GHOST IN COUNTRY HOUSE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 17 January 1935, Page 10

GHOST IN COUNTRY HOUSE

A PHANTOM BRIDE. “AUBURN-HAIRED” BEAUTY. Just off the main road to the parish of Rayleigh, Essex, stands Whitbreds, a very old house, part of which dates bade to tbe days of Oliver Cromwell. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a beautiful auburn-haired girl dad in a- white bridal gown. Many people claim to have seen or heard the apparition.

Mr. C. G. Williamson who lias lived with his parents in the house for the past 18 years ,tokl a News of tbe World representative about the phantom bride. When he first moved in he dismissed the story as fantastic, in spite of the assurances of the previous tenants, who described the ghost even as he himself later saw it. When all the folk in the house were in one room, said Mr. Williamson, they at times heard mysterious noises, as if someone was walking down the passage. They heard doors open and shut for no apparent reason. Once a stranger to the place heard the front door open and shut, an object rattle the hatstand, and footsteps come down the hallway. He went to the doer, telling those in the room that Mr Williamson, senior, had returned early from the city. Everyone in the room heard the sounds, but when searched, the house proved empty. Mr. Williamson was later met on getting off his usual train.

FIGURE OF A YOUNG GIRL.

That is but one of many similar inexplicable instances. Mrs. Williamson says she has felt the unknown touch nor more than once, while on one momentous occasion her son actually saw tbe apparition. An old monks’ track leads past the house .and used, in olden times, to extend from Hockley Parish Church to a house that now stands on the Eastwood road. Mr. Williamson says he was coming down tbe track, about nine o’clock on a winter’s evening, when he saw the figure of a young girl standing underneath a big tree in front of the house. She liad flowing auburn hair, and was dressed in what appeared to be a. full-length white bridal gown. She was luminous in the dark, and as he watched she moved across the lawn and seemed to drift through the front gate and into tbe meadow beyond.

Mr. Williamson confesses that he was badly shaken, and finally reached the house by a roundabout route. As far as i.s known, the spectre has neve' interfered with anyone, and confine' her activities, more or less, to an oakbeamed room in the oldest wing of the house. The spectre’s cue mischievous trait appears to be the habit of fastening doors, thereby locking people in or out of rooms; often when they .ire alone in tho building. Only a Uttle while ago a male member cf the household was thus incarcerated, while rumour lias it that a previous tenant found himself imprisoned in his bedroom* when he got up one morning.

A GHOST IN A BEDROOM

Another firm believer in the existence of the ghost is Miss Tawke, of Bull wood House, Hockley. Whitbreds is her property, and although she herself has never lived there, her mother whom she describes as as “most practical person,” resided there in days gone by, and raw the ghost on no fewer than three separate occasions.

Miss Tawke related that in those days the spare bedroom was the “ghost room,” and cn one occasion a blind .lousin was accommodated there. She knew nothing about the supposed spectre. Next morning Miss Tawlce’s mo ther asked the visitor how she slept. !he blind guest replied, “Someone in the room kept putting a hand over my face.” The room was not used as a bedroom after that time.”

M iss Tawke said she could give no clue as to the history of the apparition. Parts of the house are very, very old. It- was once acquired, with all the surrounding estate, by money made in the slave trade. The owner was very eccentric.