The Coker Hill Haunting 2: The Events March 3, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
The haunting began after the resident mother had a fit 4 June 1880. Noises started up immediately around the house.
This went on for several nights – the knocking performances commencing shortly after midnight, in the orthodox fashion. The woman became somewhat alarmed these singular visitations, she could not sleep, the children were frightened, and she sent for some of her relatives. They watched and waited, and shortly after twelve each night the woman was taken in a fit, when the knocking at once commenced – the noise on Tuesday week being heard by the neighbours.
The noise itself was described as ‘blows as if given on an empty box’. They came, first, from under a bed, then from a corner of a room.
This is a very strange modus operandi for a ghost. In poltergeist houses, the nineteenth century included, the phenomenon often have a focal individual, around which they seem to concentrate. But Beach knows of no cases from Britain – there are lots from the South Pacific and other wild places – where the focal person has a fit before or during the appearance of noises. This is one of the facts that makes these events so curious.
13 June some two hundred people gathered outside the house, a veritable ghost riot: in fact, when the journalist arrived he saw that the garden of the cottage and that adjacent had been trampled under foot. Usually crowds that gather for a ghost riot are sorely disappointed. But this was to be one of the rare exceptions.
Towards the close of the week the knocking became louder, increasing every night, and on Sunday, the 13th June, so alarmed had the neighbourhood become that there were from 200 to 300 people in and out of the house. They waited for the ‘Ghost’ until twelve o’clock, when they were rewarded by hearing a perfect cannonade inside. The noise could be distinctly heard in the roadway, and, one of those present remarked me, ‘You never saw people turn so pale in your life.’
The opinion of the village was that the woman had been ‘overlooked’. In other words a spell had been placed on her by a local malignant and a number of counter-spells were carried out: more of these in a future post. A cousin who went to get a good witch to cast the counter magic was followed compulsively by a magpie, a bird taken by the village as being the agent of the curser. Even throwing water at the bird could not convince it to leave off! The cousin, a woman, subsequently fell into a fit of her own after going dancing. In distant Cheshire, meanwhile, the husband’s magical lantern equipment fell apart… In the end the knockings subsided slowly, day to day. Towards the end:
Rumour says that the spirit was seen. It was described as something black – similar in appearance to a cat which crawled up the wall of the bedroom, ran along the ceiling, and then fell with a heavy thud on the floor, vanishing instantly. Another described it as a kind ball, which ran round the room and then transformed itself into a fly!
And the show was over….
More tomorrow. drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com for insights…
