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  • The Ghost of Coalville: Women in the Choir April 4, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback

    ravenstone

    The village of Ravenstone (Leicestershire, UK) has, apparently, one church and Beach has not found anything in my books or on the internet about it having ghosts. However, this appeared in 1934.

    The old parish church of Ravenstone, near Coalville, is said to be haunted. According to villagers, during the evening services an apparition takes shape out of a phosphorescent mist, near a stained-glass window in the sanctuary, and then disappears into the churchyard. A woman resident said she was walking near tho church when she saw what she described as a ‘ghost in long white robes, standing on the wall round the churchyard and near the cenotaph it vanished,’ she said, ‘and a few seconds later I saw it again in front of me on the road.’ Members of the church believe that something uncanny happened recently. One man suggested that the apparition ‘is due to lighting in the church which not long ago adopted flood-lighting’. But this suggestion is not accepted by villagers.

    Beach has read those last two sentences so many times in one form or another. Probably it is familiar to UFO researchers too.

    The account above holds back too many details but a few days later another report refers to a laying of the ghost and tells us the identity of the spook. Nice to see ghosts cast as a sign of social progress!

    Villagers had declared that when the lights were lowered the ghost a former rector, who objected to women in the choir, appeared in a stained-glass window. Witchcraft would formerly have been given as the cause for that ghost, and a credulous congregation would probably have nosed out a witch somewhere in the parish as being responsible. She would no doubt have died by one the various horrible methods in practice for women of her ilk, after having been swum or weighed against the Bible, in the good old days of James the First. As it turned out, the prosaic fact that the rector’s reading lamp threw his shadow on to the window, and every movement by the rector made that gesticulating figure of the window appear to be mocking the congregation. All the elements of a really good ghost story were present—the church, the darkened building, and the former rector with his objections. Cold-blooded electricians have made the ‘ghost’ bid adieu for ever to his congregation—they might have let him reign over Christmas, when the congregation could have enjoyed the full thrill of him in the season when ghosts should thrill.

    Apparently then electricity was called out again. Let’s stay on the side of witch burning and arrant romanticism though: perhaps it was the reckless old misogynist from the parish’s past visiting his displeasure on his treacherous flock. Any other electric ghosts: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com

    30/04/2016, Chris from Haunted Ohio Books:

    What a great story!  It does seem a little late for mystification by light bulb, although I suppose cases could be found even today. I remember a tale from my youth about a ghost that ran from the back to the front of an empty house, carrying a light. Supposedly it was proved that it was automobile headlights reflecting off old glass. Here are some 19th and early 20th century electric ghosts.

    This first tale is from The Face in the Window: Haunting Ohio Tales

     

    FRIGHTENED TO DEATH.

    THE HORRORS OF A HAUNTED GRAVEYARD IN MIDDLETOWN

    MISS ELLA TAYLOR BRAVELY INVESTIGATES AND DROPS DEAD

     

    A sad death, made more deplorable by the attending circumstances, occurred at Middletown about ten o’clock Friday night. Miss Ella Taylor, an employee of the P.J. Sorg Tobacco Company, together with a number of companions, left the factory about half-past nine o’clock. A proposition to investigate shadows cast upon a monument in the Middletown Cemetery by the electric light, which were said to assume supernatural appearances, met with general favour.

    The rumors that the grave-yard was haunted by the spirits of the departed dead were exploded by the investigation of the young ladies, in which Miss Taylor seemed to exhibit more courage than any of her companions. A challenge was made by one of the party that none dared to advance to the monument and touch it. Although the reflection on the object from the electric light produced a figure which in the night appeared to be that of a human being, Miss Taylor boldly advanced and touched the monument. Finding nothing more, the girls were about to depart, when they suddenly realized that they were in a graveyard at dead of night. They quickened their footsteps as they came to each succeeding tombstone. Among those who appeared most excited was Miss Taylor herself.

    Shortly after the exit from the cemetery Miss Taylor surprised her companions by suddenly dropping to the ground overcome, as they supposed, by excitement. They went to her assistance and found her in an apparently helpless condition. She was taken to the residence of Mrs. Lallee, nearby, and medical aid quickly summoned. Dr. D. B. Bundy was the first to arrive and upon examination pronounced the young lady dead and stated that death was caused by heart disease, occasioned by overexercise and excitement. The remains were then placed in charge of A.T. Wilson and later on were removed to the home of her mother, Mrs. Bridget Taylor, on Clinton Street. The body still retaining warmth at three o’clock yesterday morning the theory of suspended animation was advanced, and again medical aid was summoned, not only one but several physicians being called. The decision first given was reiterated and confirmed. The deceased was a very estimable young lady, twenty years of age, and was the idol of a widowed mother and two brothers and was highly respected by all, who now extend their sympathy to the bereaved family.

    Cincinnati [OH] Enquirer 26 April 1885: p. 12

    NOTE: The Brooklyn Eagle 31 January 1886: p. 15 added the detail that someone “had cried out, ‘There’s a ghost!’ All started to run, and Minnie Taylor fell down and expired.”

     

     

    CURIOUS DEATH FROM SHOCK. A woman who was attending the cremation of her niece at Fresh Pond, Long Island, (U.S.), went mad just/as the coffin was being run into the furnace, and was immediately removed to an asylum. While ascending a flight of stairs in the institution an electric light was suddenly turned on, and, imagining it to be the crematory furnace, she begged the attendants not to put her into it. Her condition rapidly became worse, and she died.

    New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11956, 3 May 1902, Page 6

     

    PURSUED BY AN ELECTRIC GHOST

    The Brain of a Louisville Lineman Baked by a Shock.

    Louisville, Ky., Feb. 3. With his brain fairly baked, Henry Kramer, an unfortunate electric light lineman, lies in a room on East Market Street. It is one of the most distressingly horrible cases on record.

    Kramer is from St. Louis and yesterday, while taking an electric wire over a roof, he took a live wire in one hand and the damp metal roof completed a short circuit. He fell prostrate and was carried in an insensible condition to his room. Dr. Berry’s efforts to revive him were futile and he left him apparently in a dying condition. The patient, however, soon regained consciousness and, with a maniacal glare in his eyes, he sprang from his bed, fought off the attendants, rushed madly to the street, and finally ran breathlessly into the central police station. He begged Capt. Pennington to save him from an electric ghost that was pursuing him. The station keeper saw at once that his mind was deranged and placed him in a cell. He was afterward removed to his room, where he is now sleeping.

    Dr. Berry said it was one of the most remarkable cases he ever saw. The force of the shock Kramer received was at least 1,000 volts stronger than was required to kill Kemmler, the New York murderer. The physician believes that Kramer’s brain is nearly baked and that he will never recover his reason. How he lives is one of the questions that is puzzling the medical fraternity.

    Evening Star [Washington, DC] 4 February 1891: p. 6

     

    And my personal favorite

    The reflection of an electric light at Bellevue, Ky., made such a queer shadow that people thought it was a ghost, and the alleged apparition frightened one woman to death.

    The Van Wert [OH] Republican 12 September 1889: p. 8

    The lady is named here:

    Mrs. Angelo Rusconi of Bellevue, Ky., one of the richest women in the state, was frightened to death a few days ago. For some time a supposed ghost appeared nightly in a room over a grocery store and crowds gathered to see it. On Saturday night Mrs. Rusconi was among the spectators. She was very fleshy, and when the “ghost” appeared she fell dead. A subsequent investigation showed the apparition to be the reflection of an electric light.

    New Hampshire Sentinel [Keene, NH] 11 September 1889: p. 3