HOME FOR 16 YEARS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18955, 4 March 1936, Page 13

HOME FOR 16 YEARS

HOLE IN THE GROUND QUEER STORIES LONDON, Dec. 31. Queer stories of two'men who suddenly gave up the world's comforts to live* like cave-men, because they wanted to be alone. One .\as George Carpenter, of Raostock, .Somerset, whose story was told a! an inquest yesterday. Sixteen years ago, when he was aged 55, he quarrelled with his wife, and left home.

He tunnelled his way through tinside of a refuse dump at Writhliiigtqu Colliery, and in this warren he lived for the rest of his life, bartering coal for food. His burrow was about fJft. wide and 4ft. high. Jt was kept warm by the heat of. the dump, which is burning all the time through spontaneous combustion Over the entrance were a few old sacks to keep out the winds. When the last, census was taken twj policeman visited the dump to see Carpenter, whose address was given as Writhlington Pit Tip. The medical officer of health, who g:.ve evidence at the inquest, describe.! Carpenter's hole as snug and warm and ideally suited for a recluse. The verdict was "death from natural causes.' ■

OWNLD ' * lvi BY 7" HUT

The other r.uluse w as John Stephen Wood Kelcey, nged 7S, who was found dead in hi.- hut, .10ft by 7ft., at Hunter's Chase, Hulton, Essex. Again the veidict a' yer-leruay's inquest was "nntur.l cause.*," and a queer story was unfolded.

Kelcey was enc-e a farmer on a big scale in Australia, and was well-to-do even before, a year ago, a legacy of £211) a vear was left; to him. Hut when he returned from. Australia in 1920 he went, to live iu his tiny hut, with no furniture but a bed, and nothing would induce him to leave it. Yet when he received his legacy he legally changed his surname from Wood' to Kelcey under the conditions of the will, and adopted the Kelcey family arms. One of his forebears belonged to the old Kentish family of Kelcey, and the recluse will rest, in the family vault at Kingston near Canterbury.