PHANTOM BRIDE

Southland Times, Issue 22485, 21 January 1935, Page 8

PHANTOM BRIDE

GHOST IN COUNTRY HOUSE. “AUBURN-HAIRED BEAUTY.” Just off the main road to the parish of Rayleigh, Essex, stands Whitbreds, a very old house, part of which .dates back to the days of Oliver Cromwell. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a beautiful auburn-haired girl, clad in a white bridal gown. Many people claim to have seen or heard the apparition. Mr C. G. Williamson, who has lived with his parents in the house for the past 18 years, told a News of the 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 some one 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 hallstand, and footsteps come down the hallway. He went to the dcor, 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. That is but one of many similar inexplicable instances. Mrs Williamson says she has felt the unknown touch her more than once, while on one momentous occasion her son actually saw the apparition. An old monks’ track leads past the house, and used, in the 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 the 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 had 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 the meadow beyond. Mr Williamson confessed that he was badly shaken, and finally reached the house by a roundabout route. As far as is known, the spectre has never interfered with anyone, and confines her activities, more or less to an oakbeamed room in the oldest wing of the house. The spectre’s one mischievous trait appears to be the habit of fastening doors, thereby locking people in or out of rooms, often when they are alone in the building. Only a little while ago a male member of the household was thus incarcerated, while rumour has it that a previous tenant found himself imprisoned in his bedroom when he got up one morning. Another firm believer in the existence of the ghost is Miss Tawke, of Bullwood House, Hockley. Whitbreds is her property, and although she herself has never lived there, her mother, whom she describes as “a most practical person,” resided there in days gone by, and saw the ghost on no fewer than three separate occasions. Miss Tawke related that in, those days the spare bedroom was the “gh°st room,” and on one occasion a blind cousin was accommodated there. She knew nothing about the supposed spectre. Next morning Miss Tawke s mother asked the visitor how she slept. The 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. Miss Tawke said she could give no clue as to the history of the apparition. Parts of the house are very, very old. It was acquired, .with all the surroundir ’ estate, by money made in the slave trade. The owner was very eccentric.