A Halloween tale of ghostly goings on in SE15, 1880:
STONE-THROWING BY “SPIRITS”[The Theosophist, Vol. I, No. 12, September, 1880, p. 310]
'In the July number we reprinted from the Daily Chronicle an account of recent stone-throwings at Plumstead, England, by some mysterious agency. Among other cases reported in the English papers is one at Cookstown, near Belfast, Ireland, vouched for by the Daily Telegraph and the Belfast News Letter. The missiles in this instance, fell under the very eyes of the police without their obtaining the least clue. The Spiritualist cites another similar incident as having happened at Peckham in broad daylight, despite every precaution of the police to entrap any trickster. The editor says that Mr. William Howitt once collected a whole bookful of instances. The thing is well known in India, and that our friends in Europe may have the data for making comparisons, we will be glad if our readers will report to us cases that can be authenticated by respectable witnesses'.
I was working for a building contractor in Swindon, Wiltshire when I met a ground worker named Mick, who showed an interest in old houses and their histories. During a dinner break the conversation soon led to the paranormal and in particular if anyone had experienced any ghostly events. Mick then told me that in 1990’s he was living with his mother until he could arrange some more permanent place to live when he met a man who changed his belief in the paranormal. At weekends Mick would go for a drink in a local pub and sometimes an Asian/Indian man would join him. He described him as an irritant to his Saturday social time and was glad for better company to come into the pub to talk to. Mike then explained that the following Monday there was a knock at his mother’s door and standing there was this Indian gentleman. He told him he was homeless after being evicted from his lodgings and asked Mick if he could lodge with him until he to could find somewhere to live. After consulting with his mother it was agreed he could stay for a few days to help him out.
ReplyDeleteA few days later Mick visited a friend who lived in Avenue Road, Old Town Swindon. The elderly gentleman said he had a room spare which his Indian friend could rent. He was introduced to him and moved in. It wasn’t until two weeks later that Mick visited the house to see how the lodger had settled in that his friend then told him that since the Indian gent had moved in they were experiencing a lot of hassle from yobs. Mick asked why and was told we constantly find stones on the living room floor and sometimes appear quite suddenly from nowhere. They must be coming through the window his friend said. Mick looked at the window which only had a small fanlight at the top and could not understand how stones were landing on the floor and why the window had not been broken. His friend then produced a pile of stones/pebbles and said this constant barrage of stones coming into the house led him to call the Police so many times that the Police finding nothing untoward after each visit threatened to charge him with wasting Police time. Whilst Mick was listening to him there was a loud bang on the front bay window which startled Mick but not the old man. On asking who it was the old man said this too has been going on together with footsteps running up and down the stairs, loud thumps from the lodger’s room when only he was in the house. Mick went to the window to see if he could see who was thumping the window and as he approached the window there was another loud bang so Mick in a split second ran to the front door to catch who it was. When he got outside there was no one to be seen except for the lady who lived next door who also came out. On asking her if she had seen anyone he was invited into her house as she wanted to say something about the disturbances which had been going on ever since the Indian gentleman took up lodgings. She told him of constant banging’s on the windows and one event that scared her and her sons into terror. Early one morning about 3.30am she was lying in bed and was awakened by mumbling voices coming from the back garden. On looking out the window she could make out the Indian gentleman who did not speak talking to a dark “hooded “figure. She was so disturbed by the sight she called her two adopted sons, 16 and 17 years old, to come to her room to observe these people. When they were looking down at the pair from behind net curtains the dark hooded figure pointed up to the window and said “because they are listening” and to the shock of all three of them this figure appeared not to have a face. They stepped back from the window and watched hooded figure walk away and then quite literally disappear. More disturbances continued at the house until the Indian gentleman was again asked to leave. When Mick related this story to his mother some weeks later she describe the same happenings taking place in her home shortly after the Indian came to stay but did not want to say anything as she thought he was a good friend of his.
One cant help feeling the relation of this story to that of the 1880 report.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salemstate.edu/~ebaker/chadweb/lithoweb.htm
ReplyDeleteTracked down this info of Stone Throwing by Spirits. Its a bit long winded but interesting
Follow the link above
Andy
Hello, for all time i used to check website posts here in the
ReplyDeleteearly hours in the dawn, because i enjoy to find out more and more.