I did not believe in ghosts until –
Herald Reporter, Woodmansterne, Surrey, Tuesday.
Yesterday I did not believe in ghosts, but I heard these things during last night in the stables of Fairlawns, an old house 300 yards off Croydon-lane here:
12.14 a.m. – We are sitting – three of us – in a small, barely furnished bedroom when suddenly there is the loud ticking of an unseen clock.
1.30. – Light footsteps pace up and down the passage for 20 minutes.
2.27. – Above our heads, where the distance between ceiling and roof timbers is only three feet, we hear the leisurely tread of what might be a heavily built man – eight paces one way, seven back.
3.14. – Urgent rapping on the outside wall, 20 feet from the ground.
3.53. – Dogs in the kennels outside whine as footsteps march briskly across the cobbles: nobody can be seen from the window.
4.21. – An owl screeches and heavy footsteps again pound the ceiling, this time for 23 minutes without stopping.
That is an exact record of what occurred when we sought the explanation of reports of supernatural happenings at the home of Mrs A.E. Lipsham, a breeder of pedigree dogs. Sceptics – including Mrs Lipsham – merely laughed when the young son and daughter of Mrs Ada Brinkworth, the housekeeper at Fairlawns, said they had seen a tall man dressed in mediaeval clothes prowling about the house. Then Mrs Lipsham herself saw the figure in the drive.
Daily Herald, 30th June 1948.