The ‘hungry ghost story’ will make you think.
Do you believe in ghosts? No? Then be introduced to the Mayer family who run the Salad Bowl Restaurant in Ambrose-place, Worthing. Without doubt they do.
In the family there are three married brothers, John aged 25, and his wife Joan; Reg, aged 29, and his wife Brenda, who live above the restaurant; and Charles, aged 32, who lives with his wife at Portslade. The other character in this story is 23-year-old Cyril Plant who is stage manager at the Connaught Theatre. In the second week in March the Mayer family took over the restaurant and renovated the building. It is about 85 years old and up until then none of them had heard any mention of ghosts there. But in the following months they lived through a succession of strange happenings.
The first was when Reg was in the kitchen preparing some food. On a table was a tray of meat bones awaiting to be boiled for soup. When Reg happened to glance at them he saw one rise up out of the tray and drop at his feet – a distance of some three feet. He told his brothers but they both scoffed at him.
Shortly afterwards Charles and John were in the kitchen when they saw a saucepan of milk at the back of the stove move across it, a distance of three feet, and drop on to the floor. To say the least, it made them think.
The Mayer family own two spaniel dogs, Sabrina and Jenny. The next strange things to occur happened on a series of occasions when Sabrina was asleep. She was suddenly roused for no apparent reason and dashed across the room barking at a blank wall. “Each time she seemed petrified and it took at least a quarter of an hour to quieten her,” said Reg. “We saw nothing.”
In the bathroom Brenda felt on several occasions that someone was peering over her shoulders and thought she heard breathing. John became scared of walking along the upstairs passage because he imagined he heard strange footsteps.
Then one day about two months ago the Mayer family was called together by Charles and he showed them a strange scratching he had discovered on the restaurant window. “It looks something like the plan of this building before we altered it,” he exclaimed. Everyone kept an open mind about it and said little. After all, they reasoned, it might well have been scratched by someone passing during the night. Since then glasses, cups and saucers have been found broken in the kitchen and stillroom for no apparent reason. “We decided to fine ourselves when we broke something; then we discovered that it was not always us who was doing the damage,” said John.
A fortnight ago Cyril came to live in the building. He was warned about the strange happenings in the place but said: “Ghosts, I don’t believe in them. They just don’t exist.” Now he is not so sure. On Wednesday night he was lifted out of his bed and landed three feet away from it. “I was half asleep when it happened. As it occurred, I had a feeling of contentment and not fear. When I got up off the floor I found the bedclothes in order,” he said.
The following afternoon Cyril was pottering about the little kitchen he has of his own when he heard the handle of the door turn. The door opened about a quarter and then closed again. He went to investigate and found nobody there. He commented: “It seemed as if someone looked in and then went away again. I was not frightened.”
That brings the strange experiences of the Salad Bowl up to date. What will happen next? The Mayers and Mr Plant will swear on oath that what has been described has taken place. They seem certain that the ghost – if it is a ghost – who lives with them is of a friendly disposition. Said Joan: “I would say it is a mellow old ghost possibly of a dear old lady. But she seems hungry for she seems to spend most of her time in the kitchen.”
But from where did the ghost originate? Could it be a person who died in the building? There is a graveyard not far away and a former mortuary is not far from the building.
Littlehampton Gazette, 9th September 1955.
Yes, he saw eyes in the dark at The Salad Bowl!
Remember the story on our front page last week about the “hungry ghost” that was believed to be haunting the Salad Bowl restaurant in Ambrose-place? Rarely has a local story caused so much discussion. The Mayer family who run the restaurant received many letters and callers. We also had our share in the Worthing Gazette office. There were, of course, many who could find a perfectly logical explanation for all the happenings at the restaurant. But there were others who took a different view.
For instance, Mr F.G. Bleach, of Homeleigh, The Plantation, Salvington, wrote saying that the appearance of a ghost around the Salad Bowl was nothing new. More than 60 years ago he used to attend Christ Church Boys’ School in Portland-road and at that time, he says, an apparition was often seen by boys attending the school. Mr Bleach added: “We gave it the name of ‘Spring Heel Jack.’ It was a dark form and appeared in the early evening. It appeared from the rear of the Salad Bowl premises (then a dairy), glided over the passageway to the east and disappeared into the gardens opposite the Ambrose-place houses.” After a while many of the boys got so scared that they avoided Ambrose-place by using Richmond-road.
A retired chaffeur, Mr George Figg, who lives in Harrow-road, West Worthing, who was born and bred in Worthing, called to say he had often heard tales of ghosts frequenting the Ambrose-place area. He remembered the Salad Bowl as a pets’ food shop, a dairy and a second-hand furniture shop. He remembered one of the early owners of the place who had often told him that she had heard strange noises there.
Mrs Edna Stansfield, of Crescent-road, Worthing, ran the restaurant with her mother for four and a half years before the Mayer family took over. She said: “We didn’t witness any uncanny things going on there, but I must admit that we often heard strange noises coming from the loft and roof. One day we got a man to go up there and have a look around, but he found nothing.”
An elderly butcher’s roundsman who asked us not to use his name as he was “afraid that friends might laugh,” said: “One lunch time in May I took some meat round to the Salad Bowl. I knocked at the door and a few seconds later the door swung right open. There was nobody there. There was no wind and I was greatly surprised that it had opened on its own account.”
After hearing all this there seemed to be only one thing to do and we did it. Worthing Gazette reporter Neville Nisse was sent to spend Monday night in the restaurant. He went in at 10.30 p.m. and left shortly after 4.30 a.m. on Tuesday. This is what he had to say:-
I settled myself down at a spare table in a corner to begin what I hoped would be a lonely vigil without disturbance. At 10.45 p.m. Brenda Mayer put the “closed” sign up in the window. Soon afterwards Charles Mayer departed to join his wife at his home in Portslade. The rest of the Mayer family – John and his wife Joan, and Reg and his wife Brenda – came into the restaurant from the kitchen to join me for a last cup of tea before they left for bed. At ten to twelve I was alone in the restaurant. All I had to comfort me was a candle which I had lit, mounted on a saucer and placed on a ledge by the table, a coat borrowed from Reg in case I felt cold, a flask of hot coffee, a cup, a plate contining two ham sandwiches and a magazine.
I also had the comfort of knowing that the Mayers’ spaniel dog Sabrina was asleep in the still-room. As the candle flickered it cast eerie shadows about the room. I heard an occasional car going past in Chapel-road and about half past twelve I heard two people walking past the restaurant talking. From then on time began to drag. By half past one all seemed quiet.
Then I heard a soft tap tapping at the window near me. It was a large moth which had been attracted to the light of the candle! After about five minutes it went away. I celebrated by having a cup of coffee and a sandwich. I then settled down to some reading. At about 2.15a.m. the noise of a dripping tap in the kitchen had got so much on my nerves that I decided to attempt to stifle the sound. On my way back from the kitchen into the restaurant I locked the door.
The semi-darkness seemed to begin to play tricks and several times I imagined I saw things move. Suddenly I saw two large green eyes staring up from a corner opposite me. I picked up an ashtray and threw it. There was a scuffle and a bark. It was Sabrina. Luckily I missed her.
As four o’clock approached I noticed it was slightly lighter outside. Then it was 4.30 and I heard an alarm clock go off upstairs. Reg had agreed to come down at that time to let me out. I went to go into the kitchen to meet him. I turned the handle of the door – IT OPENED. Now that was strange – I swear I locked it. I am certain I did.
Reg greeted me. “Sleep well?” he asked. I scowled and told him about the door which I had locked. “I’m not surprised,” he replied. He let me out of the restaurant. I walked down the streets homewards to catch at least a few hours’ sleep. One thing I did before getting into bed was to look under it and lock the door. This time the door was still locked when I tried it again.
Worthing Gazette, 14th September 1955.
That ghost again.
Some new light has been cast on the mysterious ghost-like happenings at the Salad Bowl restaurant in Ambrose-place, Worthing. Recently we published a story about strange incidents with saucepans moving, meat bones rising in the air, a man being thrown out of bed, cups and saucers being broken and the sounds of unexplained footsteps. Now we have received a letter from a Mr J.F. Puttick, of Brentwood-road, Romford. He writes: “These weird occurrences are undoubtedly the work of the ghost of Miss Eales, who died in Ambrose-place 54 years ago in rather tragic and sordid circumstances.” He then went on to explain: “She was a very eccentric lady about 60 years of age. She was burnt to death in the front room of the house, now the Salad Bowl, and had had no real foot for three days previous.”
Mr Puttick states that the fire was on a Good Friday evening and that the first people to arrive at the scene were his father, brother and himself. “She was dead when we found her and my father and myself dragged her body away from the flames and into a back room.” Our correspondent adds that while Miss Eales was alive she used to keep “swarms of cats” in the basement rooms. He thinks that the strange happenings may be linked with her search for food for her animals.
Worthing Gazette, 12th October 1955.