Spectre in Cottage?
Uncanny Incidents in the night.
The village curate called in.
A remarkable story of ghostly visitations at a cottage comes from Upton, a village of less than 100 inhabitants, seven miles from Peterborough, says the Peterborough correspondent of the “Daily News.”
Five weeks ago a timber-feller named John Macro moved into a cottage with his wife and two daughters. The little house is the last one in a row of four, and had been uninhabited for 12 months, with the exception of a short time in November last, when a woman was in possession. She left hurriedly in a fortnight, and went nobody knows where.
Two weeks ago Macro went upstairs in the dark, and entering his little daughter’s bedroom was amazed to see a tall thin woman in white. As he looked the figure moved slowly round the room, and, to use Macro’s words, “disappeared like vapour into thin air.” Macro declares that he saw the woman several times afterwards.
For fear of frightening his family the man said nothing, but a fortnight ago his 13-year-old daughter Gladys saw the apparition. She woke up at two o’clock in the morning and says she saw what looked like a woman in white leaning over the bottom of the bed. She was frightened and put her head under the clothes, shouting at the same time for her father. Peering from beneath the clothes she found the spectre had vanished. She describes the figure as absolutely white, and declares that it seemed to hover just above the floor. It was not solid enough to take hold of, but it had more shape than a smoke cloud.
He has several times seen a black object about 15 in. long going round the room about a foot from the floor. It would afterwards fall on the floor with what he described as a plop. Its approach was announced by sounds of whistling and a noise like a motor car. He threw a pillow at it on one occasion, and the object fell to the floor.
As the villages got somewhat alarmed the curate-in-charge, the Rev. A. A. Liney, sat up with a neighbour one night from nine to two, but he declares he saw and heard nothing.
Mrs Macro has now had a lamp burning all night in the bedroom for nearly a week. The ghostly visitations have ceased, but the mysterious black object still makes periodical visits.
Lancashire Evening Post, 13th March 1920.
The Upton Ghost.
Weird story of thatched cottage.
With the “Lady in White”.
Whittlesey Family’s Unnerving Experience.
Thursday evening.
This afternoon we exploited the Upton Ghost, the story of which is throwing the whole countryside, Caster way, into mild excitement. Everyone is talking about the Upton Lady in White. Our ghost-hunter tells the story as follows:
Ghostly apparitions and weird noises are alarming inhabitants of Upton, a tiny village next Castor, a short jaunt from Peterborough. In a little, homely thatched cottage “a tall, thin lady in white” makes her appearance at dead o’ night, an eerie indefinable “something” circles round in a bedroom to the accompaniment of uncanny noises, the like of which have never been heard before – in short, Upton can lay claim to a genuine haunted house! The whole affair is as yet “wropt in mist’ry,” no feasible explanation of these strange and disconcerting happenings having been found.
It is only recently that the village has been the scene of these unwonted and nerve-racking visitations, but already several of the villagers and the Rector have kept a watch through the night without fathoming the mystery.
Five weeks ago Mr and Mrs John Macro with their two young daughters, went from Whittlesey to live at Upton, to fill an engagement on the estate of Mr G.C.W. Fitzwilliam, and took up residence in the end one of a row of four thatched cottages. They had only been in occupation of the house a brief period when “clapping” noises were heard in the pantry. A day or two later the sounds were noticed upstairs in the bedroom and from that time things rapidly developed into a series of mystical manifestations.
Mr Macro gave us a graphic description of what he had actually seen and heard in the haunted house. “We had heard some funny noises ever since we first came to Upton,” he said. “One night I went upstairs for something after dark and did not take a light with me. When I got inside the bedroom I was amazed to see a tall, thin woman in white standing there. Her head seemed to be swathed and I could not see the face, but only the figure. as I looked it moved slowly about half-way round the room and then disappeared into thin air! It went just like vapour, though at first I could see it plainly.”
But Mr Macro tells of other weird happenings in his house. He saw this “woman” several times, when upstairs in the dark, and the same thing always happened – it soundlessly faded away as a respectable wraith should do. He did not say anything about it to his wife, but one night another member of his family, a schoolgirl of 13, had a similar terrifying experience.
“My little girl, Gladys, awoke one night, a week or two ago, and screamed out. ‘Dad,’ she called, ‘do come quickly, there’s someone leaning over my bed.’ I got a light and at once went into her room; she was lying there with her hair standing on end with fright! She said she lay awake several minutes before she dare call out, and all the time, when she ventured to peep out, she saw what looked like a woman in white leaning over her. Now neither of my girls will sleep in the house, and have to sleep at a neighbour’s every night. Gladys has not been upstairs since that night.”
Then Mr Macro spoke of a still stranger part of the story. “Two nights in succession,” he said, “I saw a black thing, about 15 inches long, with a tail a little longer than a pigeon’s. I was in a dead sleep when suddenly the loud noise it was making woke me. First of all was a long-drawn whistle which sounded a long way off. Gradually it came nearer, until at last it appeared to come up by the downstairs front-room wall, through the window, through the ceiling, into the bedroom. As it entered our room it made a loud buzzing noise exactly like a motor car starting. I sat up in bed with a box of matches in my hand. I gave it two or three minutes to get well started, and then struck the match.
I had time to see this black thing going round the room about a foot from the floor. Then it fell on to the linoleum with a plop! such as a pheasant makes when it falls after being shot. It seemed to disappear under a table in the room, and I immediately got out of bed and looked under the table but it had gone!
On another occasion I sat up in bed and waited for it with three pillows. We heard the same whistling noise and it entered the room in the same manner. I threw a pillow at it and it fell to the floor and the noise stopped. But soon afterwards it started again, and this happened every time I threw a pillow at it. When this thing is in the front room the ghost of the woman is always in the back room at the same time. I have lived in a house in Yorkshire where there were ghosts and some people don’t believe in gtme, but I think there must be something left behind.
A woman who lived in the house a long time ago had a stroke and died after being unconscious three days. It would seem that if there is any money in the house this ghost might be looking for it while this black thing is about keeping watch.”
So annoying did all “these mysterious goings-on” become that Mr and Mrs Macro commenced to burn a light in their bedroom every night, and since then they have not been troubled by the unearthly visitors, though noises have been heard. One night a neighbour sat up with Mr Macro, but the “whistle in the distance” which always heralded the coming of the black object was all that was heard.
On Saturday night the Rector (the Rev. A. A. Liney) and Mr A. Pulford sat up in the kitchen of the haunted house until 2 a.m., but they neither saw nor heard anything unusual.
The latest news in connection with the affair is that on Wednesday night there was a noise in the bed-room “just like a swan’s wings flapping and swishing in the air, together with a sound as if some-one was in the room rubbing hands up and down the wall-paper.”
“I should like to have other witnesses besides myself and my wife,” said Mr Macro, “because the people won’t believe it. I have never heard or seen anything like it, but it is absolutely true.”
Mrs Macro, who was interviewed by our representative yesterday in the front room of the haunted house in corroborating what her husband said, explained that she had heard “clapping” noises in the pantry and strange sounds upstairs which she could not describe. “I don’t believe in ghosts,” she said, “and when I have read about it in the papers I have always laughed at it. But it is not nice.”
Previous to Mr and Mrs Macro taking the house five week’s ago it had been empty for a year, with the exception of a fortnight in November. Then it was occupied by a lady who left at the end of that time, but did not say anything about her reasons for doing so. The whole village is talking about the mystery, but no solution has yet been found.
Spalding Guardian, 13th March 1920.
A Woman In White.
Curate’s Vigil in a Haunted Cottage.
A story which recalls one of the ghostly tales of the author of the “Woman in White” comes from the little village of Upton, which, with something less than 100 inhabitants, lies seven miles from Peterborough. Here, five weeks ago, came to live John Macro, a timber feller, his wife and two daughters. They occupied a cottage which had been uninhabited for twelve months, except for a period last November, when a woman, who was quite unknown to the villagers, lived there for a fortnight and left very hurriedly.
Two weeks after entering the cottage, Macro, going upstairs in the dark, went into his daughter’s bedroom, and was amazed to see a tall thin woman in white, who moved slowly round the room, and disappeared into thin air. Macro declares that he saw the white woman on several occasions when upstairs in the dark, but, for fear of frightening his family, he kept silence.
A fortnight ago, however, his thirteen-year-old daughter, Gladys, woke up at two in the morning and saw the woman in white leaning over the bottom of the bed. Frightened, she shouted for her father, and buried her head in the bed clothes. The girl describes the figure as absolutely white, and says that it seemed to hover just above the floor, bending over the bed. It did not seem solid enough to lay hold of, but it had more shape than a smoke cloud. Since this visitation neither daughter would sleep in the house, being accommodated at a neighbour’s.
Mr Macro further states that in his own room he has several times seen a black object about fifteen inches long going round the room about a foot from the floor, then falling upon it with what he describes as a “plop.” One night he sat up in bed waiting for it with pillows. Its approach was announced by sounds of whistling and a noise like a motor-car. Macro flung a pillow at it, and the noise stopped, and the object fell to the floor. It has appeared several times since, however.
The story of the haunted house created so much alarm and excitement among the villagers that the curate in charge, the Rev. A.A.Liney, with a near neighbour, Mr Pulford, sat in the bedroom one night from nine p.m. to two a.m. the following morning. He declares, however, that he heard and saw nothing. “I am doubtless too matter of fact to see spirits,” he said. “In a house which has not been occupied for some time it is quite possible to hear noises from rats or other animals which may have invaded it.” As for the Woman in White, he could offer no explanation.
Western Mail, 15th March 1920.
Ghost in a Cottage.
White Lady of Upton.
The mysterious woman in white seen by Mr Macro and his daughter at their “haunted” cottage, Upton, Northamptonshire, has not appeared for a week, this being ascribed to the fact that a light has been kept burning in the haunted room. The accompanying black object, with a tail like a pigeon’s last appeared on Friday. When this black object is in the front room, the ghostly woman appears in the back room at the same time, according to Mr Macro. He suggests that the apparition may be searching for something, while the black companion keeps watch.
The local police are investigating the affair.
Daily Herald, 16th March 1920.
Shy Lady Ghost.
Fails to appear, but makes weird noises.
The mystery of the haunted cottage at Upton, with its visitant in white, still remains unsolved. The Lord of the Manor, Mr G.C.W. Fitzwilliam, M.F.H., who lives at Milton Hall, the ancestral home of Fiitzwilliams, four miles from Peterborough, and three from the scene of the mystical manifestations, interviewed, could throw no light on the subject.
“The fact is,” he said, breezily,” I heard nothing about it till this morning, as I have been away in London. All I can tell you is that Macro was out of a job, and I sent him to my agent, who gave him work as a timber feller and permission to live in this cottage, which had been empty for over a year. He now repays me,” laughingly continued the squire, “by saying he has seen a ghost! The house was previously inhabited by a good old soul, who was in the service of my grandfather and father at Milton. She died there, and would be the last person in the world, I should think, to return and give these nocturnal demonstrations.”
“You can explain,” said Mr. Fitzwilliam, to the “Daily Chronicle,” facetiously alluding to his own robust figure, “that there is nothing of the ghost about me. You might also add there’s not a public-house in the village either.”
Although the ghostly Woman in White has not now been seen for a week, Mr and Mrs Macro were disturbed early on Friday morning by a swishing noise in their room, but could discover no intruder. They both strongly disapprove of the curate’s theory that the noises are due to rats and birds. They have blocked up the chimney, and they carefully fasten the windows and doors every night, but still the mysterious black object comes with a swishing and buzzing sound. They stick to their account of the affair, and Gladys, the thirteen-year-old daughter, vows she will never go into her bedroom again.
Leeds Mercury, 16th March 1920.
The ghost story from Upton animated all the News Agencies, and the London and Provincial papers dealt with the Upton Lady-in-White as an item of first-class importance. We have nothing much to add this week beyond the fact that the light in the bedrooms all night has warded off the uncanny visitors (the White Woman and the little Black Beastie). Here is a capital picture of the House of the Macro’s, the dormer window marked with an X being the parade ground of the Mystic Woman. The little lass at the gate is the daughter over whose bed the wraith bent her shadowy form, and inset is Mr Macro, the Whittlesey feller who, on entering the employ of Mr G.C.W. Fitzwilliam, M.F.H., took up the tenancy of the “Ghost House.”
Spalding Guardian, 27th March 1920.