Animated Yorkshire Furniture.
Woman’s uncanny experiences.
Lively cane chair – extraordinary story.
Occurrences which, to say the least, are extremely uncanny, are taking place at the house of Mrs Priestly, 6 Church Street, Wykes, Bradford.
These phenomena are not confined to midnight and obscurity, but take place repeatedly in broad daylight, and in the presence of various people. The other night the occupants of No. 6 were startled by loud knockings on the wall, as though with a hammer. These knockings were also heard next door by Mrs John Smith, although the houses are separated by an entry. The knocking was continued, and about dinner time, on going into the front room, Mrs Priestly found everything in disorder.
With the assistance of Mrs Smith she put the things straight, adn they went out of the room, but on going back again immediately afterwards they found the things again in confusion. A chair and small table had been lifted on to the bed, ornaments had been thrown off the mantelpiece, but not broken, a pillow was moved from the top to the bottom of the bed, &c.
They again straightened the things, but the performance was repeated time after time, and whilst Mrs Priestly was sitting in a chair, and Mrs Smith was the only other occupant of the room, a cover came off the sofa and hit the former lady in the face. Mrs Smith put it back, but the same thing happened again. After it had been repeated a third time the women left the room in alarm. The disturbance then commenced in the kitchen on similar lines, and in the passage.
A cane chair, which had been particularly lively, was taken out of the room and placed in the passage, when it almost immediately flew out of the back door into the garden. An antimacassar was tied neatly round the back of a chair, and a heavy leaden door holder performed a dance before the astonished eyes of Mrs. Priestly.
Among people who have witnessed some of the movements are Mrs Priestly, two of her daughters, and her grand-daughter; Mr James Jones, undertaker, Wyke, and his wife and daughter; Miss Harpen, Buttershaw; Mr and Mrs John Jones, 3 Church Street; and Mr John Brayshaw, butcher, New Road Side, Wyke.
A crowd of about two hundred people assembled in the street amid great excitement, and watched the house until about an hour after midnight in the hope of seeing something unusual, but things seemed to quieten down during the evening. Next morning, however, whilst Mrs Priestly was in the room one of the chairs again had a “seizure” and she saw it come out of its place in the corner, clatter noisily round the open door, and stop in the centre of the room. A small brush also struck Miss Priestly on the shoulder.
It may be mentioned that the Priestlys are Wesleyans, and do not believe in spiritualism. Mrs Priestly is a native of Dudley Hill, but has lived in Wyke more than forty years. Nothing of the kind has ever happened in the house or in the experience of the occupants before.
Bradford Daily Telegraph, 7th June 1909.
Goblin Revels. Bewitched house at Wyke.
The voyages of soap bars. Last night’s merry pranks.
The excitment at Wyke over the strange happenings in Mrs Priestley’s house, reported in yesterday’s “Telegraph,” shows no signs of abatement. Last night crowds collected round No. 6, Church Street – and in all truth both the house and the street look innocent enough – to catch a glimpse of walking chairs or flying antimacassars. But the manifestations are apparently not vouchsafed to idle gazers, for nothing extraordinary happened while they were watching.
But on speaking to Mrs Priestley this morning our representative was informed that there was a recurrence of this spookist playfulness last night. This fact is worthy of notice, for hitherto the phenomena have been confined to the daytime. The darkness certainly seems to be the fittest time for such weird eccentricities.
Mr Baker, of Dudley Hill, who is a brother-in-law of Mrs Priestley’s, had been spending the night at her house to see what he could, and if possible discover the cause of the impish revels. He is an old man of about 78 years of age, and certainly seems to have very cynical views with regard to things supernatural. Now his name must be added to the list of eye-witnesses.
It was about one o’clock this morning when a knock sounded at the front door. Mrs Priestley asked him if he had heard the noise, for he is somewhat deaf. He answered that he had. Getting up he went to the front door and discovered to his amazement that a leaden model used for keeping the door open had walked down the passage some yards.
They were just returning [it] back when, looking on the floor, they found a piece of soap. Mrs Priestley at once recognised it as a piece that had been kept in the bathroom, whither it was decorously taken back. Four times did it repeat the performance of coming downstairs, and four times was it replaced. Nor did it come alone, for other two bars accompanied it on one of its trips. Whence they came Mrs Priestley was unable to explain, for they had not been placed in the bathroom by her or any other member of the household. Then one by one came down the flannel, the towel, and the lading-can, the latter making a fearful clatter. It was evident by this time that the bathroom was bewitched. On proceeding upstairs it was discovered that the towel-rail had gone on a roving expedition by itself.
When Mr Baker arrived it was on the point of toppling over the top of the stairs, and he was just in time to save it from committing suicide.
All these things happened between one and two this morning, and can be vouched for by various eye-witnesses. It may be mentioned that those present in the house at the time made a thorough search without discovering anything extraordinary.
The leaden model which had walked down the passage is an antique article representing a woodman with his dog, and inscribed with the motto, “Woodman, spare that tree.” It weighs probably 14lbs., and looks about as unwieldy as possible.
On going into the bedroom, which was the first centre of disorder, our representative sat down, naturally enough upon an innocent looking chair. He was at once informed, in somewhat startled tones, that that was the article of furniture which had made a name for itself by jumping on to the bed. He rose at once.
A close examination, however, failed to reveal any evidence that the chair had been tampered with by practical jokers or others, and the same may be said with regard to the other articles which have become possessed from time to time.
At first the attitude of the people of Wyke was one of sheer doubt. Now, however, since people well known and respected in the village have seen with their own eyes, the feeling is becoming more that of wonderment, not unmixed with fright. Mrs Priestley herself takes the whole business philosophically, and neither expresses nor shows any fear.
Bradford Daily Telegraph, 8th June 1909.
Wyke’s Goblin
No more pranks.
Octogenarian’s unanswered challenge.
Memories of the Bierley Boggard.
Peace at last! Wyke’s ghostly visitor – if such it be – has for the present at any rate ceased to trouble the inhabitants of No. 6, Church Street. On inquiring this morning it was learned that although friends had remained in the house till the early hours in the anticipation of finding themselves the centre of a bedlam of dancing chairs, savage antimacassars or roving bars of soap, nothing unusual has occurred for thirty-six hours. In fact, last night Wyke was as quiet as Wyke usually is.
The inhabitants of the village have ceased to doubt that these things actually happened, for they argue, “Have they not been seen by witnesses whom we know?” Naturally, however, they are loth to attribute the pranks to supernatural agency until every other theory has been exhuasted.
Some still hold that the whole affair was a practical joke. But anyone who has visited the house will realise that if this were the case the joker is a person of such skill and ingenuity that he would hardly be off the stage, where he could make a handsome living.
The rooms in which the occurrences took place are so small that it would be almost impossible for anyone to be concealed in them, and every nook and cranny has been searched again and again. Moreover, the articles which became so strangely animated show no signs of tampering and are normal in every respect.
A much more logical, though hardly a romantic theory, is that the phenomena are caused by subsidence. The whole of Wyke is undermined owing to the many excavations that have taken place in the district for coal and iron. It is suggested that the trains or the heavy machinery at the iron works have so shaken the honeycombed ground that the furniture at No. 6, Church Street, has been moved from its place.
Imagination, they argue, will do the rest. But it is hard to explain why only No. 6 should be troubled, why it should be troubled only at certain times, and why it should not have been troubled before.
Meanwhile, the hero of the hour at Wyke is Mr. Seth Hy, Butler, of Dudley Hill, Mrs Priestley’s brother-in-law, who bravely faced the music on Monday night. He is an old man approaching his eightieth year, a retired butcher, with a butcher’s nerves. This morning our reporter found him getting ready to attend his niece’s wedding, but on being asked he readily consented to tell how he spoke to the Whatever-It-Was and funked it not.
He was summoned by post to Mrs Priestley’s home in her period of trouble, and, after the family had gone to bed on Monday night at twelve o’clock, he sat up reading and smoking in the kitchenwith all the lights full on, and a lamp ready at his side. About one o’clock things began to happen just as reported in the “Telegraph.” For a time he busied himself in trotting upstairs with the erring bars of soap, the towels, and the flannels, only to find that they came shuttering down again.
At last he went to the bottom of the stairs and called out, “Is there anything else to come down? I’ve had enough of this: I’m tired. If you have anything to say, say it now, because I’m ready to hear you.” But the Whatever-It-Was answered him never a word. Although confessing himself a decided sceptic as to things supernatural this is not the first time Mr. Butler has touched on the fringe of the uncanny. As a matter of fact, he remembers the well-known Bierley Boggard. This is the story he told our reporter this morning:
“Of course, it’s going back a long time now. It’s 58 years ago. I was a young man of 21 years then, and had a butcher’s shop at East Bierley. In those days there were no policemen, you must understand, so I had to stay at the shop all night and watch it. It was a warm night in June, and two dogs were with me, one inside the shop and one outside in the yard. Between twelve and one o’clock in the morning I was just getting my bed ready and was still dressed, when I heard carriage wheels rattle in the yard.
“The dogs heard it, too, and began to bark loudly. I was very surprised that a vehicle should be about at that time, and went to the door with a light. But there were no signs of a carriage or any such vehicle. Then it dawned upon me that it must be the Bierley Boggard, as it was called, and I was very scared. I went to bed, but could not sleep. A few minutes afterwards I heard the noise again. But this time I was far too frightened to go to the door. I just lay still and sweated, whilst my hair stood on end.
“The Bierley Boggard,” he continued, was about for nearly thirty years. It was supposed to be the ghost of a Mrs Kaye, who kept a farm not far from my shop. When she died the place was taken by a Mr. Firth, who went to live there with his wife and sons. I remember his eldest son telling me of their experiences. The ghost was first heard by two courters late one night. They were near the farmhouse when they heard a weird noise like a hen fluttering to get on her perch. They were very scared and ran away.
“Then the Boggard began to trouble Mr Firth and his family. When the children, who were quite young at the time, went to bed they used to hear a sound like someone going up and down the stairs in a rustling silk dress. They were so frightened that their parents were obliged to put the beds in the kitchen downstairs. But soon the parents heard such strange noises that they too became alarmed, and put their own bed in the kitchen too, so that all the family was sleeping downstairs. This continued for a long time, and soon the whole neighbourhood got to know the fact, and the story was out. Prayer meetings were conducted at the house by the Rev. Benjamin Firth, of the Independent Chapel at Wyke, and largely attended by sceptics.”
A correspondent, “R.R.,” who says he is a not a spiritualist, writes: – “Reading of the manifestations at No. 6, Church Lane, Wyke, recalled to my mind an incident which occurred in Burley district a good number of years ago, of which my grandmother was an eye-witness. A gentleman farmer had an only son, who in secret courted a girl in humble circumstances. When it became known to her father, he was very angry, and although the son told him it would be very dishonourable not to allow him to get married, he would not hear of it, and shipped him off to Australia. The lad had been away about three years, and nothing had been heard of him.
“One night happenings identical with those at Wyke commenced at the father’s house, and went on for some time. Servants were brought in to ‘lay the ghost,’ but when pots and pans began to dance they rushed out in fear. The parson was fetched, but could find no solution. Eventually a relation who professed to be a medium was sent for, and he was of the opinion it was the spirit of their son who he felt sure had died. He, by various knockings known to themselves, got into communication with the spirit of the one who was causing the disturbance, and it was proved his theory was correct. The boy had been killed, and he desired all his effects to be given to the girl he had wished to marry, for the benefit of his child, which his father in the hardness of his heart, would do nothing for. This was done, and the disturbance ceased and never again occurred.”
Bradford Daily Telegraph, 9th June 1909.
Frenzied furniture.
The Wyke “Ghost” story investigated.
Witness who blames the trams.
Strange behaviour of chairs and hearthrugs.
(Special to “The Yorkshire Evening Post.”
The western sky was all aflame when I climbed the dusty steep that leads from Low Moor to Wyke. The amazing occurrences which were published in yesterday’s later editions of of the “Yorkshire Evening Post” have aroused the curiosity of the whole countryside, and long after hte night-cloud had lowered and the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky, hundreds of persons were gathered in groups near the house in Church street, where bewildering events are said to have been witnessed.
Wyke, which is “even as a city set upon a hill,” has no outward seeming of a place where supernatural agencies would, in ordinary human judgment, be likely to give an unsolicited show. It is built of most uncompromising stone, possesses a”Teetotal Hall,” a “Temperance Terrace,” and other architectural points of sober conduct and grave demeanour, which Wyke’s characteristics the furniture at No. 6, Church Street has been doing its best, or worst, to belie. Why chairs and cushion covers, hearth-rugs and parlour ceramics should take to scandalous levity without any apparent provocation, is a problem which the keenest intellects of Wyke are unable to solve.
In that little street abutting on the highway marvels have been seen the like of which have seldom been recorded in history, either sacred or profane. When a cushion-cover gets up and hurls itself remorselessly against the countenance of a highly-respected lady and a cane chair, against whose moral character and law-abiding qualities no accusation has ever previously been made, waltzes along the lobby into the garden, one need not be surprised to find that the minds of many are troubled. I saw that eccentric chair last night, and, considering its solidity and apparent respectability, I found it difficult to believe that so correct a piece of furniture could have misconducted itself. But Mrs. Smith, who is a neighbour of Mrs Priestley, in whose home these strange adventures happened, gravely corroborated the other witnesses of the unparalleled behaviour of the frenzied furniture. The gyrations of the bedroom chairs were preceded by a series of violent knockings on the wall, about one o’clock on Sunday morning.
Just before noon on Sunday Mrs Priestley, who is aged and infirm, summoned Mrs Smith’s assisance towards the restoration of law and order in the bedroom of No. 6. The task, according to Mrs Smith, was one of considerable difficulty. The chairs were indecorously posing with their feet in the air, and the other contents of the apartment were reduced to a state of general disorder. From the kitchen, as already stated, a chair merrily went out for a walk and was with difficulty persuaded to return to domestic service. However incredible these narratives may be, I respectively submit that no one is justified in scepticism unless he is ready with a theory which fits the fact alleged.
Mrs Smith, who testifies to most of the weird phenomena, is a sensible, matter-of-fact lady, with a sense of humour which ought to go a long way towards supporting her unimpeachable reputation for veracity. Mrs Smith’s story of what she saw and heard in the haunted house in Church Street is, granted the premises, a consistent story, a coherent narrative from a witness whose evidence remained unshaken in its essential elements under a cross-examination in which I took a reluctant hand.
But Mrs Smith is not left a lone to maintain the actuality of phenomena which have attracted widespread interest. There are others whose credibility is not less than that of Mrs Smith, who are prepared to solemnly affirm that they severally or collectively were eye-witnesses of the extraordinary lapses from the legitimate code of conduct to which an Englishman’s home has been subject for centuries, and personally interviewed nine of the eleven persons who were reported to have heard the fearsome noises in the early hours of Sunday last, or who were present when the strange manoeuvres of the fantastic furnishings were in progress. In four of the instances in which eye-witnesses of the distressing vagaries at No. 6, Church Street, Wyke, were concerned, they would consent to the publication of their names and addresses.
In the course of a long and varied experience in the inverstigation of occult occurrences I have never once come across an instance like this at Wyke. Delusion, acute mania, the modern passion for cheap publicity, and, occasionally, “natural causes,” have accounted for and disposed of “ghosts” that walked and statues that talked. But in this Wyke affair, I cannot discover that anyone of the deponents has even the smallest axe to grind. Mr. Gill, newsagent, of Wyke, assured me last night that he had known five of the witnesses in the affair for many years, and believed them to be utterly incapable of imagining anything remotely resembling the whirling waywardness which seems to have suddenly seized the domestic implements and cherished decorations of the house in Church Street.
Following the general trend of human inclination, where things seen give slender clue to the things unseen, there has rapidly grown up an abundant crop of stories concerning The Haunted House. Some of these yarns were too long, and others too thin, to be accepted by a case-hardened invesstigator like the present writer. But one story “leaped to the eye,” as an emotional Parisian would observe. It was told to me by a friend of the Priestley family, a man whose integrity has never been questioned. He states that he called at No. 6 yesterday at dinner time, with kindly intent, to offer consolation to the inhabitants for this desolating dislocation which has so un[m?]ly come upon them. He had only been in the bedroom (he said) about a minute and a half when the hearthrug – which is a work of art – rolled itself up before his very eyes, and then stood on end like a cylinder.
If this visitor says he saw this perplexing and altogether unprecedented performance by a hearthrug with lozenge shaped patches on it – and he says he saw it – are we, am I to contradict him? I trow not.
In the deplorable absence of any hypothesis which could be considered to have anything to do with the case, I humbly commend the theory of an aged cottager, whose venerable aspect, together with a big stick, commanded respect. His belief was that “helectricity from them gaumless trams” was at the bottom of all the trouble. I hinted that a hearth-rug had also been looked upon as a bad conductor of the electric current. That aged inhabitant thereupon severely admonished me that no conductor had anything to do with the disturbances. It was more than his place was worth to interfere.
Adopting an attitude of benevolent neutrality towards the belligerents, visible and undiscovered, in this Affaire de Wyke, I think there is something in the aged inhabitant’s belief about the “helectricity.”
Yorkshire Evening Post, 8th June 1909.
Despite the fact that we have successfully disposed of the awe-inspiring scare-ship, and that we have not as yet this season discovered any terrible sea-serpent hovering round the coast ready to devour unwary bathers, we are not deprived of blood-curdlers. According to a correspondent of the “Daily News,” there have been astoundingly weird manifestations of a ghostly nature at Wyke, a small township near Bradford; and what is more surprising still, there are a number of credible witnesses of the fantastic and unaccountable doings.
Among the extraordinary “supernatural” manifestations with which the disturbed spirit is credited are dancing furniture, wall-thumping, and the clanking and capering of cooking utensils. But unlike the majority of ghosts, this particularly robust spirit has even struck a lady occupant of the house on the face with an antimacassar, and hurled a brush with good aim at her daughter. A cane chair – evidently of a terpsichorean disposition – is said to have “waltzed down the passage into the back garden,” while it is quite common to see a lead weight “pirouette” about the room.
A crowd of about 200 watched the house from Sunday afternoon until midnight, but the ghost was evidently scared by the numbers, for nothing unusual occurred. The story savours largely of the practical joker – and there are a few in the county of broad acres.
Coventry Evening Telegraph, 8th June 1909.
Haunted furniture.
Amazing happenings at Wyke.
Chair that jumped on a bed.
Old lady assaulted by cushion cover.
(By our own reporter).
Mysterious happenings at a respectable detached house in Church-street have thrown the little industrial village of Wyke into a state of the most extraordinary excitement. All day yesterday hundreds of people gathered round the house, peering with eager but disappointed expectancy at the seemingly innocent looking edifice, inside which on Sunday and yesterday strange doings had been in progress. Chairs had turned themselves upside down, cushions had got out of their own chairs and placed themselves in other chairs, a cushion cover had thrice committed violent and unprovoked assaults upon an old lady, a chair had rushed out of the house door into the garden, a heavy lead figure used to keep a door open had “hopped” from its place in the passage into the sitting-room, a roll of carpet, getting tired of standing in a corner in the passage behind a chair, had taken a lonely stroll along the passage, and in a mischievous mood had laid itself in front of a bedroom door just in time to trip up a lady who was coming out of the room. On being put into its place again, it surreptitiously stepped out from behind the chair and was caught in the very act of laying itself down near the foot of the door again. A hat and coat, instead of remaining peaceably on the peg in teh kitchen where they were hung, flew at their owner’s head, and then laid themselves out smoothly and decorously on the floor. A woollen shawl got up and tied itself round the back of a chair, and the chair itself jumped on the bed and turned upside down.
All these things happened on Sunday and Monday, and, unlike most mysterious occurrences of this sort, they did not confine their escapades to the hours of darkness, but performed many of their marvels in broad daylight and with such a large number of more or less alarmed spectators looking on.
The display of spookist eccentricity began in the early hours of Sunday morning, when Mrs Priestley, who lives in a well-built commodious detached house, No. 6, Church-street, and her neighbours Mr. and Mrs. Smith were roused about one o’clock by a series of violent thuds on the inner wall of Mrs Priestley’s house.
Mrs Priestley is a delicate, pleasant-faced widow lady of 82, and she lives with her two daughters, one of whom is a cripple and the other is suject to periodic attacks of ill-health, at No. 6, Church-street. The house is their own property, and has been occupied by them for the past eight years without anything occurring to suggest that there was any uncanny influence about the place.
The house itself has six or seven rooms, but it is only with two of these that the present phenomena appear to be connected. In front is a small garden, and behind is a much larger one, while beyond the back garden is open country. It is with the two rooms on the ground floor and the adjacent passage that the impish revels that have excited the village are concerned. The front room is used as a kitchen and general living room, while the back room, which ordinarily would be used as a sitting room has been converted into a spacious and pleasant-looking bedroom for Mrs Priestley, whose age and infirmity make it difficult for her to go up and down stairs.
After the preliminary thumping, nothing further happened until nearly eleven o’clock on Sunday morning, when the knocking began again, and Mrs. Smith went in to see what was the matter.
In a special interview with a “Mercury” representative, Mrs Smith stated that she had just left Mrs Priestley, when that lady called her back, and on going into the house she found the whole of the chairs in the bedroom upside down, and everything disarranged. The two ladies and Mrs Priestley’s daughters put things straight, and went back into the kitchen, but in less than five minutes everything was upside down again.
While they were doing so a chair in the kitchen turned itself upside down, and Mrs Priestley, getting alarmed, cried out, “Surely it’s not getting into the house.” No sooner had they gone into the kitchen to see what was happening than the furniture in the bedroom again upset itself. By this time Mrs Priestley was feeling thoroughly exhausted, and she sat in a rocking chair beside the bed while Mrs Smith put things straight. Suddenly a large, hand-worked cushion cover, that was resting on a cushion on the sofa three or four feet away, flew straight at Mrs Priestley, and struck her in the face. She cried out, and Mrs Smith seized the cover and put it back in its place. Hardly had she taken her hands off it again, however, than once more it flew at Mrs Priestley, and again struck her in the face. Once more Mrs Smith put it back, but once more the violent assault took place.
Then another cushion began to play tricks, and, according to Mrs Smith, it jumped off the chair on which it was resting and placed itself neatly and comfortably on another chair. Meanwhile a small basket-chair began to get very excited. It turned itself upside down, danced about the room, and behaved in the most extraordinary manner. After the attacks of the cushion cover, Mrs Priestley had felt a little uneasy, and had gone into the kitchen, and Mrs Smith decided to take the basket-chair with her.
“He was the liveliest of the lot,” she said to our representative, alluding to the chair, “and to keep him quiet I thought I would sit on him. One of the girls said it was electricity, and might give me a shock, but he was such a lively one that I thought I would keep him quiet. A few minutes later we heard a noise in the other room, and rushed in to find everything upset again, and, in addition, a little bust of Lord Byron that had been on the mantel-shelf was standing on the floor. We had only just got into the room when Ada (Mrs Priestley’s daughter) cried, ‘Your chair’s running down the garden!’ I rushed back and saw the chair fall over at the foot of the steps leading from the house into the garden.”
Continuing her interesting narrative, Mrs Smith told how a roll of carpet, standing in a corner of the hall, had got from behind a chair without moving the chair, and had placed itself, still rolled up, in front of the door, tripping up Miss Dutton, a grand-daughter of Mrs Priestley, who had called at the house. The carpet was put in its place again, but once more got out of the corner and laid itself down three or four yards away.
Mr. Smith, a strong, burly man of the finest type of Yorkshireman, and eminently a man of practical common sense, was also a witness of the antics of the carpet, and told our representative that he actually caught it in the act of laying itself down on the second occasion.
Mr James Jones, joiner and undertaker, another man of shrewd common sense, was also an eye-witness of many of the strange happenings, and he and others saw an ordinary walnut drawing-room chair jumping off its feet on to the bed and turn upside down.
Mrs Priestley, who is extremely puzzled but by no means alarmed or excited over these startling events, also chatted freely with our representative, and corroborated all these statements. She added also that while she was lying in bed on Monday morning, after having had a cup of tea about ten o’clock, the disorders began again, and an antimacassar flew across the room and dropped on to the foot of her bed. Among other amazing things was the conduct of a leaden model of a man used to keep the passage door open, and weighing at least 14lb. Twice this “hoppped” out of the passage into the room, and finally threw itself down so violently that it bent intself, and could no longer be made to stand.
A hat and cloak belonging to Miss Dutton flew off a peg in the kitchen, and after striking Miss Priestley on the head, laid themselves neatly out on the floor. This suggested to some of those present that Miss Dutton was to go home, as something might have happened to her father and mother, who have been travelling in Switzerland, and are expected home to-day.
While chatting with Mrs Priestley and her neighbours, our representative met the Rev. A.J. Howell, the Vicar of Wyke, who, though the Priestleys are Wesleyans, had called to see whether he could be of any service or consolation under the very alarming circumstances. On Sunday evening and again on Monday the Vicar had called, but though he waited for a considerable time and sat in the room where most of the disturbances had occurred, nothing happened while he was on the premises.
“I am sorry nothing happened,” he said to our representative, “because I should much have liked to have seen the events for myself.” He frankly confessed himself puzzled, but refused to adopt the unscientific and unphilosophical attitude of denying the possibility of these things. Had it only been a few women who had seen them and become a little hysterical one might have doubted it,” he said,” but then men like Mr Smith, Mr Jones and Mr Brayshaw, the butcher, all saw these things, and they are all shrewd, sensible men who are not likely to be deceived, and whom one must believe.
In the present of Police-Constable Parish also the spooks refused to display their powers and there the matter remains for the present. Meanwhile, hundreds of people from all the surrounding district are congregating round the house much to the annoyance and disgust of Mrs Priestley and her family, who, much against their will, have had unpleasant notoriety thrust upon them in this way.
Leeds Mercury, 8th June 1909.
More Wyke Wonders
Weird procession at midnight in the haunted house
A veteran’s testimony
A few more strange things have happened at the haunted house in Church-street, Wyke, where Mrs Priestley and two daughters live, and yesterday evening the occupants, assisted by relatives and frineds, gave the house a thorough clean in the hope of clearing out all the undesirable invisible sojourners.
Mr Butler, of Dudleyhill, who is about eighty years of age, and had personal experience of the Bierley boggard sixty years ago, went to stay in the house on Monday night.
about one o’clock yesterday morning the inhabitants were awakened by a bang at the bedroom door, and Mr Butler was not slow to avail himself of this promise of an adventure. Taking a lamp he walked along the passage and found two pieces of soap at the bottom of the steps. He took them to the bathroom but they returned. He persevered in taking them back, but they came downstairs four times, and on taking them back the fourth time he found the towel rail had advanced to the top of the steps.
In order to prevent this being damaged he carried it down and waited quietly for some time.
Presently the peggy-tub came clattering down, and shortly after a towel followed. The sponge also made its appearance, and the hair brush concluded the procession.
About 9 o’clock on Monday morning the cushion cover came from the sofa on to Mrs Priestley’s bed three times in succession, spreading itself out smoothly each time.
With a view to the instantaneous destruction of the unseen agent the cushion cover was promptly washed.
Leeds Mercury, 11th June 1909.
Lively spooks.
Dancing furniture and clanking crocks.
Haunted chapel.
After quite a long rest the spooks are at it again. This time the weird visitants have turned up near Bradford, at a village called Wyke, where the prize band comes from. The spooks have been particularly lively. They take not only the familiar form of knocking, but the unquiet spirits cause furniture to dance before the mistress of the house, and even strike her across the face with an antimacassar.
These alarming incidents are taking place in a house in Church-street, occupied by a Mrs Priestley and her two daughters, and have been going on continuously by day and night since Saturday. The first evidence of the uncanny was a thumping on the wall on Saturday night. On Sunday Mrs Priestley found the furniture and other articles in the front room strewn about in disorder. Calling in Mrs Smith, the two replaced the furniture in its proper position, and left the room, returning immediately, as they heard it moving. The room was again in disorder.
After putting things straight, the two ladies bravely sat down, and, while waiting, the “ghost” struck Mrs Priestley in the face with an antimacassar. Simultaneously the cooking utensils in the kitchen began to clank and caper about the shelves. Then a cane chair, after dancing about the room, waltzed down the passage into the back garden, and collapsed.
A lead weight used to keep the door open also pirouetted round Mrs Priestley. Then the spirit hurled with good aim a brush at Miss Priestley, while another chair danced around Mrs Priestley in the kitchen. There are nine eye-witnesses.
Midland Counties Tribune, 11th June 1909.
Leeds Mercury 9th June 1909
Daylight Ghost.
Sets Pots and Pans Waltzing and Throws a Hair Brush.
Odd Manifestations.
Wyke, a small township outside Bradford, is just now in a state of wild excitement over tales of supernatural manifestations. They take not only the familiar form of knocking, but cause the furniture to dance before the mistress of the house, and even strike her across the face with an antimacassar.
These alarming incidents are taking place in a house in Church-street, occupied by a Mrs. Priestley and her two daughters, all of whom are unnerved by reason of the weird happenings. They have been taking place by day and night, says the “Daily News.” Unlike the majority of ghosts, this particularly robust spirit has no desire to cloak its performances under the cover of darkness, but carries on in daylight and in the presence of independent witnesses.
One day Mrs. Priestley found the furniture and other articles in the front room strewn about in disorder. Calling in Mrs. Smith, the two replaced the furniture in its proper position and left the room, returning immediately as they heard it moving. The room was again in disorder. After putting things straight the two ladies bravely sat down, and while writing, the “ghost” struck Mrs. Priestley in the face with an antimacassar. Simultaneously the cooking utensils in the kitchen began to clank and caper about the shelves.
Then a cane chair, after dancing about the room, walked down the passage into the back garden, where it lost its supernatural power and fell back in a minute on the ground. A lead weight used to keep the door open also pirouetted around Mrs. Priestley and Mrs. Smith, but this offence against the law of gravity caused the two ladies to retire in alarm.
Not content with the outrage on Mrs. Priestley, the spirit hurled with a good aim a brush at Miss Priestley, while another chair had a seizure, and danced around Mrs. Priestley in the kitchen.
Mrs. Priestley has lived in the district for forty years, and is said to be a sceptic regarding unearthly manifestations. No one is able to account for them, but they have been witnessed by a number of people. Among them are: – Mrs. Priestley, two of her daughters, her granddaughter; Mr. Joseph Jones, undertaker, of Wyke, his wife, and daughter; Miss Harper Butlershaw; Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, Church-street; and Mr. John Brayshaw Butcher, New Road Side, Wyke.
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 13th June 1909.
Maps suggest this area was redeveloped and is now ‘Westcombe Court’.