angle, having to follow a diagonal through the haunted chamber, and then turn for another diagonal in the communicating room. This, he declares, is one of the strangest circumstances of the affair, and he does not see how human hand could so direct missiles. His impression may be wrong for all that, he frankly admits, but he had not at the time of making this statement the opportunity of completing his investigations.
For the first time during the season the gas lamp that stands by the churchyard wall facing the window of the haunted chamber was lighted on Monday evening, and, as this threw a light into the room, the unseen agency refused to perform. The police were in great force in the district, and the crowds kept at a distance, only companies of twos and threes being allowed to go along the thoroughfare past the alleged haunted house. The people in the immediate vicinity were kept moving. Quite a number of persons including three councillors, had come down to investigate the unsolved phenomenon still further, but the agency refused to work that night. This was supposed to be due to the lighting of the lamp, and the police thought at the time that they had by this sentinel of light succeeded in laying the supposed ghost.
The eldest son, who seems a sensible, matter-of-fact sort of individual, and who works as a cabinet-maker at the works of Messrs. Rylance, Limited, Lamberhead Green, Pemberton, was interviewed yesterday by a correspondent while at work. He declares emphatically that he knows nothing of the ghostly mystery. He is in the dark just as much as the people who are outside to hear the manifestations, or the public who read of the mystery in the newspapers.
There have been no knockings or throwing of stones, he says, since last Tuesday morning at three o’clock. He cannot account for the suspension of the tapping, and the stone fusilade, but he points out that the mysterious agency has been quiet and made no manifestations for a period extending over a week before this and has later on broken out with renewed vigour. They may have heard the last of it, he says, and he heartily hopes they have, but this hope, judging by previous experiences, is by no means sure of realisation.
Crowds still gather at night, and the police are parading the precincts of the haunted house in good muster. He has heard of the police saying that they have a clue to the identity of the ghostly visitant, and all he can say is that he hopes, if they have, that they will follow it up. “I don’t know who it is that’s doin’ it,” he says. “I only wish I did, all that I do know is that it’s not me. If the police can find that it is me, then let them take me and do what they like with me.” That is his emphatic declaration. “If the police know who it is,” he says, “why don’t they get hold of him.”
Mrs Winstanley, who has been so much upset by the workings of the mysterious agency, has not been in bed for more than a week, but since the cessation of the knocking and stone throwing on Tuesday morning she has been enabled to get a little rest. “If the unseen agent keeps on with the performance and brings such multitudes of people into Upholland, the publicans will be making you a present of a cheque,” said the interviewer. “Will they, ” the son said with a sad smile, “will they? They’ve never so much as offered me a drink yet.”
An old resident of Upholland, a native of nearly eighty years old, says that it is not the first time that the knockings and stone throwings have occurred. It has been going on for fifty years, off and on, to his knowledge. The only difference is that perhaps the agency is a little more actual this time than formerly, and the phenomena have happened to be made more widely known, and have, consequently, drawn greater crowds to the village.
Councillor Bibby, of Pemberton, who has made considerable study of physiological and psychological phenomena took up the investigation of the case at the end of last week, working on the scientific basis. Councillor Bibby points out that physiology and psychology are twin sciences. One medical authority even goes so far as to say that to e a good physician a person must be a good psychologist. The whole range of psychology, declares this authority, must be embraced in practical medicine. People differ as much in their idiosyncracy as in their faces, he says. The smell of a rose will make some people bleed at the nose; to others it is pleasant. One drug may act on one person with some power, and yet have no effect whatever upon another. Then again, climactic conditions have a great deal to do with psychological phenomena. Some drugs act so much as with five-fold force in England, as compared with America, he points out. Then again there is wireless telegraphy, which, after all is said and done, is a mystery. One person getting hold of an electric wire will be doubled up and flung to the other side of the room, while the same wire will have hardly any apparent effect on another person. It all depends on the amount of latent electricity in the body, and the idiosyncrasy of the particular person. And if this is one of the acknowledged facts in medicine and physiology, why should some kindred law not operate psychologically. Thus, he thinks, it is possible that all the strange phenomena of the haunted chamber may be due to some as yet unexplained and undiscovered natural law. It is a possibility. And even if all the manifestations were proved to be due to some joking ghost in the flesh, he contends that his arguments still hold good as regards some of the mysteries of nature.
But Councillor Bibby has not yet been able to complete his investigations of the case, and he does not like to pronounce an emphatic opinion. “It may be that it is all due to human agency,” he says. “It may be possible. In fact, I hope it is,” he concludes.
But he cannot think that it is, from his observations thus far. There have been no less than seven or eight large stones scattered over the room floor when he had flashed the light on at the instant when the noise was first heard and the occupants have been in bed. It would be impossible for any person in the bed to cause the commotion, he thinks.
He does not think there is any trickery or conniving on the part of the youths in bed. “They are quite willing for any person to sleep with them,” he says, “when the test is being made.” Indeed, after his own continued experiments and experiences he advised the lads, who appeared worn out with the watchings, to leave the haunted chamber and sleep elsewhere.
He tells some of his experiences without making any comment or expressing any opinion upon them. He has taken his pocket knife out and used it on the paper on the wall, and found that with the greatest difficulty he has only been able to get a piece the size of a shilling from the wall, so close has it adhered. But so soon as the light has been turned down, strips of paper have been torn down from the very place where he had been exercising his knife. Another time he tore a piece of paper the size of a penny and put it at the edge of a stone on the top of a bandbox in the window recess. No one knew anything about it. The lads in the bed were not told. When the light was darkened the knocking began and the stones were thrown about. The light was flashed up. The bandbox was thrown over into the corner at the other side of the room, while the stone with the small piece of paper on its edge was lying on the bed, and the paper, light as a sparrow’s feather, had not been touched, but the stone had been removed with noise from the window recess, and the bandbox actually thrown across the room. Councillor Bibby does not see how any practical joker can accomplish this.
“I dont’ think it is a practical joker,” he concludes. “It may all be put down to some latent law of nature, some principle of psychology, or something of that sort, but I am convinced that the lads have nothing to do with it. If it is a practical joker, a ghost in the flesh,” says Mr Bibby, “then all I can say is that he does not know his business. The business instinct is certainly lacking in him. He would be a fool to perform so mysteriously and play the ghost night after night at such a place as Upholland, and all for nothing, while Blackpool would only be too glad to have him as an entertainer, and pay him well for his ghostly performances. Why, he would be fit for Barnum and Bailey’s.”
Whatever be the cause of the strange phenomena which have been drawing such large crowds to Upholland it remains undiscovered up to the present. The police have refused to allow any persons to enter the “haunted” house, even investigators being refused admittance.
The special commissioner of the [London] “Daily Chronicle” has been down investigating the strange phenomena. His narrative, he says, has no pretensions to a ghost story. It is simply the record of the observations of a sceptical investigator who spent his nights in the haunted chamber, and therefore had excellent opportunities of inquiring into phenomena which are certainly extraordinary, and in one sense wholly inexplicable.
“My imagination,” he says,” was therefore stocked with detail when, early on Tuesday evening, I paid the house a visit. It was eight o’clock, and the family was gathered in the kitchen around a blazing fire, all except the widow, who, I learned, was upstairs. There in the haunted chamber I presently found her, nursing her terror as well as she could. Two other women accompanied her.
“One I had evidently disturbed. She was kneeling before a wooden box, on which stood a lamp and a little cardboard case labelled ‘Planchette.’ It was the third woman who opened the door. I had evidently disturbed some dread ceremony. ‘Hush!’ she whispered, laying her long bony finger over her mouth. ‘Are you a member of the family?’ On assuring her that I was not she presently came outside and informed me that a spiritualist was at work. ‘She has prayed a beautiful prayer, such a beautiful prayer. Please God it’ll do some good. It’s a terrible thing.’
“There, then, were these people convinced that the hand of the Almighty had fallen upon them. The more superstitious in the village share the same view, with the exception of those who believe it to be a ‘put-up job’ for the benefit of the public house next door. The mother, I soothed as well as I could, but her nerves are gradually giving way. With the sons, however, it is different. They take a healthy interest in the whole affair, and there was no difficulty in persuading them to allow me to watch for a night in the haunted chamber.
“As the clock struck eleven we crept up the old oak staircase, the children coming on fearfully behind. It was arranged that the three boys should occupy the bed as usual, and that I should remain up fully dressed ready for anything that might happen. In order to make assurance doubly sure they had removed, a day or two before, all the stones from the corner in which the spook operates, and satisfied themselves that there was nothing behind in the way of a trap-door. As a matter of fact they found nothing but the bare wall. The stones were therefore replaced, and were now surmounted by a board, upon which was faced the band-box. All being ready, the light was turned down, and the vigil began.
“Ghost or no ghost, the situation was not pleasant. The street lamp cast pale shadows over the dingy chamber, and outside could be heard the whisperings of the crowd that had come as usual for futher entertainment. What a relief it was to hear the steady trudge of the police! What a sense of helplessness followed when, gradually, all became silent save for an occasional snore from the dark corner where the bed stood.
“Twelve o’clock, the ghostly hour, boomed from the church tower. How the tombstones round about seemed to rise up out of the ground in the moonlight. Someone outside laughed. Presently there was silence again. Quarter after quarter I heard the hour go by. Each one was like an eternity. One o’clock, half-past, and – hush!
“Tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap.
“Scarcely daring to move, I grasped my stick and looked towards the door for some dreadful spectre. Whether it was imagination or no, I cannot now say, but I became conscious of a presence within the room. Pshaw! it was nothing. A policeman down below flashed his bull’s-eye on to the window. I turned up the lamp and glanced at the corner. The stones, the board, the band-box, all were just as I had placed them. The occupants of the bed were curled up in all sorts of attitudes, snoring in delightful oblivion.
“Presently two o’clock struck. Once more I settled down in the darkness. Towards three I was again aroused, this time by sounds that proceeded from the apartment occupied by the woman and another who was keeping her company. They were praying – praying for mercy, forgiveness, and protection. For two hours that cry of supplication went up to heaven, and ceased only when the dawn began to illuminate the eastern sky, and morning came after a vigil the most weird I had ever spent.
“Again the next night I watched but did not hear a sound. For me, at all events, the ghost had no existence. The strange tapping was all I ever heard. Whether it came from the spirit world or not, I shall never know.
“Only three points require to be specially noted. The first is that the stones are invariably deposited on the bed with the greatest gentleness. Next, these strange phenomena are so far said to have been heard between half-past ten and three in the morning, an hour which usually sees the departure of the police, with, perhaps one exception. Thirdly, though the spectre has been known to work while the room has been empty, it is said to be more violent when the three brothers are sleeping together.
“As for explanations, they are without end, but most popular is that which attributes the demonstrations to the considerable generosity of some poor ghost desirous of revealing the whereabouts of some buried treasure. As the highwayman, if he ever lived in the place, may have hidden his ill-gotten gain, perhaps the spooks know about it. For example, there was the £150 discovered under similar circumstances – but that is a ghost story.”
Wigan Observer and District Advertiser, 20th August, 1904.
The Upholland Ghost.
The “ghost” at Upholland, an agricultural town about five miles from Wigan, is not yet laid. A correspondent writes:
“I recently visited the place, and what I heard and saw certainly savoured of the supernatural. The house is very old and inhabited by a widow and her three sons; the latter occupy at night the room which is the scene of the ghost’s escapades. It is a low-roofed, smoke-begrimed chamber, with a walled-in window, an antique fire-place, and oaken rafters and wainscoting – such an apartment one would associate with the weird and unearthly.
“The disturbances take place nightly, and the visitant has a unique yet practical way of manifesting his presence, for as soon as the room is in darkness paper and plaster are torn from the walls, bricks are dislodged, and occupants of the room have been injured by flying shots of stone and mortar.
“Great crowds assemble outside the building every night expecting to see the perpetrator of the deeds run to earth, but still the mystery remains unsolved.”
Bradford Weekly Telegraph, 20th August 1904.
Haunted by “Ghosts.”
Wigan has been startled by the strange doings of certain “ghosts.” In a house at the township of Upholland the paper is stated to have been torn off the walls by some unseen agency, strange knockings have been heard during the night, and in a bedroom a Bible was hurled across the room. Outside this “haunted” house, which is tenanted by a widow who but recently lost her husband, crowds gather nightly, but the ghost has not yet materialised. – Lloyd’s News.
Finchley Press, 20th August 1904.
Lancashire Ghost.
A whole village for nightly audience.
The mysterious visitant that is working such strange manifestations in the haunted house at Upholland, near Wigan, has now the whole of the inhabitants of the village for an audience every night. People are coming from far and near to witness the eerie performance.
The “haunted” chamber, a correspondent writes, presents a weird appearance after the unseen agency has manifested itself so actively for so many nights. Once in the room visitors look round upon the havoc that the alleged “ghost” has played. Some of them evidently come to laugh, but they return without having indulged the risible faculty. The scene is sufficient to freeze the laughter on the lips.
So far it all remains a mystery. Whether this mystery will be solved or not remains to be seen. It may turn out, of course, that these manifestations are the pranks of man alive, and are much further removed from the dead than the house is from the churchyard. This remains to be seen. Perhaps the “ghost” may yet be found in the flesh and be subjected to all the deserving pains and penalties. Perhaps too, the “ghost” may refuse to materialise.
It must be admitted that the people most concerned have done all they can, so far, to solve the mystery. A watch has been nightly set, and a bricklayer has been called in. He has pulled down the walls during the day in several places from whence the sounds seemed to emanate, but nothing has come to light that will explain the strange case.
The mystery as yet remains unsolved. People are coming in at nightfall from distant villages to be spectators of the “ghostly” manifestations.
Midland Mail, 20th August 1904.
A Pemberton Councillor’s Experiences.
Notwithstanding all rumours to the contrary, the “ghost” at the haunted house at Upholland has not yet been discovered. The eldest son, who seems a matter-of-fact sort of individual, has been interviewed by a correspondent. He declares emphatically that he knows nothing of the ghostly mystery. There have been no knockings or throwing of stones, he says, since last Tuesday morning at three o’clock. He cannot account for the suspension of the tapping.
A resident of Upholland, a native nearly eighty years old, says that it is not the first time that the knockings and stone throwings have occurred. It has been going on for 50 years, off and on, to his knowledge.
Councillor Bibby, of Pemberton, who has made considerable study of physiological and psychological phenomena, took up the investigation of the case at the end of last week, working on the scientific basis. There have been no fewer than seven or eight large stones scattered over the bed and the room floor, where he has flashed the light on at the instant when the noise was first heard, and the occupants have been in bed. It would be impossible for any person in the bed to cause the commotion, he thinks. He has taken his pocket knife out and used it on the paper on the wall, and found that with the greatest difficulty he has only been able to get a piece the size of a shilling from the wall, so close has it adhered. But so soon as the light has been turned down, strips of paper have been torn from the very place where he had been exercising his knife.
Another time he tore a piece of paper and put it at the edge of a stone on the top of a bandbox in the window recess. No one knew anything about it. The lads in the bed were never told. When the light was darkened the knocking commenced and the stones were thrown about. The light was flashed up. The bandbox was thrown over into the corner at the other side of the room, while the stone with the small piece of paper on its edge was lying in the bed. The paper, light as a sparrow’s feather, had not been touched, but the stone had been removed with noise from the window recess, and the bandbox actually thrown across the room.
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 22nd August 1904.
The Upholland Ghost.
The alleged ghost at Upholland has gone over the borderland or on some new exploit. In the silly season a host of things are played upon a too credulous public. This local ghost in Lancashire has been rehashed day by day, and everyone is tired, even the London journalists, who said they had come to stop it, yes, even to kill it if necessary. The wily visionary which disturbed the peace of Upholland has not been heard since Wednesday.
Village traders and the publicans have had what the American would describe as a high old time of it, the latter selling their nut brown ale until they had no more. Sunday saw a large exodus of people from Wigan on the municipal tramways, but they were disappointed. One man summed it up very succinctly – “Boggart (ghost) has moor sense than a lot of fowk, and I’m one of ‘um.”
The story of the knocking may be told some day, but H.G. Wells will not be required to embellish it.
Liverpool Echo, 22nd August 1904.
The Upholland “Ghost.”
Councillor on the watch.
A local councillor has taken up a watch over the strange manifestations of the “ghost” in the haunted house at Upholland. Councillor Baxter informed a press representative that after the room has been darkened the occupants wait for the supposed ghostly manifestations, everything being still and quiet. “All at once,” Mr. Baxter says, “there is a sound as of trickling water, and this is followed by the mysterious knocking, which seems to travel from one side of the room to the other, round the walls. When the knocking has reached the window recess the stones are pulled out and thrown on to the floor. There is a tremendous bang when the stones reach the boards. The stones are from eight to twelve inches long, and nearly two inches thick.”
Mr. Baxter and his companion were so anxious to catch the “thing” that they stayed in the room at night. “They told me,” he says, “that if we stayed in the room all the stones would come out of the walls altogether. If a lad tried to reach out of bed to touch the stones we could see him. There was something like a crack in the wall, and then a piece of something was sent right across the room. This was followed by paper from the walls being thrown under the bed, and bits of plaster being sprinkled up and down the room. We swept the room floor so that we could see if anything else was thrown upon it. At last a lad in bed in the room jumped up and said, ‘I’m goin’ to stop no longer; I’m gettin’ frickened.’ The lad went downstairs, and we couldn’t get him to stay any longer.”
Norfolk News, 27th August 1904.
Haunted House. Ghostly sounds disturb Lancashire family.
Weird night vigil. Story of a highwayman who was hanged.
Wigan, says a correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle,” is hardly the place with which one would associate a spook. Desolate mounds of clinker, colliery waste heaps, smoking chimneys, grime and soot, yes; ghosts, too. But for all that, the “spectre” does exist. Fearful stories of his nocturnal misdeeds have been leaking out for a fortnight. He has set a whole village agog, and as often as possible he disturbs the slumbers of a household with which he has chosen to associate himself. The following narrative has no pretensions to a ghost story. It is simply the record of the observations of a sceptical investigator, who spent his nights in the haunted chamber, and therefore had excellent opportunities of inquiry into phenomena which are certainly extraordinary, and in one sense wholly inexplicable.
“The ‘haunted’ house,” he says, “is one of many old dwellings in Upholland, a mining village two or three miles on the Liverpool and Southport side of Wigan, and underneath Billize ‘Lump’, the only hill of any consequence in South-West Lancashire. It is tenanted by a widow named Winstanley, along with her little daughter and four sons.
“Of four bedrooms three are in use. One is occupied by the mother and daughter, and the other two by the sons, three of whom sleep in that which overlooks the main street. Opposite is the parish church, a substantial building of ancient date, once connected with the neighbouring abbey that gives a name to the local lake and pleasure gardens. It stands in the corner of a large and terraced graveyard said to contain the remains of a famous highwayman named Lyons, who died on the gallows about the end of the eighteenth century. There are also rumours of a subterranean passage, which one may associate with the scene of the present disturbance.
“As for the house itself, it is undoubtedly of great age. It is built entirely of stone, plastered and papered on the inside. Externally there is nothing to notice except a blind window which was bricked up many years ago, and now forms part of a wall in the ‘ghost’s’ bed-chamber. For the rest, the boys and girls of Upholland whisper in the ingle nooks of an old man who disappeared from the house about a dozen years ago. It is also said that 100 years ago the mansion was used as a gambling den, in spite of mysterious protests from the spirit world. There are tales of pennies, that, thrown in the air, adhered to the ceiling or came down black hot. Lyons himself is said to have once lived in the place. In fact, there is no end to its ‘history’.
“The present disturbances are said to have begun on the night of the first Sunday of the month, and are described solely on the authority of the son, William Winstanley. He says that on various occasions in the past noises have been heard in the house, but it was not until two weeks ago that they were sufficiently obtrusive to call for observation. On this particular night his three brothers had gone to bed, and slept on undisturbed till about one o’clock in the morning, when they were aroused by a furious kicking in the neighbourhood of the blind window. Next came a sound as of paper being torn violently from the wall. Pieces of plaster then came away, some being thrown onto the bed, others about the room, and finally stones, great and small, were flung violently about the room, crashing on the floor like ‘hundredweights,’ but falling on to the bed so lightly as to injure in no way its startled occupants.
“As for the ‘knocking’, it travelled around the chamber, always stopping in the centre, nearer to the door than anything. These phenomena are said to have occurred almost nightly with slight variations, as, for instance, when the window-curtain was removed from its place and stretched over the the length of the bed. A band-box, and some books that rested on the old window-sill, were also turned into missiles by the ‘ghostly’ visitor, and a stone on which a piece of paper had been placed as a test was discovered resting snugly underneath the sheets between two of the boys.
“The tremendous clatter was naturally audible in the street. The police heard it, and the next morning the distracted family communicated their experiences to neighbours, and the story quickly spread. On the following night a large crowd collected. Half-a-dozen constables were placed around the house, and night after night councillors and other respectable worthies were invited to keep a vigil in the haunted chamber. A valiant policeman is said to have ventured up, but upon hearing the taps, the story goes, he expressed a decided preference for the street.
“In the Haunted Chamber. My imagination was therefore well stocked with detail when, early on Tuesday evening, I paid the house a visit. It was eight o’clock, the family was gathered in the kitchen, around a blazing fire, all except the widow, who, I learned, was upstairs. There in the haunted chamber I presently found her, nursing her terror as well as she could. Two other women accompanied her. One I had evidently disturbed. She was kneeling before a wooden box, on which stood a lamp and a little cardboard case labelled ‘Planchette.’ It was the third woman who opened the door. I had evidently disturbed some dread ceremony. ‘Hush!’ she whispered, laying her long bony finger over her mouth. ‘Are you a member of the family?’ On assuring her that I was not, she presently came outside and informed me that a spiritualist was at work. ‘She has prayed a beautiful prayer, such a beautiful prayer. Please God it’ll do some good. It’s a terrible thing.’
“There, then, were these people convinced that the hand of the Almighty had fallen upon them. The more superstitious in the village share the same view, with the exception of those who believe it to be a ‘put-up job’ for the benefit of the public-house next door. The mother, I soothed as well as I could, but her nerves are gradually giving way. With the sons, however, it is different. They take a healthy interest in the whole affair, and there was no difficulty in persuading them to allow me to watch for a night in the haunted chamber.
“As the clock struck eleven we crept up the old oak staircase, the children coming on fearfully behind. It was arranged that the three boys should occupy the bed as usual, and that I should remain up fully dressed ready for anything that might happen. In order to make assurance doubly sure, they had removed, a day or two before, all the stones from the corner in which the spook operates, and satisfied themselves that there was nothing behind in the way of a trap-door. As a matter of fact, they found nothing but the bare wall. The stones were therefore replaced, and were now surmounted by a board, upon which were placed the band-box. All being ready, the light was turned down, and the vigil began.
“Ghost or no ghost, the situation was not pleasant. The street lamp cast pale shadows over the dingy chamber, and outside could be heard the whisperings of the crowd that had come as usual for further entertainment. What a relief it was to hear the steady trudge of the police! What a sense of helplessness followed when, gradually, all became silent save for an occasional snore from the dark corner where the bed stood. Twelve o’clock, the ghostly hour, boomed from the church tower. How the tombstones round about seemed to rise up out of the ground in the moonlight. Someone outside laughed. Presently there was silence again. Quarter after quarter I heard the hour go by. Each was like an eternity. One o’clock, half past, and – hush!
“From far away, from the very bowels of the earth it seemed, came a sound that for the moment froze my very blood. Tap, tap, tap… tap, tap, tap. Scarcely daring to move, I grasped my stick and looked towards the door for some dreadful spectre. Whether it was imagination or no, I cannot now say, but I became conscious of a presence within the room. Pshaw! It was nothing. A policeman flashed his bullseye on the window. I turned up the lamp and glanced at the corner. The stones, the board, and the band-box, all were just as I had placed them. The occupants of the bed were curled up in all sorts of attitudes, snoring in delightful oblivion.
“Presently two o’clock struck. Once more I settled down in the darkness. Towards three I was again roused, this time by sounds that proceeded from the apartment occupied by the woman and another who was keeping her company. They were praying – praying for mercy, forgiveness, and protection. For two hours that cry of supplication went up to heaven, and ceased only when the dawn began to illuminate the eastern sky, and morning came after a vigil the most weird I ever spent.
“Again the next night I watched, but did not hear a sound. For me, at all events, the ghost had no existence. The strange tapping was all I ever heard. Whether it came from the spirit world or not I shall never know.
“Only three points require to be specially noted. The first is that the stones are invariably deposited on the bed with the greatest gentlenss. Next, these strange phenomena are so far said to have been heard only between half-past ten and three in the morning, an hour which usually sees the departure of the police, with, perhaps, one exception. Thirdly, though the spectre has been known to work whilst the room has been empty, it is said to be more violent when the three brothers are sleeping together.
“As for explanations, they are without end, but the most popular is that which attributes the demonstrations to the considerate generosity of some poor ghost desirous of revealing the whereabouts of some buried treasure. As the highwayman, if he ever lived in the place, may have hidden his ill-gotten gain, perhaps the spooks know about it. For example, there was the £150 they discovered under similar circumstances – but that is a ghost story.”
South Wales Weekly Argus, 27th August 1904.
Timid ‘Ghost’.
The ancient abbey village of Upholland, Lancashire, has been startled by a mysterious “ghostly” visitant that possesses the strength of a Sandow or a Hackenschmidt. Stones that were wedged into place so tightly that a man could not move them were flung across the haunted room, which is the boys’ bedroom, of a house overlooking the churchyard. Men have occupied the room without being able to solve the mystery. As soon as a light was flashed on the scene all was quiet, but whenever the room was darkened the strange performance began again. Crowds have gathered outside the house nightly, but coincident with stern police action the “ghost” has now limited its wild revelries to the more harmless occupation of rapping on the wall and making weird noises.
No more does it rip the paper off the walls, pull down masonry, and throw heavy stones about the room with intent to injure those engaged in psychical research. The ghost chamber is now closed to the public, but there is no mistaking the fury of the ghostly manifestations. A recess in the wall has been most vilely used by the spirit. There is as yet no definite solution of the mystery, but there are several explanations.
Efforts to discover the cause of the phenomena seem to have been conducted under the superintendence of a Mr Baxter, a member of the Upholland District Council. It was thought that perhaps one of the three lads who sleep in the haunted room was working the ghost trick as an outlet for his overflowing youthful spirits, but during the eight nights that Mr Baxter kept vigil he failed to trace any sign of such treachery.
On one occasion Mr Baxter took an unbelieving member of a neighbouring district council into the haunted chamber. Like Prospero’s Island, it was full of strange noises, which caused the member of the local board to fear mischief. Jumping into the middle of the room, he clasped his hands together as though at his orisons, and in the commanding voice of a public man cried: “In the name of the Lord, speak.”
Like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, when challenged by Bernardo and Marcellus, it answered not, but threw a large stone, which hit the public man on the head. A discourteous and ill-bred sprite. Whenever the ghost has behaved in a riotous manner there has been someone in the room. The police plainly state it is a hoax.
The late occupier of the house, before he died, is said to have threatened to haunt and to do violence to any one seeking to become the head of his household, and it is suggested that the interpretation of the manifestations must be taken as a sign that his words are no idle menace.
Wicklow People, 27th August 1904.
The Upholland Ghost.
The Upholland “ghost” is said to have resumed its operations. A bricklayer, who was called in, with trowel and cement set the ghostly stones in their original bedding some days ago, and it was no sooner done than the agency again began to assert itself, this time in another portion of the wall. Moreover, it is declared that the cement, which should have set in a few hours, is not hard yet. All the stones thrown about the place by the ghost, however, have not been relaid.
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 30th August 1904.
An Echo of the Upholland “Ghost.”
At the Wigan County Police Court, on Friday, Matthias Gaskell and Henry Heyes were charged with being drunk and disorderly at Upholland on the night of the 13th ult. Gaskell pleaded guilty, and Heyes denied the offence. About midnight on Saturday in question the two men were drunk and creating a disturbance in the vicinity of the “haunted house” at Upholland.
Police-constable Stephenson said they were trying to get the crowd away, but the defendants, who were drunk, gave them a great deal of trouble. Inspector Harlow said there were about 2,000 people there and the defendants kept pushing and prevented them clearing the crowd.
Dean Powell: Was this on the occasion of the “ghost?” Inspector Harlow: Yes, we were trying to keep the people right.
Heyes denied that he was drunk and disorderly, and asked for his case to be adjourned. The bench agreed to an adjournment for a fortnight. Gaskell was fined 1s. and costs.
Wigan Observer and District Advertiser, 31st August 1904.
Police and Bricklayer Fail to Banish it or Plaster it up.
The Upholland ghost that so far has refused to be materialised, after lying low for a week or more, has resumed “duty.” After the gas lamp in front of the door of the haunted house had been lighted, at the instigation of the police, the ghost for some nights refused to perform, albeit it had a large assembly to juggle before.
It was thought that the blaze of the outer light, and the doubled patrol of the police had prevented the mysterious and unseen stranger from engaging in his freaks, and a bricklayer, who was called in, proceeded with trowel and cement to set the ghostly stones in their original bedding.
This was some days ago, and it was no sooner done than the agency again began to assert itself, this time in another portion of the wall. Moreover, it is declared that the cement which should have set in a few hours, is not hard yet.
All the stones thrown about the place by the ghost, however, have not been relaid. One is being exhibited in a Wigan tradesman’s shop window, while others are being kept as ghostly relics by the investigating councillors.
The publicans in the ancient and quiet village are anything but averse to the ghost’s performing. It has certainly encouraged the trade. One, so it is reported, has been heard to say that he hopes it – meaning, of course, the ghost – will keep up its nightly performance till the day of judgment; while another has irreverently declared that he wished it would have twins.
If what one of the oldest men in Upholland says is true, “it” is likely to continue, in spite of police investigation. This old native declares that to his knowledge “it” has been known for sixty years; but its doings have not been made so public before.
Bradford Weekly Telegraph, 3rd September 1904.
Stone throwing “ghost.”
Upholland, the abbey village near Wigan, still enjoys its ghost scare, despite the fact that all sorts of inquiries have been made as well as countless searches. Special police told off to take observations have only succeeded in arresting disorderly persons gathered in the vicinity. This has taken all their time, as the crowd, swelled by persons coming from a distance, has at times exceeded 2,000. The haunted chamber walls have been denuded of plaster, and the place submitted to a thorough examination by experts. The only thing in the nature of a “find” was a collar of distinctly antique pattern underneath a hearthstone. Four councillors who visited the building had stones thrown at them. These are being kept as relics of a “ghostly mean trick.”
Portsmouth Evening News, 3rd September 1904.
The haunted house at Upholland is still the wonder of the countryside. The three investigating councillors are puzzled, and acknowledge that, although they have done all in their power to solve the mystery, failure is the reward of their efforts. The more they think about their own experiences the more convinced are they that there is something uncanny about the whole affair.
For some days after the gas lamp was lighted opposite the window of the haunted building the heretofore active agency became quiescent, and showed no signs of again taking up the performance of stone-throwing, mortar-flinging, and paper-tearing. Ghostcraft does not seem to succeed when the light beats upon it. And so the unseen agency at Upholland not only remained unseen, but unheard as well. The banging of stones from the window recess upon the boarded floors of the room ceased for a week.
Then the stonemason came upon the scene, and the heap of disjointed stones were cemented into their former setting, and the trouble was thought to be all over. But it is said that the agency has begun to work on another part of the wall since this was done, and the performance of stone-throwing has been gone through once again.
One of the oldest men in Upholland, John Heyes, of Back School-lane, who is 76 years of age, and is a native of that place, has told a representative that he remembers having heard of similar happenings at the same house sixty years ago.
Northern Daily Telegraph, 17th September 1904.
https://archive.org/details/journalofsociety12soci/page/124/mode/1up?q=holland
Two Poltergeist Cases
I.
Towards the end of August, 1904, somewhat sensational reports appeared in several of the daily papers about a “haunted house” at Upholland, near Wigan, in Lancashire, where “Poltergeist” phenomena were said to be occurring in abundance. The house was tenanted by a widow named Mrs. Winstanley with six children, the eldest son being a French polisher by trade and the younger ones miners. The disturbances occurred in a bedroom occupied by three of the sons, and seemed to be connected with a walled-up window in the room which was close to their bed. From this window and the adjoining parts of the wall of the room pieces of paper were torn off and stones and mortar were pulled out of the wall and scattered about the room. The wall was repaired, but the same things happened again.
Early in September of the same year, Lieut.-Colonel Le M. Taylor visited Upholland to investigate the case and his report of it would have appeared sooner, but that it was hoped to get further evidence from one of the principal witnesses. He also made plans and drawings of different parts of the house, and obtained photographs of it and of the “haunted” window, which are not reproduced here, but may be seen in our Rooms by members of the Society. Colonel Taylor writes:
December 20th, 1904.
I arrived at the village of Upholland at about 11 a.m. on Friday, September 9th, 1904, and at once called on the Rev. G.F. Wills, who told me that the affair at the Winstanleys’ had created much stir in the neighbourhood. The Winstanley family consists of Mrs. W. and her six children, namely William, age about 27, Thomas 24, Peter 17, Henry 14, and two little girls under 12 years of age.
Mr. Wills said that they were of good repute; that Peter was not so steady as his brothers…, the others he thought very trustworthy.
Mr. Wills kindly took me into the village and introduced me to Mr. Baxter as a good witness. He dictated to me the statement herewith, over his signature. We then went and found Mr. Chadwick, who is the local agent for the owner of the “haunted” house; he agreed to come with me to the house in the evening. I then saw Mrs. Winstanley herself, who received me very kidly and offered no objection whatever to my making an investigation in any way I liked. Peter was at home and he and his mother showed me the room and told me their story about what had taken place in it.
At 8 p.m. I returned and found Mr. Chadwick already in the haunted room sitting on the bed. In a few minutes we were joined by William and a Mr. John Corless, and one or two others. The street lamp made the room very far from dark. We sat on the bed in front of the newly plastered wall for about an hour, but as nothing occurred all my companions, except Mr. Corless, went downstairs and he and I went into the back room and sat at the door* till 11 o’clock. During this time some other people came and went, partly to see me, I suppose, but they came at once into the back room and no one attempted to approach the “haunted” wall.
*Colonel Taylor’s plan of the house shows that the back room opens out of the front (“haunted”) room, so that a full view of the latter can be obtained from the doorway of the former.
Nothing occult was observed and I returned to Wigan.
On Saturday I went over to Upholland at 11 a.m. and met John Corless and John Winstanley (who is no relation of the other people of that name) at Mr. Baxter’s shop; they dictated their statements to me. At 8 p.m. I again went to Mrs. Winstanley’s and sat at the door of the back room till 11. I had several visitors but no manifestations.
On Sunday I again returned and watched from 7.30 till 11; again visitors, William, Peter, John Corless, Chadwick and others, but no one attempted to approach the forbidden wall; again no occult manifestation. I was, as I anticipated, too late to get any personal experience in the matter. On Monday I returned to Cheltenham, after being promised three other statements and an assurance that Sergt. Radcliffe of the police would send me his when he returned from his holiday in about ten days.
From what I gathered in conversation during my visits to Upholland the history of the affair seems to be that during the last few days of July, knocks on the wall and bricked-up window were heard, but that it was not till the night of Sunday, August 1st, that they became so insistent as to cause alarm. On this night not only were knocks heard but the wall-paper was torn and pieces of mortar, etc., thrown about the room.
On Monday Mrs. Winstanley secured Mr. Baxter’s assistance and called in the police. For something over a fortnight the disturbances continued and every endeavour was made to trace the cause of the phenomena without avail, many people taking part in the investigation, aided in every way by the family. The agent, Mr. Chadwick, was among the most energetic of the investigators, but was so unfortunate that he did not witness anything which in his opinion excluded human agency. He told me that he was not in the room when two pieces of mortar fell at his feet; he is not able to attribute this to the action of any one in the house, but supposes the mortar to have been thrown in through the window of the back room. This explanation is inadequate, for although the ground rises behind the house and thus makes such a thing more possible, the shape and size of the window in my opinion precludes it. He had the floor of the room taken up, a hole made in the chimney; he examined the wall of Mrs. Peet’s house next door, but could find no marks which might indicate operations from that side; he placed pencil marks round the dilapidations to see when pieces of mortar were newly carried away, and finally had the window newly walled up, the window-sill removed and the whole plastered over, making the wall good again.
This was done on August 19th, since which time the boys have ceased to sleep in the room and the bed has been placed in its new position in the room [i.e. further away from the window]. Since this date the disturbances seem to have had a tendency gradually to diminish; no more knocks have been heard, or very few, and whereas at first the phenomena recurred every night, now intervals of quiet were interpolated, which have become more and more frequent. At the date of my visit the last disturbance was noticed on the day before I arrived; still a considerable quantity of mortar and stone has been removed from the wall since the 19th September, also a new place has been attacked.
At first members of the Winstanley [family] were naturally suspected; now the consensus of public opinion has completely acquitted them.
I could detect no adequate motive on the part of any one; indeed, the Winstanleys are much exercised about a demand on [the] part of their landlord that they should make good the damage.
Popular superstition attributes the disturbance to the spirit of a highwayman who was buried in the churchyard near the house about a hundred years ago.
Frequent attempts have been made to detect intelligence, with no result; but if the story of the piece of plaster having been balanced on the knob of the bedstead is true, intelligence was certainly present.
I judge that the witnesses in this case were not familiar with, at least, the details of seance room manifestations; still on two occasions things were observed which correlate with these, and similar to phenomena reported to have been observed during other Poltergeist manifestations, namely:
Once when I was sitting just inside the door of the second room, with the pieces of wood which had formerly constituted the sill of the haunted window behind me against the wall, my two companions at the time – the schoolmaster and another – declared that they saw a light flitting about in the neighbourhood of the boards; they saw it two or three times, as they said, quite plainly; we had not been speaking of “spirit lights” or anything of the sort, our whole attention being directed towards the “haunted window” in the next room which we were watching.
At another time one of the witnesses told me that he considered that the stones he saw come out from the wall travelled more slowly than they could have done if jerked or thrown out and he perceived what looked like a faint light behind them. My informant seemed to lay no stress on this, as if he had no theory of their being removed by a “spirit hand” or anything of that sort.
I attach the statements of the various witnesses from whom I was able to get written evidence. My long delay in making this report is due to the fact that two other men* promised me statements, but though I have made several attempts to get them, I am unable; it must therefore be presumed that they are not attainable.
*One of these was a Mr. Biby, who is cited as one of the principal witnesses in an illustrated article on “The Haunted House at Upholland,” which appeared in The Wide World Magazine for February, 1905.
Mrs. Winstanley herself has given no statement, but corroborates, as far as she is concerned, what others informed me of.
She told me that on one occasion when she knew that no one was in the house she was standing at the street door with one of her sons when they heard a noise in the room above; it was just getting dark in the evening. They went up to the room at once and found one or more of the stones on the floor; she believed they were in their places when she left the house.
Again, one of the brothers, who has not made a statement in writing, said to me, “Last Sunday week in the evening I was standing outside with Mrs. Peet; we heard what sounded like the stones being thrown on the floor. My brother had just left the house and was a little way down the street. When I heard the sound I called him back and asked him if the stones were in the wall when he left; he said yes. We all went up and found two of the large stones and a third smaller one on the floor.”
“The last manifestations seem to have shifted their locality, for a hole (about the size of an orange when I saw it) had been made in the plaster of the wall opposite the haunted window and the paper round it much torn only a day or two before my arrival.
“I should have mentioned that William Winstanley, the eldest brother, is lame, and a French polisher by trade, the other brothers are miners. G.L. Le M. TAYLOR.”
The statements dictated by the various witnesses to Colonel Taylor, and afterwards corrected and signed by them, were as follows:
From Mr Richard Baxter, member of the District Council:
“September 9th, 1904.
“On Monday, August 1st, Mrs. Winstanley came to my shop and told me that something very mysterious had been taking place in her house which had frightened her and her family. She had called in the policeman, who went into the room where the mysterious things were happening, but nothing took place in his presence. She asked me if I would go over to her house to-night and help them. I said I would do so, but asked what was the matter.
“She told me that they had heard knocks on the wall that they could not account for, and that the plaster had been torn off the wall and cast about in such a way that no human agency would account for.
“I went over to Mrs. Winstanley’s at about 11 p.m. that evening, and on going to the room where the disturbances were taking place found the three boys, Henry, Peter, and Thomas, in bed together (their ages about 14, 17, and 24 respectively). I went over to the bed to examine the wall where the knocks had been heard and where the plaster had been torn away. Another man, Mr. John Glover, stood at the foot of the bed the while. It was not so dark but that I could plainly see the young men in bed, though there was no lamp in the room. I heard a knocking which seemed to come from the wall where the ancient window had been walled up. The man who was standing at the foot of the bed became afraid and left the room; but just at this time the policeman, who had been called in the night before, entered.
“I could not understand the knockings, and of course suspected that the young men in bed must have something to do with it, so I said to the policeman, “This is very strange; would it not be better if we were to slip into the next room and watch the doorway?” We went and stood in the back room, looking in through the door. I said, “You have your lamp ready.”
“In a few minutes we heard the knocking again, and the lamp was at once flashed on the bed, by which we saw that the boys had not seemingly moved. After a little a stone fell from the wall to the floor; again the lamp was flashed on the place, but we detected no movement on [the] part of the boys. Now the sergeant of police came up to us and went and stood near the bed, but the same sort of thing went on, knocks being heard and pieces of the wall, mostly plaster, came tumbling out, some of it not merely falling to the ground, but seemed to be ejected from the wall into the room. After investigating in this way for a considerable time without being able to find out how the thing happened, we left for the night.
“The next night I went again to the house. This time the young men had not gone to bed, and I found Mr. John Winstanley waiting my arrival (this Mr. Winstanley is no relation to the people of the sam e name living in the house).
“Three of us went upstairs to investigate. I went first, and was followed by John and Peter, who was carrying a lamp. As I came to the door of the room I heard some knocks and something fall. When we got inside the room Peter put out his lamp, and seated himself in a chair in the back room close to the door. I stood leaning against the door-post, and John stood close behind me. Soon a piece of mortar flew from somewhere and fell at Peter’s feet. We lit the lamp to see where it could have come from, but could only conjecture that it must have come from the walled-up window, as only there was there a “raw” place in the wall. At this Peter got frightened and returned downstairs. John and I remained, and a piece or two of mortar again fell on the floor. We lighted up and found them.
“On Monday I attended the Local Board. One of the members, Mr. –, was much interested in what I told them I had seen at Mrs. Winstanley’s, and came with me the following night to investigate. This time the boys were in bed as I had found them on Monday. We had not been long in the room before bits of mortar and stone came away from the wall. I was very keen to discover the boys playing tricks, but could detect nothing.
“A hat-box was standing on a wooden board in the window. Suddenly the hat-box flew out into the room over the bed. but before this took place there was some loud knocking. I watched the boys, and am sure they did not do it. They were evidently much afraid. I picked up the stones which had come out if the wall and replaced them. They had come from that part close under the board, and were of considerable size, from 2x3x2 [ins.] to 10x6x2 1/2 [ins.], or about that. I fixed the stones back in their places as securely as I could, but they were again taken out, and fell on the floor with much noise. The hat-box also was replaced and a stone put on top of it. These soon came away and fell on the floor. On a subsequent occasion, when the boys were in bed and I was standing at the door of the back room, these stones were again detached from the wall. I had the boys under observation, and they did not move at the time.
“Mr. Grimshaw of Tontine said he would like to see what was going on, so he went with me on Friday night, and with us were two others. Of the four one of us stood in the room about three feet from the bed, and the rest at the door. We remained about an hour. The boys were in bed, but I was watching them closely. Knocks were heard on the wall in the usual way, and a sort of sound as if sand or shot were being poured on the floor, after which a stone would come out and fall. Mr. Grimshaw thought that the knocks were intended as signals in the telegraphic code, and meant his initials. I changed places with him, and when subsequent knocks were heard he said they indicated mine. We also heard knocks on the floor.
“Much more of this sort of thing took place than I have related. For example, on one occasion I placed the hat-box on a stone on the wooden board. The stone was 5x8x2 [ins.], and in the box another stone. They were all thrown into the room. Again, I marked a piece of plaster and placed it in the corner of the window. This was thrown out into the room.
“I have known stones and mortar fly from the wall more than 30 or 40 times and have never seen any indication of trickery, nor have I heard [of] any one who has seen anything of this character. (Signed) Richard Baxter. 50 School Lane, Upholland, Nr. Wigan.”
From Mr. John Corless:
“September 10th [1904]. I heard of these disturbances about 4 weeks ago, and went to examine them with Mr. Baxter. We went up to the room at 10.30 p.m. with a Mr. Richard Clayton; the Winstanleys were downstairs. We sat in the door of the back room and watched. After being there for about 10 minutes a piece of plaster fell at my foot (we had no light). After a little we heard the sound of tearing paper and other sounds, indicating the removal of plaster from the wall, and a piece came out and lit in the middle of the room. We watched about 45 minutes, and I saw a dim light which moved about 45 minutes, and I saw a dim light which moved about thus twice.
“We now went into the room and sat against the wooden partition facing the walled-up window. We remained there for about half-an-hour, when “it throwed,” and a piece of plaster about 2x1x1 1/2 [ins.] hit my foot, and I put it to my cheek and brow to see if it was warm or cold. After this the boys came up and went to bed about 12.10, and we went into the back room and looked through the door. After about 15 minutes 3 knocks came, and then I heard a stone come out of the window. Then there were twice three knocks, then three given slowly, then eight given very quickly. Then another stone came out. After this the hat-box came out (band-box), and also stones from under the wooden shelf. After this I went away.
“The next time I went to see the thing was three weeks come Tuesday. It was the day after they had filled up the recess of the window and plastered it over. About 8.10 p.m. I went into the room and examined the new work and the wall near it. I then went down to Mrs. Winstanley in the kitchen. We were the only two people in the house. We heard something fall in the room above, and she said, “Take the lamp and go and see what it is.” I did so, and found that a piece of plaster had been torn from the wall on the front wall of the house close to the right of the new plaster work. It was 4×9 inches, and was on the floor about three feet from the wall. I knew where it came from by seeing the new defaced place in the wall, a defacement which was not there when I examined the wall at 810.
“I went down again, and at a quarter to nine the two boys, Peter and Thomas, came in. Again we heard something fall, and again we (Thomas and I) went up to look. A new piece of plaster had been thrown across the room. We found it near the door, it was a corner piece, and I was able to fit it into the place it had come from. Thomas and I went and examined the upper rooms.
“Again last Sunday night I was up there. I was standing with Mrs. Winstanley in the street in front of the house when she said she heard a noise. I went up and found one of the stones on the floor. Since then, one night at about 8.45, Peter and I were standing at the house door, when we heard the usual noise. We went up into the room and found a piece of mortar balanced on one of the brass knobs of the bedstead. It was about 5×3 [ins.], and also a piece 12×6 [ins.] lying on the bed. We went back to the door, and in a little Peter went into the house; but I followed him at once. He was getting himself a drink of water in the kitchen. He said, “Did you hear that?” On which we went upstairs again and found a triangle of mortar 5 inches each way on the floor near the door. I am sure it was not there when I left the room ten minutes before, and no one was in the house.
“On Wednesday I saw a light like a spark, about 9.45. Again on Thursday last Mrs. W., Peter and I were in front of the house, and no one was inside. We heard the window of the “Ghost” room shake. Peter said, “There must be something up.” I went to the room holding a lighted match, and found two pieces of mortar on the stairs, and a piece on the knob of the bed 15×7 [ins.]. One of the pieces found on the stairs fitted a part of the new hole which had, within the last few days, been made in the wall opposite the walled-up window. (Signed) John Corless, 3 Higher Lane, Upholland, Wigan, Lancashire.”
From Mr John Winstanley:
“September 10th [1904]. On the third night of the disturbances I went with Mr. R. Baxter to the house about 10 p.m. No sooner had we got into the back room and Peter, who followed me, had sat down by the door than a piece of mortar dropped at his feet. He seemed frightened and went downstairs and got a lamp. He returned with it and sat down again. I put the lamp out, and at once “it threw again,” and Peter went away, being frightened. We remained for half-an-hour, and I heard the paper on the wall tearing. Then Thomas and Peter and Henry all came up and got into bed. Peter nearest the wall, then Henry, and outside Thomas. Three knocks came on the plaster and three on the board, then a sound as of falling sand or gravel on the floor. Then the large stone under the board came out and fell. (During the evening 6 or 8 stones came out which measured from 4×4 to 10×10, and about 2 or 2 1/2 inches thick). I got the lamp from the back room and we examined the wall.
“I am sure the Winstanleys had nothing to do with it, and had no means of getting hold of these stones from the outside. We replaced the stones, put out the light, and went back to the door of the back room. The knocks recommenced and out came the stones again. Again we got a light and examined.
“I have seen it by myself when no one was in the room. I have heard a bit of mortar fall, found it to be an angle piece, and fitted it back into its place in the wall.
“Last Sunday I was with Mrs. Winstanley in the kitchen, and we heard the noise. Mrs. W. went out of the house to see if she could find one of her boys. I was left sitting in the rocking chair when “it threw” a second time. By ear I judged that a piece of mortar had been thrown across the room, and I heard the tearing of the paper as it was detached from the wall. I went to the back door and called Mrs. Peet, who lives next door, who had wanted to see something of it. She came in, and “it again threw.”
“Mrs. W. now returned with Peter, and we went upstairs and found several pieces of mortar on the floor, and much paper torn off the walls, and mortar gone from a new place. After this some other men came in and said they would stay, but would not remain upstairs when the light was taken away. As they went out a piece of plaster was thrown down the stairs on to the fourth step. (Signed) John Winstanley, 37 Alma Hill, Upholland.”
The following is a copy of the Police report of the case:
“Police Station, Upholland, 7th October, 1904. From P.S. 1270 Ratcliffe at Upholland. To Mr. Superintendent O’Hara at Wigan.
“Re Alleged Upholland Ghost.
“About 12 night on 8th August last, I was passing the house of Mrs Winstanley, a widow, in Church Street, Upholland, which was afterwards described [as] the Ghost House. There was then a crowd of people in the street in front of the house; on enquiry of the cause I ascertained that a strange knocking had been heard in one of the front bedrooms of the house, and could be heard in the street; I stayed in front of the house for some time when I heard 3 distinct knocks, which appeared to be in the wall.
“About 11.30 p.m. 10th August, I was in front of the house again when Mrs. Winstanley came to me and asked if I would try and find out what was causing the knocking on the bedroom wall, and making the stones and paper fly from the walls. There was a bed in the room which was about 1/2 a yard from the wall; when I entered the room 3 of the sons got into bed; one of them named Peter needed some persuasion as he was on the wall side and seemed to be very much upset and frightened, and I had to promise him that I would stay in the room before he would get in the bed.
“Thinking that Peter was responsible for the damage to the wall, I closed 2 doors that lead into the room, and turned the lamp out, and after being very quiet for about 15 minutes there were 3 loud knocks in the wall, and immediately after there was a crash on the room floor; I put on a light and found that 7 stones, which would be from 1 lb. to 4 lbs., lying on the bedroom floor which appeared to have slurred out of the wall. I put the stones back in the wall again and turned the room in darkness, and after being very quiet the knock came again as before, and the same stones fell on teh floor again. During the time of this process, I was stood with the bed between me and the wall where the damage was being done, and with the room being very dark, I reached a stick across the 4 lads’ bodies while they were laid in bed and kept it there till the stone fell out again; it was impossible for them to knock on the wall, or remove the stones without me feeling them move.
“I put the stones back in the wall again and tried it a third time; this time I was stood about 1 yard from the wall, and after the usual knocking the stones fell on the room floor again; this time I stood with a box of matches in my hand to make a light quick, and before the sound went away I had a light on the 3 lads in bed and found they all had their hands under the bed clothes in bed.
“The stones in the wall had come out of the wall previous to me going inside, as I found them all loose when I went in the room.
“Almost every night between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. from the 10th to the 19th August, I frequently heard the knocking and stones falling on the room floor when I was in the street. On the 23d August the stones were set in mortar and cement. About 9.30 p.m. on the 27th August, Mrs Winstanley again asked me to go and see the bedroom. I went in and saw that a stone about 7 lbs. weight was lying on the room floor, and it appeared to have been forced through the mortar.
“The mortar was hanging loose about 1 inch all round the hole where the stone had come out. There were no marks of any description about the hole in the wall, which I think there would have been if it had been tampered with inside the room. (Signed) Robert Ratcliffe, P.S. 1270.”
In a letter addressed to Colonel Taylor on September 5th, 1904, before his visit to Upholland, William Winstanley, the eldest son, refers to the suspicion which he believed to be entertained by the Vicar, Mr Wills, that the phenomena were due to trickery on the part of some member of the household, but he says, “I am positive that he is mistaken.” He also says, “I shall be very pleased indeed if you can do anything at all to elucidate the mystery.”
The following account was written by William Winstanley, apparently during September, 1904: The first night I heard the noises was on Sunday, August 7th, 1904, shortly after midnight. The first thing that occurred was 3 distinct knocks at intervals of a minute or two. (A) I went to the wall, knocked back and asked, “Who is there? what is wanted? etc.,” but got no answer. Then I asked, “If you have any intelligence, knock as many knocks as I do.” I gave 7 raps, but got no answer. So I walked away. When about a yard from the wall, a number of stones were thrown from the wall on to the floor. On the same night, as soon as I left my own bed in the next bedroom, the first thing that caught my eye on entering the room, where the noise proceeded from, was an old English History (which had formerly been in the recess) lying on the floor behind the door at the other side of the room.
On another occasion, (B) while talking to the police officers, with my head through the bedroom window, I was hit with a lump of plaster on the right shoulder, which was on the opposite side of the room to where the plaster was thrown from. The same night I (C) was also hit in the back with a lump, but they never hurt.
On another occasion I saw stones lying between my brothers’ heads as they lay in bed, and their heads covered with plaster. I have also seen pieces of plaster balanced on the bedstead post. Very few nights pass without 2 or 3 pieces of stone or plaster being thrown into my bedroom. I have also seen pieces that have been thrown nearly to the bottom of the stairs. One night, (D) after every one was in bed except myself, I went to examine the wall. After leaving it, and before I got out of the room, a piece of plaster flew past me, and it seemed to have a kind of lightning flash following behind it.
(E) Before the wall was built up, I took special care to remove every particle of loose plaster, stone, etc., from the part that had not been disturbed, but before ten minutes had passed another layer, consisting of three or four stones, that were at first fast, had been removed. I have seen the stones, plaster and books thrown to the floor many times.
This is a short sketch of my experience at 8 Church Street, Upholland. W.Winstanley.”
The following were questions addressed by Colonel Taylor to W. Winstanley, and the latter’s answers, referring to points marked with the corresponding letters in the narrative just given:
A) Your brothers were in bed near the wall on this occasion? – Yes; they were all in bed.
B) Who was in the room with you, and where were they standing? – My brothers were all in bed, and no one else was in the room.
C) Again, who was in the neighbourhood? – Two of my brothers were in bed, and the third one was with me talking to the policeman. The two in bed were not in a position to hit me on the right shoulder, as they were exactly to the left of me.
D) Who was in the room besides yourself? If your brothers were in bed, what have you to urge in support of the theory that no one of them threw it, except that they said they did not and you don’t think they did? – No one was in the room except myself. My brothers were in the next bedroom, and it was impossible for any of them to throw, as it seemed to come exactly from the wall behind me.
E) Who was present, and how far from the disturbed part of the wall? Was it light enough for you to see the stones moved? – My brothers were in bed, about half a yard from the wall. It happened at 2.40 a.m.
Later, W. Winstanley wrote to Colonel Taylor as follows:
8 Church Street, Upholland, September 17th, 1904. Dear Sir, Since you left, Mr. Corless and others have seen both lights in the room and pieces thrown nearly every night. Last night 2 pieces of stone were thrown before ten o’clock in the presence of two gentlemen from Platt Bridge, near Wigan. Another piece was thrown about 11.30, after every one was in bed. Sorry you did not hear anything. Yours respectfully, W. Winstanley.
Our readers will not fail to observe that the incidents here described follow closely the usual type of “Poltergeist” phenomena in three important respects: (a) The particular features which would afford the strongest evidence of super-normal agency were not observed, but merely inferred: the fragments were never seen coming out of the wall, but merely found lying on the floor, or at most seen flying through the air, the starting point of the flight not having been noticed. (b) The phenomena most strongly attested seem to be but barely beyond what human agency, under the conditions as described, could have produced. (c) They ceased entirely in the presence of an experienced investigator, and only recommenced after his departure.
p124-137 in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, v. XII, 1905-06.
Some years ago, residents of the Church Street area of Up Holland were scared, thrilled, and diverted, by the caprices of the ghost which was reputed to haunt the old house facing the Parish Church. This particular ghost – perhaps poltergeist is the better word – never actually seen by the intrepid stalwarts who stayed in the house at nights, apparently manifested its presence by hurling about chunks of concrete. It seemed, too, to have a peculiar penchant for tearing up old books. With a certain amount of exorcising, and the eventual demolition of the haunted house, the ghost disappeared, and all was quiet on the Up Holland spectral front.
Skelmersdale Reporter, 28th May 1964.
Gun of the Up Holland ‘ghost’.
Sir. – Having read about the Up Holland ghost, I thought you may be interested to know I was the last person to live in the house in 12 Church Street, opposite the churchyard and church. After my family and I left the house it was pulled down to make room for more modern property. During the pulling down process the highwayman’s gun was found behind a loose brick in the glass cupboard where I used to keep my dishes.
It was a very large house. There were trap doors in two downstairs rooms but they were heavily nailed down. My son, then aged eight, used to bring his pals in and say they were treasure hunting in the garden. He often found things such as old coins and dishes of black tin. I used to bar them from the house, saying they were a load of rubbish. – Mrs A. Clegg, Birkenhead.
Liverpool Echo, 7th March 1973.
There was no trace of a gun.
Sir. – I was rather taken in about “Gun of the Upholland Ghost” (Echo, March 7). The last person to live in the so-called ghost house was an elderly man named Henry Lee. I was the General Foreman for Upholland Urban District Council and in the late 20’s I took the ghost house down, but there was no sign of any gun, nor did I see any trap doors. I did find a large oak beam in the cellar with the date 1011 carved on it. Not being interested in dates the beam was just thrown away. – John Tennant, Shaw Lane, Prescot.
Liverpool Echo, 19th March 1973.